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

[kathyinmo]

Yea, I'm thinking the ones I saw like the pic above are bad, but I don't know because I have NEVER done this before (hatching and candling!) Should I pitch them?

NO !

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
Cool! Thanks for that tip. I love Seed Savers.

 

[Wisher1000]

Quote:

Good! Cause I really didn't want to.... I'm flying by the seat of my pants here, thanks Kathy!

 

[chicklover16]

the post sure pile up fast on this thread!

 

[ronott1]

The eggs from the Cream legbar auction were delivered yesterday. The auction was for 4+ and I was shipped 6

Those eggs are so pretty--I have to just look at them every once in a while.

They are in the best shape yet for eggs shipped to me. All of them had aircells and most of them were normal looking. I did not see any floaters inside the eggs, so it looks like the are not too scrambled.

They are warming up in the house and tonight I will put them into my "Hatcher Closet". I hope to be able to put them into the Genesis incubator I am using for a hatcher tomorrow. Currently SG Dorkings are hatching in it. Six made it to lockdown and three hatched over night. Today is day 21, so hopefully when I get back home from work the other three will have hatched.

 

[Pinx]

honey Scg is right! Listen if you HAVE horses you recognize as will most others,that that horse is FREE, looking that nice, for a REASON he is probably one that charges you when he has food or something....do you see the pic where his ears are back? is that because there is a person standing there (holding the camera) I have seen horses with personality or behavioral issues...it looks like to me ( I certainly in all fairness cannot examine him over the net) he might have some, JUST judging from body language he is WATCHING the person with the camera and his ears are back...NOT GOOD....I PROMISE there is a reason he is that young and free...although lovely I HAVE seen that look before and the horse was "loco" long story but that is an actual condition not just a nickname....she "flipped over backwards on top of me" you are doing what you can to try and help....it would BE very hard on you and your other animals if you took it in and you couldn't house it with the other horses due to aggression,etc.just my opinion and and I am only trying to help you feel better....I will tell you like I tell my daughter,you say in this previous post " I have to figure something out" ...no you don't he isnt your horse and as of yet isnt your problem,take on one you CAN help and CAN make a difference like help POST ads for local rescues and help rehome the horses already IN shelters that are going to BE put down due to houseing issues, if you really want to make a difference...AND if they were GONNA put that horse down...that ad wouldnt be on there! They DONT want to deal with something about the animal.... I will call andask about it myself,if that would make you feel better,I bet I am right. IF they will tell me. I have five of my own....one has COPD I would NEVER put her down unless SHE was suffering...they "SAY" that to get a Response time from people.

Edited to add AFTER I caught up: I am glad it all worked out!! but you cant save them all !! trust me I DID rescue it is heartbreakingly hard also (rewarding at times also Don't get me wrong! with successes) is that horse broke? has she ridden him? NOW I REALLY hope I'm wrong!

BTW you are a FANTASTIC writer....to be so young...I truly enjoy your posts...you remind me a bit of my daughter...everyone talking about teens..I have them, would like to trade them for lint, most days...and am reminded often when they are stomping around, needing reminding to be respectful and careful least they transgress....that this is why lions EAT their young....

Quote:



"Free" horses are never "free". Coming up with the money to buy a horse is the easiest/cheapest part of owning horses.

I have a "free" horse in my pasture and I hate him with a passion, hated him before he was given to me actually lol.

My mother in law decided she wanted to buy my sister in law's long yearling. She babied him and raised him like a dog until he was 2. By then he would strike at you, kick at you, bite you, rear if he didn't get his way, he was pushy, lazy, disrespectful, and an idiot. Well he turns 2 and my mother in law wanted my sister in law to break him, he hated her with a passion and the thought of her getting 10 foot from him would throw him into a bucking rearing frenzy. So... she gave up and I was handed the job. With my mother in law its just easier to go with it instead of arguing. So I did. I got him ground broke with the exception of the kicking and biting, but he didn't dare try it with me after our first come to Jesus meeting, he just did it to everyone else still. Called my cousin out to put his first ride on him and he acted like a champ. After that I put all of the rides on him.... still hated him, but rode him. I couldn't wait until the day I saw him loaded up on someones trailer and I never had to see him again. As far as riding he was an ok horse, he will get his but down when you ask him to stop, you can ride him bridleless with just the reins around his neck, virtually bomb proof and has never ever spooked at anything, never bucked. My mother in law was trying to sell him for about $8,000 more then he was worth so obviously he didn't sell. Well Christmas comes around and look who was given a horse... me. I didn't want him but I figured what the heck. I just retired my horse and didn't have anything else to ride until my colt was ready to break so I would ride him until I got him sold. I wasn't actively trying to sell him because he was my only riding horse and I would rather ride a jug head then nothing at all. Well one day we are riding along in the arena he has been ridden in his whole life he wasn't fresh and he had only been lightly ridden for about an hour already. We are talking walk, trot, lope, just playing around watching the kids ride, and he was very used to the type of excersize he was getting. We got 1 lap around the arena and he broke in two. He was bucking... not crow hopping or willy nilly bucking. He was bucking hard and trying his hardest to get me off. Being the daughter of a bull rider that would put me on anything growing up and say "Ride it out! Watch his shoulders! ..." I know my way around a bucking horse lol. So here we go bucking, I was trying to get my hand down far enough to pull him around for a one rein stop but by the time I would get my hand into position he would throw his head down and my hand would slide back to the middle of the reins. We made it about 3/4 of the way down the arena and there was a pole in the middle (like for pole bending) Well stupid me I was looking at the pole trying to predict where he was going to go... left, right.... or over the top of it. Well while I was looking at the pole he cut left and I landed right where I was looking. I landed on my ribs and it knocked the air out of me. I hate that feeling. My 7 year old son and husband came running to me and the look on their faces was the worst part. I couldn't talk (still gasping for air), my son is crying asking if I'm ok, hubby was about in the same state. I had already waved to my mom that I was ok so she was catching my horse and making sure he didn't hurt the little girl riding my kid horse. Apparently kids and husbands don't read sign language lol. Well I finally got my air back and worked that horse like a dog in the roundpen. Then we rode again and he did fine.

