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[FlashPointFarm]

Ugh, that is a terrible dream. I dreamt last night that I was loping a paint horse at the mall around a crowd of shoppers.

 

[karimw]

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Well good! as it happins I picked some Merrick's vitamins up today! I was planning on keeping it around "just in case" but perhaps I'll give them some tonight as a preventative.

 

[lisa lisk]

Steph I understand I am sorry I made you have such a bad dream.

Thanks to all who encouraged me with my bator. They were only cooled for a little while. I am sure you are right they will be fine. Not so sure about the dog though...

 

[pbjmaker]

Lisa - it's not your fault I had a bad dream. I have been thinking about rabbits for awhile. Then there were tons of them at the Waverly swap. I think it's a fur thing.

 

[mrandmrschicken]

I had a bad dream come true today. The Blues got big enough to start picking on the younger ones. I lost 3 bantam Orloffs and a Buttercup bantam. Poor things were just beaten. I moved all the big chicks out of the brooder. One Buttercup did recover. Funny how everything can be fine one minute and chaos the next. Like when the power goes out on your new chicks or, you have a bator full of eggs two days from hatching and all the broodies are full!

 

[pbjmaker]

Time to build another brooder???

Sorry you lost some chicks

 

[karimw]

That's terrible about the bantam babies! I was amazed with my fist batch how quickly they turn on each other.

I'm at a loss myself. I gave my Ameraucana broody a couple of Trish's chicks, put the other 22 under lamps, and now the Welsummer's clutch is hatching! Today is day 21 and there are 5 out of 9 so far and more on the way. I just built two new brooders but I guess that's not enough! Will broody hens share space? The floor area is 8' wide by 3' deep. Could the hens be in there together or should I divide it up? I though about dividing up all the chicks between the two broodys but goodness that might be 15 chicks a piece! Darn that gorgeous Sampson! I just had to have the Cochin chicks......

 

[FlashPointFarm]

Broody hens sharing space should be great. I would try it. How they get along just depends on the temperament of the hens. If the Ameraucana is doing good with her two, I'd give her a few more of the younger ones from the batch you got from me. The floor area sounds great too.


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[pbjmaker]

Depends on the broodies. I have two cochins that will share broody space and co- raise chicks, but I have also had a broody that would kill or throw chicks that weren't hers. She was wonderful with her own chicks but fiercely protective.

I was at the feed store yesterday and Ralph ( I think he is the owner) asked if I had any chicks for sale. Glad to know I'm not the only looney that wants chicks this late in the year

Too bad I don't have any for him. If I had known I would have thrown a few more eggs in the bator.

 

[FlashPointFarm]

Nope, Steph, there's lots of us loonies out there.

I hatched out the last batch for myself a couple of weeks ago. I'm keeping some Cochins, Barred Rocks, a few more Ameraucana's and Wellies.

These Wellies are kind of driving me nuts. They are so popular, but seem to be pretty seasonal with their laying, so I never keep up with the orders. Hopefully that will change next Spring! I have a new bloodline, not laying yet, of course.

I'll be doing some heavy culling on these babies in the future to try to get things up to speed.

I had a broody hen this Spring that hatched out Pekins. I tried giving her some Ancona's that I bought from Laurie. She tried to kill them. So the ducklings got to be raised with chicks. Boy was that a mess.

The buildings are going up this fall. I'm so excited!!!! One building for breeder pens. One building for the incubators/hatchers/shipping. We're really doing it!!! We've settled on a new name. County Line Hatchery. What do you think?



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