Minnesota!

[Minniechickmama]

yuck! opened the eggs that didn't hatch after the broody was up and off the nest ,,,,,,,why did I do that? I've read, "oh you should always do an eggtopsy" but why? so gross for one egg, and heart breaking for the other poor little chick that looked perfectly formed. but wet. I will never do that again.

I quit doing that. I can tell now what happened without digging an egg apart, but mine are all in an incubator where I can watch it all.
I shipped Buckeye eggs to a fellow in Indiana and he got 6 from 23 eggs I sent in the first batch. He was bummed, I could tell, but with shipped eggs, I don't get my hopes up for anything more than 25%. For some crazy reason, I can have almost all of them develop then not pip or only internally pip. I found this to be the case with various breeds, many different breeders and with different incubators. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet though to get what you want.

I think I am close to not hatching any more except for a few more New Hampshires and then from the other Buckeye rooster. The bantams are done after what is in there now cooking away. Cooking away may be true of the ones in the foamie bator. Our heat has been messed up and we have been trying to not run it any more than we have to. The downstairs gets cookin' hot and the upstairs will stay cold. Well, that may have shot the half of a tray of bantam eggs I had in there, it ready 103 this morning. We shall see. Once I can candle the ones in there I will move those in the foamie down, but I am sure some of them are shot.

I hope everyone has a good week. I am working the garden stuff and cleaning coops and must finish my blood testing that has been put off too many times now.

Oh, and while I was transplanting the baby peppers into pots from the starter pods, the tray fell off the side of the incubator where one end was empty. I said some bad words. They are all in okay shape, but now I have about 20 plants I don't know what they are for sure and I wanted to try selling the extras. I am thinking about those bad words again

I am so mad at myself for not paying more attention. My grow stand is out of room too. I told hubby we need to build another and probably just build a small greenhouse now.

 

[KlopKlop]

So last week we checked out kitty over for an abbess or wound and came up with nothing. Last night we got home and I found he has the whole inside of what I would consider his calf split open. He must have opened the abbess on his own. We trimmed back some of the hair and rinsed it out with clean water. Doesn't look too gross and the swelling in the leg is down some. We resisted putting any antibiotic cream on it as we want him to lick and clean it. Any advice on this? Fortunately he is getting around well enough, eating and drinking.

Our other all grey cat is missing now too. I hope he comes home soon having spread his wild oats or whatever they say.

 

[KlopKlop]

I quit doing that.  I can tell now what happened without digging an egg apart, but mine are all in an incubator where I can watch it all.  

I shipped Buckeye eggs to a fellow in Indiana and he got 6 from 23 eggs I sent in the first batch.  He was bummed, I could tell, but with shipped eggs, I don't get my hopes up for anything more than 25%.  For some crazy reason, I can have almost all of them develop then not pip or only internally pip.  I found this to be the case with various breeds, many different breeders and with different incubators.  Sometimes you have to bite the bullet though to get what you want.


I think I am close to not hatching any more except for a few more New Hampshires and then from the other Buckeye rooster.  The bantams are done after what is in there now cooking away.  Cooking away may be true of the ones in the foamie bator.  Our heat has been messed up and we have been trying to not run it any more than we have to.  The downstairs gets cookin' hot and the upstairs will stay cold.  Well, that may have shot the half of a tray of bantam eggs I had in there, it ready 103 this morning.  We shall see.  Once I can candle the ones in there I will move those in the foamie down, but I am sure some of them are shot.  


I hope everyone has a good week.  I am working the garden stuff and cleaning coops and must finish my blood testing that has been put off too many times now.


Oh, and while I was transplanting the baby peppers into pots from the starter pods, the tray fell off the side of the incubator where one end was empty.  I said some bad words.  They are all in okay shape, but now I have about 20 plants I don't know what they are for sure and I wanted to try selling the extras.  I am thinking about those bad words again    I am so mad at myself for not paying more attention.  My grow stand is out of room too.  I told hubby we need to build another and probably just build a small greenhouse now.  

Bummer on the plants. Mine are going pretty well had to make some light adjustments as the closest plants were getting burned. Been running a fan in them trying to get the stems to beef up. I did on occasion before but should have more it appears

 

[MinnesotaNice]

I don't need more chickens, so I went for a limited hatch - think there are 5 eggs under two hens each hatching today, and 3 eggs under a little hen. I have another hen, and am letting her set on 3 eggs as well. I figure roosters will get swapped out for the red ranger pullets otherwise destined to be meat, and we will see about the pullets that hatch.

I haven't found an effective way of selling eggs, and schlepping them to the cities to distribute to family is getting old. So I am trying to downsize the flock (yup, that's chicken math here

).

but, want to say there is nothing sweeter than the cheep of a newly hatched chick.

