Anyone setting eggs starting July 15 -July 22?

[sandmbaker]

After I got married I bought my wife (Sherri) a nice sewing machine.  She then told me that she did not know how to sew.  I found that hard to believe because my mom had shown me how to hem pants and some simple stuff when I was very young and I used to sit and watch her sew before I started school.  Sherri told me that her mom did not ever sew so she was never exposed to it, but her grandmother used to sew some.  So she bought a pattern and some fabric and went to grandmothers house to learn to sew.  When she got back she put the sewing machine in a closet and never even thought about it again.  

About six years ago I asked her if she ever planned to use that sewing machine and she told me that if I wanted that sewing machine to get used then I better use it myself.  Well I'm proud of the fact that anything I have ever wanted to do, all I've had to do is read about it and then do it.  So I started sewing.  I made the kids some clothes and made some scrub tunics.  I used to take the sewing machine to the fire station with me and do my sewing when I was at work.  I kind of liked the idea of getting paid to do it.    I haven't done any more sewing for a few years, just don't have enough hours in the day anymore.  Too many other things that I enjoy doing.  The only problem is all my hobbies require expensive equipment. (wire welder, plasma cutter, table saw, planer, router, etc.) Keeping chickens is actually one of the cheapest hobbies that I have ever gotten into.

And yes, I love working in pediatrics.  I finally quit the fire department after 18 years and now I'm finally down to just one job and trying to get rid of that one too.  Twenty two more months till retirement.

Wow. Nice job! Now you can start making chicken diapers with your sewing machine and keep some chickens inside lol

 

[Major_in_MS]

Wow. Nice job! Now you can start making chicken diapers with your sewing machine and keep some chickens inside lol

Ummm.....No! No chickens inside the house for me.

 

[sandmbaker]

Ummm.....No!  No chickens inside the house for me.  

My husband says the same thing...... when my hen was broody I brought her in her milk crate inside in the middle of the night the day before the eggs were to hatch so I could hear the peeps and keep an eye on her and them. Well my husband woke up the next morning and saw her sitting on her eggs in the corner. And said MIRANDA WHAT THE HELL IS THAT CHICKEN DOING IN MY HOUSE! after a little fussing I got him to agree to it just till they hatched . Then I put her and the babies in a broody pen outside.

 

[calichickies]

The first picture is of the guy who took over 30 hours to hatch. But he sure did. He was the biggest egg. This picture is of the first 14 hatchlings. Two are drying up in the bator and my lone silkie egg has piped. The last egg I don't think will hatch. It's the questionable one that I kept. I may keep the bator on for another day or two for it. These are barnyard mixes. Can you tell what they are. Most of them have a lavender Ameraucan for a dad. The black ones have a brown leghorn for a mom. the blue/gray babies are Ameraucana mom and dad (I think). If you know what they are, please let me know. As you can see, I am using a little bowl as a waterer. I gave away my chick feeder and waterer when I moved my pullets to their coop . I didn't know I'd be hatching chicks within a month of giving them away. Silly me. They all seem healthy. As you can see, some have had their first poop. It's green. I had no idea.
Just hatched.

In my experience the Ameraucana babies look like chipmunks. Those babies sure are pretty!

 

[calichickies]

Congrats on the babies!
Wow!
Local is the way to go.

My hatch is complete.

What

Started

Lock down

Hatch

Hatch Rate
Shipped Eggs – Mille Fleur d’Uccle

15

1

0

0%
Local Eggs – “Farm Fresh Eggs” – Unknown breed - $2.00/doz

21

18

17

81%​

On my shipped eggs, 14 were clear and showed no development and were discarded at day 14. The last one's eggtopsy showed a mostly developed chick with a small yolk sac but it was upside down in the egg. I guess it drowned.

On my local eggs, one clear egg was discarded at day 14, one "stinker" was discarded around day 16, and the last one never pipped so I candled it today and saw no life. It's eggtopsy showed a very developed chick that must have died just in the last few days.

Here are the little puffballs.

I could not get them all to look at the camera.

For my next hatch I just ordered 18 "mixed duckling" hatching eggs from Metzer Farms. They will ship next week, so I will probably start them Friday morning on the 17th.

