First Egg Countdown

[Crafty-Duck]

I have one chicken that lays in the morning and one that lays in the late afternoon.

 

[gwenirish11]

Thank you

 

[gwenirish11]

Well I found my girl...it's Ginger! She also pushed everything out of the nest before laying. The burried egg is the duck egg...I did one last test while watching this morning and it seemed like she actually knew the difference between the egg and the golf balls and kept it in there. So after she left I took both I did notice that she has been guarding the nest from some of the others...I am wondering if that's why I found the other egg on the floor yesterday and why I found yolk from another..hmmmm....
I thought she was looking for eggs because she was the one caught with the most yolk on her head...her and my black star..


Nice job Ginger!!!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:

 

[Pele]

omgomgomgomg!


eeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee




That is all

 

[off-grid hen]

Pele-I wish I could post the drool smiley from my phone. So jealous!!

Gwenirish- nice egg!

Does anyone else move the fake eggs to diff nest boxes to watch the real eggs "move" depending on the where the fake ones are? Or do I just not get out much?

 

[Flowerbh]

The Brinsea is spot on for worry free incubating. Though I sometimes still like to hatch in my hovabator because it has more room. The brinsea is a lot easier to clean though. If you don't have one, I also recommend the Brinsea Spot Check thermometer. It's $30 but accurate to .1 degree.

It's never easy putting a chick down.

I've done a few myself. I find the quickest, most painless method for the chick (it's never easy on the human) is sharp pruning shears. Dig the hole first so you can drop it as soon as it's done. I rarely help chicks out of the shell anymore, because I find the ones that need helping are the ones I end up putting down. (the exception is if they are zipping and get stuck because a bunch were hatching at once and the humidity falls too quickly)

I read a book that said the way he put down chicks is that he gets an airtight container (like Tupperware), put a small cup of baking soda in it, put the chick in the container and then add white vinegar and close the top. He said it is over in seconds. It's like those volcanoe experiments in middle school. I have never had to do it.....wonder if anyone else has tried this method. At least you don't have to cut or break anything.....

 

[Happy Chooks]

omgomgomgomg!


eeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee




That is all

Congrats! It's the same one I have. (I got mine used from a friend when she bought the Brinsea Cabinet incubator) I scored on the egg turner too.

Does anyone else move the fake eggs to diff nest boxes to watch the real eggs "move" depending on the where the fake ones are? Or do I just not get out much?

Why yes, I do. So if you don't get out much, then neither do I.

You can move the fake ones and they will change where they lay to where the fake ones are. Musical nestboxes.

I read a book that said the way he put down chicks is that he gets an airtight container (like Tupperware), put a small cup of baking soda in it, put the chick in the container and then add white vinegar and close the top. He said it is over in seconds. It's like those volcanoe experiments in middle school. I have never had to do it.....wonder if anyone else has tried this method. At least you don't have to cut or break anything.....

I haven't tried it, but I have read that people have had horrible experiences that way and that it takes a long time for them to suffocate. Some people use ether - also with mixed results, so I haven't done that one either. It's hard enough to do without it going wrong.

 

[Flowerbh]

I hope I never have to do anything like that.....
I had to put down an adult, but I called my Romanian neighbor and he did it for me....just couldn't do it myself..

 

[Gifa]

Does anyone else move the fake eggs to diff nest boxes to watch the real eggs "move" depending on the where the fake ones are? Or do I just not get out much?

I will neither confirm nor deny engaging in this activity... All I can tell you, is that, given the choice between a nest with 1 existing eggolf ball or many (2 or more) existing "eggs", my leghorn chooses the more empty nest. My wyandotte prefers the left nest box, and my easter eggers do not have a preference.

So... when I come to collect, and I find a white egg in with a brown, blue or green egg and the gold ball...and the other nest box is empty, I know who laid first. And this quite obviously falls under the "too much time on my hands" category, but I am also tracking laying schedules in a spreadsheet, so... between that and the distribution of eggs in the nestboxes, I have a fairly accurate picture of these hens' laying cycles.



So, in this chart, I've turned on Zoe's and Inara's symbols so you can see their laying cycles more clearly amidst everyone else's... and you can definitely see that there's a pattern to a hen's laying schedule... Zoe's brown dots indicate that I should expect an egg from her today around 4pm... and then, tomorrow, she will take a break. Inara's pink squares indicate that I might not see an egg from her today. I don't seem to get an egg from her if she laid after 12pm the day before. But, it was close... so, there's still a chance... if I do, she's off tomorrow, if not, I'll get one from her before 8am tomorrow.

Obviously, if I had more than 10 hens, this kind of tracking would be ridiculous and totally impractical. But, for the first time, small flock owner (like me,

), it's been extremely educational.