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

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote: Yep - I grew the Early Moonbeams one year - small yellow watermelons. They did well. Just not as spectacular as the Blacktail Mountain... I like the yellow fleshed ones a lot!!!! (Maybe I'll try growing those this year...)

@Fire Ant Farm Hi, I know the feeling about being too busy to be on.
I am still amazed she survived a cattle panel falling on her. I was so scared when I saw her with that panel on her and the one bar across her neck. She was not moving. She is a very sweet ISA that I planned to use with my Ameraucana cock for EE.

@MotorcycleChick If you give sweet potatoes a good mound and then give them an old piece of cattle panel or field fence to grow on they will bet quite big.

Yeah, those things are super heavy - I got some from TSC, and since I had to pay someone for delivery, I got something like 30 of them (the 4 x 16 ft panels). So I have a lot of them around, either intact or more likely cut down to 4 x 8 (esp. as trellises). It is not pleasant to have one fall on your foot - so glad your hen survived!!!

One of Maple's feet is a bit worrying. It has a clear gel in the centre that won't squeeze out, unlike the other, which popped immediately with little coercion. The foot is very warm and she won't put weight on it.

I've coated it again with triple antibiotic ointment and re-wrapped it....

Chrissy ate a good half bowl of feed by herself today.

Still not quite as much as she should be, but I think if I keep bugging her to eat she'll be back up to 5 oz of feed per day pretty quick.

Spent most of the day working on the brooders. STILL. But cutting all that hardware cloth and bolting together all those panels takes so much time. I stopped around 10:45p - I just need to drill the holes in the plywood bases, and then I'll fire up the pneumatic stapler and get them all put together.

It's POURING outside - violent thunderstorms. WHY oh WHY can't it just rain like normal?! Why does it have to not rain for 1-2 months and then DROWN everything!!!!!

Not a great time to need to be keeping the Eggplant girls and Monkey locked up in their tractor - I'll need to see what their bedding looks like. Maybe I'll be lucky, but it seems we tend to get a lot of sideways rain around here...

Banti is pelting me with cute duckie pictures on PM - NOT.... YET..... (But I am off to read about duck breeds and housing before bed...)

Falling asleep at the keyboard (maybe that duck reading won't get done after all). Good night!

- Ant Farm

 

[Akrnaf2]

... That is way to anal for me. I am not a detail person. I would love to have you do that to my eggs for me. Just for the fun of it. I find the more times I touch the egg, the more chances it has to bounce off the floor. Most eggs do not survive the first bounce...and clear fingernail polish does not always seal the cracks....specially if the yolk is leaking out.

Weighing entails way less handling than candling does. It doesn't have to leak out. If the yolk is runny, the embryo is doomed. Early last summer I dropped 2 eggs of a single batch moving them to the candling room. One just had a good crack, the other was at least 60% covered with cracks. This was around day 15 or so. I used liquid bandage and they both hatched. I've tried nail polish and beeswax. Neither one resulted in a chick.

... I've got bored pullets in Goodwin's coop - now that he's gone, I think they're starting to get unruly. Specifically, the 3 cream legbars, previously well behaved are being a pain and now bullying the others, esp. the OE Arbequina (who is an AMAZING layer, BTW). I am not attached to them, they are not laying, I don't plan on ever hatching their babies, and they are sort of ticking me off... I'm not ready to process them - yet (I think that's an over-reaction - I have lots of hens that aren't laying yet, and pecking order is pecking order). So, I have two choices - what would you do? 1) Put them back in with their parents - I have a CL coop with Dumbledore, their mother Lissa, and Jenny (who is nearly blind and has ocular Mareks). It's comfortable (if a little extravagant) for the three. That is actually the plan whenever Jenny finally dies anyway. Downside to this is that it would make that coop a little cramped compared to before for the older three, and I'm thinking it wouldn't be pleasant for Jenny at all. (I think I've talked myself out of this option). 2) Go ahead and put Monkey in there with them. Monkey was already going to be their rooster, I was just considering waiting until the coop was built. I'm thinking he can get them under control. It'll be a little hard at first, as it always is introducing a new rooster/cockerel, and a little more snug to keep them locked up for a while compared to if they were in a bigger tractor, but it's gotta be done some time. And it'll decompress the Frat house a bit. I'm leaning toward this option. 3) Suck it up and cull the mean little freeloaders. (Their brothers were SUPER mean as well - meanest little chickens I ever raised, picked fights with everyone form a very early age.) This is the first thing I thought when watching them going after Arbequina. But if I can get them laying again, I do enjoy the blue eggs, and they were well behaved with a cockerel around. This is the only group I have with no cockerel or rooster. I think I'm gonna do option #2... I need to put fresh bedding in there (if I'm going to lock them up together for a little while). Thanks for listening. - Ant Farm

