Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[buckabucka]

Quote:
Yeah... I think the "CrazyNeighborLady" works both directions.
I am the lady with 66 chickens and 5 ducks... soon to be turkeys.

She did have the audacity today to ask me what I was going to do with the ducks (she found out I was sending 3 to freezer camp) - and pretty much was saying she wanted to roast one. Uhm... did you monitor the incubator temps and humidity? Did you feed the ducklings? Take care of them? Moved them upstairs and down each day for their bath even when they got really heavy and big? Clean the tub after they'd been in it? Bought any food? Cleaned their brooder or their coop? Helped set up the coop? Came over when it was freezing to give them fresh water?

I didn't think so. What makes you think I'm going to give you a duck? After I process it, of course.

Well, c'mon! Her son is offering to fill your duck pool fof free! How about a little compensation.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Well, c'mon! Her son is offering to fill your duck pool fof free! How about a little compensation.

You're sooo right. I find it incredibly difficult to set the hose in the duck pool and then turn the water on. What was I thinking?

 

[Lady Chickadee]

Yup, week one contests are officially over! Week two contests have begun today. Make sure to check out the contest page for more details.
Thebirdguy's

Cutest Baby Picture Contest WEEK TWO CONTEST
Kellyn's Best Incubator Design Contest WEEK TWO CONTEST

For the cutest baby picture do we post the pictures on this thread to enter or do we post and pm the pictures to someone?

 

[Wisher1000]

Quote:
But SCG, when he does it, you get the added benefit of watering the grass, the fence, the ducks get sprayed, the chickens get sprayed, and the cars!

 

[buckabucka]

You know, it's not too hard to make the spreadsheet. I just put the month at the top then the days of the month in a column below that. I put three months on each page so I can print it if I want. Each day I type in the number of eggs collected in the column to the right of the day and in the next column to the right I keep a running total...like this....

January February March
Day Eggs Total Day Eggs Total Day Eggs Total
1 6 6 1 1
2 3 9 2 2
3 7 16 3 3
4 10 26 4 4
5 8 34 5
6 6 40 6
7 7 47 7
8

Then for the feed, I just list the type, weight, cost, and date purchased. I really just track what I buy so that I can see the monthly expense of keeping my birds. For the birds, I have a column for Hatched, Aquired, Deceased, (all dates) Gender, Breed, Color, Name and Distinguishing Features (all text fields.) It helps me keep track of total number in all categories (total number of birds, hens, 10 month olds, etc.)
You can make the totals update automatically with Exel, but that is a bit more complicated. Go into Excel and play with it if you are not familiar with it. Exel will do everything that Word will do and then some! Any problems you have will be covered online if you google the issue. Try it!

I have my own freakish method for keeping track. I printed out a list of every bird by name, grouped by their egg color. Along the top, is each day of the week, and I mark each egg the chicken lays with an "x" on that day (I know most of my chickens by their eggs, but occasionally enter question marks). On a separate piece of paper, I have listed the days of the week, number of eggs that day, and weekly totals, and on yet another piece of paper, I have a graph of the weekly egg count. I am keeping track of feed costs this year too. The reason I started to keep track of each individual bird's production, was because I thought I could send the free-loaders to freezer camp, but really, I don't think I have the heart to do that. Which is why DH is building a mobile chicken coop for these new hatchers, assuming I get any. I candling just a few eggs last night. Of my own, I saw one developing, and one clear. The shipped eggs, I saw one clear, one blood ring, and one that must be a quitter (some slight veining, but nothing else). I'm hoping to candle all of them in a few days. The only benefit to a bad hatch here, is that the mobile hoop coop will only have room for 2 breeding flocks, and I am trying 3 new breeds. It may be that I don't have to make any tough decisions about which variety to keep for breeding. I guess I'll see in a couple of weeks!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

For the cutest baby picture do we post the pictures on this thread to enter or do we post and pm the pictures to someone?

The rules say to post on this thread... if you want you may also pm them to thebirdguy.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

But SCG, when he does it, you get the added benefit of watering the grass, the fence, the ducks get sprayed, the chickens get sprayed, and the cars!

You should have seen him yesterday... he wouldn't put the hose down so I asked him if he could help me out and water a small patch of my garden where I plan on putting cold crop seeds today. I tell you the rocks that divide the garden from the grass got a lot of water.

 

[dsqard]

My first submission for the cutest babies contest. Some of my chicks from last year's NYD hatch

 

[Wisher1000]

I realize that there are many camps as to how the "day" should be counted. I think we should at least have a commom method for THIS HATCH. I am new to it all so don't kill me if you disagree.

For the sake of conformity, Let's call this "Day 7" as of 12:00 noon (Day 6 in the morning.) That is counting Saturday March 17th at 12:00 noon (when you were supposed to have set, Mahonri

) as Day 0, Sunday at 12 as Day 1, Monday @12 = Day 2, Tuesday @ 12 = Day 3, Wednesday = Day 4, Thursday = Day 5, Friday = Day 6 and Today, at noon, starts Day 7.

So, right now we are winding up Day 6 and looking at Day 7 in a couple of hours. Agreed?

 

[kvmommy]

Well...I think my eggs are done for. I'm not going to stop or anything. But the other day temp dropped to 96, eggs were warm, brought it back up. Shot to 103....brought it back. Stable for a few days. Didn't check my temps last night as I got the Kids' cold and my own temp was up around 103. Soooo..who knows how long it was like this...but found the eggs at 93 degrees and they were cold.

found out hubby might be home in the next few weeks!

So I didn't tell him I was hatching 100+ eggs...so if this kills my eggs...my disappointment will be replaced by relief that I don't have to explain the 100's of eggs. which I was doing the math and I had some seriously jiggly air cells as it were and didn't expect that many to hatch. But he'd never understand...he'd not good at chicken math. Plus, I already have to explain that I bought bee hive equipment and a bee nuc that will be here around may....after he said no.

The way I figure it is this...I want to be a farmer and live off the grid...we can't do that do to the military lifestyle. If I have to sacrifice everything i've wanted to follow him around the world, and on top of it I have to raise the kids, take care of the yard, take care of the house, learn how to do plumbing, building, home repairs and everything all by myself and only see him a few months here and there....then I can I have bees. And chickens. And the one more dog that I will get (which btw is a husky

). mwahahahahah!!!