California - Northern

[Flowers of Abba]

Im at 67% humidity in lock down. Not bad for dry as rye Tahoe! Tempted to crack open the bator and throw in another sponge to creep closer to 70 ish. I cant get it any higher now with what is in there now .
What do you guys think?

 

[ronott1]

Im at 67% humidity in lock down. Not bad for dry as rye Tahoe! Tempted to crack open the bator and throw in another sponge to creep closer to 70 ish. I cant get it any higher now with what is in there now .
What do you guys think?

67% is fine!

It will go up quickly when the first one hatches!

Here is something I learned--I think from Deb or Kelly

Chicks that pip do not drown. When humidity goes over 80%, there is not enough oxygen left for them to breath and they suffocate.

Hoping for a great hatch!

 

[Flowers of Abba]

67% is fine!

It will go up quickly when the first one hatches!

Here is something I learned--I think from Deb or Kelly

Chicks that pip do not drown. When humidity goes over 80%, there is not enough oxygen left for them to breath and they suffocate.

Hoping for a great hatch!

Thanks Ron! They are a batch of Trader Joe "miracle babies" . So funny watching the rocking and rolling in the bator with the pink best by stamp on them

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:
x2
I put my humidity at 54-60% When they start hatching it climbs on its own. I don't try for 70.. but sometimes after a bunch pop out it goes up. I also have both vents wide open for the air.

Here's to a great hatching day (me too)

 

[ronott1]

Thanks Ron! They are a batch of Trader Joe "miracle babies" . So funny watching the rocking and rolling in the bator with the pink best by stamp on them

Yes, that is cool! I hatched two of them last Summer. Amy Beth has them now but one of them had a hurt leg. I have not seen an update. I hope All is well up there.

 

[debs_flock]

Im at 67% humidity in lock down. Not bad for dry as rye Tahoe! Tempted to crack open the bator and throw in another sponge to creep closer to 70 ish. I cant get it any higher now with what is in there now .
What do you guys think?

I lockdown at 50%, when eggs start to hatch it will go 60-70% by itself. That works for me.

Back to the kitchen...................today is my final day of baking, entries go in tonight and judge tomorrow. I was on a quick break! (Of course where did I take my break? BYC)

 

[BCollie]

How long do my girls need to stay in the coop before I let them out to free range? I want to be sure that they will return to the coop when it starts to get dark out.

 

[ronott1]

How long do my girls need to stay in the coop before I let them out to free range? I want to be sure that they will return to the coop when it starts to get dark out.

Mine started going back into the coop after being locked down for three days.

Since we are having a cooler spell this is a good time to lock them down.

 

[lawatt]

What a thunder storm!!!!! as soon as the thunder would begin to rumble the peacocks would go off then the booms would shake the house. a little groggy today. Did any of you photographers take photos of the lightning?? Post please if you did!

Have a place for my boys that will treat them well and may actually keep them instead of eating them. They are leaving this pm. 3 hatchery girls off lights listed on CL. So relieved about the boys but my H doesn't understand why I am unloading three today only to turn around and get a new one on Wed

He has a soft spot for one of our Delaware hens in particular so he will understand when I bring my new boy home from Kim's.

A Question: When we added Ray to our flock it was simple. he walked up from my uncle's and started hanging out with the girls then went home like a gentleman for a few days after about a week we started cooping him with the girls and everything went smoothly. Now they have been rooless for a few months any tips on introducing them to the new guy do you do the same thing you do when integrating hens?


My self imposed adult chicken limit is 20. I started like in Feb thinking I wanted to add a) color to my basket, b) breeds that might go broody c) white egg layers and d) a variety of eye candy to the yard. Then I got all chicken crazy and started planning all kinds of growth and breeding and what not that really we are not prepared for so now I am really happy that I will be ending this chick adding season with

Icelandics (white eggs, broody, variety, one is crested!)
CA Grey (white Eggs)
EEs
OE
Speckled Sussex (broody)
Chocolate Rock (broody?)
hopefully a Dorking (white eggs and broody)
Dorking Polish X (white egg CRESTED)
A new higher quality Del pair

All these gals will look great running around my yard with my red white and black flock the new Del Roo.

H is going to start working on Curly's run soon but for now he will be in with the girls and Little Ray who is still a ?? He gets out of the coop OK but I still have to put him in at night. I think he is thrilled that the SFH boy is gone. That little guy was VIGOROUS and fronted up on everyone! I know it's crazy to keep him but at this point he is a pet so there it is. Not going to take extreme measures...other than building him his own pen but since he is self sufficient in pretty much all ways it's a good thing.

