First Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatchathon- Join us! Set Day: Easter

[debs_flock]

WooHoo! I have movement in an egg!

I know you guys see that all the time but it is the first time for me! EVER!

I always say they are waving at me...................and it's always exciting!!!

Congratulations!!!

Deb

 

[yinepu]

This is very true. I keep corn snakes as pets and have been snagged many times by a hungry snake who assumed the reason my hand was reaching into his/her enclosure was because it must contain food. I liken it to being scratched by velcro. Although I did have one who latched on and started swallowing my index finger. I'm not sure what would have happened once she got to the last knuckle but I didn't want to find out, and submerged her in water until she let go voluntarily.

lol.. we had a little teeny goini kingsnake hatchling that was positive that my fingers were food.. he would latch on and chew and chew.. always had a hard time getting him off my fingers or hand.. little bugger was fast too.. i would go to give him a pinky mouse and he would ignore it and have his mouth latched onto my hand before I could remove it from his enclosure!

 

[dsqard]

Wisher so excited for you!!!!!

Wednesday/Thursday should be lockdown for all people that set turkey eggs on Easter and the same day for people who set chicken eggs a week later. I am planning on going to lockdown on Wednesday evening since I had one of my turkeys hatch on a Thursday last year for the Easter hatch. Remember your checklist of things to have handy. Brooder ready, high protien food, very shallow water dish and any "emergency items" you like to have on hand. My list of "emergency items" includes liquid baby vitamins (no iron), provadone iodine, lots of paper towels, lots of q-tips, tweezers, band-aids and I have added baby parrot food to my list this year. Now that we are getting close you probably want to check that you have all the things you like to have handy now.

 

[yinepu]

Wisher so excited for you!!!!!

Wednesday/Thursday should be lockdown for all people that set turkey eggs on Easter and the same day for people who set chicken eggs a week later. I am planning on going to lockdown on Wednesday evening since I had one of my turkeys hatch on a Thursday last year for the Easter hatch. Remember your checklist of things to have handy. Brooder ready, high protien food, very shallow water dish and any "emergency items" you like to have on hand. My list of "emergency items" includes liquid baby vitamins (no iron), provadone iodine, lots of paper towels, lots of q-tips, tweezers, band-aids and I have added baby parrot food to my list this year. Now that we are getting close you probably want to check that you have all the things you like to have handy now.

for those who don't have access to baby parrot food.... you can grind up some regular starter (game bird, turkey or chick depending on the type of bird) in a coffee grinder.. it will work the same way as the baby parrot food .. just add some water and use a syringe to feed.. you can also add the extra vitamins right into the mix

 

[Arielle]

WooHoo! I have movement in an egg!

I know you guys see that all the time but it is the first time for me! EVER! I don't know how many I have or even which one it is, LOL! When I saw it move, I put it back quickly and ran to tell y'all! Now that I think of it, I need to candle all of them soon, it's almost time for lockdown. I might just get a chick this time!

HOw very exciting!!!! In one more week you'll be surrounded by cheep-cheep cheep--

We had bullsnakes at our last house, but I haven't seen anything more than garter snakes on our new property. Found a hatchling in the one of the pens yesterday - the chickens had made short work of him .

In other news I candled Saturday night and pulled 6 mostly clear turkey and IaB eggs leaving me with 20 turkey and 14 IaB. DH said he kept hearing birds though he knew so far past sundown they should all be asleep. So I checked the incubator and found one of the turkey eggs 1/2 zipped. About 15 minutes later we got this:


Based on the fuzzy feet I'd say it's a splash Cochin mix. And apparently I have a Cochin hen that lays brown speckled eggs bigger than the turkeys do! That would be the downside of letting turkeys and chickens share nest boxes.

I had noticed a REALLY wonky air cell on that egg and figured it had to do with the 3 weeks it had been sitting before set date. It was a perfect hatch considering I had just lowered the humidity because I thought the turkey egg air cells were a bit small. It was running about 22% when I saw the zip. I stuck in some wet paper towels, but it hatched about 5 minutes later so it probably didn't make any difference.

So I took a late night hike out to the coop to stuff this little sweetie under an Iowa Blue that hatched a half dozen chicks yesterday. Thank goodness for broodys!

I've never had a hatch run smoothly yet!!!! Always something to deal with!

Wisher so excited for you!!!!!

Wednesday/Thursday should be lockdown for all people that set turkey eggs on Easter and the same day for people who set chicken eggs a week later. I am planning on going to lockdown on Wednesday evening since I had one of my turkeys hatch on a Thursday last year for the Easter hatch. Remember your checklist of things to have handy. Brooder ready, high protien food, very shallow water dish and any "emergency items" you like to have on hand. My list of "emergency items" includes liquid baby vitamins (no iron), provadone iodine, lots of paper towels, lots of q-tips, tweezers, band-aids and I have added baby parrot food to my list this year. Now that we are getting close you probably want to check that you have all the things you like to have handy now.

