Maine

[lazy gardener]

Buckabucka, I sent my Fedco order in well before Christmas. Havent heard anything. Hope they didn't loose my order!!! Me chick 168. That is very mean of you. Posting that lovely picture of your garden when it's clear that everyone who reads this thread is in a state of dirt withdrawal. Love your nasturtiums. Veggie garden is not complete without flowers. I also have lots of calendula and marigolds.

 

[buckabucka]

Buckabucka, I sent my Fedco order in well before Christmas.  Havent heard anything.  Hope they didn't loose my order!!!  Me chick 168.  That is very mean of you.  Posting that lovely picture of your garden when it's clear that everyone who reads this thread is in a state of dirt withdrawal.  Love your nasturtiums.  Veggie garden is not complete without flowers.  I also have lots of calendula and marigolds.

I think shipping begins on January 7th. You should see something in another week or two.

I also try to mulch everything. 50% of the garden gets ugly black plastic, and we save all the grass clippings for the rest.

 

[Mainechick168]

Buckabucka, I sent my Fedco order in well before Christmas. Havent heard anything. Hope they didn't loose my order!!! Me chick 168. That is very mean of you. Posting that lovely picture of your garden when it's clear that everyone who reads this thread is in a state of dirt withdrawal. Love your nasturtiums. Veggie garden is not complete without flowers. I also have lots of calendula and marigolds.

I know I know....I am also in withdrawal. I broke the glass on my cold frame, so I am attempting to grow lettuce in a window box on my front porch....It's also almost time to start seedlings!

I plant flowers around the rock piles in my garden....I have SOO many rocks. HUGE ones too. I have removed 2 that were over 150lbs. every year there are more!

 

[lazy gardener]

thanks. Every year, I go through the same irrational anxiety re: my seed order. Funny thing about rocks. They just keep on coming. Too bad they weren't one of the major food groups. My site isn't too bad in that department, only because we had a ton of earthwork done, and current garden is in a deep pocket of sandy loam with pretty good sun, gentle south slope.

 

[lazy gardener]

Black plastic??? I can't use it around my yard because I have an incredible problem with ants... carpenter, black, red, you name it, they're all battling for every square inch of my property. Will chickens help with that? If I park my tractor with young birds over a small nest, will the birds kill the ants or will the ants hurt the birds??

 

[CoopChick719]

Originally Posted by Mainechick168

Ohh...he is a very handsome boy!! You wouldn't happen to have any fertile eggs from him & your BR hens, would you?? I would gladly pay for them. I have a broody hen right now who's sitting on nothing but nest.

I have one BR hen tjat was one of my orignal ladies when we got them almost 2 years ago. She is the head hen around here, keeps everyone in line and is completely doted on by the head roo. We named her Kamikaze, after a character in the How To Train Your Dragon BOOKS (dont get me started on the movie version! Grrrrr!), because she has always been tje bravest and craziest. When i go out to feed everyone i usually will crouch down and feed them for a few minutes put of my hands. She will stand beaide me and look up at me and if i dont give her the food when she wants it she will tug on my shirt. She has more personality than i ever thought possible in a chicken and i hope she starts laying again soon so i can hatch some of her offspring. If she is an indication of the breed, then i say they are great birds!
Speaking of her offspring! I have a genetivs question for anyone that might know. I think that i can sex her chicks when they hatch when crossing her with my cochin roo. So far i have hatcjed a dozeb or so of that cross and every male that has hatched, hatches with a large white dot of feathers on his head. The makes have also been the only pnes to get the barring from her. Is this coincidence or have i accidentally discovered aomething known to all of you already?

Thank you for the BR recommendation, Anna!! Love that she tugs on your shirt! I didn't know chickens had so much personality until my sister started keeping them. And now watching my own, sometimes just cracks me up. My roo is the friendliest out of my bunch.

 

[Mainechick168]

Originally Posted by Mainechick168

Ohh...he is a very handsome boy!! You wouldn't happen to have any fertile eggs from him & your BR hens, would you?? I would gladly pay for them. I have a broody hen right now who's sitting on nothing but nest.

Coopchick, both of my BR hens are laying, and I am assuming they are fertile- I am not 100% on identifying the eggs though- the BRs and the white rocks eggs look pretty close- I can try to catch a few for you though! if/when I do, how should I store them??

 

[CoopChick719]

Coopchick, both of my BR hens are laying, and I am assuming they are fertile- I am not 100% on identifying the eggs though- the BRs and the white rocks eggs look pretty close- I can try to catch a few for you though! if/when I do, how should I store them??

I found this on another BYCer's page. If/when you are able to get some, just PM me. I can come pick them up. THANK YOU!!!

Try to gather the eggs as soon as possible after they are laid. Two to three times per day if possible in extreme weather. Eggs need to be keep above 50 and below 70 degrees until incubated. Below 50 degrees the embryo is at risk of dying. Above 70 and the embryo begins to develop and then dies if proper incubating temperatures are not maintained. During cold weather you have the risk of freezing or getting cold enough to kill the embryo. During warm weather you have a risk of them getting to warm. “DO NOT REFRIGERATE”!

