5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[Penny Hen]

You are so lucky. One of my two 7 1/2 month old doelings (Boer crossed with who knows what) jumped over a 4 foot fence today for the first time. Now I don't know what I'm going to do...their other enclosure/pasture is 4 ft as well. Maybe I should have gotten pygmies.

No you would be SOL there too. I had 3 Pygmies and they could clear a 4 foot fence. The only way I was successful in keeping them in a 4 foot fence was to run a hot wire across the top. Of course the moment it failed the Boer billy I had would jump it. I just have sheep now. If I ever get goats again it will probably be Fainting Goats or Silkies because they can't jump due to the myatonia.

 

[smhoekzema]

I wish I had more room here! Will wait for one of my girls to grow up and get broody then maybe set some eggs under her. Will have to move the chicks on though as there is not enough space as it is. Loving watching everyone's progress

 

[Aphrael]

I want to join the Hatch-a-Long. If I had seen the post sooner, I would have set some eggs. But I will live vicariously through all you other hatchers. Goooooo chickies!

Welcome to the fun!

So the stuck egg was an ordeal sprinkled w/ chaos

There must have been some oozing super glue in the lower part totally not visible
AND it just so happened that _this_ egg was exactly the same curvature as the egg turner,

So I tried the warm water & just move the next door egg but the result as you maybe have guessed was a cracked in half egg,
w/ egg running everywhere onto the turner, down into the tray which apparently was not 100% level.

So the saving grace is I have 2 LG bators so as soon as I could get some wads of tissue around the mess I ran
(remembered to close door to keep cats & dogs out)
grabbed the dirty but not THAT dirty bottom of the other LG, ran back across the house,
put the other 48 eggs into the bottom of the other LG, (so much for not moving the shipped eggs too much)
put the hot lid over that, & took the egg covered turner/screen/bottom to the shower for a hose off.
Then I still had 50% of the egg cup part w/ egg shell stuck to it!

I took the turner to the kitchen sink & tried to get the egg shell off w/ a copper choreboy scrubbie, wouldn't do a thing.
I finally spent 15 mins (truely!) picking it out a tiny chip at a time w/ the tip of a paring knife, wow, they should have used egg ooze to hold the space shuttle tiles in place!!
The plastic of that cup is actually a little dinged up from digging the eggshell off w/ the knife.

I got it all dry again.( By the way during all this I fielded 4calls from DH re:shopping list, 2 calls from other ppl, AND made dinner)

I put the eggs back into the re-cleaned bottom/screan/turner. I did a flashlight candle as I moved them since I had to handle them anyway.
Still looks like about 8 good ones, a few maybe way slow starts ? , a few likely blood rings, a few clears a few too dark to tell.

So I did the logical thing, I stacked the smallest of the maybe eggs on the other eggs, to make room along the open space between the turner & wall,
where I formerly had a row of eggs filling things up, and

Into that now open space I placed 8 of my own eggs I collected the past few days!!
So those are now w/ the Late Hatch Gang -- 4 large brown (CL roo Prince), and 4 green pullet (CL roo Good King Henry)

Egg #39 is not more, long live the newly set eggs #51-59!

Well, of COURSE that was the only logical thing to do...

 

[Wisher1000]

A bit of an ordeal, but not a disaster. It seems you handled it like a trooper, great job!

 

[chiqita]

So the stuck egg was an ordeal sprinkled w/ chaos

There must have been some oozing super glue in the lower part totally not visible
AND it just so happened that _this_ egg was exactly the same curvature as the egg turner,

So I tried the warm water & just move the next door egg but the result as you maybe have guessed was a cracked in half egg,
w/ egg running everywhere onto the turner, down into the tray which apparently was not 100% level. 

So the saving grace is I have 2 LG bators so as soon as I could get some wads of tissue around the mess I ran
(remembered to close door to keep cats & dogs out)
grabbed the dirty but not THAT dirty bottom of the other LG, ran back across the house,
put the other 48 eggs into the bottom of the other LG, (so much for not moving the shipped eggs too much)
put the hot lid over that, & took the egg covered turner/screen/bottom to the shower for a hose off.
Then I still had 50% of the egg cup part w/ egg shell stuck to it!

I took the turner to the kitchen sink & tried to get the egg shell off w/ a copper choreboy scrubbie, wouldn't do a thing.
I finally spent 15 mins (truely!) picking it out a tiny chip at a time w/ the tip of a paring knife, wow, they should have used egg ooze to hold the space shuttle tiles in place!!
The plastic of that cup is actually a little dinged up from digging the eggshell off w/ the knife. 

I got it all dry again.( By the way during all this I fielded 4calls from DH re:shopping list, 2 calls from other ppl, AND made dinner)

I put the eggs back into the re-cleaned bottom/screan/turner. I did a flashlight candle as I moved them since I had to handle them anyway.
Still looks like about 8 good ones, a few maybe way slow starts ? , a few likely blood rings, a few clears a few too dark to tell.

