Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

ChicknBaron, I'm learning too. I just wanted to add a pic of an unabsorbed yolk since I had it handy. This little chick is doing fine now, apparently this isn't a bad case. It seemed to absorb in, the balloon part shrunk and was like an empty sack and then it dried up. I didn't even notice it falling off but it's gone. I had another one that had it worse and it ruptured and it bled terribly and he lost a lot of strength instantly. He lived for another day and a half and passed this afternoon.


Right now I have 2 pipped in the incubator. One has been pipped for very close to 24 hours, but it isn't supposed to hatch until Wednesday. I think I'm going to wait longer because I'm afraid of the unabsorbed yolk because it's early. If I open it to help one it will hurt the other who has only been pipped since this afternoon.

I guess this is all a learning thing, learning as we go.

Definitely wait before you help. If they are just resting in their shells they are fine. They could rest all day long and then make a big effort to zip at night.. never know what their schedule is. I think you might be too hot and they are hatching too early. So it's just as well they are pipped-- they can breathe, but then they need to absorb the yolk and rest.

It is pretty cool isn't it? I love it when they are small enough to see them swimming around still in the shell!
Hahaha! Such naughty ponies. Jackson, my walker, uses his hoof to bang the gate because he knows it makes me mad and I go out and yell at him and then he gives me that big, doofy I am starving face so I have to feed them. I could set a watch by those horses. I don't seem them all afternoon until dinner time around 7 and then they won't leave!

Don't know if anyone hit on this yet but sometimes unabsorbed yolks has to do with incubator temps being either too low or high. There are some good charts on trouble shooting hatching on BYC and can help you diagnose what went wrong. Hatching in a styro bator was going to be the death of me so I bought a Brinsea Eco and I have a redwood bator that DH is going to refurbish for me that will hopefully be running next spring!

I love candeling too! Your horses sounds as bad as mine at dinner time! Love it! Oh, I didn't know you had a Brinsea too! I LOVE mine!!! Totally fool proof! (unless you had a bad therm like i started out with)

 

[HEChicken]

Thank you. Yeah, I have decided that that is probably my best shot at getting what I want. However, my DH's grandma (where I got my current goose from) isn't planning on hatching any more (and hadn't planned on hatching any this year except that her geese did it for her), so I might have to ask her for an egg, an incubator, and all the supplies and do it myself. After hearing all kinds of stories about hatching, I'm not sure I want to do it myself...

Anyone know of anywhere I could get some white or brown chinese hatching eggs this time of year? My DH's grandma said her birds only lay once a year.

Don't be put off by the stories you hear about hatching - it is true things can go badly wrong and it is definitely a learning curve but seeing those little lives come out of the shell is also one of the biggest thrills there is. (On the other hand, I would recommend starting with chicken eggs that are easier to come by, easier to incubate and take less time.)

If you are considering going this route, I would recommend starting with more than one egg, to increase your chances of getting something to hatch. You'd also be better off with more than one hatching so you don't end up with a lonely gosling in a brooder for weeks after hatch. In the event you hatch multiples, you can probably sell them on CL once you have integrated the one you want to keep with your current goose.

For hatching eggs, have you looked in the Buy/Sell/Trade section here on BYC, or on eBay? Shipped eggs are certainly a gamble but may be your only bet since you can't find them locally. However I know nothing about geese but if your grandma's geese have a laying season and are currently off season, you may find the same is true of everyone elses too.....

 

[michelleml]

Good morning all loving this weather its chilly this morning. I have a question what do you all use in your coop and runs for litter. Currently i have shaving in my coop and dirt in the run. I was reading in a blog about sand. i do the deep litter now and it works great for us but wanted to know if its easier and cleaner to use sand.

Article i was reading
http://www.grit.com/blogs/blog.aspx?blogid=4294968034


Have a great day everyone

 

[lizzyGSR]

Don't be put off by the stories you hear about hatching - it is true things can go badly wrong and it is definitely a learning curve but seeing those little lives come out of the shell is also one of the biggest thrills there is. (On the other hand, I would recommend starting with chicken eggs that are easier to come by, easier to incubate and take less time.) My husband won't let me have chickens so that won't work.

