Colorado

[Ashdoes]

I went out to the gals this morning and the snow is over the tops of my boots. That makes it at least 12 inches. UGH.

Cool egg decorating Uzi!

Glad you have hatches Maggie. Bummer they are not what you expected.

DH is out in this very nasty road day. He is driving a tow truck. He tells me that there is at least 2 inches of ice under the snow pack on the roads. It worries me when he is having to go pull some wreck back onto the interstate. Yesterday he was pulling one up and a car lost control striking the state patrol car just behind the car being loaded. Luckily it was not enough to ram the police car into the tow truck.
Freaking scary. We lost a neighbor that way several years ago. I made DH stop driving tow trucks but he recently went back to it since it pays better.

Be safe everyone.

Babs

My father-in-law was a tow truck driver for many years, and it was his favorite job. I can see how being out in this weather makes you nervous, hope he stays safe.
Uzi-That egg is super cool. My husbands whole family is artistic like that, and seems my kids are too, I however like stick people...they're so cute. Lol.
I agree about this snow, I thought we were supposed to get much more.

 

[corancher]

Maggiemo

Not bad for your first hatch. I think I got one to hatch my first try many years ago. For those of you that are new to hatching, I thought I would post this tip. I tried to follow all the rules when I first started to incubate eggs. When it got time for lock down, I would try to get the humidity up to the recommended amount. I put extra bowls of water, sponges, wet paper towels, wet dish cloths, etc. and could raise the humidity but never to the recommended amount. I was getting really bad hatches. They would go to lock down and then not hatch or hatch and die as a wet, sticky mess.

I was at a chicken meet and met a man that had been hatching for many years. I explained my problem and he told me that I was drowning my babies by having too much humidity. He said that we will never be able to get the incubators up to the recommended because we have such low humidity in Colorado and nature adjusts for this. He told me if I could get the humidity to 40-50% then it would be just fine. I have been following his advise many years and he was spot on. I really don't worry much about the humidity and don't even try to bump it much for anything other than waterfowl.

Everyone stay safe and let's hope everyone's birds stay warm and healthy during the storm.

 

[COChix]

@uzisuzuki your very talented and artistic, have you thought about designing egg labels for people?

There is about 6-8 inches on the ground in North Boulder this am, light fluffy snow. Our gang needed more straw thrown down in the run as the winds we got blew snow sideways in the run. I did not tarp all sides and of course this storm decides to blow differently than the past one's! Once I got some more straw down I threw in some boss for the gang to spread around, should keep them busy for a bit.

 

[KLBCOS]

Newbie questions 963, on cold days like today, do you open the coop or do you leave them in? It's probably a silly question but remember...there are no silly quesitons. Stay warm and dry. Enjoying the beauty of the snow in Black Forest.

 

[Latestarter]

Newbie questions 963, on cold days like today, do you open the coop or do you leave them in? It's probably a silly question but remember...there are no silly quesitons. Stay warm and dry. Enjoying the beauty of the snow in Black Forest.

There is no need to keep them locked inside unless it is bitterly cold, like 10 or more degrees below zero, and even then, they'll still go out as long as the wind isn't ripping. If it's driving snow and the wind is blowing, you might also consider keeping them in. Or, you could open the pop door and let them decide what they want to do

 

[COChix]

Newbie questions 963, on cold days like today, do you open the coop or do you leave them in? It's probably a silly question but remember...there are no silly quesitons. Stay warm and dry. Enjoying the beauty of the snow in Black Forest.

Ditto what Late said,we have 24 and there is no way they can all be in the coop all day, just not enough space. If you have the ability to provide wind breaks and spots where they have a path to walk, like straw, they will venture out. Our run is covered and then I tarped it strategically to provide wind breaks, straw down in the run for them to walk around on, they even will bed down in the straw.

 

[Percheron chick]

Nice egg Uzi!

Hatch update; I have 7 hatched, 6 are fine, one has an unabsorbed yolk sack and I don't think it will make it. One is hatching now but the chicks keep rolling it around so I don't think that one will make it either. It seems really wet and not in the same head-up position the other chicks were in, though it is hard to tell because they keep rolling it around.
All 4 of PC eggs hatched, the one that probably isn't going to make it is one of PC's eggs.

The whole reason I started with was for naked neck chicks, out of the three chicks that hatched only one is a naked neck. I am so sad

One is yellow and one is all black with black legs.
ugg...I could have gotten unknown eggs anywhere. I didn't need to have them shipped to me.

Hope everyone is warm and snug.

Just thinking out loud, do local eggs hatch faster like a normal 21 days while shipped eggs from lower elevations take 2-3 days longer? You are at 22 days so you still have 36 hours in the 3 day window. Go make another pot of coffee even they don't want to come out in this weather.

 

[maggiemo]

Just thinking out loud, do local eggs hatch faster like a normal 21 days while shipped eggs from lower elevations take 2-3 days longer? You are at 22 days so you still have 36 hours in the 3 day window. Go make another pot of coffee even they don't want to come out in this weather.

OK. I will leave the eggs for a day or two longer. The two blue eggs from you hatched yellow chipmunk looking chicks and one black chick.
They are big and strong!
I

 

[corancher]

Just thinking out loud, do local eggs hatch faster like a normal 21 days while shipped eggs from lower elevations take 2-3 days longer? You are at 22 days so you still have 36 hours in the 3 day window. Go make another pot of coffee even they don't want to come out in this weather.

There does not seem to be a pattern. It just depends on the eggs. It is strange when they are all set at the same time but some just seem to develop slower. Could be the temp difference in areas of the incubator. You would not think it would make a difference but it does. When I candle I usually move the eggs around a bit.

 

[suncatcher]

Good for first hatch's of the year, congrat everyone!

X3 on the keeping chickens up only in cold weahter, they like to be out and about, pecking and dust bathing.

We have two inches of snow here???? Sounds like most of the moisture went north!