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

[BantyChooks]

Thanks - I needed that! I had a moderately productive weekend. I always seem to get the most done on Sunday evenings with Monday looming, though. If I had Monday off, I'd probably just end up getting everything done Monday evening instead. 

x100


And people ask "why would you want to buy an incubator when you can make your own?!" 

Here we have Exhibit #1 - no way could I handle this, I'm a wreck even with a pretty solid incubator. I'd lose my mind over something like this (and never manage to hatch anything). 

I couldn't sleep last night (fog plus near full moon = really bright outside), and had a gut check on the chicken math thing. With the 25 S&G Naked Neck chicks coming this spring, I think I'm going to keep my hatching of my own eggs pretty limited (though I may try to hatch at least some). There's only so much housing I have, and more chickens = more time/work. No ducks or turkeys for the foreseeable future, I think... 

(We'll see how long this reasonable attitude lasts... Set your stopwatches...)



- Ant Farm

Your reasonable attitude lasted 1 week, 3 days.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It probably wouldn't have changed anything if you had. I've got one for you: I've had something burrowing under the apron of the run for a while, stealing whatever feed the birds scattered on the ground. I put a cap on the feed opening at night, so I knew whatever was getting in couldn't get into the feeder. From the size & shape of the hole, I was thinking rat, but wasn't positive. More than once, I'd seen fresh excavation work at the hole that had been done during the day, so I started wondering if the chickens were doing it from inside the run, which didn't make a lot of sense, so I set up my trail camera. At first, I just used it at night, but I wasn't getting anything. Finally, I left it on round the clock for 2 days. 350+ images later..... Fortunately, after I uploaded the SD card to the laptop, I was able to scroll through them with the slideshow feature. After a while, among 11 constantly moving chickens, I spotted something out of place at the mouth of the feeder...my friendly rat. He doesn't come out at night; at least I don't have any nighttime images. He'll appear in the middle of the day, with chickens all around him, pull himself up into the feed chute, and help himself. What blows my mind is that he pays no attention to the chickens, nor they to him. Never would've believed it had I not seen it. The ramp's set up during the day so the birds came come & go w/o having to fly the 3' to the pop door from the ground, but I've seen no footage of Mr. Rat climbing it to get into the coop.

DW mentioned setting rat poison out, but there's too much chance of the birds getting to it Your ordeal earlier today gave me a possible solution, though. While the birds are out foraging tomorrow I'll lock them out of the run & pour boiling water down the hole & stand by with a shotgun. I'll let you know how it goes.

That's a good story, thanks for sharing.

You could build a PVC tee bait station. About 2/3 the way down the following page.
http://extensionpublications.unl.edu/assets/html/g1646/build/g1646.htm

I just set mine - 12 NN x GNH and another 4 "why not" Ameraucana x Marans.

@ChickenCanoe , I lost the quote, but excellent point about weighing - and, indeed I do that as well. Indeed, I could not see into the marans eggs so I'll be going solely on weight for them. (I also traced the air cell for the lighter eggs - except one that was hard to see.)

...

- Ant Farm

If one has the right scale, they can set a whole tray of eggs on it and get an average loss, which would be helpful even with several different types of eggs.
IMHO, it's the most accurate and easiest.
DYK I've never drawn a circle on an egg?

She was in the coop, not the run.... They're locked up at night.

The martin must have gotten in a rotten/broken spot I missed.... I can't wait for spring, when I can build a coop that keeps my babies SAFE.

I thought it was a mink.
A marten tail is almost black compared to the body. A mink tail is the same dark brown color as the body.

Yep

Tried a small flock once... Five months later I had tripled my flock size without even trying

When I returned from Costa Rica I wanted to get 6 chickens. I came home with 10 and 3 months later I had 100.

Zip ties are the new duct tape...

Aren't they the same thing?

Um, aren't we going for predator proof here?
Was thinking about converting my shed into a coop, 'cept then my lawnmower would get left in the rain, along with other stuff. It'd need significant remodeling anyway.
Good grief, the shipping costs would kill me...
<>

Nope... Going to have to save that much by spring though, at the very least. If I'm gonna build a coop, I'm going to do it RIGHT, not by skimping and having to replace it yet again.

Edited coz autocorrect thinks it's the smart one here.

My biggest and oldest shed (other than the 100+ year old one) is my brooder house but if I don't have my stuff together, it often has adult birds so I have a makeshift nest in there.

