Consolidated Kansas

[Marty1876]

We don't have a Lowes, but I'll go check out our hardware stores for one. I always wait for dark to candle, since I don't really have a dark enough space, and I'm unwilling to make super heavy drapes for the one area thats remotely close to being dark in the daytime.


These great pics on BYC of people candling with the LEDs has totally made me want one! (tough choice though, $30 can also buy me more hatching eggs and shipping! LOL)

I have a very nice one from Lowes. It's a little LED "torch" and I paid $30 for it. It's MUCH brighter than my other flashlights. Totally worth it. I did wrap tape around the end so I could set the eggs into it so they rest on the lens. I think my issue was having a dark enough room.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

We don't have a Lowes, but I'll go check out our hardware stores for one. I always wait for dark to candle, since I don't really have a dark enough space, and I'm unwilling to make super heavy drapes for the one area thats remotely close to being dark in the daytime.


These great pics on BYC of people candling with the LEDs has totally made me want one! (tough choice though, $30 can also buy me more hatching eggs and shipping! LOL)


Bluestem has a large selection of flashlights including LED's. You should be able to find something there or even at Walmart. Any store carries them now, Keep in mind the kind/size of batteries, the color of the bulb (to candle you will want white) and the lumens the flashlight puts out. Yep, I have been researching flashlights since I am outdoors a LOT after dark it seems. If you want some more details I have learned, PM me.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

A question...... Why don't chickens try to "protect" their eggs and future offspring?

A goose will hide her nest and never say a word about where it is or even that it exists. Just try to find a goose egg if they have a way to hide. Also muscovy ducks will hide their nests and eggs if they can.

A chicken screams to the world that they have laid an egg, "Hey world, there is a nice fresh egg here, come one, come all and see how tasty it is". Even the roosters get in on the "egg chant", with some calling 'its here, its here, before the hen even gets it laid. Every egg eating critter within hearing will know just where to go to grab up that fresh tasty morsel. WHY do they do that??????

Just wondering

 

[HEChicken]

A chicken screams to the world that they have laid an egg, "Hey world, there is a nice fresh egg here, come one, come all and see how tasty it is". Even the roosters get in on the "egg chant", with some calling 'its here, its here, before the hen even gets it laid. Every egg eating critter within hearing will know just where to go to grab up that fresh tasty morsel. WHY do they do that??????

I've often wondered the same thing so I have no answers. It does seem totally contradictory to survival of the species, doesn't it?

 

[chicken danz]

I think that vets name is Mendoza or something like that. I have some friends that use him for the cockatoo. Does that sound right? I just don't want to drive 40 miles for something minor I can handle here given the right medications. My roo is still pretty congested but acting a little better. He is eating cooked egg and picking at his food, He is actually running around my dining room right now. I opened the cage and he is just wandering around. What do you bet I;ll have some poo to clean up??
Tweety I keep records of all my feed and my sales. Well I did,but have gotten pretty lazy this past year. You can claim a loss as a hobby for a couple years if you are spending more than you make. If you file farm taxes you can depreciate the cost of buildings and equipment, not the actual cost of them. You can't claim the loss of an animal if one dies. You can only show a farming loss for three years. In reality I used it last year to get some tax $$ back but it was a big chore and takes an unreal amount of record keeping. The thing to remember is if you aren't going to eventually show a profit you are probably better off not showing your losses. You certainly don't want to draw attention to yourself unless you just really enjoy audits. If you file a farm income anyway I'd go for it. I have always done my own taxes. I had a tax agency check over mine last year and he said he would have charged me $160 to do what I did. Now I know why I do my own. If I had a really big farm income it would be worth it.
I've got 2 more days before I take any more eggs from the incubator. It sure seems like a long stretch. I'm getting hatch impatient. I'm used to hatching every few days.

 

[chicken danz]

He! He! I would squawk if I laid an egg too!

 

[Ivywoods]

He! He! I would squawk if I laid an egg too!

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Danz - That is the name I remember also. In my case, I only talked to him on the phone and I already had one of the meds he suggested. I could have gotten the other one from him, but what I had worked (Duramycin -10). Ir would have been a 30 mile drive for me and I already was thinking it was mold, but since I had already lost one and another was going down, I wanted another opinion than mine. I was so happy to find a vet that had knowledge of poultry.

I hope you roo gets well fast.

 

[HEChicken]

Tweety, I use Steve's Chicken Tracker that can be found here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...or-tracking-expenses-and-income-from-chickens to track my income and expenses. It is already VERY well set up for a backyard flock, if all you are interested in is keeping track of how much your hobby makes costs you. There is a tab for each month of the year, plus a tab for the total. The figures you enter by month automatically transfer over to the summary tab so you can see at a glance how much you have spent all year, and how much you have made in egg sales. You can track eggs collected by color, number of laying hens, eggs sold (by dozen), as well as feed & supplies purchased, and any flock purchases or hatching eggs sold. It really is very well thought out.

I've used it ever since I started. One year I actually tendered a $3/month PROFIT!!! Actually, that number isn't exactly right because the one thing it doesn't track all that well is the number of eggs you eat. In other words, it tells you how many you collect and how many you sell but not the number left over. Any egg I collected but didn't sell was eaten by my family, which means that in addition to the $3 per month income, we had FREE eggs. Yeah!!!

Unfortunately, that was when I was trying to be practical and the chooks had to pay for themselves. Since then it has become more of a hobby and I, ahem, now run at a loss every year. For example, the first year I acquired barnyard mutts from a local gal for a very low price. Last year I bought expensive hatching eggs and incubated them. Believe it or not, that made a difference.

 

[Marty1876]

A question...... Why don't chickens try to "protect" their eggs and future offspring?

A goose will hide her nest and never say a word about where it is or even that it exists. Just try to find a goose egg if they have a way to hide. Also muscovy ducks will hide their nests and eggs if they can.

A chicken screams to the world that they have laid an egg, "Hey world, there is a nice fresh egg here, come one, come all and see how tasty it is". Even the roosters get in on the "egg chant", with some calling 'its here, its here, before the hen even gets it laid. Every egg eating critter within hearing will know just where to go to grab up that fresh tasty morsel. WHY do they do that??????

Just wondering

They get off the nest first, and walk away, to give the wrong location. However, that said, the better egg layers are less carefull, guess they know they'll make more. I had a cochin hen hid her nest under my quince bush, and I never knew until she came walking out in October with 12 little ones! Some are smart, some arent. LOL