California - Northern

[Ali707]

Well the two week back order with GQF was apparently old news...... They shipped the 1588 incubator today and I only ordered it Friday after closing time. I had actually planned for the two week delay, because I am going to Disneyland tomorrow!!! I don't like getting packages delivered when I am away from home, or if I have to sign for them! Plus it is coming with some sort of quail eggs!

That just goes to show no matter how much I plan I can't control everything!

I persist in trying though......

 

[christinab]

I have BluKote and Vetericyn drops and spray on hand. All great stuff to have in your chicken first aide kit.

Regarding the ducks- we have both chickens and ducks. Honestly the kids prefer the ducks although they enjoy the chickens. My ducks out lay my chickens My 11 ducks started laying last Sept/November and I get 8-11 eggs every single day. I have heritage breed chickens so they aren't heavy layers. The eggs are very big, amazing in baked goods...the ducks are goofy and fun to watch. Not better than chickens...just different than chickens. I also like them for eggs over chickens because they laid like gangbusters through the winter and fall. No lights. If they have cool water in the Summer they don't even seem to notice that it's hot, they love mucking about in the cold rain..just different.

Might have to research ducks, they sound neat

 

[tls_ranch]

Yep...costco grape box. The strawberry boxes work great too. They work great for keeping chicks seperate. No guessing between lines or breeds.  You can even do staggered hatches because the chicks in the box don't "soil" the eggs that aren't ready to hatch yet. Once they are done hatching, I just pull the whole "box" out

Trisha

Trisha this is such a wonderful idea! Do you do this right before lockdown? Or you hand turn your eggs?

I set them at lock down in the boxes. I line themwith the rubber/ mesh shelf liner. You can either lay the eggs on their sides or use cut down
Egg cartons. The smaller strawberry boxes work good for 2-4 eggs like if want to keep track of a certain hen's chicks.
I use several different sizes.

Trisha

 

[redriver]

Woke up this morning to a bator full of chicks Yay!!! My first fluffy butts of the year. Just a quick pic a took this morning and most had just hatched so they aren't fluffed up yet. There are way more hatched now and so far I've gotten 2 splash chicks. Just a few more eggs to go Here are some pics of our pergola by the pool that DH has been working on. It's almost done...well at least until we start with the "rock work" and barbecue area. But that's going to be awhile maybe a year or two. For now we get to enjoy having shady spot hang out under near our pool

So cute! Set mine on Saturday so I have a lot of sitting on my hands to do. Post more photos when you get a chance. I'd love to see what the splash looks like. Is that a 2# strawberry carton you have them separated with?! Is that for keeping the blues separate? Very nice job on the pergola!

 

[chiqita]

Hello everyone!
Ty for the chick praise, they a re fun things, but I'm a bit overwhelmed!
I am going to try and pick out 2 CL from the Unknown batch and then put some under a broody so I can let them grow out, I have 2 marans fighting over golf balls atm . One is getting these guys and one is getting my next batch of silkies.
Deanna I will try and pick up pictures from the top before dinner, its a 2 person job, my try was not successful today! Your duck friend have any luck or are we going to have to do a train from zoo to santa cruze?

BDM, this is the first real time I have been mega confused. I know my normal breeds pretty well, and can tell an olive egger from a full FCBM at 50 paces. In the past I have told someone if I'm unsure WHY I think its is whatever I think it is, and what the other option is ( mostly this is for sexing, not breeds however). On the CL, i will tell them to let me know if its the wrong chic, but otherwise people usually just want chickens that lay a variety of eggs, or are pretty, and are not overly fussed if its a surprise ( unless they want FCBM's.... or silkies, but really what are you going to confuse them with?) Exciting about the bator, hope you have wonderful hatch rates, should be awesome with the brinsea!

I did have a customer who freaked out about getting a non silked silkie last year. I explained at the time if she was picking them up that early ( before wing feathers) there was a chance she would get non silked and advised she wait, but she wanted then right then, and later got upset. I figured it wasn't worth the argument and gave her the money back. Id since learned all the non silked ones were roos so I felt a bit guilty, heh.

I have a surprising amount of people come back this year from last year or refer people to me for more chicks, so its worth it to me.

Ron, those penn eggs are lovely. Autosexing ftw!

I missed a ton of stuff I was going to respond to, this is what I get for reading on my phone then trying to reply later.

People up your driveway IS creepy. When we lived downtown before we had a lady of the night in the front apartment for a few months, and our bedroom window was right next to the back porch. A few people thought we were her and would knock on my window hopefully. That's when an an irate sleepy husband comes in handy. Mario looks like a lot of things, buy a professional boy toy is not one of them, lol.

 

[chickee]

My incubator is full again

At least Jason has reserved some of the EE chicks

The bantam buff Brahmas are a test hatch for fertility so I can start selling hatching eggs from them, I have a couple pure W/BW Ameraucana eggs in there, a few LF BLRW eggs and lots of bantam Blue Laced Red Wyandotte eggs to start building up my flock of those. Soon I will be getting W/BW Ameraucana eggs from a breeder I have been trying for 2 years to get eggs from

and I have porcelain d'Anver eggs coming in the next few weeks. I absolutely love the pair I have and just had to have more!

Fun seeing everyones new chicks!

They are all so adorable!

No wonder it is so easy to become a hatch-a-holic!!

Picture of the eggs I started on Sunday~

 

[OR4-hmom]

Impressive set of eggs! Best of luck with your hatch. I wish my bantam boys would get busy, I would love to have wee ones.

 

[chickee]

Impressive set of eggs! Best of luck with your hatch. I wish my bantam boys would get busy, I would love to have wee ones.

Thanks

My bantams are pumping out eggs like crazy! They started way before my LF. Those bantam buff Brahmas are egg laying machines!

Hope yours kick in soon. Bantams are SO cute!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I separated my bantam buff Polish so I can hatch some eggs from them to build up that flock too. Guess I am just like everyone else on this site . . chicken crazy!

 

[tls_ranch]

Quote: I used a big "grape" carton from costco. It takes up about 1/3 of the bator, but fits quite a few eggs. I had 12 in there and there was room for more. I used it this time to keep the F1 silver barnie crosses for my neighbor separate.

You can see two of the splash in this pic. The Splash barnie chicks are the off-white/gold/grey chicks. The one in the center with the red leg band is a F1 silver barnie chicks (the first cross in the project my neighbor is doing). I kept those separate so I can band them.


I'm waiting on 5 more eggs to hatch and 2 chicks to fluff up. One egg is zipping right now I moved the rest of the chicks out to the brooder. When I get down to the last few eggs, I usually pull out the chicks that have hatched and put them in the brooder. Why stress the majority for a few late hatchers? I want the chicks eating and drinking as soon as they can rather than being stuck in a bator.

Trisha

 

[liz9910]

Check out these weird eggs one has no shell the other is rubbery