Maine

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Had three live wet chicks and ten pips in the incubator this morning, was out all day at the hunter education class in Rockland, super excited to see what was out when I came home.

The dogs broke the door to the room with the incubators. I came home to ONE chick barely alive,all the rest that had popped dead or dying. Some that hadnt pipped are peeping, but I dont know if they'll make it. Our house is so dry with the woodstove going, and they were so cold. We wrapped each one in a warm, wet towel for a few minutes before we put them back, but I dont know how much good it did.

Really, really want to kill my dogs right now. So badly. So, so badly. Five chicks died in my hands as I was trying to warm them under a light.

That really stinks. BAD, BAD, BAD DOGS. One of mine decided to rip open a new bag a bird seed. Had to clean up about 5 pounds of seed that was scattered everywhere. Then I had to clean up the mess that another dog created after he ate as much seed as he could. Guess no one told him he couldn't digest it.

 

[hoppy]

that so sucks to get so close and lose them like that.

Really, really want to kill my dogs right now. So badly. So, so badly. Five chicks died in my hands as I was trying to warm them under a light.

 

[Widget]

Well I managed to get the frame put together on the new shelter. So far I've put in five hours on the thing. Hardest part so far was getting the end panel and the first middle panel put together. The shelter stands ten feet high and is 12 ft wide so it was an adventure getting the two together doing it by myself. Tomorrow will be making sure it is square and putting in the anchors. If all goes well I may also attempt to put the cover on. But in reality the cover won't go on until Tuesday or Wednesday since that will be the hardest part of the building process.

Once I'm done I will dismantle the old shelter. I think I will be able to salvage part of it and use it as the new chicken shelter. Just need to add a more normal type door/gate and it should work well. Then it is on to spring cleaning in the goat pen and redoing the horses' fence. Why did I have to be born a Muggle? I could really use some wizarding skills about now.

 

[buckabucka]

Echosrevenge, that is heart-breaking. So sorry.

 

[dowgirl71]

echosrevenge, that is so sad!

 

[kinsey228]

Well, I bought another small coop today that fits about 4 adult birds. That now makes 4 small and 1 large. Stupid chicken math! hehehehe

 

[wife2abirdman]

I put most of my chicks outside around 5-6 weeks. In winter. No heat lamp. They are fine.

Edited to add they are generally more hardy than you think. I only keep the heat lamp on them for about 10 days, indoors until they get a significant portion of feathers. The temp is between 50 and 60 in my basement in the winter. They are absolutely fine. This nonsense about 95 degrees for the first week and then decrease by 5 degrees every week... I did that the first time I raised chicks then I got smarter about it after watching my broodies raise chicks in the coop in the middle of winter.

You know I have heard this a lot but I had a really hard winter with my chicks. I got them last September as day olds and a couple had really bad frostbite in January-all my adults were fine, they even grew MUCH MUCH slower than I believe my chicks from the summer grew. I don't think I will be doing fall chicks ever again. I didn't even let them out if it was below 20 degrees and also had a heat lamp most of January when it was under 10

Quote:
Ok I saw a lot of talk about the min. being 6 chicks to sell. I am wondering just how this law is actually worded. I know you go to TSC and the minimum is 6 but my feed store in town you can buy as little as 1-well that is what I was told-it's not like I will test this either because it's not that likely I will buy anything under 10!

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If anyone is going to need cockerels later, I'm going to have quite an assortment: cuckoo Marans, Wheaten Marans, blue Marans, Ameraucana, Barnevelder, and Olive egger (Isbar x Marans). We plan to grow them out for the freezer, but if someone is looking for one of those breeds, I would be happy to share. I think I definitely have 2 pullets (of 12

), but I

Are the Marans from really dark eggs with feathered legs? If they are, you intend to keep them until they are feathered out and you don't sell them until then I might be interested in the Blue, Wheaten and the Cuckoo. Right now I have 3 cuckoo roos but want unrelated lines to breed to but need to come from a dark egg. I only have two Wheatens and not sure if they are hens or roos. One came from a super super dark egg so if it's a roo I won't need one. I also have blue and splash and again don't know if I have a roo in the mix but want to see them feathered out first. Where did you get them?

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Don't worry, I'll post tons of pics. Once you start hatching, you'll never wanna stop.

Wow isn't that the truth. It is the first time hatching for me and I already have 3 incubators and a 4th for a hatcher! AND I still have eggs floating on top!! I wish they made a Hatching/Chicken Anonymous!! I would need it everyday!

I am up to 40 birds, 18 chicks from last weeks hatch and this weekends hatch, with over 100 chicks coming starting next week into May and I still want to get MORE chicks from the feed store down the road PLUS I still have hatching eggs coming in the coming months!

In my defense I figure it is cheaper to buy a lot of chicks from the SQ/BQ parents than to buy the SQ/BQ sexed adults and I am trying to start good breeding flock(s). That's me jumping in the deep end when I can't even swim! My mom keeps telling me my problem is it's all or nothing!

Well, interest in the get together seems to be waning. I have had two responses about coming on the weekend of April vaca. Come on folks. I'll make cookies or chocolate bread even!

I wish I could go to your gathering it sounds fun but alas I am too far North plus my husband works weird hours and have no sitter for my 3 young girls.

