Mid January Hatch thread....

[Reyvaughn]

I have two hay burning nag butts. I go through 20 small squares every two weeks, 80# of whole corn every 2 weeks and 80# of sweet feed every 3 weeks. It costs me about $140 a month to feed my boys. I'd love to sell one... Of course, I'd keep the one that's the pasture ornament. Seven years is a long time to invest in a horse.

My other babies are fluffed! Well, mostly.


Can we tell which on is Dino/Dina? Look at how small he/she is compared to the others! The lavender beside him/her was the other one to hatch the day after Dino/Dina. Sure is a strong one, considering it's size. He/she still has matted feathers on the back of it's head and neck, too.

 

[ambrosia]

Well, I think chickens are a lot cheaper than horses. I have grandhorses (my neighbor owns them, but they graze in my pasture), and frankly, all of the vet and farrier bills have killed any romantic notion I had of keeping horses.


Ok, mostly killed.



Sort of killed?


Dangit, I still want a horse.

Horses? drool... ponder... disregard....
drool... want...wait...
get...love...enjoy.

horses are a joy. a love. a hardship. and... sometimes a heartache. but ALWAYS worth it. Just like chickens

 

[ambrosia]

Sphinx, we have 6 horses and go thru a bale in less than a week with supplements during the winter. With the cost of hay being 250+ a bale right now, I would sell off some horses too but you couldn't pay anyone to take them except slaughter houses. I love my horses and they are a big part of the family but if we don't get some rain soon, I don't know what we will do.

That is so hard to hear... my horses (3) would go through a bale in two weeks, and we were lucky if we could get $25 for the extra 2nd crop shedded bales we have....

 

[ambrosia]

250??? OMG DOLLARS?! for hay rounds?? holy moley!! WE are in Texas and ocmplain about 125! being high this week when I got it for 100 last week Some trying to drive the prices up..are wanting like 140 and we laugh and go elsewhere as we are NOT playing into that game... WE are not EVEN using Squares in our stalls anymore as they are 10 a bale here so we roll a round bale down our barn isleway and pull off of it to put in the stalls...we have six horses and 4 donkeys...so it lasts about 2 weeks for the one in the barn and we got rain so we have pasture "right now anyhow" we did just sell one of our horses. a big paint horse I still have to figure out how to take off the listings here! She is so pretty to. She will be missed... but that is a big one off our feed bill ....more chickie food!! lol I We are gonna need it!

omg.... someone drive up here and get some from me.... i have a ton extra i can't even get rid of....

 

[ambrosia]

250??? OMG DOLLARS?! for hay rounds?? holy moley!! WE are in Texas and ocmplain about 125! being high this week when I got it for 100 last week Some trying to drive the prices up..are wanting like 140 and we laugh and go elsewhere as we are NOT playing into that game... WE are not EVEN using Squares in our stalls anymore as they are 10 a bale here so we roll a round bale down our barn isleway and pull off of it to put in the stalls...we have six horses and 4 donkeys...so it lasts about 2 weeks for the one in the barn and we got rain so we have pasture "right now anyhow" we did just sell one of our horses. a big paint horse I still have to figure out how to take off the listings here! She is so pretty to. She will be missed... but that is a big one off our feed bill ....more chickie food!! lol I We are gonna need it!

This is killing me... so you say if i lived elsewhere, the huge bales i have enjoyed as a windbreak this winter are worth a huge amount of money? hmm.... so i have $50,000 worth of hay on my property... dang I wish I had a semi....

 

[chick-among-us]

I wish ya'll would send us that hay!! WEll ME specifically!

And I want to know are you feeding six horses? 80# of feed in THREE WEEKS? MY six horses are eating I think just shy of a 50# bag a DAY!!! We are spending 300 a month on feed (10.00 a day)alone NOT including hay prices!!!!!!!! OR one and only...WE feed Grain AND a supplement feed called one-n-only it has a higher Fat content. BUT let me say this though, When I lived in the carolinas When hay is cut it "sits" up a year or so to DRY ...not here I guess the grasses here are much less in everything. I have gone out in a field as it is being cut and bought a round and brought it home and Fed it THAT day...AND didn't colic my horses. YOU cannot DO that elsewhere... If you take a cow FROM Texas and take it somewhere else ...it will gain weight... IF you bring a cow from elsewhere TO Texas you better REALLY feed it...It will starve if you stick it on pasture...if it was pastured on grass somewhere else. Least that is what the Farmers say. I have bought horses and rescued horses here in texas that are HUNDREDS of pounds underweight...well I guess that is an epidemic all over though surely not limited to Texas....Make me wanna just

some people. OR better yet feed them as THEY FEED.

 

[Reyvaughn]

I wish ya'll would send us that hay!! WEll ME specifically!

