4th Annual BYC NYD Hatch-a-long

[Bettacreek]

She's too fat for that, but I did check around the house for her again to see if she tried to come home. We think we know what happened to drake now too. The neighbor talked to G today because his dog caught a duck recently. So, from this point on ducks will never be granted free range again. The new house will have a duck pen and run since these guys apparently need to be on constant suicide watch. I will have to look for yet another drake and change or duck husbandry.

 

[gabrielle1976]

Bettacreek how are those babies, any signs of frizzled fethers in ay?

 

[RosecombRIR]

Wondering which day to take out the turner and increase the humidity for my chicks?

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Bettacreek! That is the worst!! hearing it was a neighbors dog. Are you really in PA? or Kentucky? hmmm

 

[BHep]

I have the needed volunteers. Thanks everyone. I will be posting a pole and will get the link over here as soon as it is done..not tonight, tomorrow. I am tired !

Goodnight all.

 

[Bettacreek]

Gab, we have one of the light brown babies with frizzle! Got a pretty good assortment here. Three feather legs , one frizz and four different colors!

As for the neighbor's dog that is purely our fault. They went ovwer there the dog didn't come here.

 

[cluck-cluck]

I think she is in Pennsylvania?

Pay?? No dear, you explain to them that you are doing them a favor getting rid of something for them so that they don't have to pay for the removal! Or at least that's what I did with the local brewery....plus my sis and bil who home brew and someone else locally who brews.

LOL, OK

Just call and ask to speak to the manager about spent grain for your birds. A large one probably already has a farmer or two who already get some, but you can explain that you just need a few buckets at a time. It doesn't store well, but I let them freeze then bring in one at a time to thaw. It isn't full grain but damp and mashed up. It'll be very hot when fresh so have something to scoop with. As always, be sure to never leave a mess so they don't get mad.

You should start with spent grain from a light brew. Some can be picky and offering a heavy dark brew would be like starting a person right on a heavy dark brew beer or expresso with nothing to doctor it up lol.
You can talk to bakeries or mom and pop grocery stores about stale foods as well. Some restaurants might have old food too.

Oh Tay! Need to find some nice clean buckets and liners (easier to put into the freezer) This is such an awesome idea! Seriously, I have been blown away at the cost of feeding these buggers! I don't think I have much waste, the feeders are pretty good... but we pay now $11 per 25lb bag of food, and that doesn't even last a week! We don't have any extra cash either, so this was not planned for. I wish they ate grapefruit 'cause our tree grows 'em all year around, they mostly go to waste... this could save our little "enterprise" and keep us out of the financial hot house!

Freeze it in trash bags. My sis and bil live in NJ so they freeze it when they make a batch. It serves 2 purposes, it keeps it for me for my rare trips to NJ, and it keeps their freezer colder so when they lose power for 10 days (anyone heard of Hurricane Sandy?) the food doesn't spoil. And yes, I feed them the whole mash. Now, I feed it as a supplement, but it is similar to fermented grains, so you can do the reverse and serve it as the primary food with your layer mash as a supplemental.

That's awesome, if A-B doesn't allow this, I'll try some of the popular micro breweries and we also have a store that sells brewing supplies a few blocks away, they might hook me up where I can get leftovers too I'm gonna get right on this! ... well... in my normal, slow pace,

.............cut...........
Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I got that phone call last night that I was waiting for. Son is doing well in GA.! He loves it there. He says, Holy Cow mom!...it's like driving through the canyons in Utah every day, only not having the climb! He loves those wooded areas. He says it's beautiful. He loves the Cardinals. LOL..I had told him about them, I used to live in Florida..when he finally saw one, he got pretty excited. There are some beautiful birds there.......... cut..........

Doesn't that feel awesome, at the same time you miss them, but they're off spreading their wings and doing well, nothing is better!!! I just went through that this Fall as well, wonderful!

Well, apparently there is a storm. We really must get some kind of TV so I know what's going on in the world. The brand new trampoline (constructed yesterday) is trying to establish lift off.

I would really like to invest in a cabinet incubator, does anyone here have a preference Sportsman vs. Dickey?

We have a TV, but I never watch it because it's all just too depressing and the news just wants to make you angry or fearful. Best thing I ever did was turn it off! LOL. Good luck in getting a cabinet incubator, I don't know anything about them, LOL, but the thought of hundreds of chicks running around sounds so awesome!

Candled my eggs tonight.I was so afraid that i lost them all with the power outage. So far all but 1 had veins showing and most had movement.The one i could still see veins but they are very pale/thin just didnt look right.So i think it died cause of power outage.
mrheniz77 Sorry you have to down size your flock i need to do same thing.Feed is just to high.

If an outside one got a little colder for some reason, it could just have fallen behind, and still be alive, so

I'll keep my fingers crossed that they all made it through the power outage!

I stopped candling, it has vastly improved my numbers. Ever since I stopped lookin at them and taking them out…my numbers have stayed steady at 41.

Actually, this is not entirely true, there were 42 and now there are 41 and I didn't remove it….there was that visit from the grands yesterday… Hope Mom checked their pockets after they left. Or perhaps there's a half incubated egg in one of my chair cushions...

LOL, good idea, only I can't keep my hands off 'em! It's still so amazing! So funny your grands are little thieves in the night

I mean, sorry for the loss, and for the disappointment they'll have when it doesn't hatch, but you just know that's what they wanted, to take a baby chick home with them

sweet.

Hello everyone! Today we went to go see some more family, got back just in time to lock everyone up...sadly everybody went hungry this evening. The last three days have been a high of 30 degrees, plus the wind has been about 45 mph. One night it went down to 7 degrees. All the animals are okay, but ready for the cold weather to be over...as am I!


What time are we putting our eggs in lockdown? We're locking them down the 28th, correct?


Later


~ Aspen

Why did you go hungry, what happened?

I believe the real question to be asked is, "do they walk around all fired~up, singing off key and acting inappropriately?"

I'd feed it to them just to see that! LOL If I had already been feeding Charlie the brewer's leftovers, I'd think he sounded like a squeeky toy because of it, and that he was tipsy,

Wondering which day to take out the turner and increase the humidity for my chicks?

For the NYD hatch, it's day 18 which I believe is Saturday

 

[Lilwanis]

[COLOR=0000FF]I believe the real question to be asked is, "do they walk around all fired~up, singing off key and acting inappropriately?"[/COLOR]

 

[delisha]

We have lost chickens from wandering too far. It happens. All the way in back of the property is the rail road tracks and a beautiful swamp. The swamp is filled with all kinds of nutrients. It is also filled with coyotes, raccoons, possums, and fox. The smart ones make it back year after year.

It seems that this week many have lost eggs, power,chickens, and all kinds of things. Sorry for your losses.

Feed prices have increased and I do not think they are coming back down any time soon. Fermenting your laying mash helps to save money. Since I have started feeding fermented feed, I have saved an average of a bag of feed per bird this year. I average 60 birds a year, so I save 60 bags of feed a year. This year I spent $978.00 less in feed than last year. There is less waste with Fermented feed. I am not feeding wild birds. The birds get better nutrients with less food, so they eat less. Crack growing your whole grains help your birds to get more nutrients for less feed too. Make some calls to Walmart and ask for the produce Manager. Speak directly with them and make arrangements to pick up produce cast offs and expired produce.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Hey all,
Sorry I haven't been around much. I'm trying to figure out who to keep and who and how to disperse some birds. It is not an easy choice. I cannot afford the feed anymore. This is not helping my depression.