North Carolina - Page 1520

Goodness that's alot of eggs!  I have egg envy

So this morning I took the girls for a walk, one female dog who needs some reminding of whose the alpha, and my two small daughters.  It went well, I used the Halty and kept our dog short leashed beside/almost behind me.  This set the stage for a good day, she listened well and I feel like we can get to a better place without having to get rid of her.

Someone needs to come get these roo's!  They are in the coop and doing great, they are so happy!  They let my two year old "play" with them, she is in LOVE with the chickens!  All day she points out the window and wants to visit the "chicken home".  I can't bring myself to feed her chicken anymore, I don't think I can do it.  I'm a strict vegetarian and hubby is a serious carnivore.  We compromise on our kids diets and it has worked until now, it just feels wrong!  Sorry it's just me and my thought process, hubby will have to figure something out we he get's home.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hollowoakfarm 

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottcaddy 

 

 

The freezer could still make a dang fine brooder, though.

How would a person get enough air flow in a big chest freezer? Use a small fan or what? 

 

Scott

 

I would think a fan would be quite necessary.  But just for the chicks.  I'm not moving in with them.

 

That's a good comeback

I don't blame you for not moving in with them!

Scott

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coop Scoop Boogie 

Yeah.........

 

definitely a much bigger operation than mine

 

.....and mine is quite enough

........I think?????  

It is more than enough, I think, just MHO!!

Scott

On the 20th, we placed 45 eggs in our new bator. 17 of them came from a friend who has hatched from his chickens before. However, after almost 8 days, we saw nothing when we candled them. Now, we are new to this, have never candled before. But we did do a fair amount of research and felt that we knew what to look for. When we saw nothing, we cracked open 5 eggs. Nothing there but thin raw egg. The bator has been fairly steady at 100, with humidity about 70.

Any thoughts? We had a tiny bator, only held 3 eggs, but we hatched 1. the others were developed but dead. That tiny one only had a reg thermometer, and we just put water in it when it looked dry. Hard to believe any hatchen, but he did.

So, with this fancy bator, what is going on? What should we do?

dl;  It sounds like the eggs are duds/infertile.

Oh, and for the first 18 days your relative humidity should be at or just under 50%.

Matt

That would be more eggs that I could use! And I have a lot of kids! OMG! How long will an egg keep and be edible after the chicken lays it? (sry newb question)

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottcaddy 

It is more than enough, I think, just MHO!!

 

Scott

 

DD and DH ARE adding ducks to the mix here so guess it's not quite enough yet

and turkeys......a few turkeys

Good Morning folks

hope it's a sunny one for you
 

I am not sure of the shelf life of eggs.... anyone???

These egg won't last. I have some regulars that will come by this week and buy them. The bantam eggs will be boiled up for my kids and any extras go back to the chickens.

The hatching eggs with any luck will be sold and if not...boiled up, smached and fed back to the chickens, shell and all.

dlockey....what are you looking for in hatching eggs? 

Good Morning Everyone!!

I thought I would share with you all some great news (no, no baby)...DH has officially caught the Chicken Disease.  Last night on our way to church, he commented to me that he really thinks since WE are getting the hang of this "chicken stuff" that we ought to get more chickens.  Our coop is large enough to house 25 chickens (assuming we never free range, which we do) full time, and he thinks we should up our flock size to at least 20 (remembering we have a mamma sitting on 4 eggs).    Then he tells me he is going to (once he finishes the sewing room build) take the shed we have out there (it's an old playhouse top that we use for feed & storage) and convert it into a duck house - so long as I can figure out a way to keep the ducks from flying off and leaving us.    THEN he said he wanted to convert the old run down coop into a meat bird coop and have at least 5-10 meat birds at a time.  All of this because one of our chickens went broody...   How great is this chicken math?!?

  I will say though...WHERE DID ALL THESE nasty millipedes come from??  They seem to be everywhere and my chickens are NOT eating them.  

Matt - I LOVED your explanation of chicken math.  That will definitely help me in the future!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by BHep 

21 plus dozen in the fridge............  and the ice cream tub in the left corner.... 3 dozen boiled and smashed duck eggs for chicken treat.

 

 

 

 

Just an idea of the madness here. 

 

Beth, again I feel like I am looking at my own house and eggs!!