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

[ozexpat]

The hatch continues. We have Ameraucana, Australorp, Cuckoo Marans, Orpington and Red Sex Links out.

We ended up replacing half the garage roof. This buys me a little time to replace it with a 4" concrete deck in a year or so.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

The hatch continues. We have Ameraucana, Australorp, Cuckoo Marans, Orpington and Red Sex Links out.

We ended up replacing half the garage roof. This buys me a little time to replace it with a 4" concrete deck in a year or so.

do u thatch it for now?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Thanks Sally, very humbling to hear that from someone as experienced as you.

I will edit my sig with links to make it easier to find. The article has the dimensions on there. The motor has pushed a rack full of eggs (about 30) without worry about power or torque. I have had more issues with the carriage sliding nicely and different sized eggs. Last hatch we got 47 eggs in there but we could not use the turner, I ended up removing the rack and going to egg cartons (side to side tilt) as it was taking too long to manually turn 47 eggs.

A bit more refinement and not overloaded at it would work perfectly.

Max loaded and turner disconnected


Once the clears were removed and just alternating the egg cartons.


Feel free to PM me if I can offer anything else.

Thank you, I also started the carton tilt for all eggs not just shipped, it gets old hand turning that many eggs for sure! What do you do if you hatch small eggs? I assume make another slat box with smaller widths. Thanks again!

 

[Tomtommom]

That's awesome, if you worry about the novice layer breaking those eggs, switch to a golf ball, works just as well and won't break

Anything eggshaped works Mine started with an oval rock, a hollow toy golfball and a crystal carved egg. Then one went broody and tried to hatch those three items

I don't think I would leave a real egg, the possible yuck factor is too great

 

[ozexpat]

do u thatch it for now?

no it needed to be repaired fast so we used gi sheet

 

[Sweetpea3829]

Anything eggshaped works Mine started with an oval rock, a hollow toy golfball and a crystal carved egg. Then one went broody and tried to hatch those three items

I don't think I would leave a real egg, the possible yuck factor is too great

Well, I put one egg in each of three nesting boxes, leaving the fourth one empty. Sure enough, that's the one she laid today's egg in, lol! After seeing the eggs in daylight, I'm thinking they're green. Especially when they're next to white ones.

I have to say, I'm impressed she's laying such nice eggs! I thought for sure our first eggs would be typical pullet eggs. Maybe because my hens have taken extra long to lay?

 

[Tomtommom]

Very nice eggs.

I hatched some like that from a fellow BYC member. Got me two roosters out of it

Still got one left. He's gorgeous though. Sort of hoping he will get friendly with the ladies before he has to go. I would love to mix it up a bit with the egg color.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

So Ameracuana (or Easter Egger...understanding that technically, they are different breeds) can lay blue, green, or pink, yes? Is there any way to tell which hen will lay which color? Is the gene for egg color represented somehow on the colors of the bird?

Gosh, that sounds like a stupid question...I'm not really sure I'm asking it correctly. But of my three Ameracuana hens (they may be EE, I'm not really sure), one has a very dark head, one has a very light head, and one has a medium color head. I have no idea which hen laid these eggs.

 

[ozexpat]

Who will get the 5000th post?

A large size CocoBeach Farms T Shirt is at stake!!


We are up to 22 hatchlings going into day 21!

 

[katbriar]

This won't be the 5,000 post but I wanted to tell you that your chicken mission motivated me to donate through Heifer International.

I take my extra eggs to work and coworkers buy them for whatever donation they want to make.

Everything I take in goes to Heifer International where they will provide a flock of chickens to someone in need (you can donate for specific livestock) for each $20.

They provide animal husbandry education and require the recipient pass on livestock to another individual on need when their own herd, flock, etc increases.

Just wanted to share that I believe in what you're doing, and this is my way to contribute. I've been meaning to tell you for some time.