Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man - Page 2

My apologies for the gaps in posting, the place where we end up is very remote with poor cell phone internet only. It takes four or five attempts just to load a page.

 

Christmas day greeted us with a text message to say my boxes had arrived in Manila from Los Angeles. At 11am I was at Bacolod airport hugging three lime green cartons. I had no time to lose if I was to see the eggs hatch as I had to be in Manila in 22 days. I plugged in the stryobators and warmed them for just one hour. I placed the eggs in and sat over the top of them as the eggs came to temp. With just two quarter turns of adjustment I hit the magic 99.8F. My kids got their new Razor scooters and my wife got her new underwear (simple stuff - keep your minds clean)

 

Now I had another issue. I had planned to drive to Tiling, 120km away the night before to set the eggs, then return Christmas afternoon to attend a function at the in laws. Some of the eggs were aging fast and with the aforementioned time restraints, I had to transport 70+ incubating eggs in 2 hovabators along a highway in constant repair for three hours the following day.

My wife had errands to run so we could not get underway until 1pm. At 9 am the typhoon winds knocked out the power. I kept thinking “I could not make this ^%$# up”. After an hour without power I carried the eggs in their bators down stairs, pulled a 600w  inverter out of one of my boxes and set the foam boxes up in the car. Not being experienced at converting 12v to 110v, I ran the car for 15 minutes each our till we could leave to ensure the battery would not die.

 

At 1 pm we left to drive 75ish miles. The winds had died down to a safe level and the rain was just intermittent tropical dumps. Between Christmas and the storm, most of the sugar cane haulers were off the road and it was a slow and bumpy but uneventful ride home. I had a remote sensor thermometer in one of the bators and the temp was rock solid. In 24 hrs it had not varied more than 0.5F from 99.8F. The bators were set up in the living room with a splendid view of the Panay Gulf. I paused to think about what these eggs (and I) had been through. What were the odds of even getting 10% hatched?

It’s now New Years Eve. The sun had gone down in its brisk equatorial style. Day 6. Hatch day minus 15. I had to go to another family function back in Bacolod the following day so candling on day seven was out. One day earlier than planned I pulled out my 3watt LED flash light.

 

Eggs	Set	Veining at 6 days
Black Copper Marans	8	Too dark but good air sacks
Australorps	9	7 – 2 look infertile
Blue Laced Red Wyandottes	8	8 all good!
Lake Elsinore Mutts	18	15 – 3 look iffy – need time
OffGridMAMA Mutts	40	33 look great, 3 iffy 4 infertile

 

So I am looking at 53 developing, 6 unsures, 6 infertile and 8 mystery marans. I AM EGGSTATIC!!!

It looks like we better build some coops.

 

And oh by the way. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Jan 2. I am spending the morning buying some coop and feed supplies in Bacolod before heading back to the beach house.
Edited by ozexpat - 1/1/13 at 5:13pm

Its Jan 3. Almost half way through the incubation.

Today is very windy. We are in the midst of the North East Monsoon period. Its the coldest time of the year here. We have 20 mile an hour winds blowing straight off the ocean. The temp at 11am is just 78 but the humidity is in the 90s. When the wind stops and the sun comes out, the temp will quickly climb to 86. By the looks of it, this will be atleast a day away.

The humidity is concerning. I cannot regulate it. In the incubators the humidity reads 54%.

I can see movement in most eggs. I will cull out the clear ones tonight.

Life is very different here. Trying to live a western lifestyle is expensive but living like a local is very cheap. We live a combination. I will try and describe a little here. Its very easy to romanticizel
Iiving on the beach in a tnird world country with nannies, maids and gardeners, but its not all a breeze. With staff comes responsibility.

Our gardener and maid are married with a son. They have their own basic house on our lot. We provide them with Social Security, Philhealth, most of their food and a combined salary od 120 dollars a month. In addition we profit share our copra - the meat from coconuts sold to a mill for oil. We have 290 fruit bearing trees that Bernie climbs and harvests on our time. On his days off he dries the meat from the nuts and bags it for shipping. A kilo will earn 40 cents to a dollar, depending on a very labile market. We will take a ton to the mill next week. The price is rock bottom at the moment so we will collect abour 400 dollars. Bernies will earn about 150 dollars from his share. He will probably invest it in a yearling Caribau - a water buffalo that can be rented out to sugar cane and rice farmers for ploughing and hauling cane from the fields to trucks for shipping. Although we want Analou and Bernie to feel that they can grow old with us, wewould like them to have an income when they grow older and encourage them to plan for the future - sadly something that is not done here. the Philippines is cursed by consumerism. People would rather have the latest phone than a house or even more nutritious food for their children.

The main staple here is of course rice. A kilo of rice is 30 pesos or roughly 30 cents a pound. A family of four can eat 50kilos in a month. Chicken in the market is 1.30 a pound. Pork is 1.80. Fish is about 50 cents up to a few dollars for high end. The local diet is mostly vegetable soup with rice and a little fish. Fifty dollars can easily keep a local family of four well nourished for a month. We crave western foods as well so wealso buy beef at 2.90 a pound, flour to make bread,canned tomatoes for spaghetti and other ingredients that stop us feeling deprived. I bring loads of non perishable goceries over from the usa when I come as it works out easier and cheaper than going to the big supermarkets in Manila, a plane flight away.

Sadly, rum is a buck a 750ml bottle and cigarettes are 60cents a pack so men die young or slowly decayfrom self abuse. Teenage pregnancy is rife. A bill just passed through govt. that mandates availability of contaception. Hopefully this will help as being a single mother makes it almost impossible to succeed in anything but the sex trade. Our area is very poor. Its hard to help as an individual as you end up with lines of people at your door. We are members of the local Lions club and funnel our philanthropy through the club.

The chickens and their eggs should provide our staff with lots of protein to supplement their diets as well as additional income from egg and breeder trio sales. I would like to make enough to cover feed and make the business self sustaining. An egg sells for 12 cents in the market. In the classifieds a breeding trio of RHode Island reds sells for 120 dollars.

Yeah, its a lot like southern mexico. I love it here. i just wish i could affoord to live here full time. I need that winning lottery ticket.