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Earlier this year I removed an old oil burning furnace that had an aboveground tank outside. To keep the four foot copper supply line (from the tank to the furnace pump inside) warm enough that the oil would not congeal, there was an insulated, plug-in line warmer/heat strap wrapped arund the...

I will cover this later in a separate thread (with accompanying pics) but here is an "info-bit" for those who keep chickens and are interested. There seem to be many comments concerning the fall/wintertime problem of water dispensers freezing. I had a notion strike me last spring/summer as I...

I just began keeping chickens this past summer and my first few (three pullets and three cockerels, initially. I have since re-homed one young roo, and am looking to re-home one more) were Black Australorps. Mine were hatched in May, and I took possession of them in mid - July. The pullets began...

Quote: I second that inclination - it could have been any one of the members of the polecat/weasel/stoat/mink family. Mink in particular are notorious and are to be found in some of the most unexpected places - though they will most frequently inhabit areas near a body of water. They are...

From how many pullets, altogether? Lightfoote

Congratulations, orpingtonkid! We are kind of in the same boat, you and I. My Black Australorps (3 pullets) just began laying on Sunday November 20th, and today I collected their 11th egg in 12 days. The girls have skipped only a couple of days since; on Tuesday of this week, I collected two...

I favor heeding "Occam's razor" in this situation...in other words, whatever is the most abundant predator in your immediate area, that animal should be considered the first candidate unless all available evidence makes that untenable. That said, I agree that a raccoon is highly likely; also...

Well, I've read many "first egg" stories here on BYC...everything from "fart/air" eggs, to near-perfectly round eggs, soft-shelled "wet leather" eggs - sometimes torn open, rough/grainy eggshells, eggs with little or no yolk, etc...So I was fairly prepared for the first egg in my backyard to be...

7 for 7...guess I'll need to come up with a new nickname (something other than Dewey)! Lightfoote

Well, thus far I have a 3 for 3 consensus on "Due" being a pullet. I thank you each for lending your experience and expert opinions. Hatched August 17, she (and my White Jersey Giant pullet "Prima", hatched the 16th) ought to reasonably be expected to lay a first egg between Groundhog Day and...

I have six Black Australorps, a Barred Rock, a White Jersey Giant, and a Black Sex Link. I got the Aussies when they were about 8 - 12 weeks and after working with them, they are pretty tame, and gently when they take treats or live bugs out of my hands or fingers. The other three hatched in...

I'm looking at a Barred Rock of my own - hatched from my home-built incubator - I named 'him' "Due" (Do-aay) from the Italian for the cardinal number two, since it was the second hatchling...and I nicknamed him "Dewey" as a sound-alike. Now, at 11 - 12 weeks age, I am not so certain whether it...

The best price on hardware cloth will likely be found at someplace like a grain growers' or farmers' co-op - not at a "big box" chain store like Home Depot, or Lowes. (The Home Depot near me does not even carry larger than 10 ft long rolls of 3' wide 1/4" x 1/4"!) The price you pay may depend...

Quote: I have a 6 week old (as of this evening!) Barred Rock as well... Mine is somewhat more developed, but the look is basically the same - and yes, mine is a cockerel, and so is yours. Mine is a friendly little fellow. I hatched him and two others (a white Jersey Giant pullet, the first...

Quote: Bob - do not become discouraged by the challenges you have encountered up to now. I built my own 38" x 38" x 24" cabinet-style incubator (for under $50) from scrap pieces of OSB and dimension lumber taken from pallets I salvaged, and purchased eggs via auction on BYC. The first three...

I have changed a couple of things that are not shown, but you can see all the basic features. Outside dimensions of the cabinet are 38"L x 38"H x 24"D - or, since I think S. Africa uses metric - about 1m L x 1m H x .65m D Initially I used an old waterbed mattress heating pad, but it was nowhere...

Edwards' East of Eden : Lightfoote, I'd like to see your plans, too! Have you put it up on your BYC page or anywhere? Well, we're in luck - I had not deleted the majority of the pics, so I'll put up a few: Lightfoote

I uploaded and shared photos of the step-by-step build process on a thread a couple of months back. I think I removed many of those pics when I uploaded photos of my hatching chicks five weeks ago, but I can easily attach and send them in an email if you want to PM me with your email address...

Quote: I built my own incubator - a large size cabinet style, and have tinkered continuously over the past 3+ months with variables to achieve and consistently maintain proper incubating temperature and relative humidity levels. It works,and with a little bit of recent fine-tuning, I have...

Quote: Hmmm - that is 3 of us at least (just on this short thread so far) whose birds really aren't "taking to" the Layena Omega 3 formulation. Mine will flat out ignore it for most of the day, in the apparent hope of either finding crunchy bugs aplenty, or else believing that I may be putting...