Michigan

[Opa]

GoodMorning Opa,
I'm still stuck on the all the candling talk.....is there a way to tell without cracking an egg open if it is firtil or not. When we have eggs for breakfast I check them for the bullseye but they seem to be hit and miss. My rooster is getting older and maybe not as zealous as he once was. He has 4 hens all to himself.

One more question for you or anybody else that wants to chime in: I have 2 FBCM pullets that I'm guessing are around 5-6 months old. They are now clucking like hens and.not chirping like babies, and let's just say the rooster has been giving them some extra attention...but no eggs yet. Shouldn't they be laying by now?

The only way to find out if a egg is fertile without cracking it open is to incubate it. I would think that if your rooster only has four hens that they would all be fertile. While it is not unusual for a rooster to have a preferred hen it would be extremely rare for him to ignore the others.

Five months is only 20 weeks. I would expect eggs until 24-28 weeks. I've known of birds starting at 20 weeks and I've had birds that didn't start until wee 32.

 

[NovaAman]

he is doing it again. Snoring and giggling and talking in his sleep. Lol.

 

[Opa]

he is doing it again. Snoring and giggling and talking in his sleep. Lol.

He who? I assume one of your rugrats.

 

[NovaAman]

yup, the 3 yr old.

 

[Elliemae 77]

Ok, thank-you. It just bugged me about how many infirtiles I had to throw away out of the bator...first thing I thought was ....Oh man, we could have had these for breakfast.


I think I will keep them penned up for a little while to cut down on my egg hunting time until they figure out what the nest boxes are for. I wonder if they are trying to figure it out...I have three nest boxes in my coop, all with false ceramic eggs in them. Every day for the last few days, all the falsies have been rolled out of the boxes. My older girls never do that. I wonder if the pullets are out there playing in the boxes.
Ugh! I realized that I've been spelling fertile wrong....stinking spellcorrect....never works when you want it to.

 

[Elliemae 77]

he is doing it again. Snoring and giggling and talking in his sleep. Lol.

Thats funny.

 

[Opa]

Have you ever noticed that some morning the coffee tastes especially good and you want to drink every drop?

 

[taprock]

Teeville - I'm sorry your little man didn't make it. Good roosters are hard to find that would take on a raccoon.

Here is a nice change from the how the back field looked yesterday. What you can't see is that this is a yearling. It is still with a larger deer who I'm guessing is mom. The larger one was watching while this littler one was trying to play with the turkeys. They were not amused.


I candled eggs last night and was disappointed. However I don't throw them out till next week, just in case they are a bit slow.

I have a broody Polish hen now. The first Polish I've had go broody. I have to drag out the guinea pig cage again because while she may make a good mom I don't think I can handle more chicks.

My hen Bertie's bumblefoot has returned so surgery again this afternoon. My coffee is ready and waiting for me!

 

[ladyfeather]

Teevile, I am so sorry to hear about your rooster. He sounded like a fantastic protector.

I hope you all have a great day. Our weather turned from sunny 75s to rainy 50s and I get to run around chasing my friends through the woods for the weekend. I shudder to think of how many posts to read when I get back late tonight

 

[sarah92480]

I replied, "Well, Im 43, not 40...but enjoy it while you can because one day, it wont just be your shoulders or back that doesnt work anymore...."

Well you really just about summed everything up there, good job! And you make me laugh, so thanks. This little comment is so hilarious...I cant believe that little brat thought it was ok to say crap like that! lol...I probably would have been a lot less polite than you, so good job.

I shudder to think of how many posts to read when I get back late tonight

There will probably be at least 200!! We certainly have been gabby lately. I find the only way I can keep up is to check in at least 2-3 times a day.

So now that I have this new job looming, I am finding it even harder than it was before to motivate myself to come to this craphole. I have to work 8-12 today and I cant even stand it. I have 8 hours of sick time to use before then, maybe I'll leave at 11...hehe. I can take my vacation time as pay though so that's sweet! I've only used 9 hrs out of 80 so there's almost a full paycheck right there. The only thing that will suck is, no vacation time this summer. But it'll be better pay and it'll be what I want to do. So yippee! Ok I'll stop babbling now and try to actually work...maybe.