Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Zanna]

Hatchers:

If one elects to transfer eggs to a different incubator on day 18 for hatching (no turner, keep the turning incubator clean, add new eggs at day 18 instead of after hatch and sterilization) what do you recommend? Is still air better for hatchers? Solid state or wafer? Brand preference?

Thanks

Judi

I have 2 genesis hovabators (yes, styrofoam....), one for a incubator and one only used as a hatcher. I have had very reliable hatches for 5 years with this incubator, LOVE IT! The incubator holds 42 eggs in the turner and you can add more on the end that you need to hand turn. Typically I am doing single mating so I set eggs every 9 days usually. Candle at day nine, remove any non-developing eggs then add the next 9 days saved eggs. Day 18, move the 18 day old eggs to the hatcher. Wait till day 23 or 24, then remove chicks and have a couple of days left to clean/sterilize hatcher before next set is ready to go in. I usually raise the 2nd batch of chicks with the first batch of chicks and go on like this until I am tired of hatching . This is what has worked well for me, hope it helps.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

That's the funny thing. The $5.99/ pound was at the local grocery store. They have a specialty area. My husband asked me if I could raise a goose and process it. I looked at him and laughed. Not only would I have to do the trial and error, geese are very charismatic for me. They have too much personality. Like a rabbit, I know I couldn't do it. And I'm ok with that. Give me a chicken and I can though! Duck? You got it! But a goose...I'm comfortable enough with my own abilities to understand it is way beyond me!

It's true that there's a little something more to a goose that's tough. They're my most difficult to do in.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Can you elaborate? Is it too dry or does it fail to keep temp/humidity stable? Do you hate it for the entire incubation or just the last 3 days? Brand/model?

I've tried it for the entire incubation and for the last 3 days. The temperature fluxes more in it than in the still-air I have. Every time I put something in there the chicks come out shrink wrapped. I can't raise the humidity at ALL in it, no matter how I try to add humidity. The still air at least keeps the humidity and no wrapped up chicks.

It's a Little Giant 9200 with a 7200 Fan. The still air is the same model minus the fan.

 

[Arielle]

Hatchers:

If one elects to transfer eggs to a different incubator on day 18 for hatching (no turner, keep the turning incubator clean, add new eggs at day 18 instead of after hatch and sterilization) what do you recommend? Is still air better for hatchers? Solid state or wafer? Brand preference?

Thanks

Judi

Judi, I'm not a pro by any stretch and I"ve hatched just a few-- 150-200 chicks, poults, ducklings. I like having a fan. I have an LG, not fancy, and installed a PC fan so that it doesn't blow on the eggs. I like that it
increases the air circulation as those hatching chicks need far more oxygen than when they are enclosed in their eggs.

THe humidity I can get up to 80-85% for the poults.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Here is a cut from Schilling of a Rhode Island White. Her top line is flat as a pancake but he was know to touch up the negative then rephotograph the negative to make this cut. This is the best bird I have seen. Note she did not Champion of the Show or Champion American. Still good bird. This a picture sent to me by Frank from Canada who lurkers on this thread. He is one of the top Preservationist in Canada for Poultry and helps so many people get good quality birds if they want them.

In regards to the Hova Incubator I would order one in a heart beat and use it as my full time or hatcher unit. This is the one that with fan and set thermostat costs nearly $150.

I have taken the fan and the guts the heating element out of my chip little midi get incubator and put it in my Red Wood hatch er and it works fine for hatching. I think once the chick gets to the 18 day it can stand maybe a little more flexibility in Temps as they generate more heat them selves at this period. Its the lst ten to sixteen days that are maybe more important. I got to order me a new Thermostat for my sportsman incubator it cost about $85. but when this thing is working right it stays within a half a degree of 99.5 degrees. I have lost a lot of chicks because I was to tight to spend this money. I am going to do it this year.

Who won Champion Large Fowl at the Lake City Show???

I hope it was not a Orange Chicken.

