Minnesota!

[aussiegal318]

Wow I had a lot of reading to do just to catch up.On some of the other forums I just read the last few pages, but I don't seem to be able to do that here.

Bogtown I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. My heart goes out to you & your family. I cried too knowing that I could lose mine at any time (12& 14 yrs). I know that every day I have with my seniors is a blessing. I agree, you have to evaluate costs versus the outcomes (goes for humans too). Paddy has a lump that it would be too hard on him to put him under to remove. all we do is manage his pain & keep him happy & comfortable.

Duluthralphie congrats on the creamettes & turkeys. You too Nordicacres.

My cochin roo is not a Mensa candidate. I think the only reason he stays in the coop is he can't figure out how to get out. On these nice days I've opened the big doors, then he'll venture out for a bit.I put him in the pullet coop next door but he some how managed to get that big body of his up over the fence (5' welded wire, no cover).

It's too bad I'm not a fabulous story teller, or it would be more interesting trying to keep the chickens out of the newly seeded pasture. The Icelandics are definitely a type A personality, they don't let anything stand in their way of what they want.

I'll think about it after we get the alpacas sheared on Mon. This will be the 3rd year of fiber, so I think now I have enough to start selling. Most if it is raw, but some is made into yarn already. I you know any spinners PM me.

 

[duluthralphie]

I Want an Alpaca, my DW would really kill me then. And I doubt she would get the fence done for it this summer......







Of course, I could always ask. "what would you rather me buy an Alpaca or another incubator?"



BUT I think I will not push it as she just said " maybe you can buy one of those big fancy incubators next year."

Here are some pictures from our hatch. These are the eggs that failed to hatch. They looked fully developed, like they just never attempted to hatch.

2 turkeys and one creamette. I only had one non-starter and one quitter.

 

[The BlanchRanch]

That would be something that might be fun to do! Just a little advanced for me yet. Great job.

 

[Cearbhael]

Wow I had a lot of reading to do just to catch up.On some of the other forums I just read the last few pages, but I don't seem to be able to do that here.

Bogtown I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. My heart goes out to you & your family. I cried too knowing that I could lose mine at any time (12& 14 yrs).  I know that every day I have with my seniors is a blessing. I agree, you have to evaluate costs versus the outcomes (goes for humans too). Paddy has a lump that it would be too hard on him to put him under to remove. all we do is manage his pain & keep him happy & comfortable.

Duluthralphie congrats on the creamettes & turkeys. You too Nordicacres.

My cochin roo is not a Mensa candidate. I think the only reason he stays in the coop is he can't figure out how to get out. On these nice days I've opened the big doors, then he'll venture out for a bit.I put him in the pullet coop next door but he some how managed to get that big body of his up over the fence (5' welded wire, no cover).

It's too bad I'm not a fabulous story teller, or it would be more interesting trying to keep the chickens out of the newly seeded pasture. The Icelandics are definitely a type A personality, they don't let anything stand in their way of what they want.

I'll think about it after we get the alpacas sheared on Mon. This will be the 3rd year of fiber, so I think now I have enough to start selling. Most if it is raw, but some is made into yarn already. I you know any spinners PM me.

Roflmao 'Raises hand' Spinner here! What colours do you have? It may be a couple of months before.I can invest in more fibre but alpaca is soooo nice, I use fine fine lace weight baby alpaca to make those shawls you can pull through a wedding ring. I am working on spinning lace weight in Marino and Rambouillet. I really have to tweak my pressure on my wheel so it is ultra light. Doing well though. The fine wools WANT to be thin so they are not hard to wrestle with. I suspect fine alpaca also will want to spin up lace weight by nature of the yarn. I am finding it difficult to spin what others consider 'easy' yarns because I am so used to fine short wools. Find it hard to spin anything heavier than fingering for socks. I have boxes and boxes of wool and alpaca. One box of llama that is poor quality. I am thinking of spinning it for a rug... Maybe braided or knitted. It is too coarse for anything else. Saw 2 llamas last year at Llama Magic that had wonderful fibre. Llama Magic is cancelled this year though. I think their attendance last year, due to the sheep fest moving their date a weekend later, were very poor. Hope it is not the death rattle of the show cause I loved to go!!

