Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Well shipped eggs get jostled around a lot. There are temperature extremes as well. You never know how old they are or what conditions they come from, and even for that matter if they are pure bred. An average of 50% hatch on shipped eggs is good, where as at home you can expect between 80 -100 % easily. I would attribute poor chick health more to diet of the hen than due to the shipping, since they did hatch fairly decent. Also when you get specialized colors like the lavenders, the roosters and hens might all be related. That also causes chick deaths. Nature has a way of weeding out problems like that. That is why I try to change a rooster or a blood line at least every year or two to avoid too much inbreeding. I am thinking since these came from the same place inbreeding might be more of a problem. I have some more unrelated eggs in the incubator and haven't checked to see if they are developing. There isn't many of them but maybe I will hatch a few out of them. You can ask questions all day long when buying hatching eggs on line but people are only going to tell you what they want you to hear for the most part, so there is no way to know exactly what you are getting.

 

[HEChicken]

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.

Yay! Hope he/she continues to eat and get strong enough to try eating on its own.

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!

So sorry about the issues with the shipped eggs and the peacock eggs. Shipped eggs are always such a gamble and I do avoid them but sometimes its what you have to try if you want a specific breed and can't find them locally. In retrospect I feel lucky that my one BCM hatched. I had paid quite a bit for some eggs from a breeder who seemed to have high quality birds. I only paid for 8 and she sent 3 extras but out of the 11 eggs, only one hatched. She is a wonderful hen now - more than a year old - and I am pleased to have her although of course I would have liked more to hatch out of those expensive eggs. My only other experience with shipped eggs was Coturnix quail. I ordered from two different breeders and they all arrived on the same day - around 60 eggs, I believe. Of those I had about 25 hatch, which I suppose isn't bad from shipped eggs. Of course both of my shipments were in March/April when temps were neither freezing nor excruciatingly hot, and that may have made a difference too.

Prairie, DH and I got our chunnel built and installed yesterday! I'm so relieved. The day before, I started to really worry about the door when I noticed the guineas flying up and sitting on it near bedtime. Then, when they launched to fly down, I would see the door rocking a little on its hinges and it had me really worried since they are only 7 weeks old now so are only going to get heavier. So I told DH the chunnel was now a high priority and he agreed to work with me on it, even though he kept shaking his head that we are going to THIS much trouble for the poultry. I had to keep reminding him we are going to this much trouble to protect my investment - that door was NOT cheap. Anyway, months ago a friend who was renovating, gave me four internal doors, thinking I could use them on my coop. I used three of them on the coop - my two external doors and my internal door - but had the fourth sitting wasting away. It was a very narrow door - only 24" - so had limited uses as a door, but was perfect for the chunnel. I cut it in half, giving me 2 40" pieces, which became the sides. I then found some scrap plywood and used it as the roof of the chunnel. A couple of other scraps to triangulate and we were done. It really didn't take that long. Then we carried it down to the coop and set it over the door. It looks a lot like yours except it doesn't yet match the coop. I need to paint it to match and then I'll consider it really finished. But for now it keeps the guineas from sitting on the door, and it will also protect the door from wind and other weather so I'm really pleased to have it done.

Oh - funny story about DH while building. While I don't consider myself a great builder, of the two of us, I am the one with more building skills. He is always willing to help me out but lets me lead the projects. So we had the door laid out and I took my tape measure and marked my cut line, and then went to hook up my circular saw. DH asked "Did you measure both the top and the bottom?" I guess I was a little peeved that after all the things I've built he would still think it necessary to point out something as obvious as that, so, being the smart-*** I can be at times, I said "No, I just measured the top and eye-balled it from there". I guess I said it very dead-pan because he then took the tape measure and measured several places along the line and said "Wow, that's amazing - that line is dead on! I can't believe you can eye-ball it and get it that perfect". I'm just looking at him at this point, thinking he's pulling my leg, but he was serious. He actually believed I really drew a perfect line just by guessing. [Shakes head]. I did confess at that point that I was being snarky when I said it and we've been laughing about it ever since.