Have you tried Craigslist? I sell a lot of my eggs at work as well. I find ways to justify having more and more chickens! DH is irritated, yet impressed.

I think I am close to not hatching any more except for a few more New Hampshires and then from the other Buckeye rooster. The bantams are done after what is in there now cooking away. Cooking away may be true of the ones in the foamie bator. Our heat has been messed up and we have been trying to not run it any more than we have to. The downstairs gets cookin' hot and the upstairs will stay cold. Well, that may have shot the half of a tray of bantam eggs I had in there, it ready 103 this morning. We shall see. Once I can candle the ones in there I will move those in the foamie down, but I am sure some of them are shot.

I have the same problem with my foam bator. It goes up and down all day. Drives me nuts. The weather changing doesn't help much either. My last hatch rate was incredible and I kept it on the warm side - around 101.5 and dry hatched. I'm going to let it ride and do the same with the duck eggs in there now. We'll see. I just have to learn to not touch the ancient wafer technology.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Bummer on the plants. Mine are going pretty well had to make some light adjustments as the closest plants were getting burned. Been running a fan in them trying to get the stems to beef up. I did on occasion before but should have more it appears

FIrst, you are probably fine in leaving the cat to keep his wound clean, but keep an eye on it. I am sure you don't need to be told that though.

The plants will survive, I just won't know which ones are which. They are mostly jalepeno, but that just means I have to plant all of them .
I had about half of them transplanted before that happened, but that is half a tray of 65. I take the little plants that come up in one peat pellet and split them up. I had planned on selling the extras. Not a huge deal, but still would have like to done something beside pull them and scrap them. I may still transplant and offer them for cheap enough, we will see. Three rows stayed intact so I know what they are, so that helps.

I have a fan and I know what you are saying with them, they get leggy real fast, but the nice thing with nightshade type plants is that you can put the base of the plant in a trench and have part of the stem buried and it will root itself just fine. I have planted some pretty spindly tomatoes before and they do just fine. I have a small fan though I may turn on over the top shelf of ours.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Have you tried Craigslist? I sell a lot of my eggs at work as well. I find ways to justify having more and more chickens! DH is irritated, yet impressed.



I have the same problem with my foam bator. It goes up and down all day. Drives me nuts. The weather changing doesn't help much either. My last hatch rate was incredible and I kept it on the warm side - around 101.5 and dry hatched. I'm going to let it ride and do the same with the duck eggs in there now. We'll see. I just have to learn to not touch the ancient wafer technology.

The one I have now is an LG. The knob on this is SO touchy, but the first foamie I had was a Hovabator and that wasn't so tough to adjust. We are leaving the heat off now, so it should be fine through the rest of my hatches.

 

[bantiesrule]

so last night there were only two chicks under one hen that had hatched- one on friday and one overnight by sat am, none under the second. I am keeping my fingers crossed the second hen has at least one chick under her, if not I will have to find chicks for her.

Does anyone know if the chicks have to be under a certain age for the mama hen to hopefully accept them?

Alot depends on the cluck hen, in my experience, most clucks will adopt chicks up to a week or two but you will have more problems with the chicks taking to mom. When the chicks get a few days old (and especially if they are under a heat lamp) and haven't had a momma cluck answer their cheeps they tend to start taking care of themselves. Then if you try to put them under a hen they are confused and don't like to listen to her.

My experience only, maybe others will give you a different answer.

 

[Cebarmlds]

All seven eggs have hatched! EE's so sweet

 

[lalaland]

Have you tried Craigslist? I sell a lot of my eggs at work as well. I find ways to justify having more and more chickens! DH is irritated, yet impressed.

I haven't tried craigslist - but I have sold eggs at work but the two people who got them weekly have moved on to other employment. Otherwise, it is a dozen now and then...probably I should just cut back on the flock!


The second broody hen came off the nest today. Has 3 chicks too! left an egg, and heaven knows what happened to the fifth egg, there was no trace. The early chick that hatched Friday all ready has little wing feathers growing.

Have to go out and make larger quarters for Petunia and her flock of three (funny how both hens hatched 3 out of 5 eggs). She is in a wire dog kennel, and is madly scratching around teaching the chicks to eat. Doesn't care if a chick is in the way, either, the chick just gets bowled over. Doesn't seem to bother them. Anyway, have to partition off a bigger space with chicken wire (hate working with that stuff!).

The rooster and most of the flock have been checking out the chicks.

Ok, off to dig out the staple gun to fasten the chicken wire to the walls.

 

[mnbrewdude]

I snapped this photo of one of my Icelandic hens. She's not impressed!