Now I'm getting nervous!!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

OOOH is it time to candle again?

 

[HEChicken]

OOOH is it time to candle again?

Well I'm so far behind y'all that I just did my 7-day candling. My 2 muscovies look clear, one with a detached air cell. I wasn't that surprised because after seeing the pics of hens and drakes someone posted pics of a few pages back, I concluded that the guy I got them from has only hens, so I was kind of expecting my eggs to be clear. No biggie. Except DD and I now want Muscovies so will be actively seeking fertile eggs. Sigh.

That leaves the 10 RP eggs. 3 clear, 1 looks to be an early quitter but I was glad to see 6 looking really good!

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
My first batch of turkey eggs (4 dev) are on day 21 but the next batch is on day 14 and the next batch about 2-3 days. So I'll hang in there with you to the end !!!!

I don't advertise it, but I do have muscovy eggs. One is definitely a boy. He's twice the size of the the 2 girls. And he is . . umm . . . on the job . . . shall I say. I hadn't planned on selling them, just making yummy cakes! I haven't found a recipe yet so the eggs are stored with my hatching eggs ( really it's just in case I get a powerful, uncontrollable urge to incubate them, which can't happen because my incubator is full for another 2 weeks!!!)

 

[ChooksChick]

We have barn cats that kill the mice, too, but there aren't enough cats in Kansas to take care of all of the field mice and cotton rats, so I welcome the snakes...so long as they don't eat my chicks or my broody eggs.

Unfortunately one appears to have eaten a kitten from my landlord's barn, and it was busted tonight eating one of her broody's broody's eggs. I won't be having that, as my coops are tighter than that, but last year I did have this ginormous rat snake in one coop that had come in through a hole on the other side of a chickenwire divider down the middle of the 10' x12' building. Once it ate an egg it couldn't fit back through the chickenwire, so it was trapped. I nabbed it and released it, but it was as tall as me!! I suppose they could easily get in during the day through all of the open doors...I do want them to eat mice, but not eggs.

I'm going to candle the second set of eggs tonight, to see how well these survived the post office's machinery. I set 4 pea eggs last night, as the others I had going had quit- it looked like they weren't turning the way they ought because I'd overloaded my rcom.

I'm feeling good about these and will hand turn daily as well.

I've discovered, hypothetically, that pink-eye can be treated very well and quickly with a 1 to 20 ratio of injectable Tylan 50 to sterile saline solution. I'm sure that someone will give all of the reasons not to use this hypothetical treatment, but I haven't access to any prescription drops without lying to my internist or paying $75 for a vet office visit. I have found that Vetericyn isn't working on it, and my local feed stores have delayed treatment by promising it would be in, and it hasn't yet arrived. I hypothetically felt desperate. Her eyes are hypothetically infinitely better. Yay!!

 

[Arielle]

We have barn cats that kill the mice, too, but there aren't enough cats in Kansas to take care of all of the field mice and cotton rats, so I welcome the snakes...so long as they don't eat my chicks or my broody eggs.

Unfortunately one appears to have eaten a kitten from my landlord's barn, and it was busted tonight eating one of her broody's broody's eggs. I won't be having that, as my coops are tighter than that, but last year I did have this ginormous rat snake in one coop that had come in through a hole on the other side of a chickenwire divider down the middle of the 10' x12' building. Once it ate an egg it couldn't fit back through the chickenwire, so it was trapped. I nabbed it and released it, but it was as tall as me!! I suppose they could easily get in during the day through all of the open doors...I do want them to eat mice, but not eggs.

I'm going to candle the second set of eggs tonight, to see how well these survived the post office's machinery. I set 4 pea eggs last night, as the others I had going had quit- it looked like they weren't turning the way they ought because I'd overloaded my rcom.

I'm feeling good about these and will hand turn daily as well.

I've discovered, hypothetically, that pink-eye can be treated very well and quickly with a 1 to 20 ratio of injectable Tylan 50 to sterile saline solution. I'm sure that someone will give all of the reasons not to use this hypothetical treatment, but I haven't access to any prescription drops without lying to my internist or paying $75 for a vet office visit. I have found that Vetericyn isn't working on it, and my local feed stores have delayed treatment by promising it would be in, and it hasn't yet arrived. I hypothetically felt desperate. Her eyes are hypothetically infinitely better. Yay!!

Hypothetically you are not treating the hen either!!