Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I don't candle eggs until they go to the hatcher either. Now if I needed the space in the incubators I might but since I am incubator rich I just don't bother messing with them. I figure the more you handle the eggs the longer they are out of ideal conditions and the more likely they could get exposed to some infection. Now if I had a a 20 egg incubator and I was holding eggs for a week or 10 days at a time I would probably check the first batch so I could add more if some weren't fertile. Depending on the color of the egg and how much intensity you have to candle with I don't know if I would trust the 10 day candling anyway.
BTW my DH spent nearly $100 after paying shipping for a brinsea candler. It had great reviews. I am not at all impressed. My little high intensity flashlight works a lot better. What a disappointment. I begged him for it for Christmas so I just haven't told him it isn't what it is cracked up to be. The best thing I have found to date is a flashlight called the Pelican StealthLite 2400. It has a real high intensity bulb and you can see very well into eggs. I guess I should have been satisfied with what I had.

 

[Hawkeye95]

HEChicken-- thanks for the tip on candling. I think I won't mess with them at all! I have no problems with just leaving them in. I'd rather not mess with them if I don't have to.

Danz, when would an egg explode if it's going to? I would smell it before hand, yes?? I just don't want to have a nasty incubator getting close to lock down and no place to put these eggs. How often do you stager your hatches? Would you just keep adding eggs? I don't have a hatcher... so this is it. Am I better off doing one hatch date for now?

Okay, so my glass is reading a touch over 100. I put in my travel clock with therm in it. I don't know how accurate it is... but after over an hour of sitting there-- and I was really fast with lifting the lid-- the therm says 97 in the tray! That's bad, right? Looks like I shouldn't have adjusted the factory setting the incubator came with. Great. What do you think? Did I ruin my chances? I have already started to adjust my temp up a bit. We'll see where it is in another hour and go from there. Sigh. Stupid glass therm. I just didn't want to spring for the $150 "advanced" lid that has a digital reading. Bah. Besides-- how would that be any better-- that therm is up in the lid too-- wouldn't it be the same problem. Okay-- who the heck knew that the lid and the tray would be so different with a circulated air???

Trish-- FYI-- do NOT change your factory setting! LOL!

 

[Ivywoods]

When you breed the lavender to black you get 50% black and 50% lavender, in theory. The reason you breed the lavender to black is because the lavender is a variety that is being worked on for improvement. In general, the blacks have better size and feathering, so by crossing them with the lavs you improve the lav offspring. In theory, the black offspring of this mating would be considered inferior to a pure black mating.

DH was too freaked out to laugh or to be mad. I felt bad because I scared him so bad, but at the same time I had trouble not laughing. I asked him if he wanted to watch the video that had scared him out of his wits last night, so he watched it and laughed.

Hawkeye- It takes VERY LITTLE room to raise old english. Mine are no bigger than the seramas I have. They have wonderful little personalities, and I know that Checoukans are from very good stock..... Just sayin'.....

I hope to be hatching some soon, but the only ones I have laying right now are my silver duckwings, and they are beautiful.This is a pic of my little rooster. He was younger in this picture and wasn't fully feathered out. You will notice his comb is different than the ones pictured by Checoukan. This one has been "dubbed" which is required in order to show the roosters. I should get a picture of my black breasted reds. They are beautiful little birds, too.

BTW, Checoukan-I thought we dubbed ALL of your little roosters. Did you get these after I was there?

Sweedish flower hens. Hmmm. Do they have Sweedish flower roosters?

I guess I am going to have to look those up!

 

[chicken danz]

Loralee, I wouldn't worry about the temp. It might just delay your hatch by a little bit. It wasn't enough it should kill the chicks. I wouldn't think a forced air unit would vary that much in temp. After all that is what the air movement is for.
If I were you I'd run to radio shack or better yet, Harbor Freight and pick up a little digital in/out thermometer. These things are cheap. They have a cord with a probe on them for detecting outside temps but you don't need to rely on that if you want to just set it down on your eggs.I just grabbed one that I had in my brooder. It is 2 3/4" X 1" X 1/4." The one Harbor freight carries is even smaller. I tried to take a pic of it but had a faulty disk. If you want one ask and I'll try again.
You can smell an egg if they go bad. It isn't like the total rotten egg smell but it definitely has an unpleasant eggy odor. Also you can often see seepage on the egg. I haven't had any explode in the incubator, Thank God, but have in outside nests.
I've found if an egg goes bad it usually had a tiny pinhole or crack that I failed to notice.

