Dixie Chicks

[BriardChickens]

Oh no! I really hope someone just took them out for their home.

What did the shipper say?

 

[vehve]

BC, it should, it seems to pack a powerful punch. You will still need to bleed the animal though, that thing only renders them unconscious.

Mini, my god that is some shoddy packing.

 

[Peep_Show]

Our apple tree is blooming like crazy. Needed a serious pruning job this winter and it didn't happen. It has 2 to 3 minimum dead branches (weren't dead last year) still attached and needs a lot of cleaning up. Have to wait till next year now. Going to Spray it this year before the busgs get to it.

You can trim the dead branches off a tree anytime without any ill effect. If they're dead from blight, then trim a bit into the live wood and dip your saw or clippers into rubbing alcohol between limbs to prevent the further spread of blight.

Well, got my chicks this morning...

In a damaged box and 13 chicks missing from it.

Oh, what a disappointment! Saw the pictures. Looks like someone perhaps ran over the box or crushed the box. Bet they realized the damage and took out the dead chicks.

In any event, file the claim. You didn't get what you paid for nor did you get the shipping service you expected.

 

[BriardChickens]

Still 18 days left for my duck hatch. All 7 eggs are developing. However I do have a problem with the humidity. No water in incubator and it drops to 35-40% and with just a tiny bit of water humidity jumps to 60%. I think I'd like to see it at ~50-55. What do you think?

During candling last night I could see the little ducklings try to get away from the light.

 

[vehve]

You can decrease the evaporation surface to achieve something in between that humidity. Placing something non-absorbent in the well will do that. Ideally, something with a consistent width, like a metal or rubber cylinder or cube or something. An eraser might work, or a few, so that the surface area of the water is halved.

 

[minihorse927]

I called the hatchery and they're replacing the missing chicks with all welsummers. That's mostly what was missing. I asked if they wanted pictures to report to the post office and they said no. The lady was nice that I talked to but did not seem thrilled to be at work or happy to hear what I had to say. I was very nice and just told her the box was damaged and the side was ripped out on the corner and that there was chicks missing from the side and the divider was pushed up and most of the chicks had made their way to the other side of the box. Gonna get 10 no more chicks next week.

 

[minihorse927]

On a good note though. I had 2 Swedish flowers incubating and they both hatched! Finally! Got the dang issue with them figured out!

 

[vehve]

Just a thought on Swedish Flowers. They're based on a Swedish landrace, and while Skåne where they originate from is slightly further south than I am, I think naturally the incubation temp they're hatched at may have been slightly lower than that of birds originating in warmer climates. One idea would be to turn down the temps slightly, maybe half a degree or even a whole degree (F).

 

[chickisoup]

Good Monday morning everyone!

We had rain last night!!! A good soaker!!! You could almost hear the poor grass slurping

Maybe now they can lift the burning ban and everyone can stop holding their breath waiting for the wildfires. We are officially back into a drought situation (another El Nino year). We lost our snowcover early this year and then no rain so the green up didn't come. ALL we had was a lot of crisp, dry, brown everywhere and piles of dead winter damaged limbs mixed with dry leaves, not good. We were under a severe storm warning but all the nasty stuff went to our south. We didn't even get much wind or lightening, thank you Lord.

Love the hard work on the trees, going to look a lot like that around here hopefully soon. Actually looking forward to arrival of the loggers. Those woods of ours are way overdue for a good thinning out. If we didn't get at it, Mother Nature would (aka fire!).

Love everyone showing off their hard work with their pics and all the baby pics too!

Alaskan-sorry for your loss. Tends to be the bad side of this time of year.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. We played hooky and went to an antique tractor plowin'. I really enjoy watching those old machines doing their stuff, especially the steamers. I also get a great kick out watching all the small older "pucka pucka" motors chuggin' away shucking corn, drawing water and such.


tried to upload a video of one of the larger ones starting up but I got an "illegal file" error, oops.

What was really cool was they had one of the old tractors pulling a seated wagon you jumped on and they would go out in the field and drive right beside one or two of the tractors plowing so you got to go ride beside them down the field.

 

[BriardChickens]

You can decrease the evaporation surface to achieve something in between that humidity. Placing something non-absorbent in the well will do that. Ideally, something with a consistent width, like a metal or rubber cylinder or cube or something. An eraser might work, or a few, so that the surface area of the water is halved.

Thanks, now to think about what I have at home like that. Maybe a few washers?