Consolidated Kansas

[KsKingBee]

We are having a discussion over in the peafowl section about the GQF Sportsman cabinet incubator and ventilation and how much water they use. Anyone here using a GQF unit, how many vent holes do you have open and how much water do you go through? Like how often do you have to refill the tank or the five gallon bucket?

 

[chicken danz]

Well, I lost my peahen today.

found her dead on the yard. Don't know if the cold was too much for her or what. They have the shed to go in and a dog house but they opted to roost in the trees. I'm terribly disappointed. My alpaca is still hanging on but not much change either. We may have to out her down if she doesn't start improving soon.

and add family stress on top of that it's definitely not bee the greatest day I've ever had. Sigh.

Prairie I know you don't like using chemicals but I really think you are going to have to use them to keep your peas free of cecal or capillary worms. That will kill them so fast. If I believed something herbal would work I would sure use it myself. I do have some India blue girls but they are only yearlings. I'm sorry you are having such a bad day. I have those kind of days way too often. Makes me wonder sometimes why I even bother.

Hi all! New from SW KS. Anyone raising bobs and/or ringneck pheasant?

Welcome. I don't raise either. There are lots of people that do, but my problem with both of those is that you have to have a game bird breeders license. It is too much expense and hassle to deal with licensing and paper work for me. Plus the other downfall on both of those was that the males try to kill each other. I just couldn't deal with more pens and stuff. Of course most people don't own the number of birds I do either so another few pens is no big deal.

Welcome Sand Hill!

Prairie Fleur, sorry to hear about your bird and hoping the Alpaca comes around and soon. Hope tomorrow is much, much better.

Danz, I have tried all evening to get those pics of Chopper on here but no luck. I knew that would give you another smile! I've even had the girls working on it but absolutely no luck. I just can't figure out what's going on with my computer.

Aw! Keep trying. I would love to see a picture of him.

We are having a discussion over in the peafowl section about the GQF Sportsman cabinet incubator and ventilation and how much water they use. Anyone here using a GQF unit, how many vent holes do you have open and how much water do you go through? Like how often do you have to refill the tank or the five gallon bucket?

When I hatch peas in a sportsman, I have one hole open on the back and one on the side. too many holes open will reduce humidity. These fans are powerful enough they move plenty of air through the unit so there really isn't a need to go crazy opening vents. I normally go through close to a gallon of water a day. I run one humidity pad or none during incubation unless it is hatch day or the peas grow too big for the shell and don't hatch as easily. So during incubation I add humidity pads to increase humidity. It uses between one and two gallons of water a day. Since I have eggs in different stages of development I try to pull and place humidity pad when needed and take them out when I don't. I've read that misting helps as well but I haven't seen any positive results from that.

 

[KsKingBee]

Prairie I know you don't like using chemicals but I really think you are going to have to use them to keep your peas free of cecal or capillary worms. That will kill them so fast. If I believed something herbal would work I would sure use it myself. I do have some India blue girls but they are only yearlings. I'm sorry you are having such a bad day. I have those kind of days way too often. Makes me wonder sometimes why I even bother.
Welcome. I don't raise either. There are lots of people that do, but my problem with both of those is that you have to have a game bird breeders license. It is too much expense and hassle to deal with licensing and paper work for me. Plus the other downfall on both of those was that the males try to kill each other. I just couldn't deal with more pens and stuff. Of course most people don't own the number of birds I do either so another few pens is no big deal.
Aw! Keep trying. I would love to see a picture of him.

When I hatch peas in a sportsman, I have one hole open on the back and one on the side. too many holes open will reduce humidity. These fans are powerful enough they move plenty of air through the unit so there really isn't a need to go crazy opening vents. I normally go through close to a gallon of water a day. I run one humidity pad or none during incubation unless it is hatch day or the peas grow too big for the shell and don't hatch as easily. So during incubation I add humidity pads to increase humidity. It uses between one and two gallons of water a day. Since I have eggs in different stages of development I try to pull and place humidity pad when needed and take them out when I don't. I've read that misting helps as well but I haven't seen any positive results from that.

Very good points on the worming Danz, IF a person is totally adverse to using proven worming techniques, drugs, then at least do a fecal exam to see whether there are good reasons to treat them. I will take a sample to the vet and for $16 they will tell me if there are any and what kind of worm eggs or if there is or how much coccidiosis they find. If there is none, good, if there is some found then I know for sure what kind of treatment is needed. I do this twice a year because of the hard taught lessons I have learned.

Thanks for the assessment on the incubator, it is pretty much my experience as well. One of our members in south Texas quit using the five gallon bucket because she could not keep it full. Says it goes dry every day....