If you are considering going this route, I would recommend starting with more than one egg, to increase your chances of getting something to hatch. You'd also be better off with more than one hatching so you don't end up with a lonely gosling in a brooder for weeks after hatch. In the event you hatch multiples, you can probably sell them on CL once you have integrated the one you want to keep with your current goose. While I agree that it is better to have multiple birds in the brooder at once, there are a couple of problems with this 1) I would get attached to all of the goslings and would have problems selling them, but I don't have room to keep more than one 2) There isn't much market out here for geese, which is probably why Orscheln's dooesn't sell them and why I don't know anyone other than my DH's grandma that has geese. 3.) I don't have room for more than 1 or 2 goslings as I have to use a box as a brooder and don't have access to super large boxes.

My thoughts on this: I would prefer to hatch one bird out at a time. If the first hatch fails, the laying season SHOULD be long enough that I could try again. Once I do have a successful hatch, I could spend quite a bit of time throughout the day with the little one because I work from home. Then, at night, I could put a stuffed animal in with it and/or a mirror. I know this isn't ideal, but I haven't been able to find an adult bird that is friendly... I'm still keeping an eye out for an adult bird...

For hatching eggs, have you looked in the Buy/Sell/Trade section here on BYC, or on eBay? Shipped eggs are certainly a gamble but may be your only bet since you can't find them locally. However I know nothing about geese but if your grandma's geese have a laying season and are currently off season, you may find the same is true of everyone else's too..... I have read in multiple places where white chinese lay twice per year. I don't know what the difference is between those birds and my DH's grandma's birds, but I do know that I've seen multiple people claim that their birds lay twice yearly.

On a different note, I stepped outside just a few minutes ago and called to my goose. I got TWO responses - one from my goose and one from the hawk that seems to have moved into the tops of one of the trees in our treeline. I called to my goose again, and again I got two responses. It is kind of neat, but it is also kind of disturbing, especially since I just got 5 Khaki Campbell ducks last weekend, and they are the smallest duck I've got and the smallest duck I've seen in person (I obviously haven't had the pleasure of seeing any call ducks). I am a little nervous about the hawk getting one of my ducks. I am trying to get the roof put on my duck run so I don't have to worry about flying predators, but we've hit a hiccup in that the clutch went out on our pickup and the mechanic has had it since this past weekend. We need the pickup to go get the wire that we're going to use for the roof of the run. Once we get the wire, I'll have a bit of work in cutting the wire in half lengthwise and then piecing the two halves together side-by-side so that the wire is wide enough. On a positive note, my birds have spent most of the day hiding underneath the duck house. I've also seen them keeping a careful eye on the sky, so I think they're aware of the danger. THe ducks I had prior to getting the khakis spent quite a bit of time fending for themselves at my DH's grandma's house before I got them. They wouldn't go back to the pen at night and so they spent quite a bit of time hiding in the tree line at night.

 

[HEChicken]

Michelleml, I started with shavings in my coop. My chicken yard is big enough it is whatever grows there and is still grass, but its more like a free-range situation for them. I planned to do deep litter in my coop and when the shavings were needing topped up, I had every intention of getting another bale of shavings. However we were moving from the old house to the new house and had about 20 bales of straw to move and store somewhere, so I hit on the bright idea of using them in the coop. I took a bale down, took it apart and spread the flakes around the coop. Within 3 hours they had the flakes torn apart and spread far more evenly around the coop than I ever could have! They had a blast scratching through it. That was about 6 weeks ago and while it started fluffy and deep, it has been packed down to the point I am starting to consider giving them another bale soon. They still scratch through it a lot and have mixed the original shavings through the straw. On those couple of rainy days we had, I scattered a little whole corn around the coop to encourage them to dig and turn it over even more. Since far more poop falls under the roosts than elsewhere, once a week I rake the bedding from under the roosts to the far side of the coop and replace it with the cleaner bedding from elsewhere in the coop. That way I don't end up with stinky piles under the roosts. So far this system seems to be working for us, although there is nothing so far about the bedding to suggest it is ready to be pulled out and added to the compost pile. I'm hoping after winter it will be ready.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Thank you. Yeah, I have decided that that is probably my best shot at getting what I want. However, my DH's grandma (where I got my current goose from) isn't planning on hatching any more (and hadn't planned on hatching any this year except that her geese did it for her), so I might have to ask her for an egg, an incubator, and all the supplies and do it myself. After hearing all kinds of stories about hatching, I'm not sure I want to do it myself...

