Calif. N.Central Valley/Foothills - Page 14

Well lady,........................What did you set?????
  I ordered a thermometer/Hygrometer on ebay with a probe & am trying the styro again with the new external monitors in place. My husband also drilled a small hole the size of a small black tubing we have & put a tube directly to the water tray in the bottom without going over the eggs in the turner. I can now read the temperature & humidity from the outside & add water directly through the tube with a 60cc syringe from Tractor supply (a buck + I think). I don't have to take the lid off for anything so maybe I can get a decent hatch. So I gathered some of my own hatching eggs & set it with Delawares, Australorps, EEs (blue eggs),Black Copper Marans 5&6s & Wheaten Marans 5& 6s. I just want to give it a try again this new way. I will sell the chicks on Craigslist if they hatch well. My big digital Brinsea is always full.........LOL
We did a 5 gallon bucket with nipple waterers today too. We put it in one of the grow out pens (an old peach bin) with about 15 birds in it. They took right to it. I get so tired on the contant dumping bad water & cleaning waterers. This on is suspended & filled from the top with a hose & gravity fed. Yipee!!!!!!

I may want more Silkies. They are little hatching machines & so docile. I only have the white soft feathered ones. All those I don't sell on Craigslist go to Carrie in Arnold ( Substainableyieldpoultry.com) for her neighbor up there.
We should visit each other. We live close enough for a nice drive & maybe lunch. I had lunch at a deli in Oakdale that was awesome not too long ago. Anothe "chicken lovin" friend of mine lives in Oakdale. I think I told you about her.
  I am excited about the new water systems. The bucket one would probably do well for your son's ducks. If you wanted you could even set it up on a float system. That's how I did it when I raised rabbits (a lifetime ago....LOL).We used an old toilet tank & mounted it high in the rabbit barn with a float to refill it automatically & then gravity fed water to a lick it system much like these nipples. It worked great.  As undisciplined as I am I am always afraid I won't do all I should for the animals so I try to failsafe myself.....LOL
  This morning I woke up to 5 baby BCM & now another has hatched. These were from shipped eggs so I am soooooo pleasantly surprised. Of course I do hope for some more. I just checked & another is rocking like crazy & is pipped & zipped but not out yet. These are supposed to be BCM from N.C. from Greenfire farms stock, Wade Jeane, but it looks like some may be Bluce copper they look lighter than my BCMS do at  hatch. I was really disappointed in the egg color. I ordered them because they were advertised as 8s & mine are 5/6s so I saw an opportunity to improve egg color within the same line. They arrived as 4s. I was bummed & considered not even hatching them, but thought the birds came from good stock so I would give it a shot. Now I am so glad I did. I will write & ask the seller if she sent some Blues in there.

If you mean Bridgett Riddle, she has minorcas but not WFBS.  I've talked to her several times.   I would love some of her minorcas.  I fell in love with her birds at the state fair last year.  Nobody in California has WFBS.  I've been looking for a year now as of this week.

Somerset is in southeastern El Dorado county, up at about 2500 feet elevation.  Officially, we're in Fairplay, CA, which is right next to Somerset & they are both so small, they share a zip code.

I could have sworn Bridget showed me WFBS. It seems she was working on them & they had some pink bleeding through on the upper part of their white face part.????????? Have you talked to her recently? I only got my Minorcas a couple of weeks ago.
  Again her set up would be a dream come true for me. I am trying to work up the nerve to approach my husband with a plan to re-do everything into something more like her's

That sounds great to me. Today Denny Thomas from Paso Robles (Lotsapaints on BYC) is supposed to be coming up to drop birds off at the Modesto Poultry auction. We will have lunch after & then who knows......LOL. She is bringing me eggs for the incubator. Some are Midget White turkeys that I have never tried before & then she does her own cross for meat birds that I want to try & want to hatch some for a friend that does her own butchering.
  I am up to 12 chicks from that last BCM hatch out of shipped eggs from N.C..... I am so tickled.

When I talked to her in April, she said she was on the hunt for WFBS and but had not procured any yet.  If the pink is bleeding through on the face, it's only because they're young birds.  The faces don't get really white until they reach maturity, somwhere aqround 14-18 months of age.  If Bridget just acquired her WFBS since I last spoke with her in April, they won't have white faces for another year yet.  Also, a lot of hatchery WFBS never get a fully white faced which is why I have resisted buying hatchery stock.  I have nothing against hatchery birds, and sometimes you get lucky and get a nice-looking bird that meets the SOP for that breed. 

Just in case, I'm going to re-contact Bridget and see what she's got. 

Thanks! 

Off topic, but is anyone interested in splitting a Porter's turkey order with me?
http://www.porterturkeys.com/

I'm in love with their Tiger Bronze which will produce Tiger Bronze, Pencilled Sweetgrass & Pencilled Black Wing Bronze.
But he has LOTS of other varieties to fall in love with.

The minimum order is 15 (plus extras.)  Depending on the variety ordered cost would be between $93-100. For 8ish poults each...

You now you want some pretty turkeys....


**Porter's Tiger Bronze Variety