Dixie Chicks

[NotAFarm]

@NotAFarm Are you following the hockey world championships? Rinne just played his third game in a row without letting the puck go behind him. And the US took a bit of a embarrassing loss against Belarus today...

I haven't watched any of the world games but saw some highlights and the standings on NHL Tonight. Unfortunately, hockey will always be "an also ran" when it comes to sports here in the US. I think it is gaining popularity, albeit slowly.

I've been busy watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Blackhawks beat the Nashville Predators (team Rinne is goalie for) in the first round. They play game 4 of the second round against the Minnesota Wild tonight on the road. If we win tonight, we sweep the series and will face the Anaheim Ducks (unless the Calgary Flames manage a miracle and win 3 of the next 4) in the semi-final round.

 

[BriardChickens]

So mad at my broody! She ate 2 of her eggs!

 

[bamadude]

So mad at my broody! She ate 2 of her eggs!

Chickwhispers lost 13 of the 14 eggs I shipped her to egg eating broodies.

 

[Alaskan]

So mad at my broody! She ate 2 of her eggs!

that is VERY frustrating.

Me.... me frustrated too.

So, remember, my money making Marans rooster died...

But I wasn't too upset, since chick selling season is winding down, but duckling selling season is starting.

The kids and I all have the same favorite Muscovy duck, Kuhflecken... she is a chocolate pied... and she started setting on a eggs back when we had second spring, like the lovely money making girl that she is.

One of the other ducks, Keks, started brooding a couple of weeks after her, right next to her... we had successful hatches with two ducks next to each other last year... so I saw no problems there.

So... Kuhflecken was off of her nest today, AND Keks. Kuhflecken had ONLY HATCHED FIVE DUCKLINGS!

FIVE!​

We snatched up the rest of the eggs, they are in the incubator now, once they warm up I will see if the embryos are moving/still alive. But there were 10 that look good or possibly good, only 1 of those looks close to hatch, the rest are various ages, but mostly still pretty young, say 15 days or so. Only 2 were clear, go Drake! (we have been worried about him, since he is getting older), and there were about 8 rotten or clearly dead.

The smallest ever that Kuhlecken has ever produced in the past was ELEVEN and that was in a freezing cold fall, her last clutch last year she gave us TWENTY TWO!

 

[BriardChickens]

Chickwhispers lost 13 of the 14 eggs I shipped her to egg eating broodies.

so frustrating!! Now that I think about it, I think she ate one a few days ago. She had 7, and 2 nights ago during a quick clean I counted 6, but just put it aside thinking it ,might be hidden under new shavings. Went in to clean the coop and her and actually saw her pecking at 2 empty shells!!

So I picked her up and just "threw" her out to the other free rangers

that is VERY frustrating.

Me.... me frustrated too.

So, remember, my money making Marans rooster died...

But I wasn't too upset, since chick selling season is winding down, but duckling selling season is starting.

The kids and I all have the same favorite Muscovy duck, Kuhflecken... she is a chocolate pied... and she started setting on a eggs back when we had second spring, like the lovely money making girl that she is.

One of the other ducks, Keks, started brooding a couple of weeks after her, right next to her... we had successful hatches with two ducks next to each other last year... so I saw no problems there.

So... Kuhflecken was off of her nest today, AND Keks. Kuhflecken had ONLY HATCHED FIVE DUCKLINGS!

FIVE!​

We snatched up the rest of the eggs, they are in the incubator now, once they warm up I will see if the embryos are moving/still alive. But there were 10 that look good or possibly good, only 1 of those looks close to hatch, the rest are various ages, but mostly still pretty young, say 15 days or so. Only 2 were clear, go Drake! (we have been worried about him, since he is getting older), and there were about 8 rotten or clearly dead.

The smallest ever that Kuhlecken has ever produced in the past was ELEVEN and that was in a freezing cold fall, her last clutch last year she gave us TWENTY TWO!

Oh man, got room in the incubator?? I don't Alaskan... did she sit on more then 5?

Anyway, I m going to try and make room in my tiny full incubator. Will give them a couple of days and candle. They were cold when I found them.

 

[BriardChickens]

I ment: cold and dirty. Full of poop and yucky egg stuff probably. I did a bad thing: I washed them...

 

[Alaskan]

I ment: cold and dirty. Full of poop and yucky egg stuff probably. I did a bad thing: I washed them...

I have now incubated washed eggs and I have also incubated dirty eggs.... MUCH better hatch rate with washed. I actually don't think I have lost many or any due to washing, so don't worry about that.

The eggs that we grabbed were cold .... but I am hoping that they will warm up and still be fine.

As to how many she started with... we actually never counted, she has been so wonderful all the time that we have had her, that I just assumed that she would have a bunch, as in at least 15 eggs.

I couldn't believe that there were so few eggs! But we hadn't counted the eggs that Keks was sitting on either. I don't think that any of me ducks are egg eaters.

The third duck that hasn't gone broody yet, Creamy (and actually I do NOT understand WHY she hasn't started going going broody). Actually Creamy has a giant nest of eggs, about 20, just sitting there. Last summer my ducks went broody with 15 to 20 eggs per nest.

I think that they knew that I wanted the money... so they are messing with me.

 

[Alaskan]

oh... yes, there was room in the incubator for the duck eggs.

 

[minihorse927]

That sucks BC. I've had a broody do that before. I pitched her off the nest too and havent let her sit since.

Alaskan, wonder why she only hatched so few? Maybe someone else decided to rob her eggs and has been laying in her nest after she started sitting?

 

[BriardChickens]

Well that's good.

I tried for about 20 minutes, all kinds of configurations on how to fit 11 eggs into the brinsea 7. Long story short 8 fit. I candled the 4 remaining from broody, 3 have veining, 1 is a maybe.

Tomorrow I am planning on driving to a feed store 1 1/2 hrs away from here. They have incubators. Trying to keep the eggs somewhat warm in the attic until then.