6th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2015 Hatch-A-Long

[hennible]

That or and Armani suit to throw us off

 

[bamadude]

Lol...birdberry suit

 

[Roan]

Lol...birdberry suit

Okay, so just out of curiosity about birdberry suits, I just checked out pics of them and I gotta say, if they all make me that thin, I'll buy 2!

 

[bantambury]

Well I cheated and I'm glad I did. I haven't looked at the eggs since I transferred the girls to the new bigger nest box on Sunday I believe. I had an extra egg...:/    So...I had to look at them all to determine which one had been added and when. I saw things going on in all but one, also couldn't find an X on that egg like I did the others. That one belongs to our Golden Comet "Buffie". The stinker must have gotten in there early this morning because she usually lays early and she is pretty regular with an egg nearly every day. No egg today so far so must be hers. I pulled it. I guess I'm going to have to take a look at the amount of eggs in there everyday so this doesn't happen again. I want to section off the broody box so the others can't get to it but am afraid the girls will feel trapped and stop sitting. Should I go a head and section if off or wait until the eggs start to hatch. What would y'all do?

I have my own run i bought at TSC with a cat box inside which i call my "broody coop" its a simple set up and i can send pics if youd like.

I wait for the eggs to hatch and block off he entrance of the coop so no bird can go in from pipped to hatch times so its just the momma and the babies. Then i move my broody and the chicks to the broody coop. I can post something on youtube for you too! Just let me know

Lol...birdberry suit

I actually legit wear a chicken suit when i candle... Its pretty classy

ROFL im sure peeps from the 2013 NYD hatch remember!

 

[Dish chickens]

Your not being serious about wearing all that stuff to candle eggs are you?

With what I've read on here....you have got to be sure you don't contaminate the little perishes.......I figured tyvek suit would cover any germ on my clothing from everything that clings to them during the coarse of the day. rubber gloves covering all germs and nasty oils on my hands. Mask to eliminate the chance of breathing air born germs into the cells of the eggs. Now the safety glasses are to protect my eyes from any stinky exploding eggs and protect the eggs from my HAPPY tears when I see spider veins in them.

Dang it ...I forgot my shoe covers and hair net....Looks like I'm not quite ready yet !!!!!!!!!!!

Your not being serious about wearing all that stuff to candle eggs are you?

JK I do wear a rubber glove on one hand .... but that is all

Of course, I can't speak for all breeds nor do I know how often you handle yours but...we've had RIR's, BR's and Ameracaunas go broody in the main hen house. So, we wait until they are settled (usually 3 or 4 days), then at night, we pick them up and their eggs and transfer them into a portable next box. After we've done that, we move them into a brooding pen.

One time, we had 3 hens go broody in 2 days so we went to work making 3 brooding pens. To conserve space, we just made one box divided into three nests and with steel gauge wire for the runs. They didn't even have a door to pen them in at night so they had 24 hour access to their runs. The run was as wide as the nest boxes and about 4 feet long and divided into 3 separate runs.

This set up worked extremely well until the babies hatched. The first couple of days, the chicks went into and out of each run and out of the runs altogether without incident. But the hens got agitated at the close proximity of the other mothers so something snapped in one then in the others and suddenly, the chicks were the targets. They would call the chicks to them, then when the chicks came in, they would attack them. One of the babies suffered and incredibly dangerous head blow and we had to put it out of its misery.

But the point of all of this is, you should be able to pick them up at night and move them to a new location but be sure the new location is in a smallish run so they don't get confused as to where their nest is.

PLEASE do not encourage @bamadude..................LOL

 

[hennible]

Lol...birdberry suit

I bet that's a typo it should say: birthday suit

 

[Dish chickens]

I have my own run i bought at TSC with a cat box inside which i call my "broody coop" its a simple set up and i can send pics if youd like.

I wait for the eggs to hatch and block off he entrance of the coop so no bird can go in from pipped to hatch times so its just the momma and the babies. Then i move my broody and the chicks to the broody coop. I can post something on youtube for you too! Just let me know
I actually legit wear a chicken suit when i candle... Its pretty classy

ROFL im sure peeps from the 2013 NYD hatch remember!

 

[Aliciahess]

sweet dreams

Thank you! By now it could be good morning, good afternoon or poss good evening. Lol. Either way I hope you have/haf a wonderful day!

 my rubber gloves, Tyvek suit, fresh air mask and safety goggles all laid out and waiting for my candling adventure tomorrow.

Wow...I was thinking you were serious, read some more and still not sure if you are. That's a lot of precautions,guess I'm lucky I hatched anything sounds like I need an egg suit.

Anybody wanna guess what I wear during candling?

Is it safe to ask?

 

[Aliciahess]

Since I cheated and already check eggs, did no good, I'm gonna wait till this weekend to do anything but turn them...maybe I'll sniff them. Just once of course.

 

[draye]

I can't wait to find out how many eggs were set in the HAL. I wonder how many of each breed eggs were set too. Of course like mine some are barnyard mixes so I guess we would just have to go by what breed of hens the eggs came from. Just curious to see the breed/mix/type chicken (since EEs aren't a breed) eggs most set in the HAL.

I' m anxious to find out the number set and what breeds also.

Beautiful.