 

[FOGELLY]

 Hi Snowbird,
 What's the attraction here? I raise my chicks on wire to prevent them curling their toes
underneath them when they sleep and causing crooked toes? Why damp paper?   
  How does the damp help?
 Thanks,
 Karen

Karen,
I brood my chicks in converted rabbit cages. I always put newspaper in the bottom of the cages for the first 10-14 days. The chicks will scratch their feed out on the paper and eat on an area with their droppings. I don't feed medicated feed unless it is very warm and humid, and never have had Cocci. The only time I have had an issue with crooked toes on chicks was with an old incubator that had humidity and temp issues. I was unaware that chicks can develop crooked toes after hatching.

Ron

 

[FOGELLY]

Sorry double post.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Evening all...been out moving birds and just put my first chicks of 2013 on the ground. My local feed/seed as well as TSC seem to have cut back to carrying Corid Powder (20%) and no longer carry the liquid I have always used before

Can someone give me some advise on the proper dilution of the powder so that I dont "OD" my birds? I hav 1 gallon waterers in the chick pen.

I've found that if I treat the water of my chicks for about a week when I first put them on dirt that my instances of cocci loss are almost completely eliminated. Oddly enough it's VERY warm already in Ga (was 82F yesterday) and I'm going to try to raise about 1/2 the number of chicks I did last year....need them all to thrive

Thanks much in advance!

Scott

THANKS Chris!!!

I'll have my son run by tomorrow to see if they have the Di-Methox....I get to go from the balmy temperatures of N Ga to our plant in Canada tomorrow. Warmest its expected to be all week up there is 24F. I don't mind winter, but DANG I hate the brutal cold

Thanks again

You had 82* yesterday!!!!!?? Man o man! With our temps right now, I could swear I still lived in Canada or Minnesota, take your pick! It was -9* this morning at 8:00 I think our high today was 18 bloody degrees! Good grief!

 

[OSUman]

It was in the mid 60s here yesterday in IL. Course it dropped 40 degrees and was in the mid 20s today... fun fun.

 

[3riverschick]

Karen,
I brood my chicks in converted rabbit cages. I always put newspaper in the bottom of the cages for the first 10-14 days. The chicks will scratch their feed out on the paper and eat on an area with their droppings. I don't feed medicated feed unless it is very warm and humid, and never have had Cocci. The only time I have had an issue with crooked toes on chicks was with an old incubator that had humidity and temp issues. I was unaware that chicks can develop crooked toes after hatching.

Ron

=========================================
Hi Ron,
Several years ago, I bought some rare day old chicks for 15.00 each. ...let me back up a minute.
When I got my first Marans from Kelly Cratty in 2005, he told me to always raise my chicks on wire. He said I would never have crooked toes if I did this.
To make the brooder and put in a platform of 1/4 inch hardware-cloth for the newly hatched chicks. (up to 1 week old). The platform would raise the chicks 1 inch above the pine shavings so their waste would drop thru. When the chicks were 1 week old, I would swap out the 1/4 inch for 1/2 inch hardware cloth. They would stay on this size wire until they left the brooder.
Ok, fast forward to 2009.. I bought these 10quan., one day old chicks for 15.00 each. They were the 1st inbreeding of a rare color of Marans. Decided to do something different and this time raised them in the oft touted "newspaper lined floor within a cardboard stockade" set-up. Every one of those chicks turned out to be badly crippled with crooked toes. All hoped for BBR chicks, were millefluer mismarks with a single recessive-black chick. (breeder was embarrassed and offered full refund. I told them no. genetics lesson was worth it). I gave them away and sought to discover what caused the badly crooked toes. It was the 1st in-breeding of a developing strain which originated from divergent sources. So I was wondering if it truly was the inbreeding which caused this??
Mentioned the problem to another breeder who also raised on wire. She told me that when chicks are raised on smooth surfaces, they tend to curl their toes underneath them when they sleep. That this can cause their toes to grow crooked. That's why she raised on wire. When chicks are raised on wire, they didn't curl toes underneath them when sleeping and no crooked toes. By now, Kelly Cratty had been out of Marans for years so couldn't ask him. But makes sense to me.
Now I have wooden brooders with wire floors of the correct gauge for age and plastic pans mounted underneath filled with pine shavings. I can dump the shavings and refill if they start to get rancid.
Karen