Chronicles of the Golden Eggs

[jamesrm]

For those of you not familiar, this thread originated here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=333932 where I paid an insane amount for extremely rare large silver laced Brahma hatching eggs. To make matters worse, I negotiated on the side and bought twice the number of eggs. So, I have 32 "Golden Eggs" - And these are their story. Only names have been changed to protect the "innocent"...
So, after finding the auction and wanting to breed a few rare breeds of birds myself, these were the perfect fit. The problem, a few other people had the same idea

After a heated bidding, well, sniping war, when the smoke cleared I came out the winner, I think... Big Medicine is great to work with and the best shipper around. The eggs arrived Wednesday and were given 24 hours to settle before being unpacked. EACH egg was wrapped in a paper towel and bubble wrap, and set in foam point down for shipping. Totally amazing packing job. The eggs were unpacked and allowed to sit 8 hours before placing in my Sportsman Incubator. I will be updating this at major milestones, candlings, and of course lock down and hatch

The Brooding Shed

Eggs Arrived Safely!

Amazing packing job!

Each egg very well protected and right side up

36 Eggs ready to incubate, and all the packing that they were wrapped in

Snug in my Sportsman Incubator

One of my new grow off tractors

Pekings and Broad Brested Turkeys

 

[ChickenCrazed]

Good luck with your hatch...I will be anxiously awaiting their arrival...I have Brahmas and love them!...

 

[calicokat]

Oh my! What a great set up.

And thanks for making me feel better about spending a measly $4 and change on my eggs,

I promptly told DH it could have been MUCH worse!

 

[Suburban Sprouts]

Beautiful eggs!!

 

[jamesrm]

Day 2 and all is well. Temp was right on 99.5 as always and humidity was at 59%. I just cleaned the brood house with water, so probably a bit higher because of that, it normally stays around 55% without the wick pads in. Most of the ducks are learning to quack, thats always qute, the progression from peep to peeequack to quack

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I think I am in love with your broody shed

(actually I know I am

)

 

[jamesrm]

Quote:
Thanks

Its been a lot of work. The 3x3x3 brooder bays have automatic water and hanging feeders, mesh floor so the poo runs down to a sloped draining system, so I just have to wash it out to wash away the poo to a collection system (5 gallon bucket) for the garden. I just used some extra GQF water troughs and float valves and connected those the the low pressure auto water system from my battery brooder. Works great. Had to really secure things, the geese enjoyed pulling the hoses free for showers.

Its funny, originally the ducks HATED when I would spray out the brooders, now they love it. In fact its hard now because the ducks will just run to the water stream and get in the way. Annoying, but too cute to make me really care

Ran PVC around the top of the shed for water, 3 valves with shutoffs here and there, knowing that I would probably yank to hard on something and create a leak. I attach a garden hose on the outside, but I could have also just mounted a large water tank and collected rain water for a gravity system.

While I would like to see this grow into a small business someday, right now I am working on a medical degree, and really wanted to set things up so if I could not do the "chores" for a 24 hour period, nothing would be harmed. I really could get away with 2 days, but would come back to some hungry birds.

Oh, the thermal scanners from lowes and home depot make GREAT spot temperature readers. I use them all of the time to make sure I have the proper wattage buld and temps set correctly in the brooders. There is also a small AC that is hidden out of site, which with everything on manages to keep the shed about 80 degrees during the day. I wish it was a bit bigger, but really all the power I can pull out there

 

[I'mACountryGirl]

Hi James ~ Big Time Congrats on the Goldies!!!!! Hey, it would be really cool to see a few more pictures of your brood shed, inside and out, and maybe some specifics and ideas about how and why you set it up the way you did - is it an outbuilding, or attached to your house? It looks amazing!! Thanks!!

 

[jamesrm]

I'mACountryGirl :

Hi James ~ Big Time Congrats on the Goldies!!!!! Hey, it would be really cool to see a few more pictures of your brood shed, inside and out, and maybe some specifics and ideas about how and why you set it up the way you did - is it an outbuilding, or attached to your house? It looks amazing!! Thanks!!

Sure, I just was using my cell phone camera, but will bring up the better one and take some detailed pics. Also building another tractor and am going to detail its construction as well.​

 

[Brindlebtch]