Turkey poults are just as fragile as they are reputed to be. One died in the egg and the other under the lamp. GRRRRRR.

I just had 3 hatch 2 days early and boy I have had turkeys before but never so WEAK! I had the meat type growing up and they never seemed this floppy. At first when the first one hatched yesterday I thought it had a neurological problem, but then the other 2 hatched early this am and they did they same exact thing, looks like they are trying to preen but ends up being more like floppy head. The oldest one now is just starting to find it's feet but even then it is still not doing much and it is 36 hours old. All my others from the last hatch are huge even compared to the turkeys so I just put in a bantam(which is half the size of all the other week olds but is the same size as the turkeys) from last hatch and I saw the oldest turkey drink water so it must be working. I believe my poults are either Blue Slate

or Royal Palm. I am hoping blue slate as they all have varying colors one is plain yellow with a sivlver tint, hoping it's more of a splash(not sure of the turkey term for this color) one is really dark stripe and dot type patern and then the third one is not quite dark but not solid yellow. Also could be a naraganset cross I guess I got a hens choice of 4 eggs one egg never developed.

Quote: Wow I am glad I read this I will be moving my flock to new pens in May. I need to make it fort knox cause we do not live there, so now I will add hardware cloth to thie pens. With probably some electric wire maybe- it will at least keep any neighbor dogs and hopefully the feral cats away.

Turkeys officially suck to try to raise by yourself, as in not with a broody momma turkey. I have one poult so far and it is ... pathetic. Not in a good way. Its legs are all over, I think something happened in the egg too because I saw a hemmorhage (?) in there. Its umbilical is not closed up like it should be but dry like there is poo stuck on it. It still hasn't got its legs under it or walking. I have two chicks in there that are about the same age and they were supposed to help it learn to eat and drink. It just flops around and seems like a fish out of water. This momma turkey better hurry up and hatch her own cuz I am not good at this at all.

Mine have been taking a long time to find it's legs could that just be it?

The dogs broke the door to the room with the incubators. I came home to ONE chick barely alive,all the rest that had popped dead or dying. Some that hadnt pipped are peeping, but I dont know if they'll make it. Our house is so dry with the woodstove going, and they were so cold. We wrapped each one in a warm, wet towel for a few minutes before we put them back, but I dont know how much good it did.

Really, really want to kill my dogs right now. So badly. So, so badly. Five chicks died in my hands as I was trying to warm them under a light.

So sorry to hear this. We had a dog that just before he got sick with cancer killed my daughters pet chicken-we knew he was a chicken killer so we had "safety" zones around our outside hen pen. Which is my gardens with closed gates, the dogs busted the gate open and the hen flew in my garden so tragedy happened. It's not really the same but I feel for you dogs-even your own- can be such menaces! Our puppy almost killed my other daughters hen just because he wanted to play with her!


Sorry I went so far back in posts but wanted to add my 2 cents. Hopefully I will stay up to date with this thread, it's been tough lately keeping up on everything plus I am trying to learn so much about some of the breeds I want to work with. All those threads are like 4000 posts! I don't know how you all do it. I have my 3 girls and all their activities to keep up with plus with the hatching and the other animals. I hardly find time to eat let alone anything else. Usually winter is slower and I can at least sew, especially since I got a new serger but I haven't sewed a thing since fall!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

You know I have heard this a lot but I had a really hard winter with my chicks. I got them last September as day olds and a couple had really bad frostbite in January-all my adults were fine, they even grew MUCH MUCH slower than I believe my chicks from the summer grew. I don't think I will be doing fall chicks ever again. I didn't even let them out if it was below 20 degrees and also had a heat lamp most of January when it was under 10

I'm not trying to be critical, but I think this is why you had some problems. You more than likely had a lot of moisture in the coop with them being "cooped up" - and heat lamps add to that. Moisture causes frostbite.

We all have different management styles, but I don't use a heat lamp outdoors for many reasons - one the moisture, two if you lose power then the birds aren't used to the cold and the drop in temperature can kill them, and three the risk of fire.

I let my birds out unless we're getting >6 inches of snow, regardless of temperature.

It is likely they grew slower, they were probably using some calories to keep warm instead of bulking up.

 

[ashandvine]

Last night I was so excited to load a lot of Ameraucana and Marans in the incubator. I have had some really beautiful dark eggs from the Marans. (My Ams were always good.) I have a couple orders for Ams and Marans to fill at the end of the month. It feels good. I attempted candling again and was able to toss four eggs. I am candling challenged so there are probably more but this was all I could feel sure of. I was getting out of the shower first thing when SO came to tell me that incubator read 108. For anyone who doesn't know, if the internal temp of an egg hits 104 its dead. IDK how or why or for how long. Still coping with the news. Going to face down some protective geese this morning in an effort to move them to the new pen so they can enjoy the nice weather.

 

[mumma3crazedboy]

Hello from Bethel area!

We do not heat our coop- and are actually in the process of moving everyone to a bigger coop in the barn as we are expanding yet again. Our chickens dont like the snow, and will not go out- Ill leave the outter door open so they can get fresh air on warm sunny days ( haha- like we get those in the winter!)