Last night DH and I went to music theater so were gone for many hours, and didn't get home until way past the chooks' bedtime. Until now, everyone has been going in at night except JB, my head roo, who is a silkie. I think he is having trouble seeing (I can't see his eyes which means he probably can't see well either). So every night the door closes and he is still out and I have to go out and put him in through the people door. I was a little worried about being out so late last night, hoping nothing would find him before we got home, so as soon as we got home, I headed straight down there to tuck him in. My flashlight revealed - no JB. Heart in throat, I opened the coop door and shone the flashlight around and there he was! He actually went into the coop BY HIMSELF last night. And what a night to pick to do it too - the one night I was not going to be there to help him in. We had stopped by the old house while in town for MTW and I picked up my clippers so I plan to trim his crest so he can see better and hopefully after this he will go in by himself every night and I can quit worrying about him.

One of my guineas buckwheated this morning! So at least I know the gender of one of them now. Only a dozen more to figure out....

 

[Hawkeye95]

Danz/anyone with ducks- I need advice on newly hatched call duck babies. I had the eggs under a broody cochin and they started hatching yesterday and she got OFF the nest!!

So I collected them and raced them into the house. Two had pipped so I opened them up and they were both shrink wrapped so I got them out and they looked pretty good considering. The other four I candled and two had pipped the air cell and two had not so I put them the incubator for a bit and ended up having to help the two that had pipped the air cells hatch, but didn't remove them all the way because they hadn't absorbed all their yolk sacs. I lost the other two, it was just too late to save them. One passed during the night but the other three have absorbed their yolks and are still in the bator but are very dizzy and off balance. Is there anything I should do? I will give them each a drop of vitamins but I don't want to take them out when they are weebling around still. They seem like they are stuck in the shape they were in the shell with their necks bent over? Any suggestions?

Oh wow! I named my sticky chick that lived "Sticky". I ended up having to put him under warm running water in the sink and rub off all the sticky gunk. He was "stuck" into a low position, too. Be sure to rub under their wings and bellies-- that was also part of the problem.

We bury the tubing under the mulch, so it's down about 1/2" to 1" but still easy to get to. A lot of the tubing in the chicken pen is visible because you know how they dig ...

It costs a little money to set up the system in the first place, but it's not too bad to buy additional parts when you need to add on. It's nice because it can be customized for what you need watered, and it waters more efficiently so in theory, you'll save water and money. If anyone's interested, we like the system sold at Lowe's better than any other we've seen. It's a little more sturdy and has more options for customizing. I'm not sure how it compares to other systems, price-wise.

Got 2 eggs again today; what's up with my chickens suddenly deciding to lay eggs?!?!?! I thought they'd forgotten how!

OH! We have that stuff! We had it out where we put in new trees, but they ended up dying anyway last year. (too hot) I love that tubing! Yeah, it has plugs or lines that come off of it. We got it at Lowes. Okay, I don't know why I didn't remember we have some of that. Good stuff!

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.

The only mites I've ever seen on my birds was last winter and they were tiny little red dots. I think you'd see them for sure. They move pretty fast and just crawl all over everything and if you pick up a bird, you'll be itching in no time, too! Easy to get rid of, I just poured Sevin dust on them-- they were all dead and falling off in like 2 minutes. I found them right near the vent, and under the wings. Oh-- be sure to dust under the wings!

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.

We're eating and selling our fertile chicken eggs. I don't tell anyone they are fertile and so far, no one has asked or noticed that they are! LOL Unless you know what you're looking for and are looking closely, no one is going to know they are fertile-- least of all you!

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?

Hope the bandaide fixes up your chick! Craziness about your pea! Good that he is now eating off your fingers, sounds like he's getting the hang of it.

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.

