Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[catelb]

Posted this late at night and am not sure anyone saw it. Anyone have any ideas for me?

Hi all,

Am super new to this whole chicken raising awesomeness, and thus have some beginner questions for all you experts!

1 - Our hens seem to have quite suddenly decreased their laying. We have six hens and a rooster. Our birds are just shy of 9 months old and we tend to get anywhere between 4 - 6 eggs a day, most days. They are out all day, every day so I just assumed they found a new place to lay and we couldn't find it. But today we kept them inside for most of the day and still only got one egg. All this time too, we have continued to get 1 - 2 eggs in the nest boxes each day. Oddly enough, our rooster (who we thought we were going to have to get rid of) has almost completely stopped crowing. He crows 2-3 times/day max now. This is in stark contrast from his usual, albeit sporadic crowing sessions. Our 7 birds are given 2+ cups of feed each day, have a 1/4 of an acre of grass and brambles and trees to scratch around and explore, and receive a ton of kitchen scraps (sour raw milk, whey, cabbage, kale and chard stems, etc etc etc). Do you all think they might be calcium deficient? In the past we had oyster shell and grit out for them, but have been lax in making it available as of late. Besides the seemingly overnight decrease in egg production and lack of crowing, our birds seem to be happy and healthy. I have put out a bunch of oyster shells and grit, but am curious if you all think anything else might be up?

2 - Totally unrelated. On a whim, and since we have a rooster, we decided to try to hatch a couple of our eggs as we would like to more or less double our flock. 18 eggs to be exact. All with our cuckoo maran rooster and our hens (ameraucana, rhode island red, gold laced wyandotte, buff orpington, barred rock, and dominique). It was 21 days yesterday and to date almost all of our brown eggs have hatched (9/11), but only 1 of the green eggs - the amerucana x cuckoo maran cross, have hatched (1/7). Any ideas? I have seen mention of a lethal gene with amerucana's - could that be to blame here? Also how much longer do you all think we should incubate the eggs that haven't hatched?

Thanks so much! I appreciate any and all advice. I have attached a couple photos of the new babies. At the time they were still in the incubator, so they are not the greatest quality.


The incubator set up. It is a friend's and she said she had never seen condensation like that. Could that have been a problem? It appeared post-hatching though ...


Hatching is hard work!



But not so hard, apparently, that you can't get up to cheer your brother / sister on!

 

[SadieSue]

I
Quote:
Well I have a confession to make. As I as doing my next to last candling of the olive egger chicks I just posted a photo of a couple of days ago, I CRACKED TWO of them! I was so upset about the first one that cracked I was trying to make adjustments and ended up dropping another. It didn't appear that I had damaged the membrane so in a last ditch attempt I actually put tape over the worst part of the cracks. I was sure I had killed the chicks I had just seen growing inside.

I didn't have high hopes for the entire hatch anyway. Shipped from Florida, all of these eggs had saddle shaped air cells even though I had let them set for 24 hours before putting them in the incubator.

At lock down, I very carefully removed the tape since it was threatening to peel away more of the shell. With a knock on wood and a prayer, I put the 2 cracked eggs and 5 others into the incubator, still sure my clumsiness had killed the chicks.

Two days later I heard peeping coming from the bator - these babies were starting to hatch a day early! By late that night the first one was out and by the end of the second day ALL 7 of those eggs had hatched, including the two with cracked shells I was thinking were goners. And one week later they are all bouncing around the brooder - 7 varied color healthy and happy chicks. These are some hearty babies - despite my idiocy! You just never know I guess...

 

[BGMatt]

Posted this late at night and am not sure anyone saw it. Anyone have any ideas for me?

Hi all,

Am super new to this whole chicken raising awesomeness, and thus have some beginner questions for all you experts!

1 - Our hens seem to have quite suddenly decreased their laying. We have six hens and a rooster. Our birds are just shy of 9 months old and we tend to get anywhere between 4 - 6 eggs a day, most days. They are out all day, every day so I just assumed they found a new place to lay and we couldn't find it. But today we kept them inside for most of the day and still only got one egg. All this time too, we have continued to get 1 - 2 eggs in the nest boxes each day. Oddly enough, our rooster (who we thought we were going to have to get rid of) has almost completely stopped crowing. He crows 2-3 times/day max now. This is in stark contrast from his usual, albeit sporadic crowing sessions. Our 7 birds are given 2+ cups of feed each day, have a 1/4 of an acre of grass and brambles and trees to scratch around and explore, and receive a ton of kitchen scraps (sour raw milk, whey, cabbage, kale and chard stems, etc etc etc). Do you all think they might be calcium deficient? In the past we had oyster shell and grit out for them, but have been lax in making it available as of late. Besides the seemingly overnight decrease in egg production and lack of crowing, our birds seem to be happy and healthy. I have put out a bunch of oyster shells and grit, but am curious if you all think anything else might be up?

