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

[joannefiddler]

River sand can be bought at Sand and Gravel companies...... sterilized and cleaned. But I would say any river or stream bed you would consider swimming in yourself would be fine. I personally use decomposed granite scratched up from my own property. Dog poop rabbit deer poop and all. The only danger I have seen is bringing in weeds.

deb "Whos making a very hard descision today"

Deb, I had to laugh the first time I saw your description of goats as "helpers". I remember trying to work with my real kids (human) and goats and a Great Pyrenees. Between the goats jumping in the wheel barrow to get "on top", and the dog borrowing every tool I laid down and running away with it, it was a wonder we ever set a fence!

Your posts evidence that you are thoughtful and intelligent...make the best choice you can with the evidence in front of you. May you find peace in your decision.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: thanks..... The only one that is worse than the goats is the HORSE..... Shes big and powerful and can pick up a 125 lb bale of hay to feed herself at the "Buffet" ( first lesson I learned when I moved her home from boarding facilities dont stack the hay too close to the fence) Shes the worse tool stealer. Dig a hole for a fence post and the shovel goes walk about .... or for a trot. Nothing scares her. Big wad of plastic bags go floating through the corral and the other horses are spinning and snorting in their corrals..... Not Katee shes following it to see if it has carrots. She gets a horsie version of a lunchable and tied to the fence when we work in her corral.

deb

 

[katbriar]

Quote:
Originally Posted by joannefiddler

Quote:
Originally Posted by perchie.girl

River sand can be bought at Sand and Gravel companies...... sterilized and cleaned. But I would say any river or stream bed you would consider swimming in yourself would be fine. I personally use decomposed granite scratched up from my own property. Dog poop rabbit deer poop and all. The only danger I have seen is bringing in weeds.

deb "Whos making a very hard descision today"
Deb, I had to laugh the first time I saw your description of goats as "helpers". I remember trying to work with my real kids (human) and goats and a Great Pyrenees. Between the goats jumping in the wheel barrow to get "on top", and the dog borrowing every tool I laid down and running away with it, it was a wonder we ever set a fence!

Your posts evidence that you are thoughtful and intelligent...make the best choice you can with the evidence in front of you. May you find peace in your decision.
thanks..... The only one that is worse than the goats is the HORSE..... Shes big and powerful and can pick up a 125 lb bale of hay to feed herself at the "Buffet" ( first lesson I learned when I moved her home from boarding facilities dont stack the hay too close to the fence) Shes the worse tool stealer. Dig a hole for a fence post and the shovel goes walk about .... or for a trot. Nothing scares her. Big wad of plastic bags go floating through the corral and the other horses are spinning and snorting in their corrals..... Not Katee shes following it to see if it has carrots. She gets a horsie version of a lunchable and tied to the fence when we work in her corral.

deb

Ha- I had a donkey that was the same way. He'd pick tools out of the bucket you carried them in and loved to eat paper bags. I went back to the house for a break one time and left all kinds of small fencing supplies- staples, etc.- in a bag at the lady post I was working at. Came back and everything in the bag was piled in a neat pile and the bag was missing. He'd poured it out completely and eaten the evidence.

 

[joannefiddler]

x2

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: The goats did the same Only I had SEVERAL bags..... Oh and they werent so neat I will need a metal detector to find the staples nails gate hardware pliers..... Well it wasnt exactly the same...

And for the invention for us DIY ers ..... A clothes line for project bags..... I have one in the carport. Unless they can get on a chair they cant reach it.

deb

 

[walkingbird]

So I have been away from this thread for awhile and have been catching up on posts...only 107 to go...and I came upon the pics of your huge professional looking incubators. I was very impressed, let me tell you!

But then I remembered that you (or someone else here?) mentioned losing power or a bulb or something in an incubator and being uncertain if the hatch would be successful, and I thought to myself what a horrible thing it would be to have that many eggs lost to a power outage! And I remembered a solution someone on this site had come up with for a homemade incubator that had temperature consistency problems -- water! Rather than just open containers of water for humidity, this person also had several closed containers of water that acted as heat sinks. This meant that the incubator was slow to warm up...and slow to cool off! If the incubator had any problem with losing power the heat would not plummet inside, but instead gradually decrease as the water let off warmth to help the eggs survive until power could be restored. The water containers are closed to keep from affecting humidity, and to keep from drowning the chicks when they hatch. The person used a "water weasel," a water filled tube that is sold as a kids' toy, and then made a container out of several ziplocks one inside the other, but I'd bet you could use tupperware, water bottles, or anything water-tight.

