4th Annual BYC NYD Hatch-a-long

[missydcpc]

OMG! This is such a brilliant idea! What can you feed the birds? The whole mash? Can it be preserved for any amount of time? I am going to be speaking with local breweries for sure!!!

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.

 

[Cynthia12]

Ok, you were all killing me with the candling! I haven't candled in a while. So, I candled! I am three days later than most of you, so, will be a bit behind. Need to go back and see what my chick looks like on this day! I love those posts, keep them coming.

All 7 are doing great! I was worried over one..but it was just lazy, took a min for it to move. And..I love, love, when you can see a little foot move up against the egg shell...soooo cute! No matter how many times I see it.

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.

So, when ya'll..

are hatching on the first, I will be going into lock down, with what I am crossing finger for, all 7! Not counting my chicks before they hatch, but hey, I can hope. And, knock on wood here..that Nankin is doing well too! Very active. Makes me smile.

Read something about a tornado? Whew, glad all is well!

And someone lost a pullet to the cold? Oh, I worry about that if our power goes out. I have heat lamps out there. And we don't get below 0..at least not yet!

Feed, I am lucky to have a mill out here..that sells the laying mash at a decent price. I can fill a large garbage can for 30 bucks, lasts a couple of weeks, but, I don't have 50 chickens..I only have 5 laying hens, a couple of pullets that are POL..like the one in my avatar, and some other pullets that will start in Jan and Feb. Will sell some older hens when the new ones start. I keep a small flock, only because I have to. Wish I lived on a farm!

 

[Blarneyeggs]

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.

Awww, you can not make posts like this, makes me wanna hop on a plane and give ya a big ole hug!!

 

[Blarneyeggs]

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?

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Yesterday morning was -12*F and that was without the windchill here (windchills were in the -25 to -30s). Today is a bit nicer at 0* this morning. We still have the coldest month/s to go, but at least not every day is that cold. We are up to 10* right now so we are going in the right direction. We did lose one of my younger pullets yesterday morning to the cold

Feeding the chickens is a two part job now, my hands get too cold with gloves on to finish the hour long feeding/watering chore. My warm winter mittens do not work well for feeding because I can't get gates opened or closed with them on.

I am very curious, do your birds go out in these low temps? and do you do the vaseline thing for your big combed birds?

 

[crissycriss]

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.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

I'm down to 22 out of the 40 I set originally. Of the 2 eggs from my flock, one had cracks throughout and didn't develop. Of the 26 shipped eggs, I still have 13. None of the Sussex developed. Of the 12 local farm eggs, I still have 8.
Of the 18 discarded eggs, 4 started development and may have quit during one of the power outages. The other 14 were probably infertile or got too beat up during shipment.

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...

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

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

 

[Blarneyeggs]

At this point, I'm pretty much in for the night. I'll make one more check for the girly (only in close, to see if she tried to come to bed) and check that everyone in the coop is warm and dry and all that (and collect eggs), then I won't be out anymore until tomorrow morning to give warm water and hot breakfast (and check to see if she's back again). It just sucks. I love those cornish cross. They lay well, they're so sweet, they're huge and cuddly, and ultimately, I'm TIRED of losing birds, darn it! They definitely won't be out at all tomorrow and probably the next day. There's no sense in letting them out... There's so much room in their room that they don't need to get out to stretch their wings (our room is something like 19x36 or close to that). There's nothing for them to eat out there either, it's all snow! PLUS, the ducks, the fools that they are, seem to choose snow over feed and water (they've been filling up on water too, and not eating as much as I want them to, they need to eat and regain their strength!). Ugh. Birds... some days it makes you wonder why you have all the silly things around, lol.

I know I'm too late with this but, sometimes when the run door accidentally gets shut before everyone is in, the lost soul is usually perched on top of the run watching me run around frantically looking for her. DH usually takes this opportunity to remind me to 'look UP". I sure hope she's waiting at the coop door for you tomorrow morning.

Sorry to blow up the thread, I've got a minute to catch up (read: kids are driving me absolutely MAD today and am hiding in office with door SHUT)

 

[Blarneyeggs]

OMG! This is such a brilliant idea! What can you feed the birds? The whole mash? Can it be preserved for any amount of time? I am going to be speaking with local breweries for sure!!!

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