Colorado

[Ashdoes]

I feed them back, when I'm not putting them in the worm bin. No cooking, just raw shells.

 

[trsturself]

Does anyone here feed their hens their egg shells back to them crushed up? I read somewhere that you should boil them first, but is kinda hard when you do scrambled eggs instead of a boiled eggs. Just curious.......


Also, where did the spell check go? I don;t see spell check anymore in the reply box. lol

We feed the egg shells back instead of the oyster shell. We rinse the egg shell after emptying and then stick it in a container we keep on our counter for them to dry. Once we have a full container of rinsed/dried shells we use our food grinder to grind them into a coarse powder. My husband will microwave the shells if he gets to them first, but I don't. I don't see the point as long as you rinse them right away.

 

[suncatcher]

Thanks, That was my thinking using it in place of oyster shell. I just started it, just was not sure if many others were. I do not rinse them, but set them in a large open plastic used veggie tray to let them dry out for several days, we run a woodstove and that keeps the air in the house really dry. I am wondering if I may have to add oyster shell back once they pick up on laying.

 

[trsturself]

Thanks to this thread I have found a local source for bantam cochin and silkie hatching eggs now we just need one more. Will anyone have any D'Uccle hatching eggs (other than Mille Fleur) or other bantam eggs? We aren't interested in OEGB but will consider others.

Our chickens are so happy that freeze is over!

Good thing my brooder isn't ready, or I'd be on my way to pick up chicks! So hard to pass them up!

Speaking of brooders, what does everyone use? Our first couple batches we used a small animal cage inside a cardboard box (for draft and cat protection), our next few batches we used a large dog crate (the wire kind) with cardboard all around it but we lost a ton of chicks in that brooder. We lost chicks from both the mail and local sources so I don't think it was where we got the chicks from, and the last batch we started on corrid immediately and still lost half. So I'm thinking maybe something about the brooder wasn't right. Even though everything seemed as it should (clean, warm/cool sides, fresh food water, draft free, etc) it's the only thing I can come up with that was a common denominator in all the batches. So this year I want to do something different. I'm leaning towards a large rubbermaid style bin like I've seen a lot of people do on here. I go back and forth whether it will be big enough though. We're going to set 36 eggs at a time but don't expect them all to hatch and then we'll sell the majority of them at the swap before they are too big.

I've seen people use a wood frame and just wrap it in chicken wire, but that seems so drafty to me. Any experience/opinions on a good brooder made from recycled materials (or really cheap ones)? Most important, what have you found DOESN'T work? What to watch out for?

 

[suncatcher]

Thanks to this thread I have found a local source for bantam cochin and silkie hatching eggs now we just need one more. Will anyone have any D'Uccle hatching eggs (other than Mille Fleur) or other bantam eggs? We aren't interested in OEGB but will consider others. 

Our chickens are so happy that freeze is over! 

Good thing my brooder isn't ready, or I'd be on my way to pick up chicks! So hard to pass them up!

Speaking of brooders, what does everyone use? Our first couple batches we used a small animal cage inside a cardboard box (for draft and cat protection), our next few batches we used a large dog crate (the wire kind) with cardboard all around it but we lost a ton of chicks in that brooder. We lost chicks from both the mail and local sources so I don't think it was where we got the chicks from, and the last batch we started on corrid immediately and still lost half. So I'm thinking maybe something about the brooder wasn't right. Even though everything seemed as it should (clean, warm/cool sides, fresh food water, draft free, etc) it's the only thing I can come up with that was a common denominator in all the batches. So this year I want to do something different. I'm leaning towards a large rubbermaid style bin like I've seen a lot of people do on here. I go back and forth whether it will be big enough though. We're going to set 36 eggs at a time but don't expect them all to hatch and then we'll sell the majority of them at the swap before they are too big. 

I've seen people use a wood frame and just wrap it in chicken wire, but that seems so drafty to me. Any experience/opinions on a good brooder made from recycled materials (or really cheap ones)? Most important, what have you found DOESN'T work? What to watch out for? 

Check out Dick Hortsmans site, he sells both D'Uccle chicks and hatching eggs. He as several colors, and some very pretty little whites. He is very resonable (sp) in price, $20 for a dozen plus a flat fee for shipping. Who knows, he may do half a dozen, if it is all that will fit into your incubator.
http://horstmanspoultry.com/bantamshome/whiteduccle.html

Last year I used a plastic storage tub, cut out a ten inch by 12 inch square out of the top, put in wire with zip ties, hung the light way above it, as it was plenty warm! I needed something cat proof, it worked fairly well. I had ten or 12 in each tub, they did fine, did have to move them to a large dog carrier once they grew some. I will see if I can get a picture of it up here today.

 

[trsturself]

Check out Dick Hortsmans site, he sells both D'Uccle chicks and hatching eggs. He as several colors, and some very pretty little whites. He is very resonable (sp) in price, $20 for a dozen plus a flat fee for shipping. Who knows, he may do half a dozen, if it is all that will fit into your incubator.
http://horstmanspoultry.com/bantamshome/whiteduccle.html

Last year I used a plastic storage tub, cut out a ten inch by 12 inch square out of the top, put in wire with zip ties, hung the light way above it, as it was plenty warm! I needed something cat proof, it worked fairly well. I had ten or 12 in each tub, they did fine, did have to move them to a large dog carrier once they grew some. I will see if I can get a picture of it up here today.

Thanks. I've seen quite a few that I can ship but I'd prefer to find a local source. If I don't find something local I'm going to order some bantam EE eggs.

Something like that is at the top of the list right now. Did you have LF or bantams in there?

 

[samsr]

Ditto on the rubbermaid tub. I just put hatdware cloth on the top and a 60 wat bulb in a holder right on top. It kept the brooder at the correct temp. Mine had to be cat proof also. I found the cat more than once trying to figure out how to get in.

 

[suncatcher]

Check out Dick Hortsmans site, he sells both D'Uccle chicks and hatching eggs. He as several colors, and some very pretty little whites. He is very resonable (sp) in price, $20 for a dozen plus a flat fee for shipping. Who knows, he may do half a dozen, if it is all that will fit into your incubator.
http://horstmanspoultry.com/bantamshome/whiteduccle.html


Last year I used a plastic storage tub, cut out a ten inch by 12 inch square out of the top, put in wire with zip ties, hung the light way above it, as it was plenty warm! I needed something cat proof, it worked fairly well. I had ten or 12 in each tub, they did fine, did have to move them to a large dog carrier once they grew some. I will see if I can get a picture of it up here today.

Thanks. I've seen quite a few that I can ship but I'd prefer to find a local source. If I don't find something local I'm going to order some bantam EE eggs.

Something like that is at the top of the list right now. Did you have LF or bantams in there?

Bantam, and a couple large fowl chicks. Local, I don't know anyone with D'Uccle??? You might try posting in the Buy, Sell, Trade section, that you are looking for eggs in Colorado.

 

[suncatcher]

Ditto on the rubbermaid tub. I just put hatdware cloth on the top and a 60 wat bulb in a holder right on top. It kept the brooder at the correct temp. Mine had to be cat proof also. I found the cat more than once trying to figure out how to get in.

Hardware cloth, I was trying to think of what the wire was called! Thanks! Yep, the cats think with all the peeping they are fair game! Will have to try the 60 watt bulb, I used a heat lamp, just hung it way high from the top of the brooder, or they got too hot.

 

[trsturself]

Thanks everyone. That's the way I'll go then. And with a 60watt bulb I won't have to buy a different holder for the heat lamp, our regular holder can hold that.
Big lots has huge tubs for $18 right now. I need to run over and get one before they are gone!