I'm a big fan of decompressing. Low stocking density has many benefits. I like having at least one rooster with each flock, especially when free ranging. They keep the peace and you never know when you need fertile eggs on a moment's notice. I caution against #3. You would be culling them right before they start kicking out the hen fruit you've been feeding them all winter for.

No no no no no. I have WAY too many boys as it is.

But no CCLs.

Health check is showing signs that what I thought was dirt on the new sultans a few months back is actually red mites, and is multiplying, albeit slowly. I give up.

Quote:

There's still a chance the red mites have not made it into my coop, as they're kept in a pen in the run, and refuse to go into the coop. It's only on Zoey so far, Hazel still looks decently healthy.

Don't bet on it. Get them treated, clean out the coop and disinfect. Twice.

Taking a break from brooder building - I just cut all the lumber (no small task for three large brooders built out of panels). Been on my feet a little long, so I came in and played with the chicks some more (they are so nuts!). Speaking of nuts, I also moved the OE eggs into the 'bator with the high humidity, and since the other 'bator was looking so much more empty, well, 4 more Puppy eggs and 2 more Switch eggs "fell" in. They have china marker "x"s on them so no mistakes on which ones go to the hatcher at lock down. I'll brood them together (after brief separation for the younger ones to get their footing). Come on, guys, somebody post something funny so I have something to read while resting!!! (Or maybe I'll go read more about American Buff geese...) - Ant Farm

I number every egg as it goes in the incubator. They get recorded with weight, date laid, date set, color hue, parents and any other things particular to the egg like if washing was necessary, if they got an ascorbic acid dip, etc..

Silly US people. Get on the metric bandwagon already. We barbecue like that here too. Quote:

And just why does your milk come in bags?

Quote:

Strange way to do things

Milk in Mexico and the rest of Central America comes in cardboard boxes. On the shelf next to the bread and cereal. It's ultra pasteurized and lasts longer than that in plastic cartons. It's not usually pure white either. There are brands that are the same as that in the states but only last on the shelf a couple days. Boxes don't take up space in a landfill and don't require expensive refrigeration.

Depends on when he fills it; he also brings his own milk. You've no doubt been warned not to drink the water in a strange country. The same is true for milk.

I was cautious at first but it is good. As long as water purification processes work, that's not a problem either. The countries aren't strange, just different.

Ragnar died today, and I don't know what to do with him. There's not a mark on him, not a feather out of place. I think he must've been fighting. Eyes closed, food in his crop... I didn't want him for breeding, but he was still a great roo.

Send him here.
[TR] [TD] Louisiana [/TD] [TD] Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory Veterinary Med Diagnostic Laboratory, LSU River Road Room 1043 Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803-0001 Phone: 225-578-9777 IAV-A, CSF, ND, FMD, IAV-S* [/TD] [/TR]
Then you'll know.

The habs won 5-4 with 3 goals in 62 seconds. Incredible.

What are habs? Habaneros?

We have milk vending machines here in Belgium. Bring a glass bottle and fill it up for only a buck.

Not machines but it made me think of buying wine in Spain and Italy at the small market. Bring your own bottle and they fill it out of one of the barrels behind the counter. White or red. Lot less plastic in a bag, break down faster and don't take up as much landfill space.