 

[Hawkeye95]

OMG--- I love this color even more than the one your sister has! (sorry rosie!) I just love that color combination! But I feel sorry about him being dubbed. I think they look much more spetacular with their combs. Why do you have to dub them for show? They look so much prettier with them in place...? Well.... I'll keep that color in mind if we ever go smaller than silkies. Right now, I'm trying to stay under radar with my DH. *giggle* Once he really gives up, I'll look into either OE's or Seramas. I know Danz has some pretty gorgeous seramas, too.

Ivy-- Sonoran was explaining the Black X Black a month or two ago, too. It is possible to get really good blacks out of BBS pens, (which I know isn't exactly the same as self blue/lav-- but works on similar principles) but more chances for them to leak the base color. And since they are usually based on Gold... it's not a pretty sight. I'd love to get ahold of some birds based on Silver. They are pretty rare here, though. But I think that would be easier to work with. I still think my favorite color is Splash and Blue. However... I'm really starting to love the Columbian. Has sort of a similar coloring to your silver duckwings. Seriously, your little guy is stunning!

When you breed the lavender to black you get 50% black and 50% lavender, in theory. The reason you breed the lavender to black is because the lavender is a variety that is being worked on for improvement. In general, the blacks have better size and feathering, so by crossing them with the lavs you improve the lav offspring. In theory, the black offspring of this mating would be considered inferior to a pure black mating.

DH was too freaked out to laugh or to be mad. I felt bad because I scared him so bad, but at the same time I had trouble not laughing. I asked him if he wanted to watch the video that had scared him out of his wits last night, so he watched it and laughed.

Hawkeye- It takes VERY LITTLE room to raise old english. Mine are no bigger than the seramas I have. They have wonderful little personalities, and I know that Checoukans are from very good stock..... Just sayin'.....

I hope to be hatching some soon, but the only ones I have laying right now are my silver duckwings, and they are beautiful.This is a pic of my little rooster. He was younger in this picture and wasn't fully feathered out. You will notice his comb is different than the ones pictured by Checoukan. This one has been "dubbed" which is required in order to show the roosters. I should get a picture of my black breasted reds. They are beautiful little birds, too.

BTW, Checoukan-I thought we dubbed ALL of your little roosters. Did you get these after I was there?

Sweedish flower hens. Hmmm. Do they have Sweedish flower roosters?

I guess I am going to have to look those up!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Loralee, I wouldn't worry about the temp. It might just delay your hatch by a little bit. It wasn't enough it should kill the chicks. I wouldn't think a forced air unit would vary that much in temp. After all that is what the air movement is for.
If I were you I'd run to radio shack or better yet, Harbor Freight and pick up a little digital in/out thermometer. These things are cheap. They have a cord with a probe on them for detecting outside temps but you don't need to rely on that if you want to just set it down on your eggs.I just grabbed one that I had in my brooder. It is 2 3/4" X 1" X 1/4." The one Harbor freight carries is even smaller. I tried to take a pic of it but had a faulty disk. If you want one ask and I'll try again.
You can smell an egg if they go bad. It isn't like the total rotten egg smell but it definitely has an unpleasant eggy odor. Also you can often see seepage on the egg. I haven't had any explode in the incubator, Thank God, but have in outside nests.
I've found if an egg goes bad it usually had a tiny pinhole or crack that I failed to notice.

