Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

DH set up a humidifier for me in the bedroom he uses in the shop. It made my sinuses feel better but I don't know if it helped anything or not other than comfort. I put some medication on a cotton ball and discovered I have totally lost my sense of smell. I can't smell anything. Even sniffing vet RX straight out of the bottle I can't smell it at all. It's crazy.
I have to go out and catch guineas for Candace today. That is going to be a challenge!. DH has a balaclava I think I'll borrow so I won't breath any cold air. If I can stand it covering my face. I get kind of claustrophobic about having my face covered. I can't leave it for him to do because he is NO GOOD at catching and would only get the birds more upset.
I will give this a couple more days and if it doesn't improve a lot I'll go back to the doctor. The worst thing is, I have had to stay away from my Mom and Dad and they depend so much on things I can do for them. I've been promising to go shopping for some frozen food for them so they could try it as an alternative. They are having trouble taking care of getting meals lately. But I haven't been anywhere except to the doc. I usually take them to church on Sunday but have had to forgo that the last two weeks. I hate letting them down but don't want to chance getting them sick.

Just take care of yourself, or you won't be any good for ANYone. If you do run into town, maybe you could leave your parents groceries on their porch so you don't get them sick.

OKay-- I'm feeling kind of sad. I got really curious and candled 3 of my eggs. I see NOTHING in them. Well.. that's wrong, on one of them, I saw a little tiny blood spot in it? It moved around a lot when I turned the egg. The spot seemed like it was free floating in there. I didn't check any more eggs. This is day 7... shouldn't I be seeing SOMEthing? I'll do it again and see if I can get a picture, too to show you all. Sigh. I guess maybe they are not fertile yet. I see my roo doing his job, and I've cracked open plenty of eggs that had bullseyes in them. But I did notice last night on the new eggs I was getting, I didn't see bullseyes in them... but then wondered if they could be on the other side, or if I just wasn't seeing it. So sad. I think Zorro needs a bath-- his feathers are still matted back around his vent. Could that be the problem??? Or could be be too fluffy? He is SUPER fluffy-- I mean, people talk about "cushion" and he has that in spades. But does that mean he can't cover his girls??? I wouldn't have incubated if I hadn't seen all those bullseyes that we ate a while back. I'm over thinking this for sure. Okay-- off to see if I can get a pic of what I'm looking at.

 

[HEChicken]

OKay-- I'm feeling kind of sad. I got really curious and candled 3 of my eggs. I see NOTHING in them. Well.. that's wrong, on one of them, I saw a little tiny blood spot in it? It moved around a lot when I turned the egg. The spot seemed like it was free floating in there. I didn't check any more eggs. This is day 7... shouldn't I be seeing SOMEthing? I'll do it again and see if I can get a picture, too to show you all. Sigh. I guess maybe they are not fertile yet. I see my roo doing his job, and I've cracked open plenty of eggs that had bullseyes in them. But I did notice last night on the new eggs I was getting, I didn't see bullseyes in them... but then wondered if they could be on the other side, or if I just wasn't seeing it. So sad. I think Zorro needs a bath-- his feathers are still matted back around his vent. Could that be the problem??? Or could be be too fluffy? He is SUPER fluffy-- I mean, people talk about "cushion" and he has that in spades. But does that mean he can't cover his girls??? I wouldn't have incubated if I hadn't seen all those bullseyes that we ate a while back. I'm over thinking this for sure. Okay-- off to see if I can get a pic of what I'm looking at.

Awww...I'm so sorry. On the bullseye thing, I had a thought related to a thread I saw a couple of days ago. Someone posted pics of their eggs, and the responder said yes, they look fertile. I wasn't seeing it but wasn't going to say anything, until the OP mentioned that ALL of her eggs have that little white spot and I realized the confusion. You probably know this already, but all yolks have a white spot on them, even if there isn't a rooster for a hundred miles. It is the bullseye ring around the white spot that indicates fertility. The reason I'm saying this is because you said that about the eggs you've cracked recently not having a bullseye but maybe it is on the other side. There is only one white dot on each yolk and the bullseye ring will always be around that white dot. So it got me to thinking that maybe you were seeing the white dot and thinking that indicated fertility.....

Anyway, I hope some of the others that you didn't candle are developing nicely. At this point, unless there are bad smells, I would still leave them all in there.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Okay here we go. I took out 3 eggs and tried my hand at candeling. Keeping in mind-- I have never done this before!! I really don't know what I'm looking for. I did Google day 7 eggs and mine really don't look like the pictures. Thoughts? Should I give these a few more days and try again?

