Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Josie, you're actually really lucky they survived. I had one that got shrink wrapped yesterday and even though it absorbed the rest of it's yolk it didn't make it. In the past I have taken those ducks that seem bent over and gave them a very nice warm bath to get the rest of the sticky off of them. I have dried a couple with a low setting on a hair dryer and fluffed them up or just placed them back into the incubator to dry off. I do offer them a drink of sugar water if I can get them to swollow it. Usually with a dropper or dip their beak in it. Some pull through and others don't. They actually do best if there are more than one of them that are trying to get on their feet. I've got some in the incubator right now that are taking their sweet time to hatch. It makes me nervous if they lag behind the rest.
I've got a huge nest of 4 duck hens and tons of eggs that should be about ready to hatch soon. I am just letting them do their own thing but the survival rate isn't all that good when they Mom's do the brooding. I just have so many ducks right now.
Marty1976 came and got 5 of the turkey poults. Nice to meet you, Marty. Now I hope the rest of them do well. They seem to be doing really good. Knock on wood.
Cherwill, I had a water system years ago that came with all the fittings, weep hose, and spray nozzels etc. I had it set up in my flower garden. It was pretty handy but after the first year my fittings started coming off and I finally gave up on it. I am sure they have improved them over time. I bought all the parts from Walmart but I don't know that they still carry them.

 

[JosieChick]

Danz- They are pretty fluffy and dried off but they are just all curled up still. Poor babies. I gave them some vitamins but they are still having trouble getting themselves righted. The first one to hatch is finally able to stand up but its head shakes so badly when it does that it flops back down. The other two keep getting flipped over on their backs and stuck?

 

[tweetysvoice]

I scored a huge dog run the other day for only $75!

Score!! That's awesome!!

Danz- They are pretty fluffy and dried off but they are just all curled up still. Poor babies. I gave them some vitamins but they are still having trouble getting themselves righted. The first one to hatch is finally able to stand up but its head shakes so badly when it does that it flops back down. The other two keep getting flipped over on their backs and stuck?

I wish I could help you with this, but I really hope they all pull through!!

All's fine here in Lawrence - speaking of that, anyone heard from chooks lately? I really wish we would have gotten some of that rain that was coming through - we got nothing but wind, lightening, and thunder. I'm gonna hate seeing my next water bill!

Daffy (my male cayuga duck) has taken a liking to Ruby, my BO. His hormones are apparently kicking in and he's chasing her around the pen. I'm not horribly worried only because she has places she can go to get away. She flys atop the coop or goes behind where were bricked an area off to keep the ducks out of just so the chickens have a place to "get away". I'm glad I'd thought of something like that before it actually happened. I haven't seen Daffy going after the other two ducks like that though.. lol. I'm sure it will happen.

My DH had a question about fertile duck eggs. Are they safe to eat and what is the time limit on eating them if so? He's kinda grossed out by it, but since we have a Drake, I'm assuming that most of the eggs that Ducky and Goose will lay will be fertile. Think I could still sell them? I'm pretty sure they won't start laying till next spring, but I didn't know how to answer his questions. I can't wait for the chickens to start laying. I'd figured about the first of August, so it's gonna be soon! I've started peeking in the nest boxes every few days - just in case.. hehe.

We got our "full" misting system now - gonna get it set up next weekend. So far the Cobra is working great. The chickens have finally started going under it and aren't scared anymore. I like seeing them all just doing normal chicken things under it - makes me feel much better about them being out in the heat.

 

[chicken danz]

Tweety, I'm sorry but I had to laugh at your question. Of course fertile duck eggs are fine to eat. I have a huge market for them too. They are no different than chicken eggs that are fertile. In the heat like it is I would gather them daily and refrigerate them so they don't start to grow, just like you would a chicken egg. But normally you could go up to a week without refrigerating them as long as you don't wash them and let bacteria in.
If you refrigerate them they'll keep as long as a chicken egg would. I've eaten lots of duck eggs and they are rich and delicious. So much nicer than chicken eggs. You would never know if they are fertile or not.
Now I have a question. You'd think with all these birds I have I would have the knowledge but I just haven't had to deal with this.
What do mites look like? What color and how big. I have some young chicks that have their behind picked and they are too young to be bred. I assumed they might have mites. So I put on my glasses, grabbed a strong magnifying glass and checked one of the worst ones out. There's nothing there. I looked all over her, around her vent under her wings, etc and couldn't find any. I remember years ago picking up a bird's nest that had mites and they crawled all over the place. There just wasn't anything on this chicken. Why else would certain chickens of different ages be picking their behinds? It's not rooster related. I have several bare backs from that. I'm baffled. I could treat them all but that would be a real pain.

 

[tweetysvoice]

Tweety, I'm sorry but I had to laugh at your question. Of course fertile duck eggs are fine to eat. I have a huge market for them too. They are no different than chicken eggs that are fertile. In the heat like it is I would gather them daily and refrigerate them so they don't start to grow, just like you would a chicken egg. But normally you could go up to a week without refrigerating them as long as you don't wash them and let bacteria in.
If you refrigerate them they'll keep as long as a chicken egg would. I've eaten lots of duck eggs and they are rich and delicious. So much nicer than chicken eggs. You would never know if they are fertile or not.

okay, I feel silly I actually didn't know any of that, so thank you very much for explaining it all! My grandmother always had chickens, never any roosters, so I've never really been around fertile eggs. Glad to know all of this!!!!

