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

[Pozees]

Just taking a moment to catch up and say MERRY CHRISTMAS to you from me and my 4 ladies!

Hope everyone has a great day!

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Merry Christmas everyone! Or Happy Holidays! I hope everyone has a great day! Just to let y'all know, my house looks like Christmas threw up and my kids are spazzing out. It is awesome!And we have 7 more days til hatch! Hope everything goes well for everyone!

Thanks for reminding me that chaos is normal! I've already been hollerin, looks like Mom's the one who needs a time out. I think I'll take it outside with my animals and a class of champagne.

 

[michaelf]

Merry Christmas!! I hope and pray for all you to be blessed and have an awesome day! Oh I think my beautiful wife knows I like chickens! This is what she got me and a trail camera !

 

[MontanaDolphin]

Merry Christmas everyone!! Hope it's been a good one so far...I know mine has

My wonderful mother knows me SOOOO well...I didn't even say a word that I wanted this...it was too expensive...I knew I couldn't afford it, and neither could she. It brought me to tears when I opened the Christmas wrap and saw what was inside! Crazy that a 38 year old would cry over a brooder!!!



Moms are AWESOME, especially mine!!

 

[Frankie Ruiz]

good morning everybody merry christmas!!!!!!!! i got the hovabator genesis 1588 as a gift last night and had it running for maybe 10 hours and i just put the bobwhite quail eggs that came with it in it and 4 of my chicken eggs. hope my first hatch goes well!!

wish me luck!!

 

[SilkieSensation]

Good suggestion, especially with puncture wounds - these are most dangerous of all.

Meant to tell you yesterday, congrats on finding a new place!  Hope things go smoothly!

Thanks! Our only problem will be the ddriveways. Bith are about a quarter mile long, muddy & rutted. JJ already almost put my car in the creek trying to get it up the drive at the new place. Once the landlord pulled out I took over driving & he is no longer allowed to drive in the driveway...lol I'm jusr waiting to see how well the u-haul does.

[COLOR=0000FF]Judi (Pozees): I like your way of thinking. Personally I don't know if I could take scissors to a chick, I've done the freezer and used an ax on older birds...never easy.[/COLOR]

I think as long as you have a method you can manage that is humane, it doesn't matter what it is. 

It isn't easy for anyone who is able to imagine the pain or fear of another being.  One of the BYCers frequenting another thread counseled this way, to someone having trouble processing her own extra males:  They had a great life except the last 10 seconds or so - the birds you buy in the grocery store had a miserable life. 

We respect and care for our birds/animals to the best of our abilities, and every year we learn more.  If we are not keeping our birds in tiny cages where all they do is eat and defecate, and not keeping them in mob conditions in an artificially lighted environment with no access to sunshine, grass (if you have it), fresh air, and freedom, you are well ahead of most/all commercial growers (I know there are a few trying to provide somewhat better conditions than others).  Penny Hen correctly points out the way we have distanced ourselves from our food.  The more we permit others (motivated purely by profit) to determine how our food
is raised, the
less control we have over the quality of our food, and in turn, our health.  You can take all the pills y
ou can find, y
ou cannot substitute for properly raised food, whethe
r it is animal or vegetable.

We haven't bought chicken or turkey from the store since we started processing our own.

 

[Gardeningmama]

Just taking a moment to catch up and say MERRY CHRISTMAS to you from me and my 4 ladies!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Merry Christmas!!!! I got a good (rare)shot this morning too!

 

[chicken pickin]

We haven't bought chicken or turkey from the store since we started processing our own.

X2 We haven't bought eggs, chicken or turkey from a store in a year and a half now. My upright freezer is full of a years worth of chicken and a couple turkeys.

 

[ronott1]

Had a dog attack today. Neighbors dog figured out how to get out of his fenced yard and ran after the chickens. Rufus and Raven took no damage. Cinder had some scrapes and a pinch or two of feathers missing. Long John Silver had all but one of his tail feathers and all but two of his saddle feather yanked out plus some scrapes. But Chicken Little took the most damage. She had 2 rents on either side of her spine over the shoulders. She had a puncture bite bridging her low back. But the worst was the rent that started at mid chest and curved around up under her wing, about 6 inches long. Even so only the punctures really went deeper than the skin level. Peroxide, Neosporin, powdered sugar and needle and suture thread then gauze and a Ace Bandage. She and Long John are camping in my bathroom tonight while I get my dog crate cleaned out to keep them until they are better.

Big thanks to my friend Zoey and my daugher, Morgan, for being my assistants for the chicken surgery.

That is so crazy!

Neighbors with dogs....I hope they take care of them for you.

Okey dokey, I am pretty sure I know this, but wanted to check here with others who have used them. Got my yellow plastic hatching trays (2 of them) in the mail, they are washed and disinfected, and tomorrow morning I will fire up the hatcher and get everything set to move eggs in tomorrow evening. I usually put a bowl of warmed water with a clean, disinfected towel in it (chicks can't drown if they find their way in), and I haven't tried it yet but pretty sure the bowl won't fit sitting on top of the tray. Seems like I should be able to cut part of the tray away so the bowl still fits, or alternatively I could soak a couple of towels and just lay them across the grate for the tray to sit on, but that would block humidity from the plastic undertray, where I usually fill both slots 1 and 2 (GQF 1588). I could fill the center slots in the undertray I guess. I just hate to change the one thing I had figured out - achieving the correct humidity for hatching LOL.

Cut them down but watch for sharp edges.

Thank you Ron! Somewhere around midnight I remembered a plastic container in the fridge holding grape leaves and put the Creoles in there...(yes my chicks will be true Italians, smelling like Olive Oil).... Then I stressed for a while over the lack of air flow, new plan is to empty the grandsons' strawberries out of their container and switch out...I'll add more water when I have the bator open, it's staying at 37 so I'm going to throw a sanitary napkin in there.

C'mon chickies!!!

The tomato baskets have lots of air holes. If not, you can cut holes easily in ones that do not have holes.

Merry Christmas everyone!! Hope it's been a good one so far...I know mine has

My wonderful mother knows me SOOOO well...I didn't even say a word that I wanted this...it was too expensive...I knew I couldn't afford it, and neither could she. It brought me to tears when I opened the Christmas wrap and saw what was inside! Crazy that a 38 year old would cry over a brooder!!!



Moms are AWESOME, especially mine!!

That is great! I should get one of those for this year.

good morning everybody merry christmas!!!!!!!! i got the hovabator genesis 1588 as a gift last night and had it running for maybe 10 hours and i just put the bobwhite quail eggs that came with it in it and 4 of my chicken eggs. hope my first hatch goes well!!

wish me luck!!

I hope the Quail hatch for you!

 

[ronniewayne]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !