Minnesota!

[Dandelioness]

Love the name!

Hey it's probably good that so many of your EEs look like Ole - don't daughters in crossings take on the father's characterisics and vice versa? It may just be with certain genes though, but we can hope.

Thanks for the updated photos.

 

[Rhetts]

Nice pictures Ralphie! Hope your priceless creamette pulls through for you.
Lucky you to get to spend time with the grand-babes! I only see my folks a couple times a year at best. (or worst for the DH)

 

[duluthralphie]

It is morning and my Million dollar baby is still alive.

I am thinking I may have had my first set of problems with dry hatching. The humidity in the dining room where I have the incubators is around 29%. The cheapy gauge in my hard plastic Styrofoam incubators shows about the same inside. I had very bad luck with humidity last year and had lots of none- hatchers. It kept getting to high on me when so I went to dry method and did better.

I am thinking of moving the incubators out of the dining room and into the basement. When I set up the temporary quarters in the basement I noticed the ambient humidity is 38% down there. We are running a dehumidifier in another part of the basement. Our house is 120 years old and has a basement I consider one step above a crawl space. I have horrible memories of the basement from when I was a kid. It had a dirt floor and a wood furnace back then. It was covered in soot and coal dust. Just plain Yucky. When we started remodeling I pressure washed and painted the basement ( it has a cement floor now) so it is not as unpleasant. but I digress.

Do you think moving to the basement would help the hatch. Less problems with dry chicks and heat shrink? Is there an easy way to run a higher humidity without the spikes I got last year in a cheap incubator? The brand is farm innovator, I got them at Mills Fleetfarm.

NEXT QUESTION IS FOR TRIPLELL........

IS there a possibility a non-crested cream rooster could have gotten it on with the hens I got from you?

The little guy does not look like the pictures I saw of baby CL's. He is black. I see no line or spot. I will post a picture when he is presentable. My wife takes the sick and weak under her wing. Princess Diana is now hers, and I best not mess with her. This little CL is hers too, She has been rubbing warm water on it, massaging it to try and get a wing that is stuck to it's side free. She rubbed it down with olive oil. And took over my hatcher and ran the humidity way high!!!

It seems to have worked, the baby is walking and looking better, but the olive oil causes it to look like a drowned rat!.. I dare not remove the oil, I think she likes the chick more than me. This is really unusual behavior for her and chickens. She tells me over and over, they are my chickens, not hers.

Anyways thanks for feedback in advance ( again).

 

[lalaland]

love the chick picks....keeping my fingers crossed for princess di,. I was wondering who that black chick was! Now you know you are committed to news updates on everyone.....

 

[duluthralphie]

love the chick picks....keeping my fingers crossed for princess di,. I was wondering who that black chick was! Now you know you are committed to news updates on everyone.....

I think the black chicks in the pictures are Ernie's babies. Ernie is my Black Australorp roo.... BTW one of them, the first hatched has a white chest and is a beautiful little guy/gal.

He must have beaten Ole to a couple hens. The Back chick that is from my creamette has not had it's picture taken yet. I dare not take in now that she is under the Mrs's care in the ICU. Touching a bird she puts in ICU can be hazardous to my health.

 

[Chickenchick11]

Nice chicks Ralpie! I love Princess Diana's name!

 

[duluthralphie]

Nice chicks Ralpie!

I love Princess Diana's name!

Thanks..

I just sold 6 and am keeping 3 to keep my baby CL company.

I suggested to my wife I slip the chicks under the broody hen I have setting on a nest and bring her eggs into the incubator. (she has only been setting a few days)


MY chicken hating wife said "NO! these 2 are mine". Referring to the two in the ICU, Princess Diana and the Creamette. BTW this was after she was using her stethoscope to listen to the unhatched eggs for signs of life.....


I am starting to think she does not really hate the chickens.

 

[Rhetts]

Thanks..

I just sold 6 and am keeping 3 to keep my baby CL company.

I suggested to my wife I slip the chicks under the broody hen I have setting on a nest and bring her eggs into the incubator. (she has only been setting a few days)


MY chicken hating wife said "NO! these 2 are mine". Referring to the two in the ICU, Princess Diana and the Creamette. BTW this was after she was using her stethoscope to listen to the unhatched eggs for signs of life.....


I am starting to think she does not really hate the chickens.

This made me laugh! Yes, I think your DW is easing up on her harsh feelings for chickens. Lucky for you! Or bad: she may want to start her own flock!

 

[lightchick]

Nice chicks Ralpie!

I love Princess Diana's name!

x2! I named my EE chick Princess Poppy! (Cessy for short.)

 

[jailerjoe]

pasty seems to be an issue mostly for me when they get too chilly.  I never have that problem with my own hatchlings, but shipped chicks get it a lot. I clean the butts and wipe a little vitamin E ointment on the vent and surrounding down to help keep the poo from sticking in the future.  Seems to work great. I have 37 shipped chicks in the brooder right now.  Lucky for me the last couple days while they were in transit it was nice out since the hatchery didn't send a heat pack with them this time (they did with the batch USPS lost in Feb, little good it did though - this shipment was my replacements for the loss on that shipment). Kinda glad that I have these babies for Easter weekend since what would have been my Easter hatch got fried when our friends' kids tampered with the incubator.  Exciting thing about this shipment is they appear to have sent me a "mistake", but a rather happy mistake.  I ordered bantam white crested polish and one of them is solid white!  I am unsure if this was a picking mistake on their part (just reaching for a white crested head when packing) or if it is some kind of genetic anomaly.  I'm really hoping for pullet though, cause I wanna keep it!

Good luck with the polish. Sounds like it might be a pretty interesting looking chicken.

Sounds like you had a bad shippment in February? My order that arrived last week didn't have a heat pack either. The weird thing though is that only the light brahmas and German Spitzhaubens got pasty butt. All the rest are clean as a whistle (black copper marans, australorps, Delawares, speckled sussex, golden laced wyandottes). 2 of the light brahmas had it really bad and didn't make it :-( so Meyer's is sending my replacements on Monday, and of course since the shipping is free I couldn't resist ordering 7 more!

I'm giving them corn meal and grit with their feed, ACV in the water and cleaning and vasalineing (not a word I'm sure) their butts daily and they all seem to be doing much better. Anything else i can do?