Consolidated Kansas

[chickmama1662]

Danz, so sorry to hear your mom is not doing well today. I'll be thinking about you. Chicks are too cute, how many are in that basket?

 

[JosieChick]

Danz-I will keep up the corporal cuddling! I am sure they will get used to me but I hope they don't love me as much as Chopper loves you! I don't know that I could handle that much admiration!

I woke up to another chick in the hatcher! Surprise! It is funny how when you are hatching 'important' eggs that you paid good money for you are a basket case and when they are your own accidental mutt eggs they just pop out like no problem and you have no idea what is going to hatch when. I never should have let all these broodies try to sit, they kept swapping eggs and leaving one "started" nest for another one with more eggs. Ugh.

Anyone interested in a pair of goats? I have decided I am not a good goat owner and they need a pasture that is properly fenced for goats so they don't get loose and get hurt. They are probably a little over a year old now, both disbudded pygmy wethers. They are sweet boys I just don't have the patience for the escape artist or putting up goat proof fencing on 4 acres of pasture. If anyone has any suggestions too that would be great. I don't want them to get eaten, they are pets and have been handled a lot. Would probably love some kids to mess with them.

 

[chicken danz]

Josie, I never used to keep my goats penned except at night. They just roamed the yard and stayed with the dogs. Of course I have a some scuffs on some things from hooves. They used to love sitting on top of the lawn mower and standing on the propane tank to reach the leaves from the trees. I used to do very well selling goats in the spring since people want them to eat grass and brush. Put an add in CL and I'll bet they get taken right away.
Chickmama there are all 60 of those babies in the basket. I just load them in there to take them to the brooder. I need to do some more shifting in the brooder now. It is mega crowded again. I guess if I worked non-stop instead of sitting here every morning I might do better catching up.
This is my "me" time though.

 

[Trish44]

Wow Danz, that's quite a basket of chicks! I won't ever hatch the volume of chicks you do I'm sure even if I do get a bigger incubator, which I'm working on selling some things to get the money for. I'm thinking of buying one of those from that guy in Oklahoma that builds them. He uses the wafer part from the GQF, I know that much. Anyway, it's the price I can afford. Maybe later on I can find another one used somewhere, but for now that's about all I can come up with the money for. I'm so sorry your mom isn't doing well, sending thoughts & prayers your way.

I have one chick in the hatcher right now that hatched last night, an Ameraucana & one more EE in there pipping today. That's the end of the eggs I had in the hatcher until tomorrow when I add a few more that were left from the tail end of the first batch of eggs I set. Oh, I'm so excited! I candled the eggs I got from California, the blue wheaten Ameraucanas & 10 out of 11 show growth. The 11th one was an extra & it was bad so I tossed it, but I got extras anyway. Wow, I hope they all make it to hatch, that will be great! I also candled the turkey eggs, but I'm not used to looking at turkey eggs at all & it was a little early too. I think I'm seeing growth in them, but I'll wait a little longer & check them again. I have all of the Ameraucana chicks sold now that are hatched, so they will be going to their new homes soon & I probably will have the EE chicks sold also, I just need to check with someone who asked & see if they still want them. I have had people waiting on Ameraucana chicks forever & I had to turn down people for quite awhile because my hens weren't laying. Now that they are I'm going to be hatching for awhile. When I told my DH how many people have been asking for them he said that maybe I need to keep some more. I never thought I would hear him say that! I may later on, but I want to see how the blue wheatens come out too & that will involve keeping them for awhile so I can get a trio. I'm going to have to come up with a turkey pen too if I'm going to raise the Royal Palms. What kind of shelter do the turkeys need, can those of you that have them tell me? Do they have to have a coop or could they survive in a 3 sided shelter? I'm just wondering what I could build easily for them. Now that I have these pups I don't have to worry so much about predators like I did before. They are starting to do their job at night, I hear them out there barking at things. When I have gone out at night I see them a lot of the time laying just outside the chicken run & dog run where the Ameraucanas stay, good pups. They're still puppies & they're rowdy still, they're 6 months going on 7 now, but they're big dogs. Lily still has the goofy grin when she thinks she's in trouble, I found out she got that from her daddy. They're starting to get why they're here though & that's good. Lily was guarding baby kittens when I got out there this morning, not bothering them, just laying next to where they were.

I have two hens, one of which is one of my best layers who think they want to be broody. The one I don't care so much if she is, but the Barred Rock I would rather she lay than be broody. Is there any way to break her of it? They of course aren't laying since they want to sit. I thought about letting the one have some of the eggs I've been waiting on to incubate, but she keeps moving from nest to nest & not staying on them, she's a goofy girl, one of my Australorps.

 

[chicken danz]

Just keep taking eggs from the ones that want to be broody. You'll break it eventually although they will probably try to start brooding again before too long. I have a group of at least 10 hens that insist on being broody. I just take eggs and continue to take them. They even act broody when there aren't any eggs under them. But by hot weather they will break it.
The only thing about the Oklahoma incubators are they are made to be used with turners that go in a LG styrofoam. If you bought enough turners to use in it you could afford to buy a GWF. Just sayin'. They are good incubators other than that. I think I would rig up my own turner system or even spend the money to buy the turner mechanism from a GQF and copy their set up rather than buy a bunch of individual turners. Have you ever seen the old time egg turners they had before electric ones. They just had connected baffles in rows and a handle on the side that moved the baffles. It turned them by moving the baffles from side to side.
If I were you I'd keep my eyes on CL and be sure to check OK CL as well. You could probably pick up a used GQF if you are patient for around $250 or less which gives you everything for not much more than the guy in OK sells his for.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Whew, what a morning already!! That was a crazy storm that passed through! I was holed up in my favorite coffee shop most of it while the Littles were at Preschool. But we did have to run a few errands aftewards in the rain, thunder, lightening... Sigh.