Thanks! Okay, I can deal with a delayed hatch-- but killing them, that would be sad. My clock/therm on the egg tray was reading 97, so I turned up the dial and after an hour or so, it read 98. So I turned it up just a teeny tiny bit more. (I'm now waiting to see what it's going to read) I'm pretty much right back to the factory setting it came with. Figures!!!!! I guess I'm going to ignore that glass reading entirely. Thanks for the harbor freight suggestion-- we have one of those, that would be easy to run down and get one. However, I just bought that fancy-schmancy digital RH/temp and it should be here today or tomorrow. I'll stick with my travel clock/therm for now. I didn't realize how under prepared I was. I am kicking myself for not buying that a few days earlier. I thought i had time. Poor eggies. I hope they make it.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

A dog "played" with one of the hens. Does anyone have any suggestions how to treat shock and bruises on a chicken?

There are only a couple of places where the skin was broken, but a fair amount of feathers were on the ground in the area. When I found her she was still curled up, not moving, but after I held her and checked her over she was talking to me. She is now in a cage until I can make sure she is ok.

 

[Hawkeye95]

A dog "played" with one of the hens. Does anyone have any suggestions how to treat shock and bruises on a chicken?

There are only a couple of places where the skin was broken, but a fair amount of feathers were on the ground in the area. When I found her she was still curled up, not moving, but after I held her and checked her over she was talking to me. She is now in a cage until I can make sure she is ok.

Put her in a quiet warm place inside for a couple days or however long it takes her to heal. I'd but antibacterial ointment on all of her wounds, for sure! Maybe put a heating pad under the box, or a heat lamp over her crate for a bit until she is standing up and eating on her own. I'd also spike her water with sugar and electrolytes. If you have no electrolytes-- throw in the sugar for sure! But beware, she could still have internal injuries that you can't see. Poor thing, I hope she pulls thru. Did you check her wings and feet for breaks?

 

[Trish44]

karenS, that sounds like a really interesting project, let us know how that goes. I wonder if I could do that with my Speckled Sussex & my Rhode Island Red rooster, hmmm, sounds like fun. Yeah when I lived in Derby I actually lived just east of town out of the city limits. I loved living there, but when I got married again my DH already had a house & it was bigger & had more acreage than mine plus it was closer for him to get to & from work, so I sold mine & moved.

Loralee, how is your little coop coming? I can't wait to see it finished, you do such awesome work! Good luck on your hatch, I hope everything goes well, but I'm sure the people who do it all the time can tell you that they had a learning curve.

My DH bought a shed from Sam's Club for us to keep our firewood & maybe a few garden tools in & read last night that it needs a foundation, so now he has to build a wood floor for it to sit on. I told him that will be a good practice for my breeder coop since we have to build exactly the same kind for it. He just kind of shook his head at me.

IVY, that's funny that you said you have the most Wheatens & that would be your pick because that's what I was going to say I would want. I was wondering what colors you think are your most popular when you sell them? I wasn't sure if I would want to get a couple of black or not. I know that people tend to like colorful chickens more than common things.

Danz, I'm glad you said that about the Brinsea candler because I had thought about getting it, I'm glad I didn't now. I did get another one that was cheaper, so we'll see how well it works. I got it on eBay & it was a lot more expensive than I got it for because it had a little dent & black speck on it, but that didn't bother me. I can't remember the brand now, but they usually go for I think $40-$50.

I was hoping my rabbit cage & other stuff would get here today, but UPS just brought something else, so darn I guess it won't be. DH went into work early today, so it would have been a perfect day for it to come so I could have put it all together. I'm trying to get all my bucks put in the smaller cages that are stacked. I need to move one more that I already have that is with two young does right now. They're not old enough to breed yet, so I'm not too worried yet, but I do want to get him moved as soon as I can. I'm waiting on the legs for his cage to get here so I can hook it to the one underneath, they screw together. Then I can put the tray underneath it & move the buck in there. I have one more cage coming for the Chinchillas I plan to go get as soon as I get their cages ready. Maybe later on this summer I will have baby bunnies to show pics of.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Hawkeye, thanks for the help. She is up on her feet, but not moving much.

I just had a thought on your thermometer situation. Could you put a medical digital in the incubator until the one you ordered comes in? I used the little $3 ones from the dollar store and never had a problem with them.