Colorado

[Mtn Margie]

We totally understand your feelings. Those of us that process our birds have been there as well and also those that do not.
Good luck finding a new home for your BO. I have a crew of extra roosters that I have been keeping separate from the flock only because I have had issues with the local bobcat population figuring out my electric fencing and some late nights on my part. I just know that as soon as they are gone to freezer camp, I won't have any back-ups and I would be stuck hatching out chicks before I am ready to this spring.
Good luck again!

 

[Latestarter]

Sorry Mntpeople, It's really hard to find homes for extra roos... most folks in HOA communities and larger towns/cities can't have roosters, and those looking for roos are normally looking for slaughter, so they don't even want to pay for what the bird is worth. Hope you find an acceptable solution to the problem.

Sorry you're having bobcat issues Margie... But in the end, it's probably better than bear issues... How are the bears doing so far? Any problems with them starving and looking for handouts? It's been awfully warm and dry.

A couple weeks back I finally caught the egg eater from my New Hampshire group. Have not lost a single egg from that group since, and they are all laying basically daily. They have chosen one corner and lay on the floor in the litter as they don't like the sloped floors I made in the nest boxes to create roll outs.
Today, I was out filling waterers and feeding and caught the egg eater from my White Wyandotte group

! I had seen her in a nest box when I first got out there and got started so checked the box immediately and there was no egg. About 15 minutes later I heard pecking in the box and since I was in that coop at the time, I entered the enclosure and pulled her out of the box and sure enough, she had just laid an egg and had 1/2 consumed it. I waited a while after removing her and no others entered the box to partake, so I'm 99% positive she's the one. She is now in quarantine to confirm that she is the one and if so, within a week, she'll be historical I also removed the partially eaten egg from the nest box.

I have one more group, the BO's who occasionally eat eggs, but it's infrequent and may be because the egg was damaged... But I'll be keeping a better eye on them in upcoming weeks as well to see if I can catch that little deviant.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Mtnpeople,
What Latestarter says is true. I am one of those in a town that does not allow roosters. It is very hard to process ones we have grown attached to. I have had two accidental roosters and they took some hens with them to their new homes. One whole set was taken by coyotes the other I am not sure if he got to live or not.
Truly heartbreaking in the end.

Have you thought of or do you have space for a bachelor pad for the extra males? Rumor has it that if they live with no females the fighting stops or is at least lessened. Not a life you want for the fellas I am sure but better then the soup pot.

I am once again this spring looking at my not so spring chickens wondering if I should do the merciful thing or let them go on their own. Some still lay some do not. It is not about the egg count for me as 29 hens produce far more eggs then my family needs.

I feel for ya Mtnpeople. Not an easy choice at all.

 

[samsr]

Thank you, samsr. Can't member when I could pass up an open book. For my last hatch I used a digital thermostat, and even with a small computer fan, there were hot and cold spots everywhere. How did you manage a uniform, stable hatching environment? Heat source? Humidity? Thermostat? Fan(s)? Ventilation? What were your biggest issues, and how did you handle them. Do you think your big incubator could work effectively as a scaled down small incubator? What % humidity did you incubate at? Lockdown at?

One thing I've been thinking of trying for a small bator is to use a separate chamber for heating and humidifying air, and then fanning it into the egg chamber. Do you think something like this could be made to work? I think I will try to find your early posts, get some questions from there. Thanks you, again.

23 more eggs went on lockdown this evening. Hopefully all goes well. Hatch day is saturday. Thebonly thing left after that will be the goose eggs. I wont know about thise until the 8th or ninth of next month.
Here is a brief write up of my home made wine-o-bator.
The heat source is provided by a replacement heating element kit for a GQF sportsman incubator. $24.00. It is regulated by a ebay purchased chinese digital thermometer $14.00. That temp regulator is backed up by another digital thermometer/hygrometer. It came from incubator warehouse. Broken wine fridge was free from craigslist. There is a custom bent aluminum bracket in the top that houses houses the 6 inch (i believe) 110v fan. $12.00. Ebay. The fan runs all the time and blows across the heaing element and keeps the air circulating. In the backbof the incubator there is a piece of 4 inch pvc pipe and elbows. The bottom portion of the pvc pipe runs through the back side of the fridge at the bottom and runs to the top back part of the fridge behind the fan. This set up causes the large volume of air to circulate from the bottom to the top of the incubator. It works well but was done away with in the third version ( which my neighbor has. Humidity is contolled by a pirex pan in the bottom of the incubator. It is filled with water and is the correct size to provide 60% humidity. I run this humidity from start to finish. I do not up the humidity for lockdown. The pan is placed right in front of the screen that is in front of the intake pipe that runs to the top i spokebof earlier. I used some thrown away vinyl covered shelving for the shelves in the bator. I can fit three turners and still have enough room for the hatching basket that i made from 1/4 inch hardware cloth. When the turners are in the incubator the wires run out past the door seal. This allows enough fresh air in for the eggs to be happy. I attached some pics so you can see what i am describing. If anyone has any questions. Feel free to ask.