So I did the logical thing, I stacked the smallest of the maybe eggs on the other eggs, to make room along the open space between the turner & wall,
where I formerly had a row of eggs filling things up, and

Into that now open space I placed 8 of my own eggs I collected the past few days!!
So those are now w/ the Late Hatch Gang -- 4 large brown (CL roo Prince), and 4 green pullet (CL roo Good King Henry)

Egg #39 is not more, long live the newly set eggs #51-59!

Ahh I hate it when that happens . I love the space shuttle comment.

That is a cartoon someone should make!

 

[silly4buttons]

[COLOR=FF0000]Good morning to every one..don't forget to take your favorite chicken to see Santa...only 9 days left to shop! He'll be gone from the stores by then. [/COLOR]

What a cute pic

 

[SunnySkies]

You are so lucky. One of my two 7 1/2 month old doelings (Boer crossed with who knows what) jumped over a 4 foot fence today for the first time. Now I don't know what I'm going to do...their other enclosure/pasture is 4 ft as well. Maybe I should have gotten pygmies. 

Friend of mine has livestock protection dogs and added a radio fence when they kept jumping the fence. It kept the dogs in so well she added collars to the goats, which were also jumping out, and now they stay in too! She uses a Stubborn Dog fence. I have the same thing. You add the wire to your existing fence, attach to the controller, place collars on the animals and train them what to do when it beeps at them. My dogs have never once tried to leave once they got what the fence meant, and I'm seriously considering running it through our woods (it is unfenceable with standard fencing) so I could put goats in the woods.

 

[Penny Hen]

Well I candled today. I had dipped my eggs in 5% vinegar before placing in the bator. On about half of the brown eggs it rinsed a lot of the deep brown off. I was able to get them to glow enough to make our air sacks but I couldn't see any thing else. The olive eggs were quite impossible even though they had been dipped too. I tried one or two of the quail eggs but they are too dark as well.

I weighed all the chicken eggs and about 3 of the quail eggs. The quails have lost a gram a piece and the chicken eggs have lost between 1 and 3 grams. I have got to add more water. I am struggling to keep my humidity over 10%. On the good side my temps are holding well.

I saw something today in a new seed catalog I got. It has electric heating mats to help germinate seeds. You apparently put it under the tray of plastic pots and it warms the soil so thing sprout. Made me wonder if it would work keeping chicks warm.

 

[ronott1]

Happy dance, 10 out of 11 with veins. So far so good.

That is great news!

So the stuck egg was an ordeal sprinkled w/ chaos

There must have been some oozing super glue in the lower part totally not visible
AND it just so happened that _this_ egg was exactly the same curvature as the egg turner,

So I tried the warm water & just move the next door egg but the result as you maybe have guessed was a cracked in half egg,
w/ egg running everywhere onto the turner, down into the tray which apparently was not 100% level.

So the saving grace is I have 2 LG bators so as soon as I could get some wads of tissue around the mess I ran
(remembered to close door to keep cats & dogs out)
grabbed the dirty but not THAT dirty bottom of the other LG, ran back across the house,
put the other 48 eggs into the bottom of the other LG, (so much for not moving the shipped eggs too much)
put the hot lid over that, & took the egg covered turner/screen/bottom to the shower for a hose off.
Then I still had 50% of the egg cup part w/ egg shell stuck to it!

I took the turner to the kitchen sink & tried to get the egg shell off w/ a copper choreboy scrubbie, wouldn't do a thing.
I finally spent 15 mins (truely!) picking it out a tiny chip at a time w/ the tip of a paring knife, wow, they should have used egg ooze to hold the space shuttle tiles in place!!
The plastic of that cup is actually a little dinged up from digging the eggshell off w/ the knife.

I got it all dry again.( By the way during all this I fielded 4calls from DH re:shopping list, 2 calls from other ppl, AND made dinner)

I put the eggs back into the re-cleaned bottom/screan/turner. I did a flashlight candle as I moved them since I had to handle them anyway.
Still looks like about 8 good ones, a few maybe way slow starts ? , a few likely blood rings, a few clears a few too dark to tell.

So I did the logical thing, I stacked the smallest of the maybe eggs on the other eggs, to make room along the open space between the turner & wall,
where I formerly had a row of eggs filling things up, and

Into that now open space I placed 8 of my own eggs I collected the past few days!!
So those are now w/ the Late Hatch Gang -- 4 large brown (CL roo Prince), and 4 green pullet (CL roo Good King Henry)

Egg #39 is not more, long live the newly set eggs #51-59!

I have had that happen before. What I do now is pick up shipped eggs every day or so and make sure they are not seeping.

 

[jeynu1]

What fun