Enjoy the cool down!

that storm last night was one of the strangest i've EVER seen -- it started here at 12:30 and was flashing lightning about every 10-15 seconds for a full continuous half-hour -- i think we were IN the thundercloud, so i didn't see any forky stuff (no pictures), but constant flashes -- some far away & barely any thunder at all, but some quite close, and one crack came almost simultaneously with the flash, i think it hit to ridge just above my house -- and the strangest part was, no wind, no rain, just a thick mist and constant lightning.

i read on the nat'l weather service page this morning that there were over *400* lightning strikes in Sonoma & Napa counties between 12:30-3am. i too am quite groggy this morning.

and such a contrast -- saturday's high was 95, sunday's was 55, then lightning all night and rain in the morning. I'm half-expecting snow to show up!

re: roosters -- i got Max from Deann right around new years, and just plopped him into the coop's run with all the girls, no integration process. the girls seemed quite uncertain of this new guy for the first hour or two, but by the next morning they were all trucking around together just fine.

 

[Ali707]

can I see a picture again? Is the run on dirt? or grass? I would not use sand on that. they like dirt it cools them in the summer

Here is a picture that you can see underneath the run. Should I use sand? I was going to use sand because if I don't then I have nothing that I can "scrape" out the chicken poop with. I can't keep taking the dirt away. They will be contained here a good portion of the day while I am at work, so there will be quite the manure to deal with...... lol, ha ha I just noticed I said, "contained in here", like you can see the finished product. I have a run here so they will be contained in the run and under the coop as well. I can't believe I finished the coop and didn't get a full picture...... I was so happy to be done, well done enough to put the birds in yesterday afternoon.

I use www.intellicast.com on the PC, but it has an application for iPads, so I have downloaded the app and it is quite accurate; a lot of the farmers around here use it. Try it out!

Great forecast information, maps shows precip, tornadic rotation, squalls, and you can even check it for earthquakes! Moon phases, sunrise, sunset.. I love it.

Thanks for the link! I am going to try it. I don't believe the weather.com one. It was hotter than not on Saturday and I was out working on the coop until 2pm and then I couldn't take it any more. I had to go in. There was a slight breeze but that just felt like a heater.

Well we are on a gulch that carries noises
But I would be careful about breeds with a piecing crow.

The good thing about the gulch is no one knows where the noise comes from. They do have decrowing for roos but it is pricy. Supposed to be humane however some chicken vet invented it.

What breeds are you looking into? There are some quiet silkie roosters. And a single roo is quieter then a few who get into contests like the alum rock boys choir.

Stuffing got taken by a predator Friday night. She would not go in the coop and she was right under my window. Whatever got her snapped her neck instantly and did not make noise until she hit the ground so I was too late. It hung out in the gulch waiting to come back for about an hour but stayed out of flashlight range. This ha been a bad chicken last month or so here...

You have had a bad couple of months.....sorry about Stuffing..... I love the names you come up with. Do they just come to you or do you work at them?

I am so sorry you lost stuffing! I lost a Black Australorp this weekend. She was fine when I locked them up. It look like she just fell dead off of the roost. Already dropped of at UCD--They have an off hours drop off room there.
The Egg Farmer I am working with is going to work on them next. He has 60 Basque Hens and is ready to move on to the next Breed--UofA Blues and the Crele Penes are likely next.

The UofA blue egg layers should be heat hardy! I am happy that they really are. Are you ready for your Splash pullet?

When you take a chicken to UCD do they have to be in any special "wrapping" and can they be frozen? or at least refrigerated?

Our Cuckoo Maran Baby (a year old) was missing last night when we did our chicken count... Found her dead this am in the dog house.

We had lots of water and puddles all over for all our chickens to cool in the heat. They are free range and we have big trees everywhere.

She was our only dark layer

and a real sweetie! I'm learning the loss of chickens is a part of havering them. Hope she didn't suffer! I have no idea why she passed...

Yes, I am having some issues with my 6 week olds too and it is a little frustrating..... I don't like feeling sad and often helpless.

Im only 2500 messages behind ! yikes!!! So sorry for the losses from the heat

It is one thing I dont have to worry about here. I am adding some new chickens ... Bantam Cochins, to my Silkies only flock. They will be here later today, cant wait to see them . A few pictures from the breeder...

WOW! I like those!

After some of you said your chickens don't like frozen watermelon, I figured I'd give it a try. Took a rock hard watermelon and put it in the coop, and they've been going at it for probably a couple hours now! Probably because it's so dang hot out, they're all panting.

Another great picture!

I have 11 crele penedesenca eggs I can ship out Tuesday if anyone wants any. I am worming them tomorrow and will not have any for a few weeks after

I wish I could say "sure" I will take those! But I literally just moved 6 week old stinky chickens out of my garage yesterday. I need a break and some time to clean up after the mess! lol

I have only introduced a Rooster once. It was one of him and 15 Hens and pullets--It was a riot! The big girls attacked him and he ninja flipped over them and ran away! I took him back in and let them see each other the next day. They were much nicer, so I took him back in and let him stay the night in the coop.

I can't have Roosters here, so I took him in early in the morning while it was till dark and then let him back out with them at 7:30 before I left for work. It took several days but they warmed up to him and I was able to hatch 11 of 12 eggs from my own flock. Sadly Orlando the Cream Legbar got me busted with AC so I had to give up the Roosters.

So when Animal Control came by what did they do?