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

[ronott1]

getting caught up on posts for today

and hoping it will make time go faster while im waiting on eggs to hatch but still have till next week ......

....

Good job getting caught up!

257 posts yesterday and the busiest thread on BYC!

Yay for us!

 

[chiqita]

So sorry your chickies didn't make it!

I read a very long and involved artical from uc davis about culling chickens. The tldr is the closer you can get to the hypocampus and the brain stem meet the faster the animal can't feel anything.

If you are squeemish stop reading here.


I have found it easier to make sure of breaking the spine at the hypocampus/brain stem junction by doing this manually. But that is the spot you want to get. If you do that they loose the ability to feel pain.

It is a bit grusume to pull a head off but I can destroy the hypocampus that way and they go quickly. It takes a bit of practice but I raise quail and they have similar structure as a chick.

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

At this point I've culled hundreds of chicks. The fastest most humane way I've found is a sharp whack to the back of the skull. Example: hold the chick in your hand facing you. Swing down and smack the back of the skull on something hard. Not trying to splatter it but when done right its instant lights out.

 

[roostereggs]

Tomato Baskets!

Yep...guess I need to get ANOTHER bator...the Brinsea has been perfect for growing...but I need space for hatching! Wish I could separate them somehow...I have 12 CCL, 9 blue and/or black copper Marans, and 9 eggs that are 5 different barnyard mixes. So 8 different types...and 30 chicks in a Brinsea 20.

Hopefully I will be awake when they are hatching as I plan to color code them with zip ties. I'm just worried about needing to take some out and shrink wrapping the others.

Well...I am off for a final candling, marking cells, and lockdown!!! I will try to take some pics

 

[chiqita]

Merry Christmas everyone!
May all your eggs be fertile.
May all your egg shipments hatch.
And may all your hatches have only one rooster....

 

[Wisher1000]

I have bought some craft canvas to make segregation boxes out of. It is plastic grate-like material that people use to make embroidery stiff, I think, but I plan to use small zip ties and make boxes to hatch eggs in. I'll let y'all know how it works.

Merry Christmas, All!!

 

[SoManyHats]

Well, I hope my babies make it through the next week. My 3 thermometers are showing three different things, and the temp won't stay steady on any of them. We're swinging wildly between 97 and 102.

Tomorrow I'll do the 14 day candle and see if they're surviving it. Then Thursday hubby and I will build the other bator so I have space for them all to hatch.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[Nonyah Biz]

Merry Christmas everyone!
May all your eggs be fertile.
May all your egg shipments hatch.
And may all your hatches have only one rooster....

Merry X-mas too you and yours and no roosters my roo will freak

lol

Good job getting caught up!

257 posts yesterday and the busiest thread on BYC!

Yay for us!

lot of insightful stuff in last 2 days

 

[roostereggs]

So we locked down tonight, I wonder if anyone can tell me how in the world I'm going to distinguish between the Creole Orpingtons and Rhodebars when they hatch.... REALLY wish I had a basket or something to separate the eggs.

I found some itty bitty zip ties at the Dollar Tree store in red, white and black...and I bought one other color from Tar-jhay. Just in case I think I will mix them up once they start hatching.

 

[Penny Hen]

Boiling water BAD

I've had a vet say freezing is kindest for reptiles. When a person dies of hypothermia (cold) they feel cold at first, but then they start to feel warm and get silly/giddy so that is apparently a non-painful way to go for per the vet for 14ft python snake that needed euthanasia and per some human medical folks apparently a not too bad way to go as a human (after the initial cold part of course). <shrug> of course I can't _personally_ say on that method but if the zip lock method is not something you could do, perhaps your freezer could be a better alternative than the horror of vinegar&soda. But if you (or anyone) is going to hatch chicks the reality is you do need a plan/method b/c some chicks that hatch are simply not OK not going to make it & are suffering. I understand you are not an adult so you might well need an adult to partner w/ you as a plan in case this issue comes up. But everyone on the hatchalong, hard as it is, does need to have a plan just in case. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. It is not something you want to try to figure out in the emotional moment of trying to make the decision to cull, you need to have the method planned in advance, then hopefully you won't even need to ever think about it again (or do it).

Bantambury you will "kill" a farm animal if you stay in agriculture. You will be tired or mad or distracted and miss a critical clue until it is too late to remedy it. Just accept that it will happen and forgive yourself when it does and try not to make the same mistake. I lost a pregnant ewe when she bloated and even though I tubed her and drenched her it wouldn't stop the bloat. She swelled so much it stopped her heart. I gave her CPR and revived her for half a minute and then lost her for good. It was an hour later when I remembered how to save her by puncturing her stomach and letting the air out. You might kill her doing that with a pocket knife but she was dying anyway and their was a chance at survival but I couldn't think of it in the heat of the moment.

While I was taking chemotherapy I had a dog attack an Angora goat of mine. I doctored him up but I missed a cut under his long fiber and it went septic and I lost him. I had my arms full and was headed to the door one day when a kitten darted underfoot and I stepped on his head. It was immediately obvious that he was terminally injured. He was a tiny kitten, his head no bigger than a tiny tangerine. I had been a soldier so I thought I could use the technique used to break a rabbits neck to quickly finish the kitten. I had never tried it before but I thought that a kitten would be easier than a rabbit. It failed horribly leaving the kitten in what looked like an epileptic fit. I finally drowned it in order not to cause it more pain. For small creatures that remains my preferred method for once a person is past the fighting for air part it becomes euphoric. I am making an assumption that it is the same for animals. For a larger animal like a dog or sheep a bullet through the ear or from below through the jawbones straight into the brain. Don't ever shoot a sheep or cow between the eyes. Some of them have thick enough skulls to bounce the bullet back at you.

That said I had a ram that had a stroke and couldn't walk. I fed him and watered him and cleaned him up for a week. He realized that he was not going to be able to recover and he quit eating. He was such a loving creature. He once entered the house and lay down on the couch to watch Saturday morning cartoons with my daughter. I could not bring myself to shoot him. It was winter though and I decided that he was not going to die cold. It was the third day since he had quit eating and I knew that night was going to be his last. It was also going to be cold. I gathered all the old blankets I had and wrapped him 4 inches deep and hooded his head with them. I sat with him for a while and talked to him and sang to him. Each time I would speak he would rouse just a little and answer me with a short bleat. I told him what an awesome ram he had been and how I had enjoyed his company for the years I had him. I thanked him for his lambs that he left me with to carry on. At last I was cold and checking him one last time to see that he was warm I went inside for the night. In the morning I checked on him and he was gone. I slipped my hand underneath the blankets and he was still warm. He had died warm knowing that he was loved.

All life on this earth is born out of death. All things must consume something whether it be plant life or animal life to continue. We must have the courage to face that truth and come to terms with the life we consume and respect and love it. Fleeing from it leads to denial and a separation of from the lifeforms that feed us. After that a guilty contempt creeps in for other lifeforms. In some people they separate themselves from the reality so far as to believe that meat and milk magically appear at the grocery stores. We, who heed the Call to be stewards of these lifeforms both plant and animal, must work to reconnect others to there source of sustenance. But first we must come to terms with it ourselves then we can teach others how to love and respect the lifeforms that keep us living.

I have come to the conclusion that all you can do is the best you can do at the moment under what ever circumstances exist. Each death has taught me a lesson