Utah!

[Cynthia12]

Cuteness. Candles my slikies today, lock down on Sat. I was candling this little one, and all of a sudden saw 5 toes smash up against the shell. lol..hurried to get the camera, and of course by the time I got the egg back up, it had relaxed and could only see the three. Thinking most of you that have hatched have seen this before. I love it when I can see the heart beating in the beginning of incubation.

 

[the-bird-man]

no.

that should be great then bitsy if it was me i would use pine shavings as its dryer and does not muck up as much as straw and then till that up. i know some use sweet dpz or whatever its called but i have never done it. if you have some wood ash that might help too

 

[eggsbert]

So I think I found something that I can use as the 'run' part of my quail tractor. I have an old mouse cage that I never was able to get rid of and it's still in pretty good condition.
It was a 3 story cage for mice but if I flip it on it's side it will be 15 inches high, 19 inches deep, and 2.5 feet long. That's about 4 square feet of living space for the 5 quail already, without an attached area for cover.
They'll have to make do in the mouse cage until I get the covered part built, but they should be fine in there for a few days if I have them in the shade right?

It's currently modified with 1/4 inch mesh but I think I'll remove it, the cage itself is 1/2 inch barring and quite sturdy.

 

[bitsyhorse]

My husband did the same thing, too, thinking the chickens would scratch around in it and everything would be great. Nope! Ours never dried and was a horrible smelly mess! He ended up having to muck it all out.

oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one lol!!!

 

[sideWing]

Cuteness. Candles my slikies today, lock down on Sat. I was candling this little one, and all of a sudden saw 5 toes smash up against the shell. lol..hurried to get the camera, and of course by the time I got the egg back up, it had relaxed and could only see the three. Thinking most of you that have hatched have seen this before. I love it when I can see the heart beating in the beginning of incubation.

That is so cool!

 

[the-bird-man]

yeah i had a smelly run once. not fun. i think it happens to every chicken owner who has a run but you learn from it i think of it like a compost bin, since you have a lot of greens as they say in the chicken manure you need even more browns

 

[Doughie]

Our 2nd hatch. 11 days left. I'm a little bummed that we don't have any of Lisa's cute little silkies in this hatch! We can't see what's happening in these eggs like we could with those. It made it so exciting! Lol.



That teeny tiny little thing is a dud I think. It was just found out in middle of a chicken field. My aunt said that when she gets these from her hens that there's not usually a yolk inside. Anyone on here gotten one so tiny before?

Funny you should mention the tiny egg.
I have a cuckoo marens that hasn't laid in two years.....then today this happened!

 

[turnipsmom]

This 8 week Bantam cock-a-doodled this morning - Very funny to watch. PM me if you absolutely need him in your flock otherwise back to IFA. My third rooster from them....

 

[crazy Sandy]

So... this last month with all the rain, sogged and mucked up my run... I put grass clippings over it to help give more surface area for myself and the chickens s to walk on.... and now that it has stopped raining, and has heated up... it's just a smelly mess. I'm thinking of tilling it under, but other than moving the coop, and letting the run dry out, does anyone have any other advice? I don't have it set up for sand, it not deep enough. The top is drying, but just under the matted surface, it's just not composting.

Please keep in mind, I am at the very pregnant stage, so whatever needs to be done, I have to enlist my poor husband to endure the stench and heat.

I would turn it all over with tiller or pitch fork and add a good amount of sand that will dry it out straw would just keep moisture in because it will make it mat up again and stink even more.I had the same problem.the crust on top keeps the moisture in the sand helps to break up the bigger clumps and the girls love the sand

 

[eggsbert]

This 8 week Bantam cock-a-doodled this morning - Very funny to watch. PM me if you absolutely need him in your flock otherwise back to IFA. My third rooster from them....

I feel your pain. I'm super paranoid about my last frizzle from them turning out to be a rooster too. I check that comb daily.

Also, when do wattles on females come in? My frizzle is getting them now and they're bright red. She is only 7 weeks. Something to be concerned about or is that normal for cochin hens? The comb is still small (nearly hidden by those curly feathers).
I'll take some pictures later if I can, but she's difficult to get nice photos of.

Suddenly buying those three extra chicks doesn't seem like it was such a bad idea, considering of the 8 chicks I have 2 are definite roosters... At least on is pint sized. He can hardly be considered a chicken at this point.