March 2017! Hatch with us!

[Jessimom]

Oh man. We caught the one in our coop too, but we did not touch it. Lol. I wouldn't want to be bit by that beak. We let it go. I thought my husband gave it a heart attack when he was trying to get it to go under the coop to get out. It just fell over and laid still. After we walked away a bit, it took off flying. It was so funny, despite it being a jerk and killing my birds. Luckily the four chicks it killed were all roosters and were going to go in the pot eventually anyway.

Wow, he was big! The one we caught was the baby of the family in our trees. The parents killed 2 the day before, so we locked up all the silkies while we were working on covering their run. The baby crawled through a tiny gap in the roof to the pen, and killed another. I don't think my brother would have messed with an adult the size of the one in your pen. That's hilarious that it fell over and played dead. For some reason I don't understand how that ever fools anyone - it just makes it easier for them to get eaten.

 

[10AcreChick]

Well I candled my eggs tonight. I took out 6 of the araucana eggs as they were infertile. Two more are iffy. The other13 are going strong! I love seeing those little hearts beating away with the blood vessels developing. The two jersey giants I threw in the mix are developing. And I can't tell with the BCM eggs. They're too dark. I had a few definitely developing but can't tell with some so I left them all in the bator. Today is day 4.

I remember reading about hatching Araucanas- I think a 50% hatch is normal... Something to do with the genetics.

Edit: I just found the info I was talking about. The tufted gene is apparently lethal and if a chick inherits 2 of the tufted chromosomes it dies in the shell, which happens 25% of the time when breeding tufted to tufted...

Wow, do I have to worry about the tufted gene killing my EEs in the shell? I don't know much about genetics, but I think EE are related to Araucanas right?

 

[orrpeople]

Wow, he was big!  The one we caught was the baby of the family in our trees.  The parents killed 2 the day before, so we locked up all the silkies while we were working on covering their run.  The baby crawled through a tiny gap in the roof to the pen, and killed another.   I don't think my brother would have messed with an adult the size of the one in your pen.  That's hilarious that it fell over and played dead.  For some reason I don't understand how that ever fools anyone - it just makes it easier for them to get eaten.  

Grrrr.... hawks are our primary nemesis here. And, there's a new nest of them in our neighbor's tree. My little pullets are locked up tight, but our little cockerels just have some orchard netting over their coop. Can you tell my priorities??!!

 

[orrpeople]

As we wait for the chicks to hatch...anybody do anything interesting today? I finally finished constructing our chicken tractor. It's been partially finished for months, and we've been using it as the step between the indoor brooder and the grow out pen. Will probably still use it for that purpose for a while, but it's now "orchard ready" so the extra males from this hatch can fertilize the fruit trees while they get bigger! Sadly, my spare paint was pink - but real men wear pink, right? (And then, I painted flowers on it!! Hah! )
It was dark when I finally got the pic, but there's a covered roosting area in it too.

 

[lilwildrabbit]

Well it was a candling day for me as well I got my little 2000 lumen flash light and even in the day time I could see inside the eggs!! So I lost 6 from 25 being one is a quitter and 5 not fertile so I noticed the airsacks are larger than normal so I have the humidity up to 45% now and in about Tuesday is last candle and lockdown I'm locking down a day early because of the hatching the day after lockdown last time. Got the others moved to the dog cage i.e. Brooder2 now (hey it works!) I am making plans for a larger DYI incubator, hatcher, brooder unit in a cabinet I'll make some plans then look into what it would cost then I'll think about it some more theby picking up the items at random as I think about it I figured out that a nebulizer unit would help with the humidity and I have several old computer power supplies in the shed i.e. Fans and a few good sheets of plywood with some styrofoam sheets that would do well to sandwich together so nice and I think I can find a couple glass doors I'll have to get out and measure them. Lol just tinkering around

about some things lol

love to have ideas roll around gives this old fart purpose!

 

[orrpeople]

Well it was a candling day for me as well I got my little 2000 lumen flash light and even in the day time I could see inside the eggs!! So I lost 6 from 25 being one is a quitter and 5 not fertile so I noticed the airsacks are larger than normal so I have the humidity up to 45% now and in about Tuesday is last candle and lockdown I'm locking down a day early because of the hatching the day after lockdown last time. Got the others moved to the dog cage i.e. Brooder2 now (hey it works!) I am making plans for a larger DYI incubator, hatcher, brooder unit in a cabinet I'll make some plans then look into what it would cost then I'll think about it some more theby picking up the items at random as I think about it I figured out that a nebulizer unit would help with the humidity and I have several old computer power supplies in the shed i.e. Fans and a few good sheets of plywood with some styrofoam sheets that would do well to sandwich together so nice and I think I can find a couple glass doors I'll have to get out and measure them. Lol just tinkering around

about some things lol

love to have ideas roll around gives this old fart purpose!

Sounds like a good project! I love creating new coops, etc. for my flock!

 

[mich9510]

Wow, do I have to worry about the tufted gene killing my EEs in the shell? I don't know much about genetics, but I think EE are related to Araucanas right?

Nope. It only effects araucanas. EEs don't have tufts anyway.

 

[Cerise1924]

Nope. It only effects araucanas. EEs don't have tufts anyway.

That is interesting! I didn't know about lethal tufted genes. Thank you.

Hey, fellow hatchers! I'm finally joining in for real.

My eggs from Papa's Poultry arrived today, intact and with plenty of extras. This is my first hatch that is not just one breed. I will be in for surprises, because I have:

-Four eggs coming from a pen of EEs and Ameraucanas mixed together, so I could get either of those. There is a range of pretty colours in the hatching eggs.

-Two eggs from a pen of Marans, Ameraucanas and Olive Eggers. (One egg is olive, so that's definitely an OE. The other is a nice dark Marans egg, but it could be an OE, if the roo was not another Marans, yes?)

-Two eggs are Jubilee Orpingtons
-Two eggs are Blue/Black/Splash Mottled Orpingtons

So excited!!

 

[lilwildrabbit]

Sounds like a good project! I love creating new coops, etc. for my flock!

I have a bad habit to make crazy things like that but was looking around and I think I could set up a 3 zone cabinet one with low humidity for the egg turners then a set of lockdown shelves next door then the whole underneath half could be a brooder with lighted side openings with fans to circulate air and house chicks for the first week letting the temp get lower each day so they could go out to the big brooder house that should have been built already !! I can monitor automatically the humidity in the lockdown side with a nebulizer heat would be no problem then the turners could be off a system like this one in the store bought incubator the brooder just needs the heat and cooling set up humidity is not a problem then so that's just two independent thermostats, one humidity controll and the guts out of this plastic incubator and the wood and glass doors I already have hmm and I do have some stain to make it look like nice furnature!! Hmmm ideas for summer project!!

 

[lilwildrabbit]

Oh NOOOOOO! I'm Addicted!!!!!!