California - Northern

[EZFarms]

Ill have tp get one.

 

[casportpony]

Allright more worming thoughts.
1. Im seeing safeguard listed as something you can put in the water. I dont remember talking about it here is there some reason it sucks?

2. Hatching eggs with safeguard. I did not see anything listed for the drug name and birth defects or anything on google at all for hatching eggs with this wormer. I know w. Is a nono but nothing listed for s....

Couple problems with Safeguard in the water... One is that it will settle, the other is that chicks, turkeys, laying hens and non-laying birds all drink a different amounts of water. Don't have the exact numbers in front of me me, but what I remember reading is chick drink 18-20% of their body weight per day, laying hens a little less and non-laying birds I think it was 8-10%, so medicating water some may get enough, some too much and some too little. Make sense?

This is the only thing I have on that makes a reference to using it during breeding season:





You could try to find info by looking for the reference by Marshall 1993 - Avian Anthelmintics and antiprotozoals.

-Kathy

 

[debs_flock]

Ok going to ask the silly question again. Which Incubator should I get if Im only moderately serious about hatching eggs.

The real question is which incubator should you get for your FIRST incubator! It won't be your last. I started out with a genesis digital, and kept buying them until I had three. Then I bought a huge Brinsea cabinet.

Now if you go to a poultry show and see breeder quality brahma's, you will look like this:

They are so freaking HUGE!

Yes, my LF cochin are GINORMOUS! Of course I think with them, they look even bigger because their feathers are supposed to be carried loosely, fluffy if you will. But still a cock is a 12 pound bird, add those fluffed out feathers and they look like they could rival Godzilla.

 

[casportpony]

Forgot to say that I used it on one of my peahens last year and one of the embryos had a leg that was on backwards. Not sure if it was her egg or not.

-Kathy

 

[caychris]

Forgot to say that I used it on one of my peahens last year and one of the embryos had a leg that was on backwards. Not sure if it was her egg or not.

-Kathy

Single chick issues could be tons of things though.

 

[casportpony]

This link http://avianmedicine.net/content/uploads/2013/03/15.pdf has the water intake table that says:

Adult chickens - 5-5.5% body-weight/day
Growing chickens - 18-20% body-weight/day
Laying hens - 13.6% body-weight/day

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Quote: Yes, of course. Had to worm some this season also, but this year I'm keeping track of what eggs came from what hens, so I should have some pretty good data in a month. So far it doesn't seem like worming the hens has had an effect on fertility.

-Kathy

 

[caychris]

Dried meal worms are a big hit with the chickens. I got a sample bag from the feed store for a buck and I had them all eating out of my hand. Bwawk Bwawk is now recognized as the treat call. They come a running. (well they come a running when they hear my patio door open too)

I need to fix something up in the run tonight to let the buffs stay integrated. They are not frightened enough of the big chickens to not test the waters though.

 

[AlpineButterfly]

Adventures in Foster Broodies, part 1

So I get back from vacation, and not one, but two, of my girls are broody. Apparently they had been sitting since at least a week before. Typically my solution to broodiness it to lock the hopeful mother in a nice little broody apartment we have constructed under the coop, with a wire bottom floor and her own food and water. However, this wouldn't work with two of them. Since it seems very few of my girls are laying currently (two others had gone through a broody spell while I was away), I tried just locking everyone out of the coop nestboxes. This didn't really help, as one just decided to make her nest in the corner under the coop where everyone else was laying eggs. And as soon as I opened the coop at bedtime, the other rushed back to the nestbox.

Now, the first time a girl went broody, @chiqita offered to bring over chicks for her to foster. I don't have space for more chickens, but chiqita was offering to let her raise and wean them, and then take the babies back. That was pretty enticing, and was all set to go until I discovered the nestbox had mites. So instead of getting cute little babies, the poor girl got a bath and locked in a cage in the house. The upside of that experience was that I did learn that a few days in a wire bottom cage seemed to work to break her broodiness. Hence the effort to create a specific space under the coop, so the broody girl was still with her flock, and not in the house for several days.

Back to the current situation. I had two broodies. I could have tried to put one in the apartment, and one in a cage in the house (the cage I have isn't predator proof, so couldn't stay outside). But then I figured I'd ask chiqita if she happened to have any chicks needing foster mommies. And she did!

So last night, I went over and picked up seven cute little fuzz buckets:


I snuck four under Elanor (a bantam brahma), and three under Sybil (a bantam easter egger), in the middle of the night. I put little dishes of food and water for each of them (in their separate nestboxes), and came in to finish voting. [I am a permanent absentee voter, but never manage to actually fill my ballot in time to mail it, so have to take it in person to my polling place; at least I don't have to stand in line.] After that was all done, I figured I'd go check on everyone before heading to bed. But what do I find?

Sybil is as flat as usual, but in Elanor's nestbox there is just a little pile of fluffy babies huddled in a divot in the shavings, and Elanor is roosting with the rest of the girls! Bad Elanor! No treats for you! I brought those home to you special!
I tucked those four under Sybil as well and went to bed.

In the morning, I went out to check on them, and one baby was off on an adventure. It had managed to get all the way across the coop to the top of the ramp, but couldn't get over the lip of the tray, so was peeping madly. I'm not sure if Sybil kicked it out, but I stopped it's trip short by moving it back under a wing. We'll see how it goes.

I hope she can keep everyone warm. She's only 750 grams.


If anyone has helpful hints and recommendations on making sure everyone is happy and healthy, I'll take them.

 

[caychris]

Maybe I could stake open the small coop door just big enough to let the little ones through. That way they would have access to their water and food and could hide from the "big meanies"

I might have to make it a slightly tight squeeze for them to ensure the dels dont follow.

Ill work on that tonight as well as a couple of other things.

Good news is everyone went to bed on their own last night. Only took 3 days for the dels to do it on their own. Apparently the ramp wasnt a factor last night.