"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

[TerriLaChicks]

Anyone else forget to turn their heat on last night?

It was 55 degrees in the house this morning, and the bator was down to 97-98. These poor eggs don't stand a chance.

dont give up yet! it ain't over till it's over!

 

[PrimroseMom1]

Mine aren't laying either. I had to bite the bullet & walk over to Inglewood & BUY eggs Sat. They laughed & laughed at me. They also said their hens are way off laying also. I think, in my case, it's a combination of late moult on some of them, old age on most of them & mostly it's been too darn dark too long every day! But I will not use artificial lighting - I think they need the break. I am starting to see redder combs so I think it wont' be too much longer. I think today is the first day in 2 weeks we actually are seeing sunlight. Almost forgot what it looked like!

Haha, Terri. I gave clear ornaments with chicken feathers in it and 1/2 dozen eggs for Christmas and I had the hardest time getting the 1/2 dozen eggs for the gifts. Thanks for the info. Combs are red. I'll just wait for blue eggs. They're still young and seem healthy.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

Same problem here. I'm not sure how old my sussex are (previous owner said they were a year old, but also said they had just started laying) and I was sure they would lay through winter. No eggs from them since October, and no eggs from the white layers since the pox went through.

Have you changed anything else? I keep messing with my coop, changing roosts and bedding material, nest boxes, etc.

We're clearing a bit of land and I've asked that they save me some smallish trees, so I can knock out the last of the "boxes" and build a ladder roost. And after that I'll be done fiddling, honest!

Thanks. They were in the new coop all summer but at molting time they started going into the old coop (just the Amercaunas). I figured that bec they were molting they wanted to be away from the others, they are on the bottom in the chicken yard. They only went back to the big coop one night since molt. Matter of fact the perch on top of the old coop EVERY NIGHT and I have to physically put them in. Even when that was their regular coop they never perched on top. I love my chickens.

 

[campingshaws]

Quick questions about roosts and poop:

Are chickens more likely to be poop covered with a ladder roost? Am I the only ones with chickens that get pooped on regularly?

 

[Cody A]

Ron Ott is a premier hatcher. He does a 2 hr cool down with the top off from day 8 to day 18. To get the inside of the eggs down to 75. This is supposed to extend the hatch time by 9 hours according to the tests. Even the hatcheries are talking about the cool down now.

Linda what is the advantage of extending the hatch time?

 

[birdman55]

hey cody a

read this forum and you will get an understanding of when and how much humidity you need to put into the incubator...everything plays a key factor in the hatch....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/577310/a-guide-to-humidity-weighing-and-lockdown
it goes into great detail of what ifs.....for example if you start out with to much humidity and by the 18th day sometimes you don't need to add humidity...it goes into detail...its all based on how much weight your chicken looses in comparison to the air sack.....

hope this helps

 

[Cody A]

I called Mr. Dickey this morning to talk about the conundrum I've created for myself with the temps. Unbeknownst to me he checks every thermo/hygro he sends out. If they aren't up to par he sends them back to the company that makes them. He said when he first started using these he had problems, so that may be what the old threads I've been reading are referring to. He told me to run it at 99.7 and do not touch it for the whole incubation time. I said Ok that's what I'll do. So I'm sticking to it

I've got the humidity down to the low 30's So dry hatch it will be.

 

[Cody A]

hey cody a

read this forum and you will get an understanding of when and how much humidity you need to put into the incubator...everything plays a key factor in the hatch....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/577310/a-guide-to-humidity-weighing-and-lockdown
it goes into great detail of what ifs.....for example if you start out with to much humidity and by the 18th day sometimes you don't need to add humidity...it goes into detail...its all based on how much weight your chicken looses in comparison to the air sack.....

hope this helps

Hey Birdman. I read that a few days ago. It sounds to me that most folks these days are doing the dry hatch so I'm gonna go with what the crowd is doing.
I do plan to weigh and candle the eggs. These are shipped and some will have lost more moisture than others and some will be several days older than others.
He says in the article "Only when these eggs externally pip do we enter lockdown." I'm asking about this because others aren't mentioning it.

 

[campingshaws]

Picture time! We've had a fun chicken day.

Iris is getting super big, and her splashes are lovely. She's the unfriendliest bird and squawks like she's being murdered any time I have to handle her.

I swear I only turned my back for a second! I just needed to reach in the door a grab the zip ties, and they decided to follow me in.

Two of the sussex ladies checking out my coop progress. I finally got that bottom row of boxes out, almost doubling their space. I need one more nest box, but that will have to wait for the ladder roost. I got the top box a little too low, but didn't have anything to cut the zip ties so I improvised with a scrap from the old boxes. I have sevin sprinkled under the hay, so hopefully no more lice.

LOVED that sunshine today!! It felt so nice to finally get the coop clean. I tried to hose down the sand in the run, that was a terrible idea. It did look cleaner in some places, but I couldn't figure out a good technique. The only solution I'd be happy with is MORE SAND.

We're candling tonight.

 

[Cody A]

Camping your birds look nice and healthy

Looks like you have guests coming in for a dinner party

One of my birds had poop on it a few weeks back. I assume it fell or got knocked off the roost at night and couldn't see to get back up so spent the night under the bombing location.