2 - Totally unrelated. On a whim, and since we have a rooster, we decided to try to hatch a couple of our eggs as we would like to more or less double our flock. 18 eggs to be exact. All with our cuckoo maran rooster and our hens (ameraucana, rhode island red, gold laced wyandotte, buff orpington, barred rock, and dominique). It was 21 days yesterday and to date almost all of our brown eggs have hatched (9/11), but only 1 of the green eggs - the amerucana x cuckoo maran cross, have hatched (1/7). Any ideas? I have seen mention of a lethal gene with amerucana's - could that be to blame here? Also how much longer do you all think we should incubate the eggs that haven't hatched?

Thanks so much! I appreciate any and all advice. I have attached a couple photos of the new babies. At the time they were still in the incubator, so they are not the greatest quality.


The incubator set up. It is a friend's and she said she had never seen condensation like that. Could that have been a problem? It appeared post-hatching though ...


Hatching is hard work!



But not so hard, apparently, that you can't get up to cheer your brother / sister on!

1- Could be environmental factors, abrupt changes in weather and such (when we had that recent hot spell a friend's laying and fertility rates dropped down by half laying wise and went from 90% fertility to about 60%). With the age of the birds they might be nearing a molt as well.

2-The condensation is normal for styroform incubators like that after hatching begins. Did you candle or break out the eggs that did not hatch? That could be more helpful in figuring out what went wrong with them, although if the other eggs were hatching fine i would suspect either lack of fertility or some genetic issue (not a lethal gene though, as the other poster said Ameracaunas do not have a lethal gene, that is the Aracauna). After day 22 or 23 you should toss the eggs that didn't hatch.

 

[Imp]

Posted this late at night and am not sure anyone saw it. Anyone have any ideas for me?

Hi all,

Am super new to this whole chicken raising awesomeness, and thus have some beginner questions for all you experts!

1 - Our hens seem to have quite suddenly decreased their laying. We have six hens and a rooster. Our birds are just shy of 9 months old and we tend to get anywhere between 4 - 6 eggs a day, most days. They are out all day, every day so I just assumed they found a new place to lay and we couldn't find it. But today we kept them inside for most of the day and still only got one egg. All this time too, we have continued to get 1 - 2 eggs in the nest boxes each day. Oddly enough, our rooster (who we thought we were going to have to get rid of) has almost completely stopped crowing. He crows 2-3 times/day max now. This is in stark contrast from his usual, albeit sporadic crowing sessions. Our 7 birds are given 2+ cups of feed each day, have a 1/4 of an acre of grass and brambles and trees to scratch around and explore, and receive a ton of kitchen scraps (sour raw milk, whey, cabbage, kale and chard stems, etc etc etc). Do you all think they might be calcium deficient? No lots of good sources of calcium there. What are you feeding them Layer? They need protein to make eggs, a lack of can decrease laying.In the past we had oyster shell and grit out for them, but have been lax in making it available as of late. Oyster and grit won't decrease laying, lack of calcium might cause soft or shellless eggs; the grit helps grind up food in the gizzard, shouldn't be an issue with them having access to the ground.Besides the seemingly overnight decrease in egg production and lack of crowing, our birds seem to be happy and healthy. I have put out a bunch of oyster shells and grit, but am curious if you all think anything else might be up?Probably just a temporary glitch, the weather got very bright for a couple weeks there, stimulating laying and then the clouds rolled in again, maybe just the spring. Also pullets can have mini molts, decreasing laying a bit.

2 - Totally unrelated. On a whim, and since we have a rooster, we decided to try to hatch a couple of our eggs as we would like to more or less double our flock. 18 eggs to be exact. All with our cuckoo maran rooster and our hens (ameraucana, rhode island red, gold laced wyandotte, buff orpington, barred rock, and dominique). It was 21 days yesterday and to date almost all of our brown eggs have hatched (9/11), but only 1 of the green eggs - the amerucana x cuckoo maran cross, have hatched (1/7). Any ideas? I have seen mention of a lethal gene with amerucana's - could that be to blame here? Also how much longer do you all think we should incubate the eggs that haven't hatched? I am not a hatcher, but have seen people post to keep eggs for 5-6 days past due date. Hopefully someone with experience will chime in

Thanks so much! I appreciate any and all advice. I have attached a couple photos of the new babies. At the time they were still in the incubator, so they are not the greatest quality.


