California - Northern

[debs_flock]

Thanks for the offer, they are adorable, but I'm trying to thin out my flock at the moment. I've been sorting out and processing extra cockerels. I had probably close to 100 boys and I'd like to bring that down to around 30. Of course, I currently have 16 eggs in lockdown and another 50 or so incubating. Add to that 40 quail eggs in the incubators and about 3 dozen more eggs in my holding area where I save up eggs for incubation.

Apparently I'm unaware of how to cut back

Deb

 

[MonsterClucker]

Thanks for the offer, they are adorable, but I'm trying to thin out my flock at the moment.  I've been sorting out and processing extra cockerels.  I had probably close to 100 boys and I'd like to bring that down to around 30.  Of course, I currently have 16 eggs in lockdown and another 50 or so incubating.  Add to that 40 quail eggs in the incubators and about 3 dozen more eggs in my holding area where I save up eggs for incubation.

Apparently I'm unaware of how to cut back

Deb

Oh wow. Lol you have your hands full I see
Well at least you still have lots of other chickens that love you. Lol.

 

[chiqita]

deb, YOUR GOING THE WRONG WAYYY! less is - not +.

OK, you genetic experts I had a ???? moment this morning. I have what looks like a white or blue striped showgirl. Don't you need 2 partridge genes to create a partridge chick? I have one partridge ( classic colors) hen, but she has like 90 chicks atm and just started laying again. What could have created this chick??? Can you carry a recessive partridge gene if you have a white roo? his hackles are gold, so hes got something going on.

This chick has me stumped! I'll try and get pics.

 

[Meg2000000]

Thanks Meg! This was my first hatch with a basic still air LG. Just wanted to test my "incubation hands" a little ya know? lol. I used the dry incubation method. ir was super easy! I had a few temp fluctuations but 6 out 14 almost %50 on my first run, ill take that!
Yea I think I'm going to keep a few to see what happens. It'll be nice to see the past and future generations of our chickens!

I did the dry incubation method on my first ever hatch. I had 26 quail eggs in there and only 9 hatched. It was super easy to do since you basically set the eggs and forget them, but I didn't do any candling to make sure the air cells were developing correctly so I think the small hatch was my fault. I too have an LG but it has a fan. I'm sure I could turn it off though. It makes me nervous to try again with expensive eggs!

I'm having a lot of fun keeping track of the little chicks. It's fun to be able to look back on each week of pictures and notice the changes. It will be awesome to look back at them when they're grown and laying!

Your new babies are so cute!

ThanksMegan,
just up the hill a little higher. Still Placerville zip code

I am just happy to know my incubator seems to be working

So not too far.. Awesome! Let us know if you get the place. Good luck!

A couple of weekends ago, an elderly lady at church(well older than me-in her late 60's. I am not too far behind her...) told me that when she was growing up, they had chickens. She said it was sad when the weasel killed them because they did not have eggs for eating or baking. They were poor and could not afford to buy eggs.

I doubt they fed the chickens layer feed either.

Good job fixing up the gaps to both of you.

Ron

Every time I go to buy something for the chickens I wonder how they did it back in the day as far as cost. I wonder what's changed so much. Do you think it's free ranging? I really would like to spend less!

Thanks for the offer, they are adorable, but I'm trying to thin out my flock at the moment.  I've been sorting out and processing extra cockerels.  I had probably close to 100 boys and I'd like to bring that down to around 30.  Of course, I currently have 16 eggs in lockdown and another 50 or so incubating.  Add to that 40 quail eggs in the incubators and about 3 dozen more eggs in my holding area where I save up eggs for incubation.

Apparently I'm unaware of how to cut back

Deb

Lol the brain says you no more and your heart says keep going! Ahh for the love of chickens!

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Wow! Multi Quote

Dry hatch is really not the correct term. Did you catch Sunny's post yesterday? She used the dry hatch and incubates at 30%. In Woodland I cannot get 30% without adding water.

Relative humidity at the Ponderosa fire today is 12%. Heat lowers the humidity so if the room is 50% it goes down to something like 20% or so at 99.5 degrees. Incubate at a low humidity of 35 to 40%.

I was shocked today to find veining in 3 of the Trader joes fertile eggs today! Megan, if you have a trader joes in your area, go pick up a dozen and see what you get. Look for the freshest ones in the display case. Under $3.00 for a dozen so who cares if they hatch or not. It is good practice.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Well, it was not all that great for the chickens in the old days. They compensated for the lower egg production by keeping more chickens. What I remember is giving them oats and layer feed in the morning and dinner scraps at night. We did this all year round. Others cut off the food a bit during molt which is the wrong thing to do. They need more protein during the molt, not less. It helps them to recover. We did not give them free access to food, just tossed several hand fulls on the ground for them. They were forced to forage on their own.

I also read that lots of chickens did not make it through the winter because of the way they were fed and they did not care back them. Chickens were not too valuable to most people. There have always been show chickens though and they were better cared for. Ours did not die in the winters though; just in the summer and when the dog got one.