And I want to know are you feeding six horses? 80# of feed in THREE WEEKS? MY six horses are eating I think just shy of a 50# bag a DAY!!! We are spending 300 a month on feed (10.00 a day)alone NOT including hay prices!!!!!!!! OR one and only...WE feed Grain AND a supplement feed called one-n-only it has a higher Fat content. BUT let me say this though, When I lived in the carolinas When hay is cut it "sits" up a year or so to DRY ...not here I guess the grasses here are much less in everything. I have gone out in a field as it is being cut and bought a round and brought it home and Fed it THAT day...AND didn't colic my horses. YOU cannot DO that elsewhere... If you take a cow FROM Texas and take it somewhere else ...it will gain weight... IF you bring a cow from elsewhere TO Texas you better REALLY feed it...It will starve if you stick it on pasture...if it was pastured on grass somewhere else. Least that is what the Farmers say. I have bought horses and rescued horses here in texas that are HUNDREDS of pounds underweight...well I guess that is an epidemic all over though surely not limited to Texas....Make me wanna just

some people. OR better yet feed them as THEY FEED.

I have 2 horses, not 6. Each gets about 2 coffee cans of feed 2x a day (1 corn, 1 sweet). That equals over 2.5lbs of corn and just under 2lbs of sweet a day. My hay is $2 per small square bale. They get over a bale a day. Each bale is about 70+/- pounds.

My boys are far from starved. My STB came underweight and is now a tank. My Paint is getting harder to keep weight on. At 13yrs old, I've had to more than triple his feed in the last four years. I'd starve before my boys would. I'll share before and after pics of Al... You'll be amazed.

 

[Emptywagon2]

Here are a few pictures of my Fuzzies... Everyone needs a teddy bear to sleep with!!

Or confide in!!

Can you say STINK EYE??? I interrupted Cinco's beauty sleep!!

 

[ambrosia]

Here are a few pictures of my Fuzzies... Everyone needs a teddy bear to sleep with!!

Or confide in!!

Can you say STINK EYE??? I enterupted Cinco's beauty sleep!!

too cute ...! love them little fuzzy butts!

 

[asmfshr]

I started hatching eggs last summer.It seemed simple enough(my first mistake). My first batch I got one chick for 12 eggs.I had paniced about 10 days in and filled the other resevoir with water.Im sure I drowned them.Well I wasnt sure but anyway....The next batch I set 30 eggs.The incubator kept perfect temp/humidity the whole time..Result : 9 hatched ,3 died,and 10 more never made it out.The rest of the eggs showed no signs of life.I realized it wasnt as easy as thought, this hatching egg business.frustrated I stopped trying for a while.
We got some light sussex eggs in October .Again the incubator kept perfect temp/humidity.Result: 1 for 10.Now Im seriously not happy.I immediately bought 12 more light sussex eggs.Id heard all the horror stories about shipped eggs,so I thought maybe the first sussex eggs had been mishandled.Well unbeknownst to us the incubator went off one day and the temp dropped to 55 for about 12 hours.When they were broken open( one hatched) they seemed to have stopped growing about that time. So this is where the latest fiasco starts.
I started 11 light sussex eggs on Dec. 15.Jan. 1 I put 24 RIR eggs in with them.On Jan 5th I took out the light sussex to the hatcher.One of the light sussex eggs was stuck in the egg turner ,so I carefully removed it.Yes....BUT I hadnt noticed that a little yolk had dripped into the resevoir.As usual the light sussex hatch was 1 for awful.I started to smell something but thought it was the hatcher.I checked the incubator and it smelled terrible.So I paniced and sprayed the whole thing with H2O2,eggs and all for a couple days.I still hadnt found the cause of the smell.Finally I noticed the water and took everything out and cleaned them.The eggs were on an egg turner so it was easier and quicker.I put the eggs back in and sprayed the whole thing with H2O2 .I was sure I had nuked the whole bunch.All that bacteria?
So a few days later I was talking to a local breeder and she told me that you couldnt put that much water in a Hovabator incubator.Id had been filling the middle resevoir for 18 days then at lock down filled the rest of the resevoirs .Well she immediately contradicted herself and told me she fills them all up and keeps them filled to the end of the hatch.BUT the seed had been planted.I took all the water out of the incubator.The first couple of days the humidity dropped to 30ish.The next couple back up to 45.Then finally it went to below 20 and I got nervous.(this was about the 12th day of the hatch and the 7th or 8th day without water)I filled the middle resevoir with water and kept it there for the rest of the hatch.UREKA!!! On the 20th day of the hatch 3 chicks hatched( Yes I got all excited thinking 3 for 24 )the next day 10 more hatched.The final tally was 18 out of 24 eggs.WOW after all the trials and tribs,thinking I had nuked these for sure.... a very nice hatch.
Well I learned a few things: Yet another use for H2O2 and just because your humidity reads normal doesnt meen thats what is accually going on.
To those of you who think God doesnt have a sence of humor,...January 21 was my hatch date....my birthday....

Have a great year everyone, Herb