Colorado

[maggiemo]

Awesome!

21- Not to be an eggstinator, ?, sounds good anyway, but now that you have fed the girls all winter during their layoff, shouldn't you just get this seasons eggs out of them and then cull in the fall when they slow down and go into molt?

X2
I was thinking the same thing about feeding them all winter and getting one last season of eggs out of them. They are always nice big eggs too after a molt.

Here is my laugh for the day, not chicken, but garden related.

 

[Double Kindness]

Oh I love that meme.. going to post it to Facebook lol. I'm making caramel atm. The humidity in my hatching incubator dropped to 40%, what should I do?

 

[Mtn Margie]

Add steamy warm water, not boiling, with a drinking straw through the venting hole to one of your water trays. You can also add a crumpled up paper towel placed in a cup near the ventilation hole and add warm water to it as needed to keep the humidity up. I can only get mine up near 60 and then it falls back down. A lot of people add a humidifier to the room and that helps, but really the steamy water (100 degree) will help a lot.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Also, when the chicks start externally pipping, the humidity will go up some too. It is a great signal to start really looking and break out the neck rub, coffee and perhaps some pain reliever.....

 

[Double Kindness]

I added water. The pencil date says 12/31. Am I over anxiety over this?

 

[21hens-incharge]

I am kinda thinking hard about the culling. I may be over thinking like I tend to do.
I would like to let them go another season, but.... Most of them are from Welp and have never layed well anyway. Today I got 4 eggs. Yesterday was only 2. It sure beats the big fat 0's I got all winter long.

I for sure have to cull some since they have never layed a decent egg in their lives. I have an EE that has always had the yolk stuck to the inside of the shell even on an egg layed the same day it was cracked open. I have a Delaware that lays about 2 times a week on a good week and her eggs are so huge that it causes her to not be able to clear her fluff with poo. She had a clean fluffy bum all winter and now that she has layed ONE egg it is all gross again. I hate bathing her every couple days and knowing it must be doing damage to her. Then there are the meanies. I have a beautiful blue wyandotte that lays soft shelled eggs and is mean as heck to the other chickens. The Gold Laced is a mean bugger too. She draws blood on people.
For me those are the ones that MUST go. OH and someone is turning egg eater on me. I need to catch them in the act to know for sure.

I was thinking to cull soon so the new ones would be laying before winter.

The Cackle package is a tempting price, but so many birds would be a huge chore to figure out who to keep and who to sell. What would I do if there were ones that I could not sell and could not keep. More culling. GAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH.


Double Kindness,

That is so cool that your littles are almost here. I am hoping for pics when they are ready for their debut.

My funny for the day....







Hoping everyone had a good Monday.

 

[COChix]

Geez don't envy the position you are in and trying to make those decisions. I know down the road those types of decisions have to be made. Good luck and let us know the outcome.

Also a big to you and telling me about Jax Pacific Pearl oyster shell, picked up a bag and it is exactly what I was looking for. Here is a shot of the bag and shells if anyone else is interested, I put some out around 2 in their cat foods tins (4) and it was gone by 4.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I am glad they had some for you.
Finding just the right stuff is a real chore sometimes.

Mine are really liking it too. I am wondering if it is what the poor layers have been needing. I hate the culling part of chicken keeping.

DH does not want me to do it but after losing the young hen this weekend he understands better why I am needing to.

On a related note.....
Cackle Hatchery is only a 13 hour drive with very few turns. No wondering if they are lost in shipment, smooshed by an uncaring package handler, shaken by a down right mean handler, frozen in transit, roasted in transit etc.

DH no longer thinks I am nuts, he KNOWS it. lol

 

[trsturself]

I am glad they had some for you.
Finding just the right stuff is a real chore sometimes.

Mine are really liking it too. I am wondering if it is what the poor layers have been needing. I hate the culling part of chicken keeping.

DH does not want me to do it but after losing the young hen this weekend he understands better why I am needing to.

On a related note.....
Cackle Hatchery is only a 13 hour drive with very few turns. No wondering if they are lost in shipment, smooshed by an uncaring package handler, shaken by a down right mean handler, frozen in transit, roasted in transit etc.

DH no longer thinks I am nuts, he KNOWS it. lol

Oh no, don't tell me that. I already have my order in, but I can do 13 hours.

I don't have any funnies to add.

I need to get my friend's chickens out of here. I think I need to break up my flock into their breeding pens. One of our silkie roos has decided he wants to be the head rooster and there has been fighting. Now our BCM rooster won't even come out of the coop most days. There is very little courting going on since they are so consumed with the pecking order. I haven't gotten an egg in a couple weeks again. I'm pretty sure it's the stress. A bunch of the girls won't leave the coop any more.

 

[uzisuzuki]

I don't have a funny cartoon, but I did notice this odd thing going on with my chickens today:

I was trying not to pass out whilst replacing the tarp on the top of the run when I noticed everyone crowded in the corner where Athena & Calypso like to lay eggs. I walked over & found Calypso trying to get situated to lay her egg while everyone else lined up to watch her. Nausicaä sometimes would get in the nesting box with Calypso, poke her head around, then turn towards the others & make a really loud cluck-cluck-cluck at them before getting back in line. I think my flock is involved in some kind of fertility cult. That would explain the hiding of eggs...

Then before everyone went back to the barn for the night, Penelope laid an egg! So, I definitely have 3 hens laying (pretty sure Nausicaä is starting, too, some of the eggs lately have been really tiny). She waited until she was alone in the run to lay her egg. Performance anxiety, I'm guessing.

Hope y'all have a good week!