INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[chick rookie]

I took these pic's last week just didn't have the time to post them till now. Hope everyone is staying warm. I want to wish all the sick and injured a speedy recovery ( human and Non human alike )

Did I already mention that the snow has had no affect on the dear netting, I'm using for bird blocks? I get more twigs and leaves stuck on it than anything. but no wild birds well not many. Some find little holes I missed.





of course now we have even more snow, and again I had to go shovel paths for the girls so they could get outside and move around a bit. I had to give the goats a path to the hay bale and feeding area.

Have I mentioned that I am SOOO TIRED of this cold and white stuff ( but better then last year )... lol
Good night all have a wonderful 50 deg. day tomorrow. I think we all need the break.

 

[Faraday40]

The hawk has claimed its second victim. Poor Violet's heart just couldn't take the stress. She was gone by the time I got home from class. Sometimes this chicken stuff is so hard. My sweet Violet...

Not poor Violet!

I am so sorry for your many traumatic losses this week. They had to be so scared.

Stay strong & give some extra loving to your house hen.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

1 turkey egg has the tiniest pip spot. I had to look and check it twice to make sure i was seeing it correctly. It moved a tiny bit but then I had to be sure that the fan had not caused the shell bit to move. Of course that meant watching the egg for another minute or so. In the end the egg won the staring contest. The turkey is still safely in its shell but I'm hoping its out by morning. Chicken brown egg pips are so much easier to see as the shell cracks are white against the brown. This turkey egg pip not so, it was a pink tiny crack against the pink with only a pin point bit of shell raised.

 

[Acornewell]

Day 20, Pips and PEEPING

I marked the air sacs on the eggs on day 7, 14, and 18. two of the eggs are externally pipped above the marked lines. Is that normal? or ok?

Also, my humidity is sitting pretty steady at the halfway mark in the hatching section. I believe, correct me if i am wrong, once the eggs start to hatch the humidity goes up. Any thoughts on if this is ok? Or should I try to bring it up?

However I am impatiently sitting on my hands!

 

[Acornewell]

Pipd- I am so sorry to hear this! How are they getting to them? Ugh Hawks should just feed on mice. Just sayin!
I have a hawk who hangs out every morning until I let the dogs out, one of which (Henry) who chases him away because he does not like anything in "HIS" special tree!

chick rookie- Everyone except my Husky from Alaska is wanting this snow to disappear!

jchny2000- That is great news! I too try to handle everything by myself, I hate to burden people and it is always so nice to have some people step up and help!

kabhyper1- HOORAY! I just had one of my ISA girls in. I kept her in overnight, and after a epsom bath she laid 2 eggs!!! We are both relieved!

ChickCrazed- I AM SO READY! I was ready before the first flake landed! And yes Browncow15 it will make a mess here too!

iamfivewire, Mother2hens, birdman55- Thanks! Sitting impatiently on my hands!

 

[ChickCrazed]

Day 20, Pips and PEEPING

I marked the air sacs on the eggs on day 7, 14, and 18. two of the eggs are externally pipped above the marked lines. Is that normal? or ok?

Also, my humidity is sitting pretty steady at the halfway mark in the hatching section. I believe, correct me if i am wrong, once the eggs start to hatch the humidity goes up. Any thoughts on if this is ok? Or should I try to bring it up?

However I am impatiently sitting on my hands!

Good questions! I'm a couple weeks behind you so I can't wait to hear what the pros say.

 

[ChickCrazed]

Well, it looks like we are just downsizing. Had our family dinner Sunday, my Mom was so upset that I was going to give up the flocks she started to cry. So thats that, last thing I want to do is upset my parents... and my kids are stepping up to help. My nephew also. DDs will be doing more errands and Gramma sitting. My nephew has offered to do the weekly feed run, and take his grandparents to some of their appointments. Guess I need to learn to delegate more and not try to do it all myself

I will be going through some of the flocks, And we will likely be selling our Embden geese quad. Blue swedish duck trio, Pekin flock and one lone Cayuga hen. Cayuga originated from the pekin breed, and are said to lay a grey to black egg. The Embden are 2 in July, heavy framed goose. All the ducks are a year old or less.
Chinese geese and Muscovy will be staying. DH insists that we keep the goats and hogs lol. The turkeys I will be keeping, but we are downsizing the chicken flocks also, so will be making hard choices on breeds. I will be hatching seasonally, but most will be shutting down by July.
Will try to get pictures the next few days of the birds.

I'm so glad your family is stepping up to help. Like you I am terrible at asking for help. I spent 45 minutes last night using my body as a human lever trying to get a 900 lb round bale off of the back of my truck. This was a day after my neighbor yelled at me for not asking for help getting them off. And still I couldn't make myself call her for help. I just hate putting other people out! Cutting back could be a blessing for you in the end. I hope you find peace with the decisions you have to make. Please let me know if I can help in any way!

 

[birdman55]

acornewell the humidity normally stays at 40-45 percent before lockdown...once you put the eggs into lockdown and stop rotating them then you should increase to 50-65 percent...my incubator sits at 45 and the hatcher is at 63-64 percent....
here are some pics to what i woke up to this morning

 

[birdman55]

they should pip in the air sac so this is normal...if they piped below the airsac i would be worried....so your good....best advice i ever got was to remain calm and dont rush the hatch...

 

[ChickCrazed]

Feeling pretty good! I used the snow this morning to check for predator tracks around my coop and didn't see any (other than the interminable rabbits that are taking over the world inside the safety of my fence and eating all my newly planted trees.....).

My coolerbator seems to be doing its job well so far! I'm sure hoping for a good hatch since I have quite a few orders to fill! That is the one downside to hatching an autosexing breed! You have to hatch twice as many chicks to fill the orders because you KNOW how many are males and have a devil of a time selling those. I'm really hoping for some pullet luck!