East RIver - South Dakota

[SD Bird Lady]

-50 wind chills expected soon. Hope everyone and their chickens stay warm and safe!

Not looking forward to that at all. Might finally be cold enough for the ducks to stay in the coop.......maybe. They are insane creatures. Hope everyone stays warm or at least not frostbitten.

 

[TheChicknShack]

wind chills hit -58 last, but got 22 eggs from 27 hens today. Guess I worried about the chickens for nothing. Meal worms for all the girls!

 

[SD Bird Lady]

wind chills hit -58 last, but got 22 eggs from 27 hens today. Guess I worried about the chickens for nothing. Meal worms for all the girls!

Awesome!! My girls are all young so out of 18 hens only 3 are laying and 4 (older girls) are in a hard molt. Very unproductive winter this year.

 

[TheChicknShack]

13 of our 16 eggs have gone into the hatcher (one we are very skeptical about). Our first batch.

Finished the hatcher yesterday, temps are running stable and humidity runs around 65%. Hoping for a good hatch

.
The Hatcher is 24" wide x 24" deep x 15" tall and made from 3/4" plywood + 3/4" Foil-faced insulation. The digital thermometer has been running 2 degrees hot (as tested by a "people" Thermometer), but is mainly there to keep track of humidity. Installed a 100-watt Incukit from incubatorwarehouse.com (http://incubatorwarehouse.com/100w-incu-kit.html) and it is easily keeping the temp fairly constant I do wish however that the Incukit would have come with a proportional thermostat). Humidity is controlled by a tank/float, so the door does not have to be opened.









We will keep you updated as to our success (or failure

)! 3 Days to wait

.!!!

 

[SD Bird Lady]

Good Luck with your hatch ChiknShack. What breed are you hatching? Make sure to post pictures of the little fluffy butts! Nice incubator too!!

Its amazing how warm 8 above feels when its been below zero for a few days. Did everyone come out of the Polar Vortex unscathed?

 

[TheChicknShack]

Our chicks are most likely mixed breeds: 2 Black Australorp & 1 Silver Laced Wyandotte Roosters x 2 Australorp, 2 Production Red, 2 Black Sex Link, and 2 Buff Orpington Hens. Just hoping for successful hatch.
*Note the eggs were collected over 4 days time and the temps were well under freezing the entire time.

We started using a LG Styrofoam incubator, but maintaining temps was next to impossible, not to mention the humidity.

So we constructed a cabinet incubator, like one we found on this site. Was easier to wire than expected and we were able to get all the parts necessary at Menards. Temps were a lot easier to maintain and humidity remains constantly around 45% with just a 9x13 pan in the bottom of the incubator.

Rather than use the incubator for hatching, we decided to build a hatcher.

Today we had a welcome surprise: 5 eggs have pipped. The chicks aren't due to hatch for 2 more days, so we were very surprised to hear a peep this morning. Keeping our fingers crossed and trying not to stare at the eggs all day.

 

[TheChicknShack]

Our first chick !!!

18 days in incubator, 1 day in hatcher. 6 other eggs have pipped as well.
1 1/2 hours old, 2 more eggs hatching.

*Proud Father note: also have video,

 

[SD Bird Lady]

I was just curious if anyone is aware of an Easter Egger Rooster that I could buy/trade/rescue. I have two Brahma boys now but my plan is to keep one and then get an EE boy for my EE girls since I like my colorful egg basket. I will not take an aggressive rooster, but other than that I'm not terribly picky as long as he is healthy. Thank you for any input.

 

[amicuswill]

From an economical stand point ... keep the flock over winter or butcher and eat?

amicuswill

 

[SD Bird Lady]

From an economical stand point ... keep the flock over winter or butcher and eat?

amicuswill

Not sure I am quite understanding. Do you mean to start with a new layer flock every spring??

There are many variables.... If you have layer type hens and use artificial lighting they are usually slowing considerably by 2-3 years then they can become stewing hens

If you are keeping a "flock" complete with rooster, i would suggest hatching out enough to replace 1/3 -1/2 your flock so you can start a rotation, so to speak, and then eat the extra boys.

I would not suggest butchering every fall b/c the birds are still very productive and most have not yet peaked. If you want steady meat and eggs it would be the most economical to keep a layer flock of a egg laying breed (production red, golden comments, sex link)and replace according to your own schedule. Then you can get cornish x birds for butcher. If you use artificial lighting they should keep laying through the winter pretty regularly.

Hope this answers your question.