Maine

[Widget]

I have one very lucky hen this morning. She was the last of the free ranging ones that I couldn't catch. Well about 4 am this morning I heard a ruckus outside my window. Lots of squawking. Very panicked sounding. I got up and turned the front porch light on. The hen was on the porch on top of a trash can. Didn't see what was after her but there were feathers everywhere. I opened the door and she ran right in the house into the bathroom. So she spent the rest of the night there and I put her back into the coop this morning.

 

[echosrevenge]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Things are looking up a bit, I put the two living chicks back in the incubator with the remaining eggs, and seven more hatched overnight. A couple more have pipped, but one seems to be having big problems. He's been half-zipped since last night, but no progress since then and now he's just gasping, not really moving. Can't decide whether to try and help now or let him sit until we get home this evening. I hate not being around for hatch day, this is the first time I've intervened but I like to watch and make sure they're OK - we are off grid, so we brood next to the woodstove and I like to keep an eye on the first couple days until they're all set.

The worst part is that most of the 36 "kicking" that made it to lockdown were spoken for - how do I tell the lady and her six-year-old that were coming to pick up chicks this week that my dog killed most of them? At least I have more hatching in a couple of weeks that I can offer her - with the ordeal these went through, ill hesitate to sell them until they're more vibrant.

At least he's smart enough to stay out of my sight right now. He is good with the adult birds, likes to tease the rooster sometimes but never really messes with them, and after the "duckling incident" last spring, he gives the brooder and anything in it a wide berth, even when they escape are are free-ranging in the living room. But I guess the "oh my god! Its a world" frantic hatching peeps were to much for him and he had to see. I dont think he actively killed any of them, just flipped the lid off the incubator (it was on the floor in the spare room since we have no furniture yet) and pawed through the eggs. The ones that died, I think either died from the cold or from falling on to the heating element once the lid was upside down.

Of course, the one that surivived all of that and is the most vigorous of them all is, apparently, half Silver-Laced Wyandotte. I'm pretty good at picking her eggs out from the Faverolles, but I must have missed one... Black striped and rose combed, but five toes and a SUPER beard. Should be interesting to watch it grow up, at least. And I did promise the little bugger that if it lived, it would live until it died of old age (while I was blowing on it and sticking it in my bra to warm up while my husband got the generator going for heat lamps, sitting on the floor surrounded by broken eggs and dead baby birds...)

Ugh. Things like this make me feel like I am failing in my husbandry, this was totally preventable in a dozen ways. its hard not to blame myself completely, and harder not to take that angry, defeated attitude to the rest of my birds and their keeping.

At least my 48 Khaki Campbell eggs are all developing nicely, as are the 36 Faverolle eggs I set with them.

 

[MustardTiger]

Echos, That is heart braking

Lovely Geese Ash. After we put in a pond I think we might expand to geese or ducks. Not this year though, too much going on. I am excited for the chicks! hope the incubator behaves for you!

 

[ducklucky]

That's a shame about your doggie being bad. A lesson hard learned, but don't beat yourself up about it. It's done, and time to focus on the survivors.

Now, this is very interesting, and I've never seen anything like it, even with the chickens. Has anyone else seen behavior like this before?

The continuing saga with my broody Pekin. Yesterday she sat on the nest all morning, knitting away, all seemed normal and well, just let her be. In the afternoon she went out to socialize with the others, and they sat around in a group at the other end of the porch, talking amongst themselves. Her behavior had changed a little bit, she wasn't all confrontational when I went to water them. Later in the afternoon they went into the nesting area and she plopped herself down in front of her nest box, and the others gathered around her. I just happened to be watching out the window from a few feet away. All of a sudden she got up, stuck her beak in the nest and rolled out an egg. The others attacked it, carrying it off and eating the whole thing in a few seconds. I was appalled and extremely concerned about the rest of the eggs because I knew at least some of them were viable. Went out and chased them away with no problem and gathered up the remaining eggs. There were only 11 left out of 15, so obviously they had been working at destroying the clutch. The eggs were very cold, but I candled them all quickly, and 6 were still moving. Put them right away in my sweatshirt pouch with a heating pad wrapped around them, it took quite a while to warm them up. Candled them again after a half hour, and they were all happily squirming around.

Now have them on a heating pad with a nice soft blanket over top of the pad, all wrapped up in a box, have no incubator, rotated them once or twice overnight and sprayed them with warm water this morning. They seem to be doing fine. We have a styrofoam cooler somewhere, will make a makeshift bator with a 25 watt bulb, but for now, they seem fine, look to be close to day 20. But I was soooo angry with Mrs. Lucky and the rest of those cannibals, there were no peas for them last night! They did go to check out the nest after I removed the eggs, but there was no mourning going on. Think they were all just tired of the whole thing and wanted her to rejoin their little party.

I have heard from others that their Pekins will sit for a few days or weeks and then just give up. Know the broodiness has been bred out of them thru no fault of their own. I guess I'm more disappointed in the whole thing and disgusted that my sweet ducks would do something so horrible. Oh well, THAT will never happen again! Going to get myself a decent incubator and do it all myself.

Thanks for listening guys, will be interesting to hear if anyone has seen anything like this. It was like they were plotting all afternoon for the mass murder!

 

[wife2abirdman]

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.

I don't take it as critical, you never learn if you are never told the truth.