[/IMG][/IMG][/IMG]

 

[coop410silkies]

23 more eggs went on lockdown this evening. Hopefully all goes well. Hatch day is saturday. Thebonly thing left after that will be the goose eggs. I wont know about thise until the 8th or ninth of next month.
Here is a brief write up of my home made wine-o-bator.
The heat source is provided by a replacement heating element kit for a GQF sportsman incubator. $24.00. It is regulated by a ebay purchased chinese digital thermometer $14.00. That temp regulator is backed up by another digital thermometer/hygrometer. It came from incubator warehouse. Broken wine fridge was free from craigslist. There is a custom bent aluminum bracket in the top that houses houses the 6 inch (i believe) 110v fan. $12.00. Ebay. The fan runs all the time and blows across the heaing element and keeps the air circulating. In the backbof the incubator there is a piece of 4 inch pvc pipe and elbows. The bottom portion of the pvc pipe runs through the back side of the fridge at the bottom and runs to the top back part of the fridge behind the fan. This set up causes the large volume of air to circulate from the bottom to the top of the incubator. It works well but was done away with in the third version ( which my neighbor has. Humidity is contolled by a pirex pan in the bottom of the incubator. It is filled with water and is the correct size to provide 60% humidity. I run this humidity from start to finish. I do not up the humidity for lockdown. The pan is placed right in front of the screen that is in front of the intake pipe that runs to the top i spokebof earlier. I used some thrown away vinyl covered shelving for the shelves in the bator. I can fit three turners and still have enough room for the hatching basket that i made from 1/4 inch hardware cloth. When the turners are in the incubator the wires run out past the door seal. This allows enough fresh air in for the eggs to be happy. I attached some pics so you can see what i am describing. If anyone has any questions. Feel free to ask.

[/IMG][/IMG][/IMG]

samsr, what a great and thorough description of your incubator. So the idea of the PVC pipe is to draw air from the bottom, run it across the heating element at the top - where it is then drawn back down to the bottom? That sounds pretty clever to me. Why did you leave that part out on #3? Do you think that is why your neighbor is having problems with his? Where did you put the temperature probe for the digital thermostat? I think I have the same sort of thing from eBay, and the same fan, as well as the Incutherm from incubator warehouse. I have also some of those little Arduino thingies that I bought off eBay for $5-6, that function as thermostats, and another Arduino thingie that has a humidistat AND a thermostat function. Just in case.

When your incubators are operating, does the temperature stay the same, from top to bottom. Does the PVC make any difference? Did you ever consider, or try, heating at the bottom and letting the warm air rise and exit through the top? Just picking and thinking. Thanks for your write up and photos. BTW, I really like how you recycled parts and kept your bator financially doable for almost anyone. And almost anyone with even just a particle of DNA for DIY could make one of these. This is a truly beautiful share.

 

[lomine]

Glad to see I'm not the only one thinking about planting things. Though I think mother nature is reminding us not to get ahead of ourselves with this cold spell. Man, I was really enjoying the warm weather too.

I'm not a gardener (I just plant stuff and hope it doesn't die) but here are two things I've learned. Plants that are grown locally do better because they are already used to the altitude. Seems pretty logical once you think about it. The other thing is that you have to be careful about bushes and flowers from big box stores, like Home Depot and Lowes. Those plants are often treated with pesticides. Not only is that bad for our fowl friends but the ones they use are know for killing bees.

 

[samsr]

samsr, what a great and thorough description of your incubator. So the idea of the PVC pipe is to draw air from the bottom, run it across the heating element at the top - where it is then drawn back down to the bottom? That sounds pretty clever to me. Why did you leave that part out on #3? Do you think that is why your neighbor is having problems with his? Where did you put the temperature probe for the digital thermostat? I think I have the same sort of thing from eBay, and the same fan, as well as the Incutherm from incubator warehouse. I have also some of those little Arduino thingies that I bought off eBay for $5-6, that function as thermostats, and another Arduino thingie that has a humidistat AND a thermostat function. Just in case.

When your incubators are operating, does the temperature stay the same, from top to bottom. Does the PVC make any difference? Did you ever consider, or try, heating at the bottom and letting the warm air rise and exit through the top? Just picking and thinking. Thanks for your write up and photos. BTW, I really like how you recycled parts and kept your bator financially doable for almost anyone. And almost anyone with even just a particle of DNA for DIY could make one of these. This is a truly beautiful share.

We designed my neighbors incubator a little different. The air flow is directed on the inside instead of the outside. There is an additional panel that runs to the bottom along the back. He had more space on the inside initially. Last year his hatches were quite good. I have no idea what he is doing wrong this year. The digital thermostat probe generally rests on the eggs on the middle rack. As long as the bottom rack and the top rack are within 1 degree. I have not worried too much about it. No use splitting hairs. It seems to work well. If you are worried about that then you can put a gallon jug or two of water in there somewhere to use as thermal mass to reduce the temp swing.

 

[Latestarter]

So I guess we here on the front range (high prairie) are now just under a winter weather advisory and the storm watch has been eliminated. Wasn't supposed to start until tonight but I've had flurries here since right about noon. Nothing's sticking of course, the surface of the ground is "damp". But I'll be happy with 6-8 inches. It's been rather too dry for my winter/early spring tastes. Give us moisture/water!

 

[laurajb]

Does anyone in the Denver area have Easter Eggers for sale? Up to about 10 days old? I'm looking for just 2.

 

[Latestarter]

Greetings Laura and welcome to BYC and the Colorado channel! Lots of great folks here if you have questions. Good luck with your chicks and hope someone has some extra EEs they can spare for you.