 

[calichickies]

One thing for sure...WAY better hatch rate from everyone on local.I honestly thinnk i will drive 4 1/2 hours away to get some eggs someome has that i want.Get some real chickens out of the eggs rather than a token.

Ok... here's some shipping/traveling chicken math to make your head spin.

If the eggs are approximately 260 miles away, and your car gets about 20 mpg, and gas costs about $3.50/gallon...
Then that's 13 gallons... each way... costing you a grand total of $91 to ship those eggs yourself.

But getting them home safe and secure and all in one piece = priceless.

It's your call.

Good Luck!

 

[calichickies]

Yay for your new Lucky buddy!! Yippee!

Success! I found a buddy!

I went downtown to this feed store that I knew took in chickens that no one wants, so I decided I might as well look. But I really didn't think they would have one young enough.
Well, as luck would have it, someone just brought in the day earlier 20 million white leghorns and a few buff orps.
They were 2 days old!!
So I took home one of the buff orps Say hello to Clove and Sage!

It was really sad though, there were 3 other buff orps, and one of them had spraddle leg really bad. I wanted to get it so bad, but something told me not to. I don't know why.
I would have bought her and a normal buff orp, but I didn't bring enough money.
Now I feel guilty I might go back and get her.

 

[Major_in_MS]

My husband says the same thing...... when my hen was broody I brought her in her milk crate inside in the middle of the night the day before the eggs were to hatch so I could hear the peeps and keep an eye on her and them. Well my husband woke up the next morning and saw her sitting on her eggs in the corner. And said MIRANDA WHAT THE HELL IS THAT CHICKEN DOING IN MY HOUSE! after a little fussing I got him to agree to it just till they hatched

. Then I put her and the babies in a broody pen outside.

Actually I do have two sets of chicks brooding in the house. Twenty two 3 week old pullets from Meyer Hatcheries "Rare Egg Layer Assortment" and the 17 one day old chicks that I just pulled out of my incubator. But the 3 week old group will be going outside today or tomorrow. I can't believe I'm up to 66 chickens now, I've got to get rid of some of these or my wife is going to either leave me or have me committed. She keeps saying "I'm gonna call your mamma!" We've been married for 22 years and she has been great, I'm not the easiest person to live with. When I told her about the 18 duck eggs that I just ordered from Metzer Farms she just shook her head. She says the only bad thing about baby chicks and ducklings is that they grow up to be chickens and ducks.

 

[calichickies]

Congrats on the chicks Matlock. Hard to pin point what exactly went wrong, everything sounds good, always a learning experience though. You had really good numbers compared to many. Next time maybe only set on the weekend (or whenever you know you'll be home) so you'll be sure to be there. Everyone has their own opinions about helping, but if you are there and watching a chick struggle then you can make an educated call. Good luck on your next batch!

My hatch is all done now as well.
I wound up with 9 of the Swedish Flower Hens ( prolly all roos though! ) and 2 RIR. I'm fairly happy with that. I lost 2 due to shrinkwrapping. Out of 7 prior hatchings this is the first one that I actually lost chicks that had pipped. It was pretty sad, but it's hard to have a mid week hatch when no one is home for 12 hours a day. I don't really understand the shrinkwrapping, as humidity never got below 73%. Maybe I need to do the salt test on my thermo/hygro again, but I can't imagine it being that far off, there was condensation on my glass from the time the second one hatched till I took them out. I can't really blame it on one specific breed either, because I lost one of each. I also had one of each that did nothing.
So in the end, out of 18 set eggs, I put 15 in lockdown, hatched 11 and lost 2. My percentage was 73% with all locally harvested eggs, and I got 85% with cochin eggs I bought from Luckypickens, a BYCer that lives in Danville, AR, and I'm in Middle TN. And those eggs shipped to me in temps of over 100 degrees. IDK
Here are some pics, the RIR are easy enough to spot in the full color pic. As far as the SFH go, I have 3 color patterns in them, but my source bought hers from Greenfire, so I went to their website, and coloration for that breed seems all over the place.

 

[calichickies]

Now there's a switch!!....a Male RN ....& (me) Female in Construction!!

AWESUM!!!!
& Luv the John Deer Print too!!!....That's Country!!
YEEEHAAW!!!

I love the variety on this thread-- the people I mean!!