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Looking at your birds again......I know they're only pictures but they remind me of what I saw in England. Huge, blocky birds. Awesome birds. Well, I gotta get out there and start shoveling. Looks like more than a foot out there. I didn't go to work last night.HA I wasn't worried about getting there, I was more worried about getting back home. Could be about 14/16 inches out there. Oh well, talk to you people later.
Dick
Dick, you know you or anyone else is welcome at any time. It would be wonderful to visit with you and yes, it's been some time. Some of my best visits to MA were either sitting with you or having dinner on your deck enjoying you and Donna. and of course your birds. Gosh I'm really complimented now. Since I never made any of the trips abroad with the "group" I can only hope my birds would stand up to that measure. Seeing some pics of your salmons these days I think your birds are stretchier upwards. But prob weigh the same.
You sure you want to try and do a summer visit. My recollection of that was it was WAY too hot for you. That's the time of year I look out back at my birds and say " oh my, their panting". There is a spring show in April south of here by say about an hour. It is a day show which suits my tastes this day and time. Val, from what I understand, still takes the entries but I don't know if she physically goes to them any more. I have heard that the Sunshine Classic in January will no longer be after this year, which I think is next weekend. I haven't been up there in a very long time so I don't have the skinny on that.
Since I had not really bred from these two granny birds I really had no idea what they would produce. I have found that older hens don't loose any quality from breeding late in life, just less quantity. That coupled with my need for a revamped or new incubator is why I didn't have more chicks from them than I did. I just have to come up with the $750+ to go with a new
brinsea that I can physically pick up in Jacksonville. Hmm, ya know, I haven't thought of the "now" costs of gas on that. Maybe the shipping is a deal after all. Any reccomendations from any one on present day incubators/hatchers? I need something that I can do seperation of chicks from dif varieties and sal pens.
Peter
The weather projections for last night were off by over 10 degrees. So me getting everyone into warmth seemed rather useless as when I looked at the temp gauge at 6:15 this morning it read 40. It makes me wonder if tonight's projection of being 23 is any where near close. The wind though last night and today does remind me of IN. Howling.
I have a "1202" same one I've had from 1988. Still works great but I do keep it in my basement. All I have to do is plug it in and bang the temperature is right there. I have room in the bottom for 6 dozen egg cartons and at times I will hatch chicks from sometimes 10 different breedings. I have some egg cartons with only 4 holes some 6 holes and some 12 holes. I don't move my eggs till the day before they're ready to hatch. Of course all the eggs are marked so I'll put them in the egg cartons that I need and put them into mesh bags so when the chicks hatch they're not running all over the place and getting mixed up. When grapefruits are sold up here they come in mesh bags and I save them for hatching. After the chicks hatch I mark them with colored markers before I put them in the brooder. I wing band about after a week and of course keep good records. When I color code them They could have a red head blue head or it could be a combo of red stripe and blue stripe. I had to be careful about using blue and green. If you wait to long to wing band its hard to tell the difference between them. My only problem is when I know I'm hatching black chicks. I have to mark their stomachs but sometimes my black chicks are so black they have gray stomachs instead of white. I try and make my black breedings separate. This is what works for me.
Yes, I would like to do a summer visit or maybe in April. We'll have to see then. I know its about a 24 hour ride to Florida, I'm not sure how much further to Tampa. I know Tampa's a ways down.
My shoveling is done and the birds are fed and watered. I know the birds can take the cold but I just hate this howling wind outside. The winds been pretty fierce all day. Well, I gotta get ready for work.
Dick
