Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[taprock]

Feeling very frustrated right now, if you know anything about egg bound or intestinal blockage I have questions. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/780381/how-to-tell-egg-bound-from-intestinal-blockage

 

[SillyChicken]

wish I could help tap... it's nothing I've had experience with.

 

[sarah92480]

Hey everyone....long time no chat. How's things?

 

[Folly's place]

Sarah, LOVE your kitten and chick picture! Happy mother's day everyone. I'm expecting Belgan d'uccle chicks this coming weekend; three broody hens all due then.

These may be too young to company that single lonely bantam, but let me know if you're interested. Mary

 

[sarah92480]

Haha, thanks! I thought that pic was pretty cute too. I got my hens last year and one of them just started going broody on me yesterday. I've got no roosters anymore and she's not even sitting on anything so I've got to work on breaking her since she barely wants to leave the nest, and she'll have no payoff! Chickens are funny.

 

[Farmerboy16]

Happy Mothers day to all other moms!!! I am very grateful to my mom who worked tirelessly caring and homeschooling for all 9 kids in my family. She always took the time to help each one of us, like helping to chase cows when they got out, helping me finish picking corn off the field on a cold winter's day, teaching me and 4 other deaf siblings to talk and respond like normal hearing people. Spanking us when we are naughty, held us when we are hurt, cried with us for our loss, gave advice when we needed it. I love her.

 

[Amy PT]

Our cross beak's condition is getting worse. Poor Daisy's got one nostril that is misaligned and I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out if this chick is getting adequate oxygen. Silly me, I should have just observed the way it hops and jumps and keeps up with Annabelle.

I'm starting to get worried, though, that Daisy might be a fellow. We can't keep roosters, and I'm certain it's difficult to find a good home for a cross beak rooster. Send pullet vibes this way, please.

 

[Opa]

If only that were true. Morning has come and it is much colder than I would like. When I checked last night the forecast was calling for a low of 34 degrees, yet I find that the temperature is now 30 and will probably drop and few degrees before sunrise. With my apple trees in full bloom this isn't a good thing. I will be outside before sunup spraying water in hopes of washing the frost from the blossoms. Not really sure how effective that is but the theory is that removing the frost before the sun hits it lessens the damage.

Hopefully today I can finish installing the additional posts around the garden. I have been replacing some of the 4x4x8' posts with 4x6x10'. This was necessary to give adequate support to the wires I will be suspending over a couple of the rows where I will be planting tomatoes. A wooden stake is driven in the ground next to the vining type tomato with a heavy cord going up to the overhead wire. Then as the tomato grows it is attached to the cord thereby keeping the plant off the ground.

Digging post holes 4' deep seems much harder than it used to be and 4x6's have definitely became much heavier. I know this must be the case and not that my old body isn't capable of what it once was.

 

[Brethren49619]

20 degrees here this morning. Apple blossoms just started coming out a few days ago. So disappointed at what the damage might be. Fresh asparagus just came into the store I work at. The grower was in yesterday, told me a predicted low of 17 was expected and that they were going to brush hog the fields after a last pick to lessen the damage and loss of the producing roots.

At least it should be warming up again quickly.

 

[Maah]

Looks like I am going to end up with only one chick from this entire hatch, great. I would love some advice on what you all think might have gone wrong. I have had very successful hatches from this Hovabator Genesis in the past. I ran the humidity around 30-35% the entire time, then elevated to 75% at lockdown. Eggs were rotated with a turner. One thing I noticed that was different from all my other hatches is that when I candled the eggs, instead of the blood vessels covering the entire area of the egg, the bottom 1/2" to 3/4" of the egg was perfectly clear. The chick that I helped hatch had this clear orangish-yellow tinted jelly all over it and actually got stuck to the bottom of the incubator which was awful, I had to pour warm water on her for several minutes to get her unstuck and then hold her under the faucet to get it all off. The other pipped egg died with its beak sticking out last night, and this same yellow gel gooped out the hole around its beak. I wonder if there is any chance of the other four eggs hatching yet, or if I should just pull them to candle, and break the shell at the air cells to see if they are alive and stuck like the other two. The two that pipped were on Friday night which was right on time for hatching. I think I am done with shipped eggs...

I just had the exact type of hatch (or lack of hatch). I've always had rather successful hatches before in my Brinsea, so I know what was different with this hatch. I set 6 of my own collected silkie eggs, and 6 shipped OE eggs. Only 1 of the shipped OE eggs made it to lockdown (4 were infertile, & 1 quit). However, ALL of my eggs that made it to lockdown (1 shipped & 5 home collected) had that same bottom portion of the egg was clear, with no veining in the bottom when I went to put them in lockdown. It was because my humidity dropped too low during incubation. I know exactly when it happened, and it was the only thing that was different from my previous hatches. This batch had a few days that it ran low. I did have one hatch a few months ago that the humidity dropped for just a day, and 2 of my eggs turned out that way (the rest hatched). But from that batch, I learned about the drop in humidity issue. I super oopsed on this batch, knew it when I did it, and lost the whole set. I opened the eggs on day 22. They were fully formed, yolk sacks were completely absorbed, but they were covered in yellow sticky goo & never internally pipped. Ugh.

So, I'll try again for my Olive Eggers next year I guess. I think I'm done with this spring's hatching sessions. DH did tell me that "Well, if there was somewhere we could go buy your OE chicks I'd go right now." I told him not to say that because I heard someone might likely bring some OE's to Chickenstock. !!

I have lots of chickens out there... but my color pallet is missing the dark marans, olive egger, and the reds. BUT - with my easter egger/brahma cross chicks that I hatched (which have turned out beautiful), I think I may get some green eggs from them.

Here are some recent pictures of our Easter Egger X Brahma cross chicks that we hatched out. I'm quite happy with how they're turning out. They are 6 weeks old now, so I can get a good idea of how they'll look as adults. They have feathered legs (not as heavy feathering as the full brahma, but still interesting). They also have the muff/beard around the face, and lovely overall feathering patterns. Similar to the brahma feathering... but the darker feathers are partridge instead of black. Like gorgeous little snowy owls. And the hens (I "think" I got 2 out of the 4), should lay a green egg. I guess we'll see this fall.