 

[Phage]

Whatever works! After I remembered (with help) that starting fluid is nothing but ether, I may add it to the arsenal tomorrow.

Yep. It's what I used to put the chick down this past spring.... It was probably the reason I was able to kill it, as it made its reaction time noticeably slower.

Awwwwwww.... Congratulations - so glad you had a good hatch! Thank you, Dax - your good thoughts must have worked, today was better! OMG, I stumbled upon this when reading back - I'm just sick to hear it, made me cry for them and you. Did this happen overnight or during the day? I'm glad you got the culprit, I hear minks are pure evil. Very good sign that she's drinking. I am hopeful that she will heal with time and care. With all that blood around the leg - is there a wound that we're not seeing? Pain and then swelling could keep her from using the leg for a while even if it's functionally fine, so have hope... - Ant Farm

Overnight, I think. They were cold when I found them. I can't erase the image in my head of my beautiful ducks sprawled on the floor with dead, panicked eyes.... Yes, the skin was stripped from the thigh in about a 1 inch circle. What worries me is that leg is cold, while the functional one is warm.... Am I gonna end up with a 1 legged duck? :/

Not the think you probably want to hear right now, but this would be a good time to take a really careful look at the perimeter of all your housing to keep future diggers of all kinds out - HW cloth buried at least 1-2 ft deep or if you can't (I have rock at 6" deep here), an apron of HW cloth all around all sides, either on surface or buried an inch, and tacked down. Keep her warm overall, and watch the leg for color changes. Her responding to touch on her webz is a good sign. I'm betting she'll heal better than you expect. And if she doesn't and you have a one legged duck, I think you'd do great caring for her.

I just set mine - 12 NN x GNH and another 4 "why not" Ameraucana x Marans. @ChickenCanoe , I lost the quote, but excellent point about weighing - and, indeed I do that as well. Indeed, I could not see into the marans eggs so I'll be going solely on weight for them. (I also traced the air cell for the lighter eggs - except one that was hard to see.) I'm excited (though that's tempered by being so sad about Banti's ducks). - Ant Farm

Good luck with your eggs.

Thanks - I MAY have just taken an additional 2 big marans eggs out of the fridge and put them into my shirt pocket so that I can add them to the 'bator when they warm up. They caught my eye when looking for eggs to make fruitcake... Big and dark and beautiful, and heavier than the ones in the 'bator now... I mean... Why not? - Ant Farm

Some would consider it immoral not to

 

[Phage]

Sorry to hear about your babies Banty.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Winter solstice was at 4:44 this morning here. That means tomorrow will be longer - and every day to follow till summer.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote: Yeah, I knew you'd pull that back out on me. Hey, at least I tried...

Quote: I'm still doing individual weights, because of the experience of having significant variable weight loss (in the R-Com) between eggs of different shapes (all blue). I worry about differences between eggs. Once I do more hatching, I'll have a better sense of both my equipment and what different eggs need...

The circle on the egg is a crutch for me - I'm still new at this.

Quote: That was EXACTLY my thought!!! Those two eggs rode around in my shirt pocket all evening warming up while I was making the fruitcake - if they hatch, I suspect there will be fruitcake-related names involved...

Fruitcakes all wrapped in cheesecloth, soaked in brandy and put up for long storage. I can't think of a better thing to do on the longest night of the year. (I think I may need more brandy, though...

)



I'd better start winding down for bed. Goodnight, all!

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Winter solstice was at 4:44 this morning here. That means tomorrow will be longer - and every day to follow till summer.

I WANT MORE EGGS!!!!! I only got two today (and I set them both).

Alas, my chicken sitter will be the first to benefit if they really do start laying again after solstice...

- Ant Farm

(edited because I have better grammar skills than BYC autocorrect...)

 

[dan26552]

Winter solstice was at 4:44 this morning here. That means tomorrow will be longer - and every day to follow till summer.

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[dan26552]

I WANT MORE EGGS!!!!! I only got two today (and I set them both).

Alas, my chicken sitter will be the first to benefit if they really do start laying again after solstice... :/

- Ant Farm 

(edited because I have better grammar skills than BYC autocorrect...)

I want more eggs too! I'm getting 4 from 20 hens.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

I want more eggs too! I'm getting 4 from 20 hens.

I got 6 eggs from 6 ducks today..... Howdy Dan