 

[chicken danz]

Wow, that's a lot of water to go through. Maybe she has way too many vents open. I have a 2 gallon jug and fill mine every couple of days and maybe a little more if I'm hatching. I've read several forums that say to open more vents but the point of the vents is to allow oxygen in and move the air evenly through the incubator to keep temperature even. Seems to me if you open them too much you are defeating the purpose. My older GQFs had the vents set up in a different pattern and I would have to allow more air flow but the newer models have obviously been tweaked so they are more efficient. I've considered closing the holes on my old ones entirely and redrilling them to work like the new ones. The fans on the older models are also more powerful so that makes a difference as well.
I just worm my birds on a regular schedule. I doubt I could get our local vet to do fecals and if he did he wouldn't be that cheap. You are so lucky to have the vet you do. I try to do my worming at the change of seasons but I didn't do a winter worming so I for sure need to do the spring worming. I figure the chances of them becoming infected isn't as great in winter.
PrairieFleur, if you haven't disposed of her body I would be doing a necropsy on your peahen. Be sure to check the gizzard and the cecals. This is where you will find the worms that will normally kill a pea or a turkey.
I occasionally give the birds cayenne powder to help with worming. I think it really does an effective job. Not sure why or how but it seems to be a good preventative. Also the cayenne helps the birds create a little body heat....or so I've read. I don't know if that part is true or not. My birds really like the cayenne though.

 

[zigzag45]

I remember an old conversation regarding cayenne... where did you find it? Do you just mix it into the feed? If so, what quantity? Since I'm still doing FF (fermented feed), mixing it in would be easy.

We cooked up 15 lbs of ground beef on Saturday. I drained the fat into a jar and have been putting chunks of fat in their pen. You'd think that fat was candy.

@chicken danz - The two Speckled Sussex chicks from you are almost half again as big as the barred rocks. Thinking that's a bad sign on gender. We'll see.

We're hoping to make Gardner. Will depend on weather, don't like taking the littles out when it's cold.

Question for those that do FF, how do you keep your scoops/buckets clean? The scoop that I use to fill the birds bowls tends to get mold if I don't keep it totally clean. I've started feeding them directly from the fermenting bucket as my quantities are so small and it's one less bucket to keep clean. I could hose the scoop off, but I'm concerned about spreading feed in the yard and what animals that might attract. Plus, I feed in the morning before work and don't want to get dress clothes messy. Seems like it shouldn't be this hard...

I'll end on this note... all the talk about caponizing... here is the beginning of a train of thoughts... "That looks really interesting, probably too hard for me to figure out." "Oh, it's good to practice on a dead bird." "Now that's something I could do to see if I have the stomach for it." "Hey, I'm going to be butchering some old laying hens pretty soon, talk about perfect..."

 

[chicken danz]

I remember an old conversation regarding cayenne... where did you find it? Do you just mix it into the feed? If so, what quantity? Since I'm still doing FF (fermented feed), mixing it in would be easy.

We cooked up 15 lbs of ground beef on Saturday. I drained the fat into a jar and have been putting chunks of fat in their pen. You'd think that fat was candy.

@chicken danz - The two Speckled Sussex chicks from you are almost half again as big as the barred rocks. Thinking that's a bad sign on gender. We'll see.

We're hoping to make Gardner. Will depend on weather, don't like taking the littles out when it's cold.

Question for those that do FF, how do you keep your scoops/buckets clean? The scoop that I use to fill the birds bowls tends to get mold if I don't keep it totally clean. I've started feeding them directly from the fermenting bucket as my quantities are so small and it's one less bucket to keep clean. I could hose the scoop off, but I'm concerned about spreading feed in the yard and what animals that might attract. Plus, I feed in the morning before work and don't want to get dress clothes messy. Seems like it shouldn't be this hard...

I'll end on this note... all the talk about caponizing... here is the beginning of a train of thoughts... "That looks really interesting, probably too hard for me to figure out." "Oh, it's good to practice on a dead bird." "Now that's something I could do to see if I have the stomach for it." "Hey, I'm going to be butchering some old laying hens pretty soon, talk about perfect..."

I don't think you'll have much luck finding the testes in an old hen.

Sorry. I couldn't resist that comment.
Don't assume that the growth rate in a bird means it's a male. Some breeds grow at different rates than others. My sussex that are left are outgrowing the barreds. Those black brahmas dwarf the other birds in two weeks time and the English orps grow faster too. The poor little breda fowl and araucana just straggle way behind.
When I kept FF I just mixed cayenne in the food. You can easily find a large container of it in the grocery store with the spices. I bought 5 pounds of it off Amazon and believe me 5 pounds is a huge amount. With no more birds than you have that would last you 10 years. I put it in gallon storage bags and still have 2 1/2 bags left after having it for 2 years or so.
I also always rinsed my "scoop" when I was done with the FF. In my case my scoop was a sharp shooter shovel because I used a 55 gallon barrel to mix FF. It was a lot of work.
I would certainly go back to FF other than I am trying to develop a system for the birds to be fed if I have to be gone. I'm focusing on auto feeders etc and FF needs daily attention.