I guess I've led a sheltered life! I hope the machines are refrigerated, at least. How does the customer determine freshness?

Date stamps.

It's owned by the dairy farmer, the cows are usually in the shed behind the machine building. I hear them moo-ing when I go and the milk is ice cold when it comes out. It's basically like a soda fountain but it dispenses milk.

Pretty cool. Just like daily milk deliveries by the dairy here when I was a kid, the bakery and brewery would make deliveries to my house in Germany. The bakery was daily, the brewery was only a couple times a week. Apparently beer lasts longer than brotchen.

The vision I get in my head is not good of this. I see a cow with a milking machine standing in a freezer behind the vending machine waiting for you to drop your buck in, so she can let a glass out. Poor Cow.

It's a cow's life.

So, I just gave some well-mashed boiled egg to the chicks. NO interest in it.

It's an acquired taste. They are reluctant to eat things they haven't eaten before. Sprinkle just a bit on the food and they'll soon be fans.

Shalom to all! Some interesting pictures! See the one at 05:21

You have too much time on your hands. I like the ones at 3:08 and 5:15. Some look photo-shopped.

Extra time is the ONLY benefit of being a teacher!

 

[BullChick]

Too busy outside and building brooders to be on BYC much... 
Hey, ChickenCanoe!!!! We missed you - sorry you weren't feeling well. Regarding the CCLs, I have a very nice rooster and super healthy hen that are the pullets' parents, who are roomies with Jenny (the CCL hen who is near blind form ocular Mareks). If I wanted more, I could have them... And as of today, both hens have started laying again after their long break - REALLY nice colored eggs.  SO far so good with option #2, though I caught them picking on the OE again today (even with Monkey in there). No actual damage being done, that I can tell. If it doesn't stop, I'll need to identify the ringleader, and take her out for a vacation in the chicken hospital for a little while, hoping that when she goes back, she'll be at the bottom of the pecking order. That's my next option. But I'm hoping I won't need to. 

My eggs are all numbered and ID'd as well, with full spread sheet. I just also added a really big black X so I would be SURE not to move the wrong ones... (OK, so I'm paranoid...)

Um, NO NO NO, sweet potatoes cannot go in until it's WARM. 



@MotorcycleChick
 , while I have a different climate, I do have some thoughts.

You will need 100-120 days to harvest sweet potatoes (have you grown them before?). I have personally found the best yields with Bunch Porto Rico, and the Purple varieties (either All Purple or the other Japanese purples) have been more vigorous plants for me. 

Bell peppers need full sun and heat, but you also have to watch for sun scald if there's LOTS of sun. I found late afternoon shade avoided this for me. YMMV depending on how much direct sun you get though. 

Peas indeed can go in early. I really like both snow peas (like oregon pod) or your general sugar snap pea more than other garden peas, so it may be just me. 

Highly recommend Blacktail Mountain watermelon. Very good, hardy plant, smaller melon, 73 days. If you start the seeds indoors, no reason you wouldn't have a chance of getting a few good ones. Best watermelon results I've had. From my seed supplier: "[COLOR=4A2604]73 days. [/COLOR][COLOR=4A2604][1977, developed by Glenn Drowns][/COLOR][COLOR=4A2604] Small-fruited, earliest of all. An excellent small, fast maturing, highly productive watermelon that can be successfully grown in cool short season areas or southern hot, humid, areas. The earliest of 114 varieties that Glenn Drowns grew in 1994. Round 9 in. fruits have a dark green rind with small brown seeds. Orange-red flesh has sweet, rich flavor. When harvested just underripe, melons will ripen in storage and keep up to 2 months."[/COLOR]

[COLOR=4A2604]You could also try Early Moonbeam or Golden Midget, which might be neat: [/COLOR]