Anyone know of anywhere I could get some white or brown chinese hatching eggs this time of year? My DH's grandma said her birds only lay once a year.

Geese are seasonal layers, usually starting in early spring. The chinese are one of the most prolific layers and will sometimes start laying in November. One year I had some laying eggs in October.

You mentioned you go to Salina. Maybe you could put an ad on the Salina Craigslist for a goose, gosling or eggs. If someone has what you are interested in, make arrangements to pick it up when you are making a trip there. Also, do a search for chinese geese on the Salina, or any area near you cl, and you might find an ad and they still have some. I have found things I want that way.

I have a pretty little white girl and her sibling, a brown, that I thought was a gander, but it is acting more like a goose? They are so bonded I hate to seperate them, so will keep them. They are a mid summer hatch. Like someone mentioned this is the time of year people are getting rid of what they don't want to keep over winter.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Brinsea too! I LOVE mine!!! Totally fool proof!

All this talk of hatching is making me want to go buy one of these and get started! I was looking on amazon at some... any suggestions? Are they all equal as far as quality?

 

[HEChicken]

Lizzy, that is scary about the hawk. I had a 5-week-old chick taken by a hawk in the middle of suburbia a few years ago. At the time I didn't know what took the chick - just that I put 4 chicks outside and next time I checked there were only 3. I searched the yard and didn't find so much as a feather out of place. The chicks had been "free-ranging" since my backyard felt so safe but since it clearly wasn't, I then confined them to a rabbit hutch run that was much smaller than having the freedom to traverse the whole backyard but covered in wire to keep them safer. Two days later, I looked out the window and saw this perched on my fence:

I guess it was back for another meal. He perched there for about 20 minutes, decided there was nothing there for him and left. I haven't lost another bird to a hawk, although we did see them swoop over from time to time. The chooks seemed to understand the danger and when one was spotted, would call the alarm and they would all run to hide under cover. If I ever went out and found them all hiding, I figured a hawk had swept past recently. The hawk on the fence above was pretty small - maybe a Coopers Hawk, and I don't think it could have carried off anything but a youngster.

 

[HEChicken]

All this talk of hatching is making me want to go buy one of these and get started! I was looking on amazon at some... any suggestions? Are they all equal as far as quality?

If you are asking if all incubators are created equal, the answer is definitely "no". If you are wondering about the Brinsea brand, I have heard mostly good things about them. They are fairly pricey but all hobbies are pricey, no?

For what its worth, I am very happy with my home-built, that cost me almost nothing. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case for everyone though. I also keep herps and had some of the materials just "lying around" that wound up being perfect for the job. If you are interested though....

For the sytrofoam cooler, I heard that Omaha Steaks coolers are superior because they are super thick. I have never ordered from them but figured someone in the area probably has and doesn't need the cooler their meat arrived in, so I placed an ad on Freecycle and was gifted with two coolers, one a little taller than the other.

For the heating element I used a reptile heating pad. These come in various sizes, and are a flat pad with a heating element wound through it, used to adhere to the bottom of a glass aquarium to keep a snake or lizard at the right temperature. I found I had one that was only slightly smaller than my cooler so takes up most of the bottom (flat as a piece of cardboard though, so its perfect - doesn't really take up any space and yet warms VERY consistently since the heat is coming from the whole bottom).

