California - Northern

[SilkiesForEver]

x2. and add some more to think about while eating or processing your own chickens.

9. Your hens will thank you....having way too many roos in the flock is not a good situation for the flock.

10. If your Great grandma, Grandma, Grandpa etc could do it so can you. We are spoiled today with having our food come to us all wrapped up in plastic wrap from the store.

11. Be thankful that you know where and how that chicken was raised and that it had by far a much better life (and probably death) than "factory" chickens.

12. It's just chicken and will taste like chicken LOL.

Trisha

X2! People have no idea that the "yummy" chickens they are eating, come from such horrible places, and are pumped full of junk, and hormones!

 

[tls_ranch]

Yay, I got 4 eggs today! 3 pullet eggs and one egg from my only hen that's laying. My blue hen that got attacked by the hawk a few weeks ago is now back witht he flock. Her wounds have healed and feathers are growing back. No eggs from her since the day of the attack.

I can't wait until I can start filling my egg baskets again. I ALMOST resorted to buying eggs...but held out. I was only getting eggs from the single hen (what a good girl) that kept laying when the others stopped.

One of the pullet eggs I got today. It is a first egg....don't know who laid it. I know the other 2 pullets laid their eggs today, so this is another pullet just starting up.

Trisha

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Here are parts of that discussion on storing & hatching eggs, that I mentioned previously. I thought that I would repost it here, in case any one is interested. I thought the info might be useful to some of you. The poster was Bentley.

"I have done extensive research in egg storage, transport and incubation and I know that after 7 days, times is of the essence and any temperature change after eggs initially cool is detrimental. So FOR ME, getting eggs in the incubator as soon as possible after receipt is the way to go. I will prewarm eggs only if they are to be added to a setter that already contains eggs to reduce the temperature drop in the setter as it attempts to warm the new eggs.
...
Pre-warming hatching eggs does not need to be fast at all. As a matter of fact, the main reason you would pre-warm eggs is if they are going into an incubator that already contains other eggs. Again, you are just trying to prevent the OTHER eggs from damage or stress due to the possible cooling of the incubator when the new eggs that are cool are added. So, there really is not a benefit to the eggs being pre-warmed themselves. Think of the actual embryo, all it knows is that it's temperature is gradually increasing which increases cellular growth and development. There is an incubation time period of 21 days or 504 hours (this can vary several hours for different breeds or strains) so pre-warming counts as development. If some eggs pre-warm longer than others they may hatch at slightly different times. So, How pre-warming happens is not important as long as the pre-warming occurs for all eggs to be set uniformly....
You are correct, fertilization occurs a few minutes after ovulation then continues to develop until the egg is laid due to the body temperature of the hen. But I do want to make a point, that is a very important point. Embryo development does NOT STOP after the egg is laid nor at anytime during storage unless it dies. This is a living growing embryo and cellular development does not stop, it slows considerably. This is very important to remember when storing hatching eggs, it is STILL a living growing embryo that cooling just dramatically slows development not just an egg waiting to restart development. This is why temperature fluctuations during storage can be so damaging to embryo livability because the embryo will speed up and slow down development in accordance with changes in temperature and each speed up slow down adds stress to the 'suspended' embryo.

... I feel this is a very critical thing to understand when storing hatching eggs, it is living and still growing...

When an egg goes from cool to warm and humid condensation can happen rapidly and this can give any pathogens on the shell a medium in which to grow. However, from my experience per-warming eggs will not eliminate this.

Also, in my experience and research in storing hatching eggs 55 degrees is way too cold unless you have to store eggs for periods longer than 2 weeks and even then the best results aren't found at that cool of a temperature. For short term storage a constant 70 degrees is optimum. ... PM me if you are interested and I can give you some very specific information from research AND personal experience. There are many many scientific publications in this area that would bore most people here.

