Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[kapjaran]

Thanks, again! Blue eggs would be great! Please put me in the list for reservations for RIRs. I hope to get some buffs orps soon, too. All the birds you sent are great looking. I am sure that in time, the orps will be the most magnificent among them.

 

[kapjaran]

Thanks, Linda.

 

[ozexpat]

150 eggs set this week
50 from the red mutt hen coop, the rest all purebreds

I expect 250 eggs per week by mid August as more birds mature.

 

[vehve]

150 eggs set this week
50 from the red mutt hen coop, the rest all purebreds

I expect 250 eggs per week by mid August as more birds mature.

How many eggs in total are you getting now daily? I presume you're only setting a part of them, or do you throw the week old eggs in there as well? And have you kept any track on hatch rates in that case? Might be interesting to mark the eggs to see what kind of effect the age of the egg has, you're doing it in a big enough scale to get reliable results.

 

[ozexpat]

Thanks, again! Blue eggs would be great! Please put me in the list for reservations for RIRs. I hope to get some buffs orps soon, too. All the birds you sent are great looking. I am sure that in time, the orps will be the most magnificent among them.

no problem

I have about 15 people wanting birds when they become available from those that responded to the OLX ad and were told that I am out of stock. You were already on the list.

 

[scottcaddy]

How to create a good work ethic - teach them at a young age

Cleaning the Calla bed



Transporting the weeds



Utilizing the weeds as feed



The outdoor bath clean up and wind down




End of the day

Nice Pic's, I wish I could still fold up in a tub like that! flexibility is wasted on the young, they don,t even know what is.

Scott

 

[vehve]

Nice Pic's, I wish I could still fold up in a tub like that! flexibility is wasted on the young, they don,t even know what is.

Scott

Scott, seems to me you just need a bigger tub

 

[ozexpat]

How many eggs in total are you getting now daily? I presume you're only setting a part of them, or do you throw the week old eggs in there as well? And have you kept any track on hatch rates in that case? Might be interesting to mark the eggs to see what kind of effect the age of the egg has, you're doing it in a big enough scale to get reliable results.

I really dont have that many mature birds. I have a total of around 350 birds 10 weeks or older but only 40-50 birds at laying age and another 30-40 that are point of lay. I also have another 150 less than 6 weeks

I am just setting once a week.

My main chicken man speaks no English, writes poorly in Ilonggo and has only worked with us for a few months.

As such, my current goal is just correct labeling of eggs so I dont have to play sort the chicken as more breeds com on line.

I spent a lot of time explaining that cuckoo marans and barred rocks cannot be hatched in the same basket - same with Australorps, BBS ORPS and BBS Jersey Giants

Dominic is very bright and once he understands he does not forget. I had to catch a few BBS Orps and BBS Jersey Giants and turn them upside down to show him the difference in foot color, which until mature and form is more distinguishable, is the only way to tell them apart. Fortunately my barred rocks are good quality birds and the barring is way more distinct than the cuckoo marans He gets the minor differences in New Hampshires and RIR.

His hatch rates are about 70% without the dehumidifier running and 90% with it. He is great with assists and assessing viability of eggs in the hatcher. Our DIS pipped but not hatch rate is down 50%

Currently the dehumidifier is off as I need to do room rennovations to run it outside the incubator room and duct it in - basically make it look like a central heating furnace. i could not get all the parts i needed locally as there is very little ducted ac in provincial philippines. If I run it in the bator room - it will heat the room to 43C on a sunny day - which killed my turkey eggs.

My spread sheets are pretty good and I try to do as many stats as I can but hatch rate by egg age when all eggs are 7 days old or less, is not on the agenda until next year. If business really takes off it may be worth evaluating to see if its worth storing eggs at 17C or incubating twice a week.

 

[ozexpat]

Nice Pic's, I wish I could still fold up in a tub like that! flexibility is wasted on the young, they don,t even know what is.

Scott

Scott, seems to me you just need a bigger tub

On my list of outdoor "furniture" is an "ozexpat size" tiled tub with a view

 

[vehve]

On my list of outdoor "furniture" is an "ozexpat size" tiled tub with a view

Something similar to this might work for you, they're pretty popular at people's summer cottages around here.

You just heat the water with wood, there are many different designs. It's called a "palju" in Finnish. We crammed 11 (drunk) adult men into one of these last summer.