Maine

I started my first batch of eggs in the old school HovaBator on Sunday, and can now see development in some of the pale colored eggs. It's beyond exciting! I can barely walk away from it in the evenings, it's the first thing I do in the morning, and I blast out the door at work when my day is done
Poor hubby is married to a poultry addict. And now my brother says I have a problem, but I don't think he means too few pens for the birds!

I have a broody hen sitting in 7 eggs. She's the first thing I check in the am and the last in the pm. I locked her in her box on Sat. because that was hatch day. I didn't want any babies getting out & not being able to get back in. I had that happen last year and lost it to the flock.

I think they might just be A-Holes. Lol I'm thinking about getting them some temp fencing for while I'm home and let them out to sort of free range in it in the grass.!

LOL diana!!!! I got some production reds from someone that were A-Holes!! I had a nice peaceful flock and they caused nothing but trouble. I have them away to a friend with 2 lonely roosters. Maybe giving them some more space with the free ranging would help.

Here are a He's also terrified of my cat who keeps a very healthy distance from my flock (a couple of the girls like to chase her). He went into the coop to hide when he saw her and kept poking his head out to see if she was gone. Sad, really. He had the same reaction to my dog (newfoundland) who is excellent with my flock and very protective of them so he's clearly not used to being around much of anything other than chickens. At least not anything friendly. He's cautious of me but doesn't hide and so far, he crows only when he can't see me.

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He's nice looking. Maybe he'd been chased by cats & dogs while he was on his own.
 
He's nice looking. Maybe he'd been chased by cats & dogs while he was on his own.

I've been wondering that too. That or has just not had any exposure at all. I'm hoping he'll relax around them, especially once he's able to see how the girls mingle with the dog and cat. I've watched my dog chase away a crow that had my Hamburg pinned to the ground one day. He spend the whole rest of that day not letting the girls out of his sight. I was shocked that he would do that in the first place and that he even knew the difference between one of our hens and another bird. The rooster is in good company, I just hope he'll see it soon.
 
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My first ever batch of eggs goes into lockdown tomorrow evening. I'm hoping to get the humidity up into the 70+ range in my square hovabator, and it will be torture to not open it up for the last three days or so. If anyone has tips for humidity or temp settings in still air Hova's in Maine, I'm all ears... errrr, eyes, etc. :)
 
Can you candle? I also hold them up to my ear andtap on the shell and see if I can't hear anything inside


I've got a bunch EE eggs under her. They've been really hard to candle. I think I need a better flashlight. Also Had an egg explode under her while I was at camp Memorial weekend. Figured I would float test them to get the gunk off them as well. Read the directions wrong--thought the floaters were bad so I left them in the water for about 30 minutes before I realized my mistake. Dried them off and tucked them back under the hen. She's still sitting so I thought I'd leave her until Sat.
 

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