Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I'm really happy you like your birds.
It was a super busy weekend and the week is even going to be busier. It's crazy these days.
My friend and I got a temporary pen set up for my extra ganders yesterday so I have them corralled so they can be caged later this week to take to auction.
Then we took out the old fence and put new fencing around my old garden. It looks so much nicer. The only problem is now that I can't get in there with the tractor to till it. I'll have to till it by hand. I was hoping to get the new garden area fenced as well but we ran out of time. I had customers coming and to take care of plus it was rainy and drizzly all day. I need to get out and get busy soon. I am behind again.
I really hate daylight savings time.

 

[chicken danz]

If the top ones has muffs it could be a sex link. I can't tell from the picture.

It's so much easier to look at chicks in person where you can see all the details. Even then it's hard to be perfect when hatchery birds look so much different than heritage birds.
Another busy day today but I was moving in slow motion. I'm too tired and sore from the work I did yesterday.
I lost a goose today and it broke my heart. I've never lost an adult goose. I did a necropsy. She had a shelless egg stuck near her vent. Otherwise she was perfectly healthy. Tons of other eggs forming and no worms or organs that looked abnormal. But the unshelled egg was discolored and smelled bad. Poor girl. It broke my heart. she was one of my really beautiful older white ones with really long curls. She died on her nest.

 

[venymae]

@sharol Four chicks hatched! Two black, two grey. Two eggs still not doing anything (fully developed though!) and I have 19 more in Uglybator due Easter Sunday. Pretty good for eggs that got up to 113!

 

[sharol]

Quote:
I'm go glad it didn't toast them. Those spikes are really scary. Someone on the hatching thread said that if the temp didn't stay up very long it didn't usually destroy the hatch. Let us know about the others.

 

[HEChicken]

Someone on the hatching thread said that if the temp didn't stay up very long it didn't usually destroy the hatch.

Exactly right! Think of it as two temperatures. There is the air temperature in the incubator and the liquid temperature of the eggs themselves. The thermometer is generally measuring the air temperature which responds quickly. So when the lid is lifted off the incubator, the air temperature will quickly cool and the thermometer will register that, but will just as quickly register when it returns to normal after the lid has been put back on.

The internal temperature of the eggs does not respond nearly as fast. So a spike up to 113 for a short time only means the air is that temperature. The eggs take much longer to get up there. As long as it is caught quickly and the temperature lowered before the eggs have a chance to get too warm, the hatch shouldn't be affected.

Venymae, congrats on the chicks so far!

I have one pip this morning for a hatch due late Wednesday. I had to put a cardboard divider in my incubator to keep the chicks separate once they hatch, at least until I know for sure what I have. I sure hope the divider holds up to chicks bouncing off it in their attempts to walk. Its the first time I've tried a divider.

I got my first turkey egg of the year a few days ago. I'm letting the hen collect a clutch and she has added two more to the nest. However they are calling for a low temp of 29 this weekend so I may need to bring them inside after all.

I finally planted my asparagus this weekend. I was a bit overwhelmed by the directions, calling for me to dig a trench 12" deep and 12" wide and then make hills and then put in crowns and then do this and then do that. As I started to dig, my neighbor came out and I told her I didn't know if I'd even be able to get down 12" deep. She laughed and said when she planted hers 20 years ago she didn't follow all the fancy directions - just dug a hole and plopped them in. They came up fine and have done brilliantly ever since. So I felt quite relieved and decided to stop stressing about it. I dug as deep as I could but most crowns did not get a hole anywhere close to 12" deep. I did give each a handful of compost to get them started and then I covered the entire plot with a light layer of mulch when I was done. I had a few crowns left over after filling the space I had. There is sod next to that spot but I may try to dig it out a little today and get those last few crowns planted.

Danz, congrats on the progress with your garden. What we did when we fenced around our garden was to use a livestock panel at each end, attached only to one t-post at each end of the panel by zip-ties. That way we could easily cut the zip-ties and pull the panel out of the way in order to get the tiller in. We did do that the second year and it worked very well - my neighbor's tractor and big tiller had no problem going through the 16' gap to till the garden for us. However we no longer till as since then we've gone with the deep mulch method which works better for us at keeping weeds down.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

So happy for all the chicks hatching congrats everyone Danz so sorry to hear about your goose hugs

 

[chicken danz]

@sharol Four chicks hatched! Two black, two grey. Two eggs still not doing anything (fully developed though!) and I have 19 more in Uglybator due Easter Sunday. Pretty good for eggs that got up to 113!

Congrats on the chicks. More green eggs for you!!!
I took one of the dogs to get spayed today. I was sure reluctant to do that cause she is the last full product of my first set of Pyrs. I have Yeti though who is a remarkable pup and I think he will be just as big and sweet as his grandfather.
Precious is penned due to being in heat so that leaves one dog to work for me.
HeChicken I plan to leave one end open on the new garden so I can get the tractor in. The problem of course is once I get it in there being able to turn it around. It uses a lot of space to turn. But I also need to put in a man gate so I can easily go in and out. The other garden I got fenced is going to be my fruit garden for the most part. Maybe I'll set some early spring crops in there but I'm not entirely sure.
I do all this planning but find myself wondering where I'll ever find the time. I am so overwhelmed with projects right now that my blood pressure is peaking. I would really like a day to do nothing. Not going to happen.

 

[sharol]

Since it is so quiet, I'll post some baby pictures from my chick hatch. (Campine and Breda Fowl)









I'm still trying to figure out if that little yellow chick is pure Breda. I guess time will tell. I spent the morning over at the Breda Fowl thread looking for chick pictures, and none were all yellow. The little one on my hand is a Campine but its head is brown. I don't know what is with that. 2 of them are like that and the others are all stripey and spotty like a normal Campine.

It will be fun watching the babies grow up and change.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Awww so cute Sharon congrats on the hatch lol can't wait to watch them grown and change

 

[chicken danz]

Sharol are you talking about the yellow one in the pictures? It looks pure Breda to me. I have white breda and some with some spots. I thought you mentioned some brown on it?? I don't see it.
That last campine chick looks nothing like the campines I had. They all had leopard spots and a patterned head. I would be concerned if it was purebred or not. But I only raised one group I hatched from eggs so I'm definitely not an expert on campines.
It is quiet and I wonder where everyone went. I feel like I've been talking to myself. I'm so busy I have to look for time to post and read and there sure hasn't been much to read.