For the thermostat, I used a reptile thermostat I already had. I have found it is awesome at maintaining a perfect temperature, cycling on and off more often than the hot water heater thermostats do.

For a fan, as mentioned earlier I tried a computer fan but couldn't get it to work so I broke down and bought the Little Giant Incubator fan for $35. I already had the wire nuts (thanks, Danz, for reminding me of the proper name for the "little plastic thingies you use to connect wires) and had no trouble finding an old cord to attach it to - that part took only minutes.

Back to the cooler....I made a large hole near the bottom on one of the ends, out of which I threaded the cord for the heating pad and the cord for the fan. I also used a pencil to make three ventilation holes on each end just at the top of each side. (For ventilation, the fan, sitting at the bottom and just inside the big hole, draws air in and vents it out through the six smaller holes at the top).

I went to the thrift store and bought the first 8x10 picture frame I found that had intact glass. Then I went home and traced the glass onto the lid of the cooler. I then cut out a rectangle of styrofoam about 1" smaller all around than the glass. Then I was able to cut out to allow the glass to sit flat on the styrofoam and fit in much like a picture frame. This turned my whole lid into a viewing window.

The incubator is now ready to go.....

At the dollar store I bought a couple of little dog bowls, and a couple of wire racks. The dog bowls sit on top of the heating pad, the wire racks sit over them, a rectangle of 1/4" hardware cloth cut to fit the cooler sits on the wire racks, a piece of rubberized shelf liner sits over the hardware cloth, and the eggs sit on the shelf liner. It is easy to pull back the shelf liner and add water when needed right through the wire racks and hardware cloth. I add warmed water, so the little heating pad doesn't have to warm water from cool.

It took a little adjusting to get the temperature where I wanted it, but once I did, I found the incubator stays at an even 99.5 with almost no variation. The thick walls of the cooler hold both temp and humidity very well. I can open it 5x a day to turn eggs and it recovers almost immediately. My last hatch was 100%, the one before that 9 out of 10 eggs hatched, so I'd say its working pretty effectively

Of course, if I had to go out and buy all the components, I'd be spending quite a bit so it only worked for me because I already had them, but there is also a lot of satisfaction in getting a good hatch out of home-built.

 

[chicken danz]

It is pretty cool isn't it? I love it when they are small enough to see them swimming around still in the shell!
Hahaha! Such naughty ponies. Jackson, my walker, uses his hoof to bang the gate because he knows it makes me mad and I go out and yell at him and then he gives me that big, doofy I am starving face so I have to feed them. I could set a watch by those horses. I don't seem them all afternoon until dinner time around 7 and then they won't leave!
Hahaha! My midget white makes a "noise" when she displays but it isn't a gobble. She does display but she has an attitude the size of Texas and nobody messes with her! Her name is Flo and she is broody right now. Let me tell you, a broody turkey hen is a force to be reckoned with!!! No pressure to buy more turkeys, I just thought I would offer here in case someone was looking for something. I hate it when I have been hunting for something and someone tells me they just sold all there _____fill in the blank with desired bird!
I have a mature bronze tom and they are super easy to tell apart but these RPs are all at the age where they all look the same. Their heads and necks are all the same amount of bumpy, their snoods all look about the same. I have seen two display and spar with each other but my bronze hens I lost to the dog would do that to each other so I don't want to tell someone its a hen or jake and be wrong.
Don't know if anyone hit on this yet but sometimes unabsorbed yolks has to do with incubator temps being either too low or high. There are some good charts on trouble shooting hatching on BYC and can help you diagnose what went wrong. Hatching in a styro bator was going to be the death of me so I bought a Brinsea Eco and I have a redwood bator that DH is going to refurbish for me that will hopefully be running next spring!