Day 7
Egg #1 (below)

Egg #2 (below)

and Egg #3 (below)

 

[Hawkeye95]

Awww...I'm so sorry. On the bullseye thing, I had a thought related to a thread I saw a couple of days ago. Someone posted pics of their eggs, and the responder said yes, they look fertile. I wasn't seeing it but wasn't going to say anything, until the OP mentioned that ALL of her eggs have that little white spot and I realized the confusion. You probably know this already, but all yolks have a white spot on them, even if there isn't a rooster for a hundred miles. It is the bullseye ring around the white spot that indicates fertility. The reason I'm saying this is because you said that about the eggs you've cracked recently not having a bullseye but maybe it is on the other side. There is only one white dot on each yolk and the bullseye ring will always be around that white dot. So it got me to thinking that maybe you were seeing the white dot and thinking that indicated fertility.....

Anyway, I hope some of the others that you didn't candle are developing nicely. At this point, unless there are bad smells, I would still leave them all in there.

I have no idea! We ate a few a few weeks back that had BIG bullseyes in them. Nice big rings. But the last week since I've been collecting these to eat now-- I haven't seen any in them. It made me really worried about these in the incubator. I didn't even see a white spot in them last night in the frying pan.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Try shining the light into the big end of the egg (into the air cell) and keep the light from spilling out into the room. Hold your fingers around the end of the light or make a ring of black tape or something to fit against the egg tight. There will be more light in the egg so you can see better.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Am making French Toast for the kids for lunch.... Bullseyes!! There is a RING around the white spot-- very clear and nice and big. So frustrating! I know those were not there on the eggs I used last night-- and I had to use like 5 eggs to equal what I needed last night. What's the deal?? Why are some fertile and others not!?!?

 

[Hawkeye95]

Try shining the light into the big end of the egg (into the air cell) and keep the light from spilling out into the room. Hold your fingers around the end of the light or make a ring of black tape or something to fit against the egg tight. There will be more light in the egg so you can see better.

Thanks.. I'll try that. I'm guessing these pictures can't tell you anything from them??? Like I said, I don't know what I'm doing here! ha!!

 

[tweetysvoice]

oh forgot-- Tweety! That is really an ideal set up for your chicks, especially with only 4. It will be easy to get in and out of that cage. I have been buying wire dog kennels on CraigsList lately and have accumulated a few now. I use them for a "hospital" or just whatever. Seymore, my turkey sleeps in one at night in my garage. My silkie trio (that I haven't finished their little coop) is using a really large one! It's one of the biggest crates I've ever seen! I have to climb into it to reach into the back. Which of course-- is where they are laying now. I keep empty ones in case someone needs to be separated, etc. It's a good thing to have. Once your chicks get bigger and if you don't still have a coop made-- I'd suggest hunting down a super large cage on CL for them. Or even a couple of smaller ones to separate them in at night. You can throw them out during the day in your backyard and then bring them in at night if you're in a bind with your coop. I have a heat lamp hung over the top of their dog kennels at night since they are in the garage on a cement floor and I dont' want to worry about them being too cold.

Hawkeye.. Sorry I can't help you with candling the eggs, but this is exactly what we have planned for when the chicks get bigger. I have two dog kennels that we used for our lab and american bulldog in the old house. They get to free roam here, so they've just been in storage. I'm glad I have a use for them now! One of the kennels we have is 42x26x28 and the other is 50x30x32, so a large and an extra large. I will probably just drag out the extra large one so I don't have to swap again as they grow. Just so others will know what we are talking about, here is a pic I found on the internet of exactly what i have. It has three doors, (top, front and side) so I can position it in several spots and still have easy access. And, yes - I have to climb in to reach the back as well! LOL I didn't think of setting it outside - so maybe i'll grab the smaller one and have it set up outside (without the bottom) so they can graze and get acclimated to the weather. Great idea!

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Am making French Toast for the kids for lunch.... Bullseyes!! There is a RING around the white spot-- very clear and nice and big. So frustrating! I know those were not there on the eggs I used last night-- and I had to use like 5 eggs to equal what I needed last night. What's the deal?? Why are some fertile and others not!?!?

You have two hens, right? Maybe one is laying fertile eggs and the other one is not?

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Hawkeye.. Sorry I can't help you with candling the eggs, but this is exactly what we have planned for when the chicks get bigger. I have two dog kennels that we used for our lab and american bulldog in the old house. They get to free roam here, so they've just been in storage. I'm glad I have a use for them now! One of the kennels we have is 42x26x28 and the other is 50x30x32, so a large and an extra large. I will probably just drag out the extra large one so I don't have to swap again as they grow. Just so others will know what we are talking about, here is a pic I found on the internet of exactly what i have. It has three doors, (top, front and side) so I can position it in several spots and still have easy access. And, yes - I have to climb in to reach the back as well! LOL I didn't think of setting it outside - so maybe i'll grab the smaller one and have it set up outside (without the bottom) so they can graze and get acclimated to the weather. Great idea!

When using cages made for larger critters, be sure the bars are close enough together to keep the chicks from going through them. I found out the hard way about that. I put some new hatch muscovy ducklings in a cage that looked like the bars were close enough to keep them in. Turned to do something else, heard a ducklings distress call, and a cat had one that had gone through the bars. Those little soft bodies can really compress into small sizes when they want to.

The cage can be wrapped with small hardware cloth to be safe if necessary.