But, in that puny nut shell, dramatic changes in the temperature at which embryos are exposed is very detrimental to embryo livability and a CONSTANT (or as close as possible) temperature of 70 has been shown to achieve the objectives of egg storage without adding too much stress to the embryo which can result in embryo mortality during days 1-3 of incubation.
...
The best method to use, considering that most incubators can't adjust humidity like the big expensive machines is to check moisture loss, or weight loss of the eggs. Ideally, to get the best chick quality, an egg should lose 11-13% in weight from day of set until moved to the hatcher at day 18. Weigh the eggs before set then at transfer. If they lose too much weight then raise humidity by adding more water (surface area of the water). You an increase surface area of water to increase humidity bay adding a sponge or rag in the water. If they lose less than 11-13% then lower humidity to allow more moisture loss of the egg.

In general, I find the ideal humidity for most machines is about 82 F wet bulb or around 54-56% relative humidity."

Thank you Kim. Good post. I think I saw this on the Heritage post but never read it.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Yay, I got 4 eggs today! 3 pullet eggs and one egg from my only hen that's laying. My blue hen that got attacked by the hawk a few weeks ago is now back witht he flock. Her wounds have healed and feathers are growing back. No eggs from her since the day of the attack.

I can't wait until I can start filling my egg baskets again. I ALMOST resorted to buying eggs...but held out. I was only getting eggs from the single hen (what a good girl) that kept laying when the others stopped.

One of the pullet eggs I got today. It is a first egg....don't know who laid it. I know the other 2 pullets laid their eggs today, so this is another pullet just starting up.

Trisha

do you know when these gal's hatched? I got 2 crele eggs 2 days straight now nothing for 2 days.

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
Congrats on the new egg Trisha.

Jason, you know that is the way they start laying! After the break, they will lay 3 or so and then take another break. After each break the eggs will be a bit bigger. It has to do with how many eggs ovulate with each group of eggs!

Practice patience. They all will be laying like crazy soon.

 

[tls_ranch]

Quote: I lost most of my records when my computer crashed. I know they should of started in Nov or Dec (based on the average age). But I think I may of hatched them about a month too late and the shorter days delayed them starting up laying. I bet if I hatched them one month earilier...they would of started laying before Oct/Nov and laid through the winter without lights. But, now I expect that they will all start up by late Jan.

On the other hand, I had the January hatched pullets decided to stop laying and moult with the older hens late fall early winter. So...note to self...hatch in March for best winter layers...a happy medium. Not to early...not too late. But having the January pullets lay clear through the terrible heat of summer was nice. So maybe it is better to hatch Winter, Spring and Fall to insure eggs year round.

Trisha

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Congrats on the new egg Trisha.

Jason, you know that is the way they start laying! After the break, they will lay 3 or so and then take another break. After each break the eggs will be a bit bigger. It has to do with how many eggs ovulate with each group of eggs!

Practice patience. They all will be laying like crazy soon.

It is a pene thing. I have been so patient . Now I am gonna move in a week so they will probably stop again for a month lol.

 

[amyfamily]

Do any of you have Freedom Rangers? I saw that they have some chicks available about 40 minutes from me. I would like them mostly for laying at this point. I read through a few threads about them. I guess I am just nervous with chicks now that it is so cold! I got my first batch of chicks in June.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Do any of you have Freedom Rangers? I saw that they have some chicks available about 40 minutes from me. I would like them mostly for laying at this point. I read through a few threads about them. I guess I am just nervous with chicks now that it is so cold! I got my first batch of chicks in June.

I like having chicks now. That way you will have layers hopefully in Summer.
Freedom rangers are supposed to be tough.
Just keep some heat on them and you will be fine. I have tons of chicks in my garage with 2 heat lamps . They are in a 11x3 run . I put a sleeping bag over the top of 1 end to catch the heat.

 

[ronott1]

Do any of you have Freedom Rangers? I saw that they have some chicks available about 40 minutes from me. I would like them mostly for laying at this point. I read through a few threads about them. I guess I am just nervous with chicks now that it is so cold! I got my first batch of chicks in June.

Debbie from Heaven sent Ranch and Linda Hammid raised some last year. They liked them and kept some as breeding pairs.

Where are the ones you are getting from?