Maybe this will help some of the anxiety that comes with incubator issues!

Now I go back to page 138 to read more.

(PS, my favorite parts are your "travelogue" posts, as well as the pics and descriptions of you setup in the Phillipeans -- both the chicken specific setups and the general stuff! I love reading about other places and how people do things there. If it isn't covered in the posts I haven't read yet, I would love to read more about your plans for the chicken selling business. Have you got anything going yet? Do you advertise, or does everyone on the island know about the guy with the exotic chickens?

Cheers!

 

[perchie.girl]

Hey Oz Metzer farms is selling off three of their incubators..... Thought you might take a look at them. The Cedar ones were built in 1946. Metzer farms incubators. They hold 36,0000 eggs. EACH.

I reallly want one. Dont ask me why....

deb

 

[ozexpat]

So I have been away from this thread for awhile and have been catching up on posts...only 107 to go...and I came upon the pics of your huge professional looking incubators. I was very impressed, let me tell you!

But then I remembered that you (or someone else here?) mentioned losing power or a bulb or something in an incubator and being uncertain if the hatch would be successful, and I thought to myself what a horrible thing it would be to have that many eggs lost to a power outage! And I remembered a solution someone on this site had come up with for a homemade incubator that had temperature consistency problems -- water! Rather than just open containers of water for humidity, this person also had several closed containers of water that acted as heat sinks. This meant that the incubator was slow to warm up...and slow to cool off! If the incubator had any problem with losing power the heat would not plummet inside, but instead gradually decrease as the water let off warmth to help the eggs survive until power could be restored. The water containers are closed to keep from affecting humidity, and to keep from drowning the chicks when they hatch. The person used a "water weasel," a water filled tube that is sold as a kids' toy, and then made a container out of several ziplocks one inside the other, but I'd bet you could use tupperware, water bottles, or anything water-tight.

Maybe this will help some of the anxiety that comes with incubator issues!

Now I go back to page 138 to read more.

(PS, my favorite parts are your "travelogue" posts, as well as the pics and descriptions of you setup in the Phillipeans -- both the chicken specific setups and the general stuff! I love reading about other places and how people do things there. If it isn't covered in the posts I haven't read yet, I would love to read more about your plans for the chicken selling business. Have you got anything going yet? Do you advertise, or does everyone on the island know about the guy with the exotic chickens?

Cheers!

This deserves a long response and I will get to it as soon as I can. Today is a crazy day for me.

 

[ozexpat]

Hey Oz Metzer farms is selling off three of their incubators..... Thought you might take a look at them. The Cedar ones were built in 1946. Metzer farms incubators. They hold 36,0000 eggs. EACH.

I reallly want one. Dont ask me why....

deb

If I was incubating 36000 eggs it would become a job. I am having fun as a hobby. I think I will cap it at 3600.

 

[perchie.girl]

So I have been away from this thread for awhile and have been catching up on posts...only 107 to go...and I came upon the pics of your huge professional looking incubators. I was very impressed, let me tell you!

But then I remembered that you (or someone else here?) mentioned losing power or a bulb or something in an incubator and being uncertain if the hatch would be successful, and I thought to myself what a horrible thing it would be to have that many eggs lost to a power outage! And I remembered a solution someone on this site had come up with for a homemade incubator that had temperature consistency problems -- water! Rather than just open containers of water for humidity, this person also had several closed containers of water that acted as heat sinks. This meant that the incubator was slow to warm up...and slow to cool off! If the incubator had any problem with losing power the heat would not plummet inside, but instead gradually decrease as the water let off warmth to help the eggs survive until power could be restored. The water containers are closed to keep from affecting humidity, and to keep from drowning the chicks when they hatch. The person used a "water weasel," a water filled tube that is sold as a kids' toy, and then made a container out of several ziplocks one inside the other, but I'd bet you could use tupperware, water bottles, or anything water-tight.

Maybe this will help some of the anxiety that comes with incubator issues!


Cheers!

Yep a couple of soda bottles filled with water and capped off. excellent way to mitigate variations in temperature. I have seen pictures of those water weasels used as a nest for the thermometer too.

It would be interesting to do a time study measuring the temperature dissipation of a soda bottle in an incubator with the electricity off. Just to determine how much of a window of time they give you. Oz may be using them already I dont know.

deb