[COLOR=4A2604]Early Moonbeam: "76 days. [/COLOR][COLOR=4A2604][Alan Kapuler][/COLOR][COLOR=4A2604] Sweet, crisp yellow icebox melon, 5-8 lbs. Thin, light green rind. Short vines make this a great melon for small gardens."[/COLOR]

[COLOR=4A2604]Golden Midget: "72 days [/COLOR][COLOR=4A2604][1959][/COLOR][COLOR=4A2604] Early, small 3-lb. melons with salmon-red flesh and a built-in ripeness indicator: the rind turns yellow when the melons are ready for harvest. (Don’t be alarmed by the leaves: some yellow foliage is normal for this variety.)"[/COLOR]

[COLOR=4A2604]​- Ant Farm [/COLOR]

No, I've never grown sweet potatoes before. My fear of worms is strong (but not snakes) so I've been avoiding it. However, I do like them, and Duckling needs healthier foods. It's time. Tyvm for the information!

@Fire Ant FarmHi, I know the feeling about being too busy to be on.
I am still amazed she survived a cattle panel falling on her. I was so scared when I saw her with that panel on her and the one bar across her neck. She was not moving. She is a very sweet ISA that I planned to use with my Ameraucana cock for EE.

@MotorcycleChick If you give sweet potatoes a good mound and then give them an old piece of cattle panel or field fence to grow on they will bet quite big.

They vine?

 

[Chaos18]

Morning everybody.

 

[BullChick]

GOOD MORNING, SLEEPY HEADS. I HOPE YOU ARE ALL ABLE TO HAVE A GOOD DAY.

 

[daxigait]

Good morning Chaos and Abi.

Yes, the sweet potato will take over a panel if you start it on it.v Then they get bigger, more prolific, and take up less space. I got a lot of normal ones when I did it and several as big as my size ten and a half shoe. Much better than just left to cover ground.


Good morning everyone. Any advice on my pullets wing?

 

[Chaos18]

Good morning Chaos and Abi.

Yes, the sweet potato will take over a panel if you start it on it.v Then they get bigger, more prolific, and take up less space. I got a lot of normal ones when I did it and several as big as my size ten and a half shoe. Much better than just left to cover ground.


Good morning everyone. Any advice on my pullets wing?

It's not broken correct? You could hold it in place and then use vet wrap (or something similar) to wrap her with. That way the vet wrap will hold the wing in position and she doesn't use it. Kind of like a sling.

 

[daxigait]

It's not broken correct? You could hold it in place and then use vet wrap (or something similar) to wrap her with. That way the vet wrap will hold the wing in position and she doesn't use it. Kind of like a sling.

I was wondering about doing that I was just unsure if it would be goodd for her. No it is not broken just hurt so she can't hold it up tight. She was not in her normal spot when I went out to check on her at half time, but she had managed to get up the eight inches or so to get on the ladder so she could walk up to the end of the roost by herself.

 

[Chaos18]

I was wondering about doing that I was just unsure if it would be blood for her. No it is not broken just hurt so she can't hold it up tight. She was not in her normal spot when I went out to check on her St half time, but she had managed to get up the eight inches or so to get on the ladder so she could walk up to the end of the roost by herself.

If you can I would put her in a crate or somewhere to limit her movement so she doesn't hurt herself further and others don't pick on her. Then give her a sling for the wing and some time to heal.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Care to send some warming breezes? *Sigh*

Right now I'd need a blowtorch to even clean the roost.... I bent my scooper trying to chip it off.

Wish I could. We are finally warming up this week. I really feel your pain. I tried chipping out some bedding this week and gave up.
If that's your issue, you may get away with just treating the afflicted birds. There aren't likely many surviving off the birds right now.

You are giving helpful information that I will use!
I need to rephrase what I said. I am looking for suggestions on varieties.

Sorry, I misinterpreted. I just reread it.
In addition to Ant Farm's suggestions.

For green bells, 'pick-me-quick' can handle cool spring and hot summer.
'King of the North' is an early-bearing variety for cool short seasons.
I personally don't waste garden space on green bell peppers or anything else that is cheap at the grocery store. I do however plant all the colored varieties that are pricey at the store. Yellow, red, orange, chocolate and purple.

