Colorado

[Ashdoes]

Ash my candler is a mag light flashlight and a toilet paper tube. i would like the experience of candling so I am going to attempt to do each one, at least that is what I think I am doing, lol. I say that cause it might change, like 10 more times, before tonight.

You can just stand there, at the bator, with it open and pull one at a time. No need to open and close. Keep a pencil, and mark an X on the good ones then at the end pull the bad ones...then next time you candle, mark an O for good ones and then at the end pull the bad ones. You'll find a good system after a while.

 

[Ashdoes]

Good snowy morning all! Here in hidden village parker we have about two maybe three inches of heavy wet snow. I went out to check my hen and her nest and the three peeps I had alive yesterday remain so and are fuzzy and happy with mom. The final egg quite literally fell open during my inspection so I will check again in an hour to ensure she's ok. Not that I can do anything for her anyway. Still unsure what caused the other peep deaths and crushing. I wonder if the other hens got near her and due to the critical period in her hatching she got upset....may never know. The peeps that I found dead seemed very healthy. No outward signs of weakness of malformation.

It's snowing hard right now but if you go out in it its mixed with rain drops. Thank goodness for water.


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We actually had to put a block up, because the other hens were messing with the broody too much. It is very possible that those eggs were shuffled and smooshed by the other hens.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Snowing hard here as well. Right about 4 inches.

 

[COChix]

You can just stand there, at the bator, with it open and pull one at a time. No need to open and close. Keep a pencil, and mark an X on the good ones then at the end pull the bad ones...then next time you candle, mark an O for good ones and then at the end pull the bad ones. You'll find a good system after a while.

Thanks for the tips! I am overly nervous, I guess since this is my first rodeo with incubating/hatching. I will not post all 42 pictures, but will post a few.

Snowing lightly now, we just got about 2-3 inches dumped on us since 7:30 am. Seems to be stopping for now. The flock is not amused with this spring weather and the back and forth. We need to rebuild our roosts as our wood has split. Here is what I would like to do....scratch that, I need to find the pictures.

 

[COChix]

Ok here is our current roosting situation. We have three rows of roosts the length of the coop and then a roost or perch bare in front of the nest boxes

We will do something similar to this

.

With removable roosts similar to this concept.

We have the wood and measurements, my BF needs to cut the wood and then I will be assembling and installing into the coop.


Oh had last follow up with surgeon until August. I am off restrictions but still limited by pain, stiffness and the fact that it is still healing. Everything looks good and the surgeon at first was confused thinking I was at my 6 month point now. So that is a good thing!

Have our seeds for our garden for the cold season veggies, going to be planting those seeds soon. I might have gotten carried away, we have three different types of carrots.

 

[uzisuzuki]

@uzisuzuki Did any of those babies hatch? Been a couple days since the 21st day so was just curious.

Any suggestions on a system that works for candling a lot of eggs? I have 42 to candle tonight and I am thinking I might take a row of eggs out at a time, put them in an egg carton while I candle and take pictures. Then after the row is done I can open the bator and put them back and get the next row. Or am I being too concerned about opening and closing the bator a whole bunch. Thoughts?

No, just a single external pip on 1 egg the day after the 21st day mark (that was yesterday). I kinda expected a day late since my other 2 hatched the day after 21. Hopefully, I'll have a blue red phoenix bantam chick when I get home from work tonight! I'm actually hoping for more than 1 to hatch since I think my other 2 chicks would probably bully a single chick too much.

 

[COChix]

No, just a single external pip on 1 egg the day after the 21st day mark (that was yesterday). I kinda expected a day late since my other 2 hatched the day after 21. Hopefully, I'll have a blue red phoenix bantam chick when I get home from work tonight! I'm actually hoping for more than 1 to hatch since I think my other 2 chicks would probably bully a single chick too much.

.

 

[suncatcher]

Hopefully this is a good place to post this.

In the next month or so (maybe 6 weeks) we are going to need our coop. We have 7 chicks now and with a one year old daughter and full time jobs, our dreams of building our coop are clearly becoming out of reach.

We have looked at Wardle, found some "ok" coops there... Of course there is CostCo and Amazon, but we don't really want to do that. We really want a custom coop and run for our gals.

With a budget of only around $600, does anyone here have recommendations? We are located in the Park Hill area and have a very large yard and space for our future coop.

Maybe someone here builds coops and will take pity on us? Maybe there's a feed store or custom builder I haven't found on Craigslist yet? Any advice is welcome. I just want a great place for our ladies and wish we could do it ourselves.

I would check out Coops R Us, they are east of Denver, I think, but they do deliver for a fee. They are on the Colorado Chickens FB page.......

 

[suncatcher]

Quote: I candle only at night, and I put an ! with a marker if I think it is viable, and ? in marker if I am not sure. I do this every week, so when they are ready to hatch those that go into lockdown, should have 3-4 ! mark on them. I use the X and O for turning them. Just what works for me, and keeps the guess work down for me.

eta. I stand right next to the bator and candle one at a time closing the lid while I candle. Everyone will do it different, you will find what works for you.......

 

[suncatcher]

Quote: Fingers crossed!! I always help chicks that have piped internally with shipped eggs, is not their fault they have to deal with wonky air cells! Hope you get at least a trio!