The incubator set up. It is a friend's and she said she had never seen condensation like that. Could that have been a problem? It appeared post-hatching though ...


Hatching is hard work!



But not so hard, apparently, that you can't get up to cheer your brother / sister on!

 

[Stumpfarmer]

I

Glad there is no water in that bowl !!!!!!!!!!!! And 2 days ago I dropped an egg right outta the lockdown bator, (

It was looking up at me with 1 eye that was peeking out...).... it had pipped

I did that too. I just about cried. Then I candled it and it was a quitter. Thank goodness. I'm glad yours hatched.

Well I have a confession to make. As I as doing my next to last candling of the olive egger chicks I just posted a photo of a couple of days ago, I CRACKED TWO of them! I was so upset about the first one that cracked I was trying to make adjustments and ended up dropping another. It didn't appear that I had damaged the membrane so in a last ditch attempt I actually put tape over the worst part of the cracks. I was sure I had killed the chicks I had just seen growing inside. I didn't have high hopes for the entire hatch anyway. Shipped from Florida, all of these eggs had saddle shaped air cells even though I had let them set for 24 hours before putting them in the incubator. At lock down, I very carefully removed the tape since it was threatening to peel away more of the shell. With a knock on wood and a prayer, I put the 2 cracked eggs and 5 others into the incubator, still sure my clumsiness had killed the chicks. Two days later I heard peeping coming from the bator - these babies were starting to hatch a day early! By late that night the first one was out and by the end of the second day ALL 7 of those eggs had hatched, including the two with cracked shells I was thinking were goners. And one week later they are all bouncing around the brooder - 7 varied color healthy and happy chicks. These are some hearty babies - despite my idiocy! You just never know I guess...

Both of my peeled eggs are healthy chicks, too, which makes ten Hamburgs, eight d'Anvers. Now if I could just get my husband out of bed and get a couple of urgent errands run so he can go to work and I can sort chicks and put them in bigger boxes with bigger water and feed containers (must get IR emitter first) and deal with the outside stuff, launder the two essential loads of dainties, maybe coof rather than nuke dinner, do it all with my head held high and a song in my heart yeah right sure I'll just get on that...

 

[CarolynF]

Posted this late at night and am not sure anyone saw it. Anyone have any ideas for me?

Hi all,

Am super new to this whole chicken raising awesomeness, and thus have some beginner questions for all you experts!

I posted a reply, it's back a few pages.... here

 

[SadieSue]

Just ordered this chicken coop and I hope it gets here soon as I'm ready for the chicks to be OUT of my laundry room.





I think the slide out tray will be handy. I've been reading about what type of litter to use and I think with the tray I'll use a combo of sand and sweet pdz (hopefully can find it locally). Not sure what to use on the bottom level though. Maybe straw? I would like something that is easily compostable and can handle getting a little wet. Open to suggestions.

Also, I read on this thread about X-cel feed out of Tacoma. I'm almost through my bag of medicated purina start and grow. Does X-cel sell a feed that I should use for my chicks, or should I stick with the purina starter? And, is the X-cel stuff worth a separate drive?

X-Cel does sell a medicated chick starter as well as layer crumble or pellet for adult LF. They also have horse food, pig good, turkey food and I can't remember what else I didn't have a need for. Since it's only 5 minutes from my home it works for me and the price is MUCH better than what I'm paying for the commercial foods I'm buying at Del's or Wilco. About $23 for an 80 lb. bag of layer crumble.

 

[Hinotori]

I wanted to mention on how long to keep the eggs going after due date that apparently the last broody silkie I gave eggs to had problems keeping the eggs warm enough. The only surviving chick hatched on day 28. 2 others pipped on day 30. One died in the shell and I peeled the second but even with me getting some sugar water in it, it died about five hours later. Then the broody got up and kept forgetting she had a chick. Her mother who had just decided to go broody again a few days before hatch decided she'd take the chick. Poor thing didn't know who it was supposed to follow. All of the adult silkies have been feeding it. Whenever I check it, the crop is stuffed. It's two weeks old now and doing very well.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: I was just thinking that Julia is the onlyone I know who says that.

But you know Margo? Or, as more than one of my friends has described us, my identically different sister?

ETA: how can you tell when I need to eat? I get multisyllabically silly.
I'm not sure I've ever met Margo.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

I'm trying to be philosophical about this weather but ARGH I hate tall wet grass so much, ugh, and especially the way it makes my ankles itch.