Good older varieties of peas are Sugar Snap (abundant producer), Sugar Ann (dwarf for northern climates), Little Marvel (early heavy bearing bush) and for snow peas, Dwarf White Sugar (bush).

Early Canada is a 75 day early watermelon. Bush Charleston Gray watermelon has the highest vitamin A content.

Interesting article.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1984/0110/011026.html
Some sources
http://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/watermelon/
https://www.superseeds.com/pages/vegetable-seeds

I hate listening to the former cowboy quarterback get too excited and biased. They need to get a different announcer when Dallas is playing. It is irritating enpigh to watch the Pack screw up but listening to him hacks me off.

homers

@kwhites634 What a brawl. By the hair of our chinney chin chin. I am really tired of the fourth quarter stress. We give up too many leads in the fourth.

Reminds me of the Cardiac Cardinal days in the 70s/80s.

One of Maple's feet is a bit worrying. It has a clear gel in the centre that won't squeeze out, unlike the other, which popped immediately with little coercion. The foot is very warm and she won't put weight on it.

I've coated it again with triple antibiotic ointment and re-wrapped it....

I assume she is indoors. Try some herbal treatments. I use calendula, Echinacea and hypericum in an ointment for bumblefoot. Those may work well for frostbite too.
http://www.altmd.com/Articles/Herbal-Remedies-for-Frostbite

CC you are right about the feathers change. BUT it is more important in FLYING birds and less in chickens and the most important point is that IMHO there is no evolutionary logic in loosing all your feathers exactly in the time point when the chicken NEED THEM THE MOST ( AOTHOM BEFOR WINTER ). So the severe molt exactly in AOTHOM could have some other human caused reasons.

Maybe it is climate specific. Fast hard molters are preferable where winters are hard so they have a new complete coat before the worst hits.
Funny thing, I raised Jaerhons (from Norway). They usually didn't molt till late December/January. Maybe they just didn't think it was that cold here.

Yep - I grew the Early Moonbeams one year - small yellow watermelons. They did well. Just not as spectacular as the Blacktail Mountain... I like the yellow fleshed ones a lot!!!! (Maybe I'll try growing those this year...)

Yeah, those things are super heavy - I got some from TSC, and since I had to pay someone for delivery, I got something like 30 of them (the 4 x 16 ft panels). So I have a lot of them around, either intact or more likely cut down to 4 x 8 (esp. as trellises). It is not pleasant to have one fall on your foot - so glad your hen survived!!!

Spent most of the day working on the brooders. STILL. But cutting all that hardware cloth and bolting together all those panels takes so much time. I stopped around 10:45p - I just need to drill the holes in the plywood bases, and then I'll fire up the pneumatic stapler and get them all put together.

It's POURING outside - violent thunderstorms. WHY oh WHY can't it just rain like normal?! Why does it have to not rain for 1-2 months and then DROWN everything!!!!!

Not a great time to need to be keeping the Eggplant girls and Monkey locked up in their tractor - I'll need to see what their bedding looks like. Maybe I'll be lucky, but it seems we tend to get a lot of sideways rain around here...

Banti is pelting me with cute duckie pictures on PM - NOT.... YET..... (But I am off to read about duck breeds and housing before bed...)

Falling asleep at the keyboard (maybe that duck reading won't get done after all). Good night!

- Ant Farm

Blacktail mountain is a good early one.

Wet and muddy here not that it is above freezing. Rained all day yesterday, today and most of the rest of the week. Ugh! At least it is warming up enough I may get some germination going on forbs in pasture.

No, I've never grown sweet potatoes before. My fear of worms is strong (but not snakes) so I've been avoiding it. However, I do like them, and Duckling needs healthier foods. It's time. Tyvm for the information!
They vine?

Yes they vine. I usually use colored varieties in window boxes with assorted flowers for their pretty trailing leaves lending contrast to the flowers.

Morning everybody.

Good morning.