Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I'd give it about 3 weeks. I don't think there is an exact science but it seems to be fairly close around here. I've seen lots of courting but no breeding. I am not ready for breeding in any shape or form when it comes to the peas.
King Bee actually you want that temp up to near 140 degrees so the disinfectant will penetrate the shell. Or at least that is what I was told. You read so much stuff that conflicts other things. But hot water and the disinfectant works for me. I always wear rubber gloves cause tek trol eats my hands but it doesn't seem to bother the embryos.
I don't know for a fact but I do know what works.

 

[KsKingBee]

I'd give it about 3 weeks. I don't think there is an exact science but it seems to be fairly close around here. I've seen lots of courting but no breeding. I am not ready for breeding in any shape or form when it comes to the peas.
King Bee actually you want that temp up to near 140 degrees so the disinfectant will penetrate the shell. Or at least that is what I was told. You read so much stuff that conflicts other things. But hot water and the disinfectant works for me. I always wear rubber gloves cause tek trol eats my hands but it doesn't seem to bother the embryos.
I don't know for a fact but I do know what works.

There is a lot of contradictory information out there for sure. What I had read some time back was that the reason you want the solution warmer is so that the egg will expand in the warm solution and NOT soak it into the shell. Whereas if the solution is colder the egg would contract pulling the solution inside the egg.

I am in no hurry to see pea eggs, last year I got my first one the first of May. That is another nine weeks, by then I will have my two extra runs completed.

 

[chicken danz]

Cold contracts and warm expands. That is a fact. The question is does it expand or contract the breathing pores in the shell or not. I normally wash off dirt or whatever in cool water and dip in hot water with tek trol. Not sure why but it does a good job. Tek trol is such a good disinfectant that regardless it should remove outer bacteria from the shell. I wouldn't trust just plain water to work the same.
Last year was a weird year. All of my birds started laying really late. We had a very late spring. I sure hope that doesn't happen again!!! So far the birds seem to be gearing up for laying early. Not good if they freeze, but good if you need chicks. I really don't want to find more frozen eggs from my seasonal layers though. I know nearly every egg I get this week will be trashed due to the cold. I too need a lot more time to get pens built before all the laying starts. I guess a week of frozen eggs will give my incubator a chance to catch up so I don't have to start a second one.
I'm thinking today would be a good day to stay in the house and just be a vegetable. We are supposed to get two separate snow storms today. I can really do without them since the ground is still totally covered from the last one.

 

[Trish44]

I have to go to therapy again this morning, so I can't stay in. We'll see if they're any happier with me today, I guess I'm supposed to progress like a 20 year old, ha not going to happen. We had some melting yesterday but not all of it is gone yet. It's supposed to get over 40 today so hopefully the rest will go. I sold my extra BR rooster yesterday so that was a good thing. I just couldn't keep them both because they wouldn't behave themselves together. I have two roosters in some of my pens & they have done fine for years, but evidently not the BRs.

 

[KsKingBee]

I am definatly going to use the Tek-trol this year. Last year the hatch rate was awful, DW was cleaning the chicken eggs but since the pea eggs were clean I didn't bother. I had a lot of excuses for the bad hatch rate but thinking back most of the eggs would be quitters or just failed to pip, bacteria may have caused that. I've been told that having yearlings in the breeding pens may have caused so many clear eggs as well, too much commotion in the pen.

I am going to have to get NPIP certified, if I was I would be taking a load of IB yearlings to Gardner.

 

[chicken danz]

I've got a bunch of those IB yearlings too. Just no time to make cages and stuff. Peas brought wonderful fall prices which surprised me. I think the worst thing about the spring auction is that its just a bit too early. You could sell a lot more if it were a month later. I can't believe how different the temps are in Kansas. Some of you have had some decent weather and we are in a snowy deep freeze. We aren't forecast to have any temps above freezing until Friday and then it's supposed to snow again through the weekend. Those highs are only in the 30s at that. And next week is stacking up the same. Looks like we are in the dead of winter right now.
One thing I do KingBee is hatch in a tray that lays the eggs on their side and I don't stop turning. They seem to hatch better if I keep the turner going. It improved my hatches quite a bit although not perfect.

 

[KsKingBee]

Funny you mention that about keep turning the eggs. Last year we forgot that some were due and they started hatching and dropping down into the hatching tray in the bottom of the GQF. After that DW said to just leave them in the turner trays and the hatch rate did improve. I still worried about them getting smashed but it did not happen.

I have the large egg trays in the GQF that lay the eggs on their side too. Every time I got into the bator I would flip them over. Do you use a sponge in your tank? I need to get off the stick and order the auto water bucket for mine, I was constantly refilling the little tank with one sponge in it.

Other thing I need to order is some ID bands for their legs. My color system is good but I have too many to keep track of this year. What do you suggest?

 

[chicken danz]

I haven't been real happy with leg bands for anything other than the butt end bands I bought for the geese. They seem to be the only ones worth the money. I had some aluminum ones that have a special plier but those darn things come undone or break sometimes. I also had some plain silver ones that have a groove and a fold over tab. They don't come in colors that I have found but they have stayed on. Those would be ideal if they just came in colors. I got my colored aluminum butt end bands from Smith Poultry but that link on their website is messed up right now. I was going to check and see what sizes they came in. If they come in a size that will work for peafowl I would highly recommend those over any others I've tried.
I also leave the trays turning for my geese. I did loose one gosling last year that got to climbing and caught it's head in the mechanism but it was only because it was an extra large gosling. I didn't loose any peachicks to that. My feelings are if it improves the hatch rate you would probably save more than you would otherwise loose. I do use the honeycomb pads in my incubator but they wear out really fast around here. Our water is just too hard and causes them to loose their sponging capabilities. I also have auto waterers and made my own by ordering some tubing, fittings, clamps, and bulk heads on line. The reason I did that was, I was stacking incubators and needed longer hoses to auto water the bottom incubators. It saved me a lot of floor space. I used to have to fill the darn water reservoirs 1-2 times a day and that was just too much to do with 5 of them going.
Well the sun was melting the snow a little but now we have new snow clouds moving in and it's getting dark and gloomy again. Why does the weather forecast have to be right this time?
san

 

[thndrdancr]

We are in the same deep freeze and we got about an inch of new snow this morn! I hate this. Hate winter. I don't have the birdies shut up and to my surprise quite a few are out there shuffling around in the snow and trembling. My young peas don't have the sense God gave them, goofy birds!

I have my showgirl in the house, she had those clunky mud/poop balls on her feet bigtime. Does anyone else have a problem with their bantams getting those??? Anyhow I dosed her with oregano+olive oil, gave her a bath and blow dry and she is lounging around the house having a great time! She didn't look too good last I was out in the coop. I only have 2 white showgirls, so I try to keep close eye on them. I took care of her sister a few weeks ago. This one is calmer and talks a lot, she is very entertaining.

 

[chicken danz]

We've been in whiteout conditions for about an hour and a half. Now I see some bigger flakes forming and the wind seems to be slowing down. All the melting that happened earlier is now covered with a lot more white stuff. Go figure. I imagine that means we'll have a nice ice slick under the snow. It actually looks kind of pretty out now because this was a wetter snow so the tree limbs and anything facing north is covered in white. The ducks and geese were out running around in the heavy snow. I don't know if they were enjoying it or trying to escape it.