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Add a newspaper to that and I am happy. Old habits die extremely hard. Congratulations on your award, I like to see people recognized for the good they do. I do wish chickenstock was a little further north.
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Add a newspaper to that and I am happy. Old habits die extremely hard. Congratulations on your award, I like to see people recognized for the good they do. I do wish chickenstock was a little further north.
Looks like you guys need to start planning a chickenstock for your area next year! Maybe some of us down under will come to your neck of the woods to get a chance to meet you all.
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Holy Cow!! That would be overwhelming....guess you've done this before?!
Never quite this many at one time! I wanted to be able to hatch out silkies and since we only have 3 hens it was best to collect them all week and then put them in. So batch #1 hatches next week, batch #2 hatches the week after that and batch #3 hatches the week of chickenstock.
I've got it all written down and the eggs are labelled so I don't confuse who stops turning. I've got my big "main" incubator that they are turned in up until 3 days before hatch and then they go into another incubator for lock-down and hatching. It's a pain in the butt however these are going to be the last hatches of the year...or at least that's what I keep telling myself!
My two cats stroll around among the chickens as they are free ranging but I'm sure it would be different if I had baby chicks running around. The cats ARE great mousers, the only problem is they bring them into the house through the dog door!! That requires me getting out the bird net and chasing the mouse until I catch it and putting it back outside. One year they brought three flying squirrels into the house as well! They did kill one but I was able to catch and release the other two.
Walking around the pond last night I see there are literally thousands of toad tadpoles which will be turning into toads soon. Every year they cover the back lawn and the birds have a feast. I'm sure the chickens will think the chicken gods have sent them gourmet bugs to eat.
My BCM babies are completely integrated with the older flock now. They all roost together but the BCMs maintain their own flock and pretty much free range separately from the others. Really getting excited about Chickenstock and meeting everyone. I'm bringing along a friend who used to work with me at GM and is also now retired. She is a horse person so would really enjoy talking to any of you other horse people out there. She had the most stunning Andelusion stallion named Nicholas. His mane and tail were sooooo long he looked like something out of a unicorn fairytale. She had him from when he was 6 mos. until she had to put him down last year due to bloat when he was 18. That almost killed her. Looks like it's going to rain but I'm going to try to mow the lawn today. Talk to y'all later!
If you want someone to rescue some of those tadpoles, let me know.
I usually get a few rescues each year from people with in-ground pools but not this year.
I'm thinking the toad population is down this year because of the strange cold spring around here. I saw 1 male toad around my pond and I haven't found any eggs or tadpoles yet. Did hear a bullfrog the other night so maybe he had toad caviar to impress his girl.