Ron

 

[HighNDryFarm]

Hey guys....I think most of you incubate so I posted this under the broodie hatching thread but hoping someone here may have an idea, if you read both threads, sorry for the double post:
I need some advice here....my Polish broody has hatched about 17 chicks in the last week. Lost a couple at the beginning and a few more as there got to be more chicks the pipped ones I think were getting pecked and stepped. One for sure I found had not absorbed the yolk, I cleaned up it's feet which had yolk and shaving stuck to it and tucked it back under mom but it didn't make it. She still have 7 eggs and is pretty committed to them still but is getting out and letting the chicks wander around so I stopped putting a little bowl of water and food in the box because it's so tight in there.....I found a chick dead last night and thought maybe it was because maybe it was unable to get out of the box (there's a pretty good hop to get out but the others were doing it with ease) and didn't have food and water all day. This morning everyone was fine but I just went out to check on them and mom and most of the chicks were out and there was another dead one towards the back of the box.
So she now has only 9 (another EE broody has 4 of the Polish eggs). They're in a box that's about 12"x16" and the space outside the box is about 4'x4'. Do you think they're getting squished. There's no apparent reason on these chicks. They were all bopping around, vents are clear, eyes looked good...and now they're dead.
I pulled two of the remaining 7 eggs and I see one is pipped. Should I give it to the EE broody who only has 4 chicks with 2 more to hatch? Here's the issue with that one....she's in a box about the same size but it's about 2' off the ground and her older chicks are getting active. When I went up this morning one was down below.....all the other chickens and the roo were on the FAR end of the run to give her space so they're not going to hurt them but I was hoping her other two eggs would hatch today and then I'd move her and her crew to my grow out pen.
Should I move the pipped egg to the EE? Is my Polish too crowded?

 

[zooweemama]

That is horrible!!! I hope you are not too sad. You are more than welcome to these chicks I just hatched. They are RIR x Dorking/Americuana!
The rooster was given to me by Ron.It was my first hatch. I hatched 6 yesterday. if you would like them, NO CHARGE I'd be more than happy for you to have them.

So stinking CUTE!

 

[zooweemama]

Anyone good at math? I can do some great basic math and I am pretty sharp in a lot of things....but numbers turn into Chinese if there are too many variables.

My duck coop is an octagon. Literally. And it is just over 10 feet across to the other side. It's pretty even. But since it is not perfectly round and it is not square...I am stumped on figuring out the square footage. My ducks only sleep it in at night. 9am-9pm on the pond/free ranging. (basically from dawn to dusk and that will vary throughout the year) Ducks need approx 4 sq ft per bird on the median side...2 on the tight side and 6 on the looser side. I figure going with the middle is the best. I am trying to figure out how many ducks I can keep in my coop. I have 14 now. I would like to get some more ducks next year- possibly 10 more girls next year (or let a duck or two hatch their own young). So I am trying to see how many I could safely keep. Ducks so far have been going very well for us- I am not having any issues like I have with the chickens so we may want to add to our duck egg laying stock.

Can any math savvy person help me?

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Anyone good at math? I can do some great basic math and I am pretty sharp in a lot of things....but numbers turn into Chinese if there are too many variables.

My duck coop is an octagon. Literally. And it is just over 10 feet across to the other side. It's pretty even. But since it is not perfectly round and it is not square...I am stumped on figuring out the square footage. My ducks only sleep it in at night. 9am-9pm on the pond/free ranging. (basically from dawn to dusk and that will vary throughout the year) Ducks need approx 4 sq ft per bird on the median side...2 on the tight side and 6 on the looser side. I figure going with the middle is the best. I am trying to figure out how many ducks I can keep in my coop. I have 14 now. I would like to get some more ducks next year- possibly 10 more girls next year (or let a duck or two hatch their own young). So I am trying to see how many I could safely keep. Ducks so far have been going very well for us- I am not having any issues like I have with the chickens so we may want to add to our duck egg laying stock.

Can any math savvy person help me?

Aaaaagh! I used to be pretty good at math (used to grade Trig papers at the JC) but now I am older and have mommy-brain.

Looked on good old google, and it seems like you need to know the length of a side to use the formula. Just found an Octagon Area Calculator http://www.math-prof.com/AreaVolume/Octagon.aspx that will do all the work for you, but you need the length of one side.

Yay! More ducks! Sad that you've had so many chicken problems.

 

[debs_flock]

deb, YOUR GOING THE WRONG WAYYY! less is - not +.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, I get it. And to think I was an accountant type for 30 years. I knew I was doing something wrong!

Can any math savvy person help me?

I think I understood what you meant by your dimensions. It would be around 85 square feet. If it were square, 10x10=100. Each quarter is 25, a quarter of that is around 6, you're losing half of each of those four times for the shape, around 12. So approximately 100-12 = 88.

Rounding all the numbers to make it easier in my head.

Deb