July Hatch-a-Long (including 4th of July hatch-a-long)

[AgnesGray]

Just careful when looking to buy eggs on FB. And I don't mean of the sellers. I mean of posting "does anyone have fertile eggs for sale?" Publicly. FB has been shutting down poultry pages left right and centre for even having an inkling live critters are being sold. One page had a a post from 4 years ago bumped up and it had an egg sale in the old comments, fb shut it down within the hour. All the Aussie pages I am on have moved over to "mewe" as a back up and even though I'm still working out how to use it, no rubbish on mewe as yet!

This is very true. A good number of my groups have been moving to Mewe too.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

My Biel's hatched early also. Just FYI. Curious about the heart issue. Do they tend to have weak hearts? That's not something I had heard of before.

I haven't seen a lot on it, but several people here I think (in a long thread on Bieles) and somewhere out in cyber world have made mention about weaker hearts and it not being really uncommon for them to pass between 1 and 2. Fine one day, dead the next. Apparently some of the later bloodlines (after 2013 I think) that were brought in from Germany had brought a few defects with them. And I think this is also why some breeders stress the earlier bloodlines.
It takes some digging and searching, but more that a few people/places did mention it.

My plan is about adding sustainability to my future flock with the extra cockerels going to feed us. I really don't like processing a bird, so if I do it needs to be worth my while. At my previous farm I would raise 25 CX each year and take them to a small local processor, but here there are no processors and given current events the more my flock can produce their own eggs that I can incubate, then process as need be, the better for our personal health risks.

Bieles seemed like a good addition on their own as well as a good cross with some Red Rangers (slower red broilers) I'm growing like layers for my flock.

 

[kelseyk]

Add me to the "not on facebook hardly at all list". I stopped being on facebook much when my husband started making a big deal about how much I am on my phone and how we should put apps on our phone to monitor how much we are on it. Well....I put an app on my phone so that I could prove to him that I was only on FB like 30 minutes a day (compared to his multi hour time frame). He dropped the complaining, and never did put a time monitoring app on his phone. So, he is still on his like all the time. Even with BYC, I am still only on mine about an hour every day (except for days like today where either him or one of the kids was on the computer and I am trying to buy clothes for the kids and sheets for our bed online where we haven't been to walmart in forever and any other big store is over 2 hours away). I doubled down on the hardly being on facebook when I got thrown in facebook jail - I am a leader for out local 4-H shooting sports club and posted that we had BB Gun and Air Rifle practice that day.....FB flagged it and added it to my 2 other flags from a year ago (also about having practice). I had to file for them to relook at the post as it did not break any of their rules. They found that they were wrong and unflagged the post, but I still was not allowed to post, comment, or even like something for 3 full days. It was absolutely ridiculous!

On a different note.....I had 1 Salmon Faverolle pip, zip, hatch, and was most of the way fluffed all in the hours between 11pm and 7 am. Now it is impatiently waiting for it's siblings to come out and play. There are 2 that are internally pipped and the other 2 are still quiet. Hoping the others hatch soon. I also set my 2 Welsummer eggs that are left from my 2nd attempt and put my Wheaten Marans eggs (attempt #2) in the incubator and have assorted bantams eggs (attempt #2) resting for setting in the incubator tomorrow.

 

[FortCluck]

My SSC and Rosetta started hatching today... They are 2 days early and my incubator has been at a stable temp and humidity the whole time. Every time quail are 2 days early and bantam chickens.

I just bought a 50 gallon storage bin today because I want to have enough room for the quail and turkens. There are only 8 turkens and I am sure that only 6 or so will hatch.

 

[Orion ZyGarian]

My 3 went into lockdown yesterday, hearing a faint tappin on one today!

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Started a partial lockdown this evening at 17 1/2 days. I pulled the tuner and candled one last time but did not boost humidity just yet. Early tomorrow morning will be day 18 and I will do final weigh in, then fill up the second water channel.

 

[kelseyk]

This was inside my chicken coop hiding at the back of one of my nest boxes. Must have gotten just enough rain to wash away the snake repellant the other day. It ate one of my ceramic eggs too.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

This was inside my chicken coop hiding at the back of one of my nest boxes. Must have gotten just enough rain to wash away the snake repellant the other day. It ate one of my ceramic eggs too.View attachment 2237970

Wow! What kind of snake is that? Looks huge. We get Garters (harmless) and the occasional baby rattlesnake but nothing like that.

 

[Orion ZyGarian]

It looks like a harmless (to humans) rat snake. Probably likes eggs too

 

[Orion ZyGarian]

One appears to be a late quitter. I guess I'll find out what happened tomorrow. Other two are chirpin, one external pip