🍃August Hatch-a-Long🍃

[Willow2253]

Check out what I found

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Careful, they can bite! The chickens love to eat them though.

 

[FortCluck]

Careful, they can bite! The chickens love to eat them though.

They don’t bite... they only bite their mates not people. I’ve handle these a lot

Or bugs... I’m not a bug

 

[Oldhallchicks]

Still have 7 runner duck eggs going strong on day 10.

We are going to have to build a bigger duck house before they hatch as well. We did build a drain/water feature duck pond in the shared chicken/duck run over the last couple days. We built a wall around it, with a gentle slope in, so hopefully no chicks will fall in or accidentally drown in there. It looks nice though. Should fill up naturally with rain water and keep it clean with water flowing through naturally.

(I say we...I just mixed the cement and my husband does the walling and coop building!! )

 

[kelseyk]

Check out what I found

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We have a ton of Praying Mantis around our farm! I bought a Mantis hatching kit a couple years ago for my kids to do over the summer (we did painted ladies butterflies the 2 years before that and ladybugs the 2 years before that, so they wanted to do something different) and every year since we have seen more and more of them!

 

[kelseyk]

They don’t bite... they only bite their mates not people. I’ve handle these a lot

Or bugs... I’m not a bug

I had one either bite or scratch me. I picked up a piece of wood to make it into a roost and didn't see him. I think he was mad I disrupted his house.

I also have one living in the old farm house (where my brooder tanks are). It is keeping the bugs down in the old house. It has almost doubled in size. It comes out to visit every now and then, but stays hidden most of the time.

 

[RoseHawke]

... They even do house calls!!!! I’m so excited because I need a vet that will come to us.

Well, dang, I hope so! A cow or horse isn't exactly something you can throw in the back of the car and not everybody has a trailer.

 

[kelseyk]

1 Blue Birchen Marans is hatched!

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

I have 7 outta 7 eggs pipped this morning . Day 26 here, which means they will be on time. Unlike the first 2 for fertility check that hatched day 26... atleast I can enjoy their cuteness while waiting for the rest!

 

[igorsMistress]

I bought a ton of these funny shirts I went there for stuff for the chickens and farm

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Uh, I need those!

 

[kelseyk]

Thoughts....

I am having trouble with the eggs in my vertical incubator. It is running the same temp and pretty much the same humidity as my horizontal turner incubator. I am using egg cartons with the sides cut down and bottoms cut out of each cup and turning them by hand 3 times a day (most days). This allows for me to let the new ones rest (staggered hatching) for up to a week while letting the others turn. I was using cardboard cartons, but occasionally they would absorb water from the trough below (wouldn't affect humidity much, but I got wondering about mold or bacteria growing on the cardboard), so I switched to the styrofoam. These are all shipped eggs. Most arrive with saddled air cells, extremely large air cells, or completely detached rolling air cells. (I put the ones with the better air cells in my horizontal turner incubator). I just candled 11 eggs that should be on day 14....and 3 were clear (darker Welsummer eggs) and 10 were quitters (looked about day 10. I did remove 1 egg a week ago that was starting to smell (incubator had a slight smell to it) - this is also when I switched out the egg cartons. Do you think that these eggs may have picked up something from the cardboard cartons to make them all quit like that or do you think that it is just damage to the embryo due to rough shipping hat caused them to quit? I had really good luck using the cardboard egg cartons the same way in my much smaller Janoel incubator...so just kind of stumped at the moment. I also candled my 4 day old Araucana eggs (air cells were on the better side) that are also in that incubator and I have 5 out of 7 viable eggs. I just removed the eggs temporarily and went and washed incubator just in case something is lurking in there.