Making Lemonade [Selective Culling Project - very long term]

[NagemTX]

Scotch Irish here and have lived south of Houston all my life. The older I get the less heat I can take. Saying that end of May through to first week of July has been recorded breaking temperatures here. That means we were over 98 almost every day.

And hooray we got a down poor today! I am so glad we finally got some significant rain.

 

[SheaLoner]

Brief update - candled my eggs (who'd have thought, after all the times I haven't, it was after all one of the reasons I wanted light colored shells!) and 11 of 12 look to be developing weel, 1 infertile (pitched), Would like to cull excess Roos this weekend.

Instead, I'll be under the RV removing the undercladding, laying in moist dirt (we've had 3"+ rain in the last four days) and chicken droppings (its one of their favorite dust bathe spots - always shaded, almost always dry, protected from predators), and speaking foul words. The flooring of the RV is starting to sag, I need to inspect, determine if there is anything I can do about it. Unfortunately, the area I need to inspect is above the black water tank, so this won't be quick, it won't be easy, it wont be pretty. Obviously, there's a leak - somewhere - we haven't been able to locate. Don't want to have to drop the blackwater tank and restructure the floor, that's "a project" on a scale I don't want to have to undertake right now, but am not coming up with other alternatives.

Just need another cup of coffee and a clear tarp to lay on while I scoot about on my back for the weekend. and a bit more mental fortitude.

Not a project I envy in the slightest. Hope it's an easy fix.

 

[3KillerBs]

How long does it take to adapt I wonder, because by the end of a N Illinois summer I am ready for winter and have not adapted

It took me about 5 years.

80f would feel wonderful right now. Sometimes 75-80 is our low at night but only a few mins and it's on the way back up.

Yeah, I'm thinking of moving the 3-week chicks into the integration pen early so I can stick some spare males into the brooder. But the night lows aren't *quite* low enough.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I just moved last hatch in with prior hatch so I can get some stuff cleaned. I need to let prior hatch out with the big birds, let them find their way, thought they are still smallish at what, five weeks? I need the cage - really should finish redoing the boxes in the barn, then I won't have these problems.

Oh, and no leaks from the black water tank. YAY! leak is causing a sag between the grey water and the black water, I can brace it this weekend. Only remaining problem? I don't know where the leak is coming from. Next steps will have to be removing the back wall of the shower enclosure, and pulling the refrigerator. Neither of which are on my happinessed list.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

 

[Sally PB]

Pictures...? of the birds, I mean.

Well, you just read my mind. I was about to click "post."

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Its been a while, sorry about that.

I will say I like these deep, square plastic bowls. Easy to clean, if you don't overfill, the birds have a hard(er) time scratching it all out, and harder to tip over, They dumped the butter container in a heartbeat.

and I seriously need to hose off the droppings "boards" before work - so that's my next ten min, then I'm gone for the day.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Its that time of the month. Two so far, nine more to (potentially) go.

Both gold base, with muddy chipmunk markings down their backs.

Sorry the photo is so dark. Both the flash and the alternate room light source made terrible reflections on the incubator. This was fourth photo.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

And then there were three. Third is much lighter than the other two.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

and three more eggs were quits after the day 7 candling