Yeah, Danz and Josie told me to do that! I just wet down the feed and put it in a large tupperware lid and spread the feed out thin. Then poured a bit of water over it to moisten it up and the chicks went NUTS. It was Sticky that wouldn't eat and he was just starting to waste away and die. I had to give him wet food for 3 weeks!!! Not fun. But he's alive and fine now. But he's a runt!

 

[chicken danz]

Yeah Heather for the female guinea! Now you know you can raise your own next spring!

 

[JosieChick]

Morning all!

Danz- There is a kind of mite that hides during the day and only feeds on the birds at night too! They were discussing it on the cochin thread and I had a few birds that exhibited signs of mites but I couldn't find anything and I went out with a flashlight at night and sure enough there they were!!! I sprayed the birds with frontline spray and that solved the problem. Sorry about your broken pea egg and lavender orp baby. I lost a gold laced brahma chick yesterday, I was pretty heartbroken but I think it was just a failure to thrive because it was about 3-4 days old.

HEchicken- What is buckwheating???

I had a friend that thought the blood spots were a started embryo and she was picking them out before she used them. Boy was she surprised when I told her the the little white dot was where and embryo would start on a fertile egg!!!

My babies are doing well this morning!! We are not out of the woods but I nursed with vitamins and electrolytes yesterday after giving them a warm bath and they are doing so much better. They can hold their heads up and are all cheeping at me!! And most importantly they can drink on their own now! I will have to get pictures soon, they are itty bitty babies!

 

[HEChicken]

HEchicken- What is buckwheating???

It is the sound that female guineas make. It is a two-toned call that sounds like "buckwheat, buckwheat, buckwheat" and so has been dubbed the sound of a female call. Males make a one-toned call. I am no expert on guineas since these are my first ever but I've read on the guinea threads, that it is sometimes the only way to differentiate the males from the females. When they are mature the wattles may also be used to identify them (based on shape and they direction they face) but at this age, the call is the only difference between them. I've actually heard the buckwheat call a few times but in a flock of 13, from a distance, couldn't tell who was doing it. This morning was neat because they were right in front of me and it was very easy to see which one it was.

Months ago when I was still only considering guineas, I went to YouTube and did a search on "guinea and buckwheat" and found some videos of them doing it, to get an idea of the sound of the call.

So glad to hear your new chicks are doing better this morning!

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, I'm really enjoying the guineas but in a different way than the chickens. With chickens it seems like they all have such individual personalities and I can get to know them more as individuals. With the guineas, I really don't feel bonded to any individual bird but they amuse me with their antics. Its amazing how they like to stick so close together as a flock so instead of birds running towards you it feels more like a swarm. In fact, sometimes it feels like I have one guinea with 13 moving parts LOL. I actually love watching them running through the yard because unlike the chickens where you can see a definite side-to-side movement and bobbing of the head with each step, the guineas bodies don't seem to move. Their little legs speed through the grass, while the long, skinny neck with the head attached to the end looks like a periscope. So it kind of looks like this body just gliding along the ground with a periscope turning this way and that. I never get tired of watching that. And then one of them will find something that is deemed "The Prize" and the chase is on. Chickens do that too but with chickens it seems more like one finds a treat and the others all try to steal it for themselves. With the guineas it will most often just be a stem of greenery - exactly the same as all the others out there - and the chase doesn't seem to be about stealing a treat to eat, but about grabbing the baton so the game can continue.

 

[Trish44]

Danz, I don't hatch anything in my cabinet incubator due to two reasons really, I have always had eggs in different stages in there so I can't change the humidity for hatching & it's so messy. I have always used my GQF hovabator 1588 for hatching everything & I like it best for that because of the big clear window that I can see everything through. I have learned how to regulate the humidity in there just so for hatching. You were asking about the other peafowl eggs & yes they did develop, but two died in the shell & the other one that died did so right after hatching, so that is how I ended up with one lone peafowl chick.

