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

[Chaos18]

Good morning everyone!

Steal nothing, with the goats.

Morning Mike.

 

[kwhites634]

Good morning everyone!

Steal nothing, with the goats.

 

[dan26552]

    Give her some eggs!

 

lol, cute chicks. I hope you didn't get in too much trouble. 



Nice, Dan.

Thanks.

 

[dan26552]

I think I might have the start of a broody, it's the same duck who went broody last year. I go way past their normal laying time (twice she's been there now) and she all puffed up in the box and is pulling nesting material to her. Not sure whether I should be excited or not.

 

[kwhites634]

Why not?
No power outage concerns
No humidity/temp problems

What could be better?

 

[mlm Mike]

Quote: Hello Chaos!

Quote: Hi Whites! You're still looking for a new/working boat trailer?

I think I might have the start of a broody, it's the same duck who went broody last year. I go way past their normal laying time (twice she's been there now) and she all puffed up in the box and is pulling nesting material to her. Not sure whether I should be excited or not.

Be excited!

Why not?
No power outage concerns
No humidity/temp problems

What could be better?

 

[NaJoBeLe]

 
The problem is, there's no legal alternative to the USPS for shipping eggs or live birds (insofar as I'm aware), so they can handle them any way they want to.

I agree with that and it is our only choice. I did find a ride for a rooster to Ohio once and someone delivered 4 birds to me from Washington state.
Trouble with the PO is that usually, no one handles the packages except when you drop it off and pick it up. Most of the rest of the time it is automation. Conveyor belts, sorters and bins the packages drop into. If the bin is near full, the box doesn't drop far. If it is empty, it drops much farther.
I almost got a job programming one of the sorting facilities after Ford closed our plant.

 
hi,

i'm getting my incubator set up to hatch some chickens. this is only my second time hatching, so i've been rereading all the 101's.

my big problem right now is that i have 2 digital thermometer/hygrometers and a couple of glass thermometers that came with the incubators and they all have different readings.

i'm not sure how to calibrate the digitals because they don't have probes that i can put into boiling water or ice?

i think that maybe last year, i was using an average of all the different readings. i had successful hatches, but can't remember exactly what i was doing to read the temps.

I went through the same thing when I first started incubating. The glass ones from the incubator manufacturer turned out to be the farthest off. They were accurate at 70 and way off at 100.

Get a Brinsea Spot Check and a Thermoworks RT301WA http://www.thermoworks.com/RT301WA
Then take the rest to the nearest trashcan.
Quote:

 
Now I remember why I come to visit for a while, then leave for a while, then come back....lather, rinse, repeat.....  I go to bed for a just a few hours sleep and come back to over 100 posts.  Whew!!  My eyes are old!!  The rest of me matches.  As for hatching this year, I'm still on the fence.  We'll be traveling a ton this year.  Our favorite feed store is expecting chicks today, but I'd already decided that I was going to skip any chicks this season.  HELP ME BE STRONG!   ​

The reason I like to use a leftover piece of wire welded fence is because to raise it I just pull up on the middle.  To lower it I smoosh it down in the center.  Easy.  When I first tossed the heat lamp forever, I was looking into alternatives.  I was fascinated by the EgoGlow brooders but:

A - I couldn't justify the expense for as seldom as I thought I'd be raising chicks
B - I wanted something soft and snuggly, more like Mama Hen, rather than something rigid
C - I liked that the cave was nice and dark, just as it is for them under a broody, rather than just being a straight canopy over their heads, so at night time they sleep all night through.

I fought buying the heat plates for the longest time too because of the cost. I had been using ceramic heat emitters.
I don't know how much your heat blanket one uses in wattage, but when I did the math, the Premier heat plates paid for themselves in one hatching/brooding in energy savings.
I have a small and an extra small with the dome covers.

I don't like spiders.....

I'm none too fond either. I used to be petrified of them till I had way too much exposure and realized most won't kill you.

I used to do a years worth of cardio when I'd walk into a web while walking through the woods. Especially at night.

 
Good luck this evening. A kayak on Lake Superior sounds cold.

Only if one of those roller waves causes one to do an Eskimo roll.

Quote:

Not really sure, they are mixed with the rest of the flock and have been eating the same purina flock raiser. they are on the smaller side as compared to the rest of the flock but I haven't noticed any bullying issues.

Did you say if you were turning by hand or with a turner?
At what point are they quitting?
Are you feeding anything else like scratch, supplements or does flock raiser make up the whole diet? Are they free ranging? Did they hatch out of pullet eggs?

 

What kind of boat?

16.5 Larson 125 Evinrude runabout needed something with tall gunnels to hold the kids in.

No kid problems here. 17' Bass Tracker, 35 Merc; in desperate need of a new trailer.

 

Shoes are its favourite snack whenever you have 4 minutes to get everybody in the car or you're going to be late.

Oh I thought it had something to do with the weather because we got freezing rain that turned to snow as the sun came up.

Sun? You have sun?

Lets see,
using automatic turner.
appeared to still be going and doing fine at lockdown
Feed consist of free choice purina flock raiser, BOSS, and cracked corn
They free range for roughly 2-3 hours a day during the week and most of the day Sat and Sun.
Not pullet eggs but younger hens, the leghorns are around 9-10 months. Had hit and miss eggs from them late this past fall but once the weather warmed back up they had been laying regularly for about a month prior to collecting.
Not sure why but the leghorn eggs had issues, the rest were around a 80-90% hatch rate, some of which I would have considered pullet eggs but I threw in just to see how it went.

 

[NaJoBeLe]

@kwhites634

the part of the previous quote that didn't come out correctly are.

1.) you haven't been able to track down a trailer yet?
2.) We are forecast to hit 84* today. Crazy weather for the 1st of Mar.

 

[5Sons Coop]

So been looking into becoming a NPIP tester. In Wisconsin it is a 2 hr course and $25 fee. I am pretty sure this is the route I am going to take. Mostly because I have a little OCD issue with anyone else handling my birds. Although I believe any certified tester must take great pride in handling and managing a flock and could be a weath of knowledge (BYC covers that for me) I get a little eye twitch just thinking about someone touching every one of my birds. So my question is what have others paid for this service with chickens and turkeys? Did you haul them somewhere or did someone come to you?

 

[kwhites634]

.
Hi Whites! You're still looking for a new/working boat trailer?

.
.Certainly am! Son's afraid to take the boat out for fear the trailer will give out & leave the boat sitting on the road, literally.

Got a line on one?