The thing is they are in a 24' x 24' building ok well it's a garage, and the only reason I had put the light on was I lost a very important cockerel and the night he died it went from 30 degrees to at least -8 if not a little lower it was -8 that moring, there was no light on that night, and then stayed in the negatives for more than two weeks. Most of January into February was so very cold. It would say 0 but felt more like -12.

Plus I guess I should have elaborated on the whole situation. There were only a few pullets out of the lot who grew very slowly or got frostbite. In the hen pen there were 30 hens. As for the young ones I had
7 Sussexes-both breeder stock and hatchery stock did overwhelmingly well-they grew like the chicks in the summer if not faster and no frostbite-so doesn't matter if it came from a breeder or hatchery stock

3 Welsummers slow growing a few got little frostbite on nails they are still small

Leghorns which got absolutely no frostbite and they never went outside except for maybe a few minutes every now and then stayed small,but aren't they small to begin with? I didn't think they were out of the ordinary size wise and when I say they didn't go out they only didn't go out by choice

Marans not directly affected in growth or frostbite

a chantecler got frostbite on one toenail and very slow growing still very small

one EE who really got the brunt of everything, poor thing got frostbite on every toe plus was the slowest growing of all. She did go outside all the time and would stand on one foot at a time, I do have to say in the last two weeks she shot right up is now the tallest chicken even next to the English Orps plus her legs have doubled in size.

ALL my chickens were DIVAS! They refused to go in the snow I had to put hay down in their outside pen before they would go out side. They would stand on their ramp and just stare. I did have 1 or 2 hens decide to try the snow in January but it was only the one time then they ran right back in!
I used the deep litter method and back in Dec it did get wet but we cleaned it then added a ton of shavings, hay and shredded paper and then it didn't get wet again.

I get that they probably grew slower because they were putting it towards heat but it somehow doesn't seem right-I guess I mean is it doesn't seem the best choice or optimal choice.

My cockerel was in the roo pen also got frostbite on a couple of his toenails but no other roo got this on their toes. The roo pen was NEVER wet so why did my cockerel get the frostbite? The roo light only went on when I saw them shiver. They never went outside.

I did not plan on using a heat lamp, again the first time I put it on was when it was so cold your throat would hurt from the cold when you went outside. It gets pretty cold here sometimes, so much so they don't even let the kids out at school during those days! We sometimes joke that we get colder than half of Canada he, he, he!

sorry hope that wasn't too long

 

[ducklucky]

I have to agree with you. We do have a heat bulb in our coop, hangs up in a corner with a guard over it, and only turn it on a few days a year, the very coldest and longest periods. They seem to do fine without as long as they have dry bedding and you keep them in during those bitter times. They will go out and get "cold stupid" and I for one am tired of crawling under the coop to drag them back in when they get that way. We will only turn the lamp on if those snaps last longer than 3-4 days, we get wicked winds where we are, the chill gets way down to -40 and more. We also seal up their window seams with duct tape and block most of the vents on the windy side with old towels, the snow will sometimes swirl right in thru them. There are lots of tricks, we all do different things. Have had roosters with frostbite on their big ole combs and wattles, it's sad to watch, but amazingly they survived and those parts just dropped off, but did put a lot of antibiotic ointment and vaseline on them, those big guys actually looked forward to it. It's got to be below zero out for a few days, and assume you have a thermometer in your coop, always warmer in there. That was a few years ago tho during that really brutal winter. Turned the light on for a few days to get thru the worst of it. Plus the lamp almost stops their laying, they have no idea whether it's day or night and don't go thru their cycles. And why are we talking about this now when spring is knocking at our doors? Plan later on in summer for next winter and we all learn something every year, what works and what doesn't.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

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!)

I've found that in the beginning of winter you have to "coax" them out the first few storms/cold nasty days but then they get used to it.

I do shovel for mine, because they hate to go out into deep snow and I don't want to walk in it, either. So I shovel a path from door to door and they go there. I also put out their rubber bowl 365 days a year in the same spot (in addition to the feeders inside). It gets regular food in it with water, and flax seeds, and whatever else we have. It gets them out of the coop. It's nice in winter because it freezes and it's like a giant food block for them to peck at. I will also throw down hay or shavings (dirty from the coop - part of my rolling maintenance plan) over what I've shoveled if they don't come out and sprinkle sunflower seeds on it for them to dig for.

Mine also have a covered turtle sandbox, that on nice days gets opened. They love to come out for a bath. And there's some "play" roosts outside, too. So there's things for them to do.

I do have a few chickens that don't go outside much in winter but most are winter warriors that spend all day outside regardless of weather. I've found, though, that managing like above makes them want to go outside.

 

[buckabucka]

Wow. Incubator spikes, hatching off the grid, incubating duck eggs in a heating pad.... lots of challenges going on. Not so eventful here. Day 15 and waiting.

wife2abirdman, if you are looking for cockerels from really dark eggs, you will likely not find mine acceptable. Here is a photo of the eggs that they hatched from, but unfortunately, I don't know which is which. I imagine the 4 darkest eggs were the BCM, and none of those hatched, but I think there were 18 Marans eggs total.

 

[CoopChick719]

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.

Very, very sorry to hear this echosrevenge!! Just so sad!

 

[lazy gardener]

You all might want to check this site re: recent pet food recalls. https://www.avma.org/news/issues/recalls-alerts/pages/pet-food-safety-recalls-alerts.aspx Have a great day. Enjoy the rain.