Yes, the peafowl chick is now eating off my fingers, but it still won't eat otherwise if the food isn't on my finger. It's getting a little ornery, so it must be feeling better after getting a little more food. I also gave it electrolytes a couple times yesterday, so that may have helped too. For those of you that have not had peafowl, they aren't like chickens at all, you can't just moisten food & have them eat it. I'm learning too with this, but they actually need something to teach them to eat & usually the mothers teach the chicks, but since I don't have any other peafowl right at the moment I'm having to teach it & it's a lot harder than with chickens. I have never had a problem getting baby chickens to eat, but this is a whole different ballgame. Josie, if you get any peafowl chicks to hatch you had better read up too, because they're just not like chickens. I plan to go on the peafowl board after this & ask some questions. I was really worried for awhile the poor little thing was going to die because I couldn't get it to eat or drink. I'm still not sure it's drinking either, so I'm going to keep giving it something in a syringe every so often. I had figured it would learn from the baby chicks I had it in with, but it wasn't learning from them at all. They were running all around the little peafowl chick & eating & drinking right in front of it, but it wasn't getting it. That's when I just decided to bring it back in & put it back into the hovabator where it's not only warmer, but where I can monitor it closely. This is a real challenge!

Oh & Danz, those lavender Orps just are more fragile it seems, I have 4 left that seem to be doing OK now. I finally put them all out in the grow-out pen out in the run since there are other smaller sized chicks in there. I'm going to get 5 from Chooks the 14th in trade for some of my Ameraucana chicks for one of her projects, I can't wait to get them!

 

[chicken danz]

Trish I have one egg that might have developed and it goes to the hatcher tomorrow. I've not seen movement but that doesn't mean much. I guess I should read a little more on peafowl chicks just in case. I was really really counting on my peahen to hatch her own and and do some raising for me. No such luck.
I am still thinking about getting a few more eggs to see if I can hatch some others. I put these last two in a little basket and divided it with plastic mesh so it would hold two eggs. I guess I'll see if that works or not.
I had a call while ago that made me pretty happy. A guy I sold 25 Ancona ducks to this spring wants to buy every baby duck I have on the place. He is just going to resale them. I won't make as much as if I sold them individually but I probably have around 100 out there if not more. He said he will be here Wednesday. My granddaughter will be disappointed unless I have some more hatch out next week. But the feed bill is killing me. I need to go sex some and pick out about 3 female Cayugas to keep for breeding. I need a few more females for next year.
I put sevin out in the pen where the affected chickens are that I couldn't find mites on. I may mix up some Tempo and spray the pen to be sure. Then I guess I can treat all of them with Ivermectin. It will be a big job but it's better than having them suffer. It's strange though that only a few of them seem to be affected.
I guess I'd better get moving.

 

[Trish44]

Danz, you can't see much movement in the peafowl eggs once they get close to hatch, I don't think they have enough room really to move much. They're just a lot more fragile than chicks, kind of like turkey poults, but different. They're just kind of in a class by themselves. I didn't have any trouble with the turkey poults I hatched that made it getting them to eat, I know some people do, but I didn't happen to have that isse with those, just the flipping thing.

I have worked & worked with this peafowl chick, it's really frustrating trying to teach it to eat! I finally wet some chick food along with some oatmeal, it seems to like the oatmeal really well, so since it hasn't eaten that much just anything it will eat right now is OK by me. I put the wet food in a small jar lid I keep just for this kind of thing & you have to get it's attention first, so I start pecking with my finger to get it over there. Then I peck in the lid where the food is & this time it started pecking where my finger was but was getting a bite every so often when it missed my finger. After awhile I pulled my finger out & it did eat a little on it's own. It was kind of like watching a light bulb go on in that little brain, oh food! I hope it remembers when it wakes up from it's nap or we'll have to go over it again. I also am using a little bigger jar lid for water & they are attracted to the color green, so I just happened to have some of those flat marble like glass things & put some in the jar lid of water that has vitamins in it. I'm hoping it will get the idea because they are attracted to shiny things & green, so they are both. Boy this is a lot of work trying to mimic a momma peacock!