 

[Cearbhael]

Forgot to ask, what part of MN are you located? I have a friend that raises Alpacas but she has retired from breeding and is just maintaining her flock/herd (what do you call a group of Alpaca any ways?) for fibre.

 

[duluthralphie]

Forgot to ask, what part of MN are you located? I have a friend that raises Alpacas but she has retired from breeding and is just maintaining her flock/herd (what do you call a group of Alpaca any ways?) for fibre.

I think she is in the Ramsey/ Elk River area as we had planned to meet for coffee, just has not worked yet.



I found Ethel's nest, I am going to take her eggs if she comes to the house and is not broody. I was looking for the guinea nests, which I did not find. The guineas have stopped laying in the coop, they must have figured out I was stealing the eggs, and have went to hiding the eggs again. I am going to put the blue turkeys and the guineas together in the gulag. I thought about putting Ernie (BA rooster) and the BA hens and BSL hens in there too, but I am worried the guineas would hurt the chickens. Any thoughts on that?

I think I am going to give up on Bert making babies, and put Ed the partridge chanticler I got from EJB in with the Dixie rainbows and make some broilers. I would give him a few EE' hen too, that way I would know which eggs are not from the Dixie chicks, and I would not have to worry about Ole,,,, (sorry cannot say the words here, because of my double secret probation for saying nasty words on here) himself to death. Ole would have some blue egg layers to make babies with and the brown eggs I could tell apart and eat.


I can almost guarantee these plans will change before implemented..

 

[Minniechickmama]

Oh my, Ralphie. I have to agree. This is our first time having poults. They are stupid and clumsy. They keep flipping over on their back, can't get up again, and then just give up. I'm afraid to leave them alone. They will surely kill themselves! They sure do seem friendly, though

The trick with poults is to put them in with a few chicks to teach them to eat and drink. Put marbles in the water though so they don't drown. I find drowning is their favorite method of suicide, whether it is the waterer or a buck 20' away.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Ralphie, Congrats on your successes! The other ones, well, that happens and here has been happening WAY too much. I am hoping that this week is better. I changed some settings to see if I have corrected the problem or if it is outside of the spectrum of temp and humidity.
Sometimes, a chick may just be too big for the egg they are in. Other times, it is really an unknown because it could be so many other possibilities. The truth of birthing and hatching isn't so much 'what went wrong', we should ask with all the ones that survive 'what went right?' because theoretically and mathmatically speaking, the odds are against success.


The other thing with poults, in case I hadn't said it before, they can get out of a brooder 2' high within a week, so have a wire cover over those buggers. You can keep them with chicks for maybe 2-3 weeks but then they start getting bigger faster and will walk all over the others.

 

[duluthralphie]

Minnie I have changed things too. I am no longer going to do the dry hatch. Last year it worked great, this year not so much.

I ordered a couple more hygrometers. I am running 2 thermometers in each incubator now and I may add a small vent hole to help offset the wires I have going through the vents now. I have added sponges to the hatcher, I will be adding one "turkey injector" full of water each morning to the incubators ( I did this morning and it brought the humidity up to 45% then it dropped back in a few hours to 25-30%) until the hygrometers arrive when I will shoot for 35-40.

The tray will be coming out of the hatcher on Wednesday, I am going to lying the eggs down instead of cartons. Not sure why. just want to change my luck.

I have room for a dozen more eggs right now.

 

[Rhetts]

Turkeys don't seem to get any smarter with age either, at least not mine anyway. Sometimes we find that we need to 'lock them up' for various reasons (they are free ranged entirely). Company coming over is our major reason. They don't behave well with certain people. We put them in the fenced area with the geese. A 7 foot fence with no netting on top. They stay in there all day but when it is roost time they fly out and go roost. They can get out all day but don't. For dumb. But hey, it works perfectly for me!