Gather eggs in a clean container with clean hands. The less you handle the eggs the better they are. Be gentle with them to avoid cracking.

“Never Wash The Eggs”! If they are soiled badly wipe gently with a dry paper towel or reject it for incubating. Washing with water can push bacteria through the natural protective coating of the egg. Check eggs rejecting any that have cracks or other defects. Deformed or odd shaped eggs rarely hatch!

If you would like to mark the egg with breed or date collected it should be done with a #2 pencil. Never use a magic or permanent marker! Some ink pens can also be damaging to the embryo.

Place eggs in a clean Cardboard or Styrofoam egg carton. “Large End Up” pointy tip down into carton! Store the eggs in a cool place such as a basement, garage or area that will stay between 60 and 65 degrees. Elevate one end of the egg carton on a large book or even another egg carton and alternate which end is tipped a couple of times a day, that is recommended, to keep the yolk from settling on one side or the other. This exercises the embryo and prevents it from sticking inside the shell. This guy uses a Wine Cooler set between 64 to 65 degrees to store eggs in.

Chicken eggs can be saved for a week to ten days and sometimes more. Incubate eggs that are no more than 7 to 10 days old. After 10 days the hatch rate drops rapidly.

As for transportation, always do it very carefully. Wrap the carton(s) in a towel for padding, then place them in the car where they are least likely to move around. Avoid hitting pot holes while going fast and generally accelerate and brake a little more slowly and carefully. I don't know if any of that makes a difference but I figure the main problem with shipped eggs is the treatment they get in transit so I try to make eggs I've picked up have as smooth a journey as possible.

 

[joanie_maine]

Speaking of eggs, my birds are laying like mad. I do have lights in the barn, mostly over cages to keeping their water unfrozen. The LF cochins have slowed down, but they are about to have new nesting boxes, so that may encourage them. My white cochins in "The Chick Room" have given me two eggs - hope the roo is doing his job!

Today, Ryan goes back to his daycare program, so I get 4 1/2 hours to myself. I'm going to clean pens and rearrange birds. That way, I'll be getting hatching eggs from my red, black and buff bantam cochins to start hatching in earnest. I may even put "Rufus" ( my frizzled black mottled roo) to work! The porcelain d'Uccles are laying again and I need to decide which mille fleurs to keep so that I can still get eggs but have only a trio. Anyone need a barred bantam cochin cockerel? A mille fleur cockerel? I have to many boys!

All this talk about gardens makes me so jealous! My little plot of land is all rocks and hard soil. Yep, raised beds is the way to go. But where do I get the soil to fill them?

 

[Mainechick168]

I found this on another BYCer's page. If/when you are able to get some, just PM me. I can come pick them up. THANK YOU!!!

Try to gather the eggs as soon as possible after they are laid. Two to three times per day if possible in extreme weather. Eggs need to be keep above 50 and below 70 degrees until incubated. Below 50 degrees the embryo is at risk of dying. Above 70 and the embryo begins to develop and then dies if proper incubating temperatures are not maintained. During cold weather you have the risk of freezing or getting cold enough to kill the embryo. During warm weather you have a risk of them getting to warm. “DO NOT REFRIGERATE”!

Gather eggs in a clean container with clean hands. The less you handle the eggs the better they are. Be gentle with them to avoid cracking.

“Never Wash The Eggs”! If they are soiled badly wipe gently with a dry paper towel or reject it for incubating. Washing with water can push bacteria through the natural protective coating of the egg. Check eggs rejecting any that have cracks or other defects. Deformed or odd shaped eggs rarely hatch!

If you would like to mark the egg with breed or date collected it should be done with a #2 pencil. Never use a magic or permanent marker! Some ink pens can also be damaging to the embryo.

Place eggs in a clean Cardboard or Styrofoam egg carton. “Large End Up” pointy tip down into carton! Store the eggs in a cool place such as a basement, garage or area that will stay between 60 and 65 degrees. Elevate one end of the egg carton on a large book or even another egg carton and alternate which end is tipped a couple of times a day, that is recommended, to keep the yolk from settling on one side or the other. This exercises the embryo and prevents it from sticking inside the shell. This guy uses a Wine Cooler set between 64 to 65 degrees to store eggs in.

Chicken eggs can be saved for a week to ten days and sometimes more. Incubate eggs that are no more than 7 to 10 days old. After 10 days the hatch rate drops rapidly.

As for transportation, always do it very carefully. Wrap the carton(s) in a towel for padding, then place them in the car where they are least likely to move around. Avoid hitting pot holes while going fast and generally accelerate and brake a little more slowly and carefully. I don't know if any of that makes a difference but I figure the main problem with shipped eggs is the treatment they get in transit so I try to make eggs I've picked up have as smooth a journey as possible.

alright, I think I can handle this! the temp in my house is rarely about 65 degrees, so this shouldn't be too hard.