EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

[Fire Ant Farm]

hello to Daxi and Banti,

back from trash day, enjoying my second cup

Recycling day here - just got mine out. They say 7am, but they tell everyone in the city 7am. Many times they come much later, so I put it out at 9am today, got lucky.

GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM!!! OOPS! WRONG GREETING! GOOOOOOD MORNING, EVERYONE! I HOPE YOUR MORNINGS ARE LESS EVENTFUL THAN MINE! LOL!

Good morning, and thank you!

Quote:
Aw, geez... Good luck with your day.

Well, more concentrated plus separate. I can get just Thiamine so I can give a small dose.
I am going to check into some of the oral gel supplements for Thiamine and B vitamins. I think this doe will need regular supplementation. I am going to ask my vet. I also need to get more probiotics for after an antibiotic.
She was doing OK this morning. I hope she continues to improve.

So glad to hear - please keep up posted.

(And so I can look it up, for whenever I have goats - I should look up "goat polio"?)

Quote: Whew! Lots to do. I have yet to figure out a reciprocal chicken sitting arrangement with someone, but I will need to for when I'm out of town...

I'd better get going. I need to go into work for a while today. But I'm hoping to take Tuesday and Wednesday off (and we have Thursday and Friday as holidays). I could really make a lot more headway with these outdoor chores that, funnily enough, require daylight to do.

Have a great day, everyone!

- Ant Farm

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Phase 5: Solar Air Heater

My fiance is a pretty crafty guy and had this idea for a while. He went online and found some instructions, and we included this in the original plan of the coop. It is an air heater made of aluminum cans and painted black! The finished product is below:



Outside views (above and below)





Inside views (above and below)



Here's how it works. A small frame is built on the top and bottom of the window with no backing toward the inside of the coop. Using a can opener, one can cut the tops and bottoms of a bunch of soda cans off, leaving aluminum tubes. These soda cans are then taped together with aluminum tape and laid out so that there is about a quarter of an inch of space in between them. With this spacing, holes that are big enough to allow the tops and bottoms of the cans only are then drilled through two boards which will be placed on top/bottom of the small frames. With these in place, the cans are fitted in so that they stretch between each hole and after all are in place, a board is fitted behind them (on the inside of the coop). This seals the cans off from the inside, leaving them exposed to the outside. These cans and the surrounding wood are then spray painted entirely black.

Air is drawn through the bottom opening inside the coop, heated inside the cans when the sun is hitting them, and forced out through the top opening. It is a startlingly simple idea, though it can be a bit complicated to get it all laid out. This works best on a side where the sun will hit a LOT, A north or southward facing wall is best. Glass should be fitted over top of the cans, and nothing should obstruct the sunlight. We actually ran into a problem with this, as the semi-transparent blue plastic roofing we chose blocks too much light. Either way, it does work and heated the coop up noticeably on bright days. We will be creating a cover for this during the summer, so that the coop doesn't overheat in hot weather. We don't want any roasted chickens!

There are many many instructional pages and videos on how to create one of these available online. I did not take sufficient pictures to go through this step-by-step and there are plenty of designs which blow this one out of the water. Click here for a search!

I want to make one of these someday!!!! I seen these where they use downspouting....

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Mornin Kristin, have a great day!!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

tire nest boxes, bet they are hard to clean like my wood boxes

At this point I installed the skinny windows which were made by cutting sections from an old plastic shipping tote (275 gallon tank). - built a door - screened the end windows - and moved the birds in. They were very happy to be out of the brooder area I had set up in the shed. I found and old curtain rod for them to roost on and they took to it quickly, except for the Faverolles.


Then I got to work on the watering system. I started by mounting tanks to the rafters with pieces from a broken tow strap. The tanks were acquired from a commercial laundry facility.



The water lines run down the wall to manifolds equipped with watering nipples. The chickens were pecking at them before I could even fill the tanks. NO MORE POOPY WATER !


Unfortunately I didn't realize that the chickens would now make a water mess, they were only catching about half of the water they released from the nipples and soon had the straw wet. I took down the piping and did a little bit of a remodel. I started by adding some cdx plywood to the walls (eventually I will cover them all). I then moved the manifolds into one corner and installed a gutter system. I am only using one tank inside now and plan in installing a watering manifold outside the coop using the second tank. I also replaced the straw with pine shavings. Much better.


I found some large worn out ATV tires for free at the tire store and mounted them to the wall for use as nest boxes and I am on the hunt for some more.


First day out to forage. Happy day for me and them. They feed themselves entirely on greens and bugs now. I still have a lot of work to do before it's finished but little by little it's getting done and the birds seem happy. The roofing membrane came from a commercial building hit by a tornado a while back.

 

[Chaos18]

tire nest boxes, bet they are hard to clean like my wood boxes

Tires would be a pain to clean out. How does he fill the two water things on the ceiling?

 

[kwhites634]

Quote: You should grab guineas by the neck, & hold on, as tight as you can manage

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: assuming hose

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: You should grab guineas by the neck, & hold on, as tight as you can manage

the guy in NJ that I traded chicks fer eggs that Mike and I hatched said he raises them just for food, they are better than chickens he says???? dunno.... maybe Mike will process one

 

[Chaos18]

assuming hose

Depending on ceiling height that could be a pain.

 

[Chaos18]

the guy in NJ that I traded chicks fer eggs that Mike and I hatched said he raises them just for food, they are better than chickens he says????  dunno.... maybe Mike will process one

I'm wanting to get them to try them out as food.