 

[sharol]

@chicken danz - The two Speckled Sussex chicks from you are almost half again as big as the barred rocks. Thinking that's a bad sign on gender. We'll see.

My broody hatched 3 BR's and 3SS's from Danz's eggs last summer. The SS's were huge compared to the BR's at 2 or 3 weeks. All 3 of the SS were big, it wasn't a gender thing. It turned out that there were 2 males and 1 female, but they were the same size until they were a couple of months old. I just butchered the roos today (except for 1 that went back to Danz), but they were twice the size of their respective sisters and, amazingly, the BR's were about the same size as the SS. They all 3 dress out at about 5 lbs.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

I've been collecting eggs from my 5 Buff Sussex hens and 1 Speckled Sussex so today I put 22 eggs in the incubator. I haven't hatched anything in awhile so I'm pretty excited. I'm already obsessing about them, like I wonder if they will have fertility problems since the Buffs have such fluffy butts, or did the eggs get too cold or too dry or whatever, before we collected them?

Danz, I know Frank Reese said he doesn't worry about the humidity until lockdown but I think in the dry air of winter that might be a problem. I am keeping the humidity around 50%. Did you ever try it his way? I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Maybe in the Spring when the humidity is higher. I did, however, wash the eggs. I washed them first and then TekTrol'ed them. So I hope if there was anything nasty, it is gone now. I still remember him saying "I'm not putting dirty eggs in MY incubator!" We just used Wazine and I read you aren't supposed to collect eggs for hatching while using Wazine. Has that ever been an issue for you? I decided that was silly but now it's just one more thing to obsess about.

 

[chicken danz]

Sorry you had to butcher those boys Sharol. Now someone will be looking for a sussex or barred rocks for breeding for sure!!! Oh well it's good eating. Same thing happened to me last week. I had just sold some roos the week before for eating and had a message from someone needing one desperately a week later. (Orpingtons in that case)
My sussex went into molt and quit laying. Darn things lay when no one else is, and when I need to hatch chicks they go on strike. The boy has calmed considerably since he is in with the girls. He still isn't a lap chicken but does seem much more settled. I guess he has figured out I bring food.
I worked too hard yesterday I guess. I can't seem to find the energy to do much of anything today except look at things I could spend money on.

 

[chicken danz]

I've been collecting eggs from my 5 Buff Sussex hens and 1 Speckled Sussex so today I put 22 eggs in the incubator. I haven't hatched anything in awhile so I'm pretty excited. I'm already obsessing about them, like I wonder if they will have fertility problems since the Buffs have such fluffy butts, or did the eggs get too cold or too dry or whatever, before we collected them?

Danz, I know Frank Reese said he doesn't worry about the humidity until lockdown but I think in the dry air of winter that might be a problem. I am keeping the humidity around 50%. Did you ever try it his way? I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Maybe in the Spring when the humidity is higher. I did, however, wash the eggs. I washed them first and then TekTrol'ed them. So I hope if there was anything nasty, it is gone now. I still remember him saying "I'm not putting dirty eggs in MY incubator!" We just used Wazine and I read you aren't supposed to collect eggs for hatching while using Wazine. Has that ever been an issue for you? I decided that was silly but now it's just one more thing to obsess about.

I've found that incubating with high humidity causes the chicks to grow too large and then they have trouble hatching. I keep mine fairly low until hatch time. It seems to work better than it did when I kept humidity up so high. I also use the TekTrol on every egg I incubate. I've found I can find pinhole leaks in the shells cause they bubble a little and tiny cracks I can't see ahead of time. I've also found my chicks are a lot healthier when they do hatch. The only problem with it is it burns my hands really bad and the skin peels off in a few days. Unless I'm in a hurry I use rubber gloves when I wash them just so my hands don't get eaten.
Wazine shouldn't be used if you are eating the eggs, but I don't think it will hurt the embryos. I've used ivermectin and safeguard which are both even stronger and never had any problems with hatching eggs after wards.
I went back out while ago and the cold front has moved in. It was pretty pleasant out there earlier wrapped up like I normally am, but now it's cold and damp and the wind is blowing. Is this crap ever going to end?
I need to get a load of straw and get my nests built for geese and peacocks soon. Maybe I can encourage these geese to lay where their supposed to if I make them some nice fluffy beds.