Mandilyn, very cute chicks! They are getting big!! Soon enough, they will be big girls! Love your pics!

Danz----

WOW that is a lot of chicks!!!! Sooooo cute!!

Trish, good luck on your RP eggs! I'm glad you'll be raising them and close by! If I decide I want a Tom next year... and if we're HERE. Who knows... lots of "what ifs". But I love those turkeys! Sweet little things! They set off the alarm too when anything strange is going on outside. Be prepared! They are just as good as a watch dog!

Okay-- so I have great news!!! I have an egg developing that I threw in a little bit ago after I got my incubator straightened out! The others I'm positive are no good-- they all went thru the wild swings as I was adjusting it. I threw out several two days ago and I need to go thru and throw the rest out today. I was just leaving them in there for now. I put in 3 more eggs-- so hopefully those will be good, too. Looks like I may be on my way to incubating actual babies that will survive!!!

 

[JosieChick]

Trish- Chooks told me to take a broody hen for a car ride to snap her out of it, that is what she does or puts them in her house for a few days. I have tried it and it does work! I just stick them in the back of the jeep and take em for a spin around the block! By the time we get back to the coop they forgot what they were doing and go back to acting normal. Only lasts a bit if they really want to sit, mine seem to go at least a week or more of laying until they need another car ride!

 

[Trish44]

Josie, now that you mention that I do remember seeing that on here before about the car ride, how strange. I guess I'll have to try that when I get a chance. I wonder why that works?

I have another little EE that hatched today so there are two chicks left in the hatcher today drying off. Some of the chicks will be going to their new homes Sat. & Sunday. I'll miss them, they're so cute to watch, I could stand there all day & just look at them if I didn't snap myself out of it. I have been surprised several times with eggs that I didn't think were going to hatch & they did, the last one is a case in point. It just didn't look like it was viable & it hadn't shown any signs of hatching until it started to pip earlier, but it did hatch. That's not the only one I've had like that either, so I guess it's a lesson for those who think an egg might not be good to wait & see.

Hawkeye, congrats! It sounds like maybe now you have things going well with the eggs & the incubator, that's great! I have been very pleased with my Brinsea so far, it's done a great job of incubating eggs for me with not much trouble at all. If I hadn't messed with it any I think it would have been fine just the way it was. Now that I got it back to where it needs to be I'm not messing with a good thing. Yes, I do like the Hovabator 1588 a lot, especially to use for a hatcher. It has that huge clear window so you can see everything happening in there. It's a little harder to control humidity with, but for hatching it's OK. I'm going to find out soon how it is for incubating because I want to put my turner in after the last eggs from this batch of eggs hatch & put more eggs in since my Brinsea is full. So we'll see how I'm able to keep the humidity at where I want it. It's just very easy on that one to get the humidity too high, but for hatching that's not so critical. I think having it too low when hatching would be worse than a little higher since the chicks can get stuck in the shell if they don't have enough. It's just so much easier to control humidity on the Brinsea for incubating. The only thing I wish they had done on it is to have a way to fill the water without having to lift the whole egg tray out. I guess that's where the expensive one might come in handy. It's an inconvenience & a little risky if you happen to drop the whole egg tray full of eggs, which I'm sure happens.

 

[Ivywoods]

Trish-I agree with Danz. Keep an eye on craigslist. That is where I bought all three of my GQF's, including the one I recently sold. I gave about 300 for one that was completely set up with auto water, auto turners, egg trays enough to fill 3 incubators and a few other extras. My other two I picked up for 150 each. One didn't need anything done to it, and one I made some modifications to and fixed the wafer thermostat. I felt like I got a good deal on all of them.

I put my pair of blue slate turkeys out with my remaining royal palm hen. I haven't heard the new tom gobble even once.

That was the main reason I wanted them. That royal palm was a gobbling fool. I am still thinking of getting another royal palm, even if I have to drive a long ways to get him.

The poultry killing dog will be going to his new home Saturday morning. I feel kind of bad about it. He is a great little pet, and an EXCELLENT tracker. He just cannot be trusted around any kind of poultry.

 

[Trish44]

IVY, how old are the GQFs you have? I saw one on CL the last few days, but it's a 1202 sportsman & I don't know how many models back that is. I know they don't make the 1200 series any more. They're wanting $250 for it & it comes with 2 chicken egg trays & 2 bantam egg trays & the front door is modified with a clear door. It says it has a turner, but it doesn't say if it's an auto turner or manual. Here's the ad: http://wichita.craigslist.org/grd/2941038520.html. It's also possible one may come up at the Mulvane Swap meet too if I make it there this time. I couldn't make the last one because I went to KC instead. I would like to make this one if I can. Anyway, I sure would like to get my hands on a bigger incubator now before I get my breeder coop built & then when I do have it I will have something to hatch more eggs in.