 

[Trish44]

Whew, it's been quite a busy day, we had to go to Wichita & do the usual shopping, Sam's, Walmart, & went to Lowe's & returned the wood my DH bought that was the wrong thing. We got the flooring, all of the 2x4s for the walls & the OSB & siding for the outside. That will keep us busy for awhile. We also got the new wheelbarrow today, yay! We came home with a very loaded down truck.

Right as we were leaving today my DH called me out the front door because the broody hen on the porch had hatched out an Ameraucana chick & it was on the ground. My DH not knowing any better went over & was going to pick it up & that hen went after him with a vengeance. He yelled at me to come out & she was pitching a fit at him. I went over & picked up the chick & boy did she yell at me, she was still going on when we left. I took the chick in & put it in the hatcher to keep it warm until we got back. It has about the worst case of spraddle leg I have had with a chick, poor thing. I have fixed it's legs up with a bandaid, but I don't know if the poor thing will be able to walk eventually or not. It's a very healthy looking chick otherwise. I don't know if the momma hen sat on it & caused it's legs to do that or it just hatched that way. She had smashed one chick in the shell I noticed & it was dead. I will have to watch closely now because all of the rest of the eggs are due any day now.

Oh Danz, my little peafowl chick isn't learning to eat & drink & it's not learning from the chicks it's with. I have read they are harder to teach to eat if they don't have others of their kind to show them. I'm getting a couple this week some time that are a month old, but until then I have been giving the poor little thing electrolytes & I will give it some vitamins too, but I can't get it to eat. I tried the egg, but it just spit out more than it ate. I got a little bit of yogurt down it, but not much. I'm afraid it's going to die before I get the other ones for it to pattern after. Any suggestions?

 

[Trish44]

Update on the peafowl chick, I went & got some yogurt & mixed a little with oatmeal. I kept pecking my finger on the bottom of the incubator where I have the little guy to watch it close & it started pecking at my finger. This was a big breakthrough, so I took some of the oatmeal mixture & put it on my finger & it started eating it off my finger. I still can't get it to eat anything any other way yet.

 

[sapphireblu76]

What if you moisten the chick feed and do that? I saw a while back that someone got their chicks to eat that way, with the moistened feed.

 

[chicken danz]

Oh Tweety I didn't realize you didn't have any roosters either. I guess that could cause some weakness on the matter. I would guess that 99% of my eggs end up fertile and no one has ever complained. The embryo doesn't start growing until the conditions are right so an egg is an egg. I hope you didn't take offense that I said I laughed. I just assumed it was something about the ducks that was different. I really didn't mean to be mean. I planned to keep my K-state pullets without a rooster but a big brahma rooster has moved in with them and watches them like hawk. I really don't mind. Since they free range day times I kind of like having a rooster to watch over them.
Well I am totally disgusted. I lost another little lavender orpington during the night. Nothing wrong with it. These chickens hatched ok and seem perfectly normal but that makes 4 of them I've lost. I'm down to just 5 of them now. They were shipped eggs but since they hatched ok I don't see that was a problem.The only thing I can figure is maybe the diet the hens were on wasn't all that great. I have them in with my turkeys and keeping everything in tip top shape and watching them. They are over a week old now so they should be over the weakest period. I have them inside too just so I can control the temperature and stuff the best. This one was acting a little tired yesterday but other than that appeared ok. I'm afraid at this rate my lavender and lemon project is going to be a total bust. I hadn't bought hatching eggs to be shipped in a long time because they never turned out well. I may have to go back to avoiding it. After spending $80 for non-fertile peafowl eggs on top of that I have a pretty sour taste in my mouth. I just put two more peafowl eggs in the incubator yesterday, but they were so hot when they got here I doubt they'll hatch either.
I had taken my 3 peafowl eggs and put them under a broody. I checked on her yesterday and one of them had broken. Dang!
Trish, I'm thinking you were mighty lucky that you hatched that one. What did you use for a hatching tray to hold them by the way? I really can't find anything that fits just right. I hope your little peafowl starts eating now. Sounds like you broke some ground. I really wanted my peahen to hatch her own but the eggs she laid were just laying out there cooking. I think she just quit laying because of all the heat. So Trish, you had said all the eggs had movement. Did they just fail to hatch then?

 

[cherwill]

For some reason, I can't write this underneath the quote, so it goes above it: I have no knowledge of chicken genetics or egg shipping or hatching. Why do you think shipped eggs don't do as well? Do you think the hens aren't as healthy, or does the shipping cause a significant amount of stress? I wonder, if all your eggs came from the same hen, could it be a genetic problem? I'm sorry you're losing so many chicks.

Well I am totally disgusted. I lost another little lavender orpington during the night. Nothing wrong with it. These chickens hatched ok and seem perfectly normal but that makes 4 of them I've lost. I'm down to just 5 of them now. They were shipped eggs but since they hatched ok I don't see that was a problem.The only thing I can figure is maybe the diet the hens were on wasn't all that great. I have them in with my turkeys and keeping everything in tip top shape and watching them. They are over a week old now so they should be over the weakest period. I have them inside too just so I can control the temperature and stuff the best. This one was acting a little tired yesterday but other than that appeared ok. I'm afraid at this rate my lavender and lemon project is going to be a total bust. I hadn't bought hatching eggs to be shipped in a long time because they never turned out well. I may have to go back to avoiding it. After spending $80 for non-fertile peafowl eggs on top of that I have a pretty sour taste in my mouth. I just put two more peafowl eggs in the incubator yesterday, but they were so hot when they got here I doubt they'll hatch either.