Happy New Year everyone! Its so nice to see this thread so chatty lately. I really enjoy reading all the posts and the questions and answers.
The weather here in KY this week is very nice (50s & 60s!) and I am taking advantage of it. I started reorganizing my nursery coop, building platforms for my two brooders to sit on. Hopefully I can get that finished before the weather turns cold again. I ordered a Sweeter heater to try out in the big brooder this year as I am really tired of worrying about heat lamps blowing out in the middle of the night and new chicks freezing or the bulb shattering and burning down my coop. Has anyone used one of these?
I plan to crank up the incubators the first week of February if all goes as planned. I am still trying to make up my mind whether to fill up the bators with only the Mahogany project eggs first or to put in a mix of everything. Decisions, decisions . . . hatching is so much fun! Besides the mahogany and the black/blue Favs, I also have a promising quad of Russian Orloffs from which I want to hatch a few eggs and, of course, I always like to get something new to add to the "living lawn ornament" layer flock. I'm thinking I might get some Ameraucanas this year and grow out a nice rooster so I can make my own olive eggers (I have a few Marans hens already), not to mention create a few of my own Favacaunas. I already have a couple of EE/Fav cross girls that are the smartest chickens I have AND they lay very pretty green eggs. But there is also the option of Araucanas instead - I have one pretty little black Araucana hen that is tufted and rumpless and lays a nice blue egg and is very cool looking. I thought about putting her in with Maximus (the Black Fav cockerel) but since he is about 4 times as big as she is I don't think that is a very good idea. So much to think about . . . and for me that is part of the fun.
I think I'd better go and make me a "to do" list as I also need to bring the house brooder out of storage and see if it needs any renovation as well as get the incubators down from the shelf and make sure they are in good shape and check all thermometers and hygrometers and get some extra batteries and bulbs . . . . . . yikes! I may not be ready to put eggs in the incubator the first week of February!
The weather here in KY this week is very nice (50s & 60s!) and I am taking advantage of it. I started reorganizing my nursery coop, building platforms for my two brooders to sit on. Hopefully I can get that finished before the weather turns cold again. I ordered a Sweeter heater to try out in the big brooder this year as I am really tired of worrying about heat lamps blowing out in the middle of the night and new chicks freezing or the bulb shattering and burning down my coop. Has anyone used one of these?
I plan to crank up the incubators the first week of February if all goes as planned. I am still trying to make up my mind whether to fill up the bators with only the Mahogany project eggs first or to put in a mix of everything. Decisions, decisions . . . hatching is so much fun! Besides the mahogany and the black/blue Favs, I also have a promising quad of Russian Orloffs from which I want to hatch a few eggs and, of course, I always like to get something new to add to the "living lawn ornament" layer flock. I'm thinking I might get some Ameraucanas this year and grow out a nice rooster so I can make my own olive eggers (I have a few Marans hens already), not to mention create a few of my own Favacaunas. I already have a couple of EE/Fav cross girls that are the smartest chickens I have AND they lay very pretty green eggs. But there is also the option of Araucanas instead - I have one pretty little black Araucana hen that is tufted and rumpless and lays a nice blue egg and is very cool looking. I thought about putting her in with Maximus (the Black Fav cockerel) but since he is about 4 times as big as she is I don't think that is a very good idea. So much to think about . . . and for me that is part of the fun.
I think I'd better go and make me a "to do" list as I also need to bring the house brooder out of storage and see if it needs any renovation as well as get the incubators down from the shelf and make sure they are in good shape and check all thermometers and hygrometers and get some extra batteries and bulbs . . . . . . yikes! I may not be ready to put eggs in the incubator the first week of February!