I didn't know you had a midget white! When did you get her? I love my midgets. I didn't know the girls display. That gives me a little more hope that maybe all my last batch aren't boys after all. I never noticed any display in the first batch I had except my one obvious Tom. These are the sweetest turkeys. I noticed since I sold one of my blue slate Toms this weekend that the other one has been displaying and gobbling non-stop. I kept the smaller of the two Tom's cause his coloring was just slightly better. He thinks he is a real man now that he has the girls all to himself. I am also selling my excess wild male. I am taking him to Yates Center the weekend of the sale where he'll get picked up.
So my plans to butcher a home grown turkey have gone south but at least the boys aren't competing now. Maybe this spring I'll be able to butcher one of the midgets instead.
Quote:

Well i just looked it up on another thread and they said something about if you feed them other things beside there feed, to give them grit. i have a bag of crushed calcium or something but that looks like the pieces would be too big for them. Is this true?

Most of the grit you find is granite. A common one that they sell is called cherry stone. It is a pink granite and it actually smells like cherries. I would buy a big bag because it is much cheaper that way and you will use it as well and many more in time. Calcium can also serve as grit but is primarily for egg production.
Quote:

Good morning all loving this weather its chilly this morning. I have a question what do you all use in your coop and runs for litter. Currently i have shaving in my coop and dirt in the run. I was reading in a blog about sand. i do the deep litter now and it works great for us but wanted to know if its easier and cleaner to use sand.

Article i was reading
http://www.grit.com/blogs/blog.aspx?blogid=4294968034


Have a great day everyone

I personally love deep litter and would avoid sand. Reason is simply that sand can harbor mites and fleas etc. Sand is okay for a bottom layer if you have a dirt floor because it allows the moisture to drain. But shavings absorb moisture and they will compost eventually. It is the best in my opinion. I also use wood pellets but only on adult birds. They break down to saw dust if they get wet and baby chicks will sometimes eat them.

On a different note, I stepped outside just a few minutes ago and called to my goose. I got TWO responses - one from my goose and one from the hawk that seems to have moved into the tops of one of the trees in our treeline. I called to my goose again, and again I got two responses. It is kind of neat, but it is also kind of disturbing, especially since I just got 5 Khaki Campbell ducks last weekend, and they are the smallest duck I've got and the smallest duck I've seen in person (I obviously haven't had the pleasure of seeing any call ducks). I am a little nervous about the hawk getting one of my ducks. I am trying to get the roof put on my duck run so I don't have to worry about flying predators, but we've hit a hiccup in that the clutch went out on our pickup and the mechanic has had it since this past weekend. We need the pickup to go get the wire that we're going to use for the roof of the run. Once we get the wire, I'll have a bit of work in cutting the wire in half lengthwise and then piecing the two halves together side-by-side so that the wire is wide enough. On a positive note, my birds have spent most of the day hiding underneath the duck house. I've also seen them keeping a careful eye on the sky, so I think they're aware of the danger. THe ducks I had prior to getting the khakis spent quite a bit of time fending for themselves at my DH's grandma's house before I got them. They wouldn't go back to the pen at night and so they spent quite a bit of time hiding in the tree line at night.

If you aren't getting the wire free or cheap I would recommend buying netting for over your runs. It's pricy but you can use one piece to do it all and it's so much easier to work with. Wire will rust but this stuff will last. Don't buy plastic bird netting. Get the regular knitted or knotted netting.
Lizzy I don't think I would attempt to hatch a goose egg unless you had several to try with. If you aren't going to be hatching chickens or anything else it certainly wouldn't be cost effective. And geese really do require some experienced hatching.
I suppose if you made your own incubator it might be okay but in the long run you would still be better off to look for a young goose. I do wish I could have figured out a way to get those from the auction to you. I'd watch the Salina craigslist or even put in an add under farm and garden looking for one if I were you. Or in whatever other area that will work for you.
I so love hatching. I hatched a fairly large group of chicks yesterday and have another batch that goes in the hatcher tomorrow.