Recent content by shaky6

The key take away is, they haven't layed yet at 10 months old. The hatchery said they have never spoke to anyone about this kind of issue before but they hatch thousands and don't really keep up with that kind of thing. They suggested 3 doses of worming to see if there is some parasite...

Mt. Healthy Hatchery, hatched on Jan 3rd of this year. Never considered calling them, but I have just sent them an email with all the details. This is actually going more into the weeds than I ever wanted for chickens. I really just wanted to keep it simple, cross them with my New Hampshire...

10 months on the ones I butchered. And as far as I can tell, and from what I saw when I butchered, they haven't yet nor planned on laying any time soon.

I make a stack out of used tires, and dump my manure, some dirt, yard debris, and kitchen compost in there. Make as many stacks as you have tires. I have a half acre garden so I need much more than one of those expensive compost barrels from the farm and home store can provide. In the spring I...

Not so much the worm issue, but I've got the same thing going on. 1 or 2 eggs a day from 13 hens. I butchered a couple hens yesterday and they certainly weren't underfed, judging by the amount of body fat they had. Its frustrating to feed these bottomless pits every day and get nothing in...

My RIR hens are 10 months old now and still aren't laying. I decided to lose some of the dead weight yesterday because my chickens are feeding me one way or the other. While butchering it was as if none of them had matured yet, there were no eggs in any sort of development phase. Anyone ever...

My humidity was between 30-50% and fluctuated with the house/weather. Same as my last hatch that did better. Out of 12 eggs I had 2 that were not fertile and only 4 that even developed into something recognizable as a chick. I was pretty sure I didn't have any large fluctuations in...

Not a single hatch by day 24

I just candled them with my new candler, and yep, this thing is so much easier to use than the po folk method. 2 out of the 12 never even developed blood vessels, one looks to be much smaller and slower in development than the others. The rest are dark through the middle with a defined air...

That's great to hear. My first batch got a 50% hatch rate with late delivered eggs and reject eggs as a replacement and had a heck of a time getting my new incubator to even out with a temp setting. Now my 2nd batch wasn't even turned for 2 weeks. I'm curious to see how determined nature is.

I've got a new candler coming because the last idea with a flashlight and a toilet paper tube didn't work so well. Maybe I'll have it tomorrow. Not exactly sure if I know what I'm doing though. You can read all day long about how to, but unless you see it done its kind of hard to know whats...

Just discovered on day 14 that I never plugged in my egg turner. I feel compelled to wait it out...

I've got two New Hampshire roos that are 8 month old brothers and they have a flock of 6 Black Australop pullets that are 4 months old. The roos never quit crowing all day long and I finally put two and two together with that and all the hawks that fly around (free range flock). I haven't lost...