He didn't go home that night, he was dropped off at a friends house to ride. After a week of him telling me he is a big puppy dog, maybe it was just you, maybe he was tired, he has never given me any problems etc.... my friend found out why he was there. He said "He was going along fine and he just snapped. I'm not a bronc rider and he had me off, he just happened to cut back underneath me." (This guys breaks horses and ropes for a living).

So now I have a horse in my pasture that was to hard to pass up because he was "free", he hasn't been sold yet because I believe in full disclosure. I tell people everything they NEED to know about him, not just what they want to hear. With his jug head attitude someone could easily think "Oh he is calm, never spooks, throw the kids up on him. They will be fine." then he could flip. I for one don't want to be responsible for the death of someone's child so I can sell a horse. He needs a ranch type job, something that gets him too tired to buck, and gets his mind on working and not how to get out of working. My grandpa having been the foreman of one of the biggest ranches around here... no ranch hand is going to want to deal with a horse that will leave them stranded on the back 40. I'll tell you right now I will put him down before I list him as "free" or lie to someone to get him sold. With the horse and hay market the way it is right now sometimes putting the horse down is the lesser evil to starving to death.

Also a lot of times people will use the scare tactic of "Sell by this weekend or I will put him down" "puppies need a home or they will go to the pound" etc, just to insure that someone takes the horse because they feel sorry for it. I'm not saying you couldn't get a really good horse for free, but the odds are not in your favor. If the horse were fantastic he would sell for something 99 times out of 100.

Quote:

Ha! I went to the feed store to pick up my cayugas... with 45 eggs in the bator and 23 chicks in the brooder.... and my 2 year old nephew talked me into 4 more chicks. He didn't have to do much talking.

Hubby said I was not allowed to take him with me to the feed store anymore. lol

 

[Sphinx]

the post sure pile up fast on this thread!

Yes, I"m having a terrible time keeping up! I'm reading it all, but I can't possibly comment on it all.


I was on the deadbeat list, but I filled out the participation form and I saw myself on the spreadsheet. I'm confused. I PM'd Cayuse, hopefully it'll be cleared up.

 

[chicklover16]

Yes, I"m having a terrible time keeping up! I'm reading it all, but I can't possibly comment on it all.


I was on the deadbeat list, but I filled out the participation form and I saw myself on the spreadsheet. I'm confused. I PM'd Cayuse, hopefully it'll be cleared up.

I would love to hatch someday but for now I must be content with my hatchery chicks. oh well.

 

[Pinx]

I was out in the coop earlier checking on everyone. I had a couple of eggs that the chickens and duck had laid but I left them for my son to collect when he got home. Collecting eggs are his favorite part of the day. Anyway we were watching the ducklings zoom around their pen and my Cochin hen came in behind us and got on one of the eggs. I don't know that she has laid an egg because she roosts up on a higher roost/nesting box every night, but we find all of our eggs in the floor level boxes. So she is on one egg and she starts pushing it under her, she works with it for a little while getting it positioned then gets up and does the same thing with the duck egg 2 boxes over. I picked the eggs up because I don't need a broody hen, but thought I would ask if this is just normal chicken stuff or if she may be wanting to go broody. My son collects the eggs every morning at about 10am and every evening at about 6. We have only gotten at the most 2 chicken eggs and 1 duck egg in a day but he still checks faithfully. So she has never had eggs to sit on for a long period of time, today was probably the longest an egg has ever sat in there.

 

[karimw]

I just have to ask? How do you turn those eggs? How long does it take..or are you tilting..and don't they go all over if you do?? That's a lot of eggs!

I am trying out the meathod of not turning shipped eggs for the first few days to let the air cells regroup. I have been turning the top layer and rotating them around the incubator. Starting tonight they will be split up into another 1588 and I will put a turner in one and hand turn the other. Since I am doing a dry hatch I'd like to try tilting the incubator but I haven't done that before. Does anyone else do that?