Nevadans?

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
just take the precautions, make sure they know where the shade is.... maybe put their food and water where hte shade will be during the hottest part of the afternoon.. between 2-5 ish.... don't forget that a shaded area in the am wont be a shaded area in the afternoon...
then if you have the misters set up for them, and maybe the ice bottles... they'll be fine.....

on the BR / Marans, BR have yellow legs, Marans have pink w/ a hint of gray
and if you look close when they're not moving (good luck with that) you should see the the BR striped seem to flow... kinda consistant... you can follow a stripe from one feather to the next.. they line up.... the cuckoos are more sporadic.. you'll see the edges of each feather because they don't line up.. if that makes any sense.... that's nothing ot bas breed on, just an observation about pattern... for breed between those 2 go for the legs

Yep, + cuckoos typically aren't super friendly. They aren't flighty (mine were very dignified and moved at a slower pace than any of the others) but they will avoid human contact if possible. Mine also grew much faster than the BRs they were raised with. A large bird. As they get older you can see the difference Evonne is talking about quite clearly. The cuckoos look like a smeared version of the BRs. Like you washed them and the colors ran.

They missed out on a lot of treats though. All my other gals look like clowns rushing as fast as they can to get there first. My marans always got there last since they refuse to resort to such inelegant shenanigans. lol I miss my cuckoos so much. I have a young one but she is a ways away from maturity. She also needs some more cuckoos for friends.

Evonne, sounds like you have some interesting combos there! Can't wait to see pics, especially as they grow up.

Genny, I'm finding that out the hard way with this early laying gal! I'm so worried about her. She does seem to have a hard time of it.

I have oyster shell out for them but it doesn't seem like that is the problem. If anything it seems like she gets strange build ups of calciumon her eggs. I think her early laying is the root of her problems since none of the other birds are having any trouble. BTW, I've found another Catalpa seedling and I've already told DH to leave it be, that we are saving it for you. I even watered it yesterday since it seeded in a strange place and won't get any water where it's at (unless it rains). It's only about 2 & 1/2 inches tall so I would wait until it's at least 6 inches tall before you take it. Besides it will transplant better in early fall than it would now anyway. Or at least wait till it's down into the 80s so the heat doesn't kill it.

 

[Knemeyer]

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Now that I can tell them apart, I know what you're saying SunnyDawn. The Marans are kind of stand-offish and the Barred Rocks are loving the attention. I will remember what you said about treats and make sure the Marans get their fare share. I'm sure I'll be doing that with my Polish and the Sultan.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
Now that I can tell them apart, I know what you're saying SunnyDawn. The Marans are kind of stand-offish and the Barred Rocks are loving the attention. I will remember what you said about treats and make sure the Marans get their fare share. I'm sure I'll be doing that with my Polish and the Sultan.

 

[laceynoelle]

thanks sunny for the info, it hlpd a lot.

Guess what? Mygrandmthers neihbors had someone drop off a large roo with a ton of colors insde thier fence. Its really big, i hea have any of youever ha that hapen?whre someone just drops off chickens? They already had a flock, so it wasnt a big matter, just wierd.

You guys are trippin my marans are really sweet.The wyandottes ar very skittish though.

 

[Bloomie]

Hey Ya'll

Its been a wild ride around here the past few days.
We went fishin' up at Angel Lake and witnessed a stuck rock climber get rescued by Search & Rescue.
What we wernt expectin' was to witness the Rescue helicopter crash........directly in front of us!

No exaggeration, it was falling apart over our heads and crashed in the camp ground, 20-30 ft from a young couples campsite, which was directly in front of where we were standing.

Anyhooooooooooo, I have a chicken question for ya.
I had set 2 eggs under the broody hen on July 2, then another on July 3.....she was on and off the nest continually & stopped setting on the eggs after 2 days ( July 4 )
so we took all the eggs plus 2 more eggs and placed them in the incubator at 10pm July 4th.

Monday morning we placed 2 more eggs in the incubator for a total of 7 eggs. (

go ahead 'n holler at me.)

I'm speculating the hatch day of the 7 eggs in the incubator, havin' candled and compared what I saw to pics on BYC......they all appear to be at the same development stage, Day 16 or 17.....maybe 18

Is it logical for me to conclude the hen wasnt setting on the eggs regular enough to incubate and incubator has worked to develop the eggs within a closer hatch date??? Not sure if I'm asking that question where it makes sense.

Yeah, I know, "speculating" aint the best way to hatch in an incubator,

AND its alright if ya tell me I'm a dingaling fer NOT puttin' ALL the eggs in the incubator at the same time, I realize that contributes to not being able to determine an EXACT hatch date.

What I'm curious about is IF I'm off by one or two days and dont remove the eggs from the automatic egg turner on the correct day, lay them flat & increase the humidity , is that super duper bad for the chicks inside?

 

[Penturner]

Bloomie, Sounds like things have been just a little more exciting for you than it has been around here. I hope everyone came out okay from the rescue.

As for the eggs. Normally a hen lays eggs for several days but does not set on them. Non of them start to develop until she thinks she has enough or whatever it is that triggers her to go broody. then they all start to develop at the same time. This is how a hen gets all her eggs to hatch at the same time.

When our hen is laying we add eggs to the incubator every 7 days. it is not a problem as we leave all eggs in the incubator until they pip. We have found this gives us the best hatch rates so far. I don't think it will harm an egg to continue turning even in the final days.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
I love my marans too! I didn't mean they weren't sweet, I just meant they are more dignified than my other birds, almost aloof. My cuckoos are some of my favorite birds. Actually my BC marans act a lot diferent than my Cuckoos did. Not afraid to make fools of themselves to get to a treat first. They are loud though! My Cuckoos were perfect ladies but these BC marans must be where the analogy of gossiping women being like a group of cackling hens came from.

Seriously, they remind me of a bunch of loud, gossipy, old women!

No I've never had anyone drop birds off over my fence before. I've heard of it happening to folks before though.

Bloomie! That sounds terrifying! Helicopter accidents are the worst (no glide ratio like planes). I don't want to even ask if anyone survived since I know how rare that is.

Next time mark your eggs with the date you set them to keep them straight. Like Penturner said you can collect them for a few days and then set them all together (I use a china marker since it's non-toxic). Just leave them out on the counter. I've heard they can be left for 10 days easily but I would say 7 days is safer. Don't get too carried away with the humidity during lockdown and turning too long is better than not turning the younger ones at all. Good luck with the hatch!

 

[Bloomie]

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Penturner Thank ya for the info.....I thought that I was safe setting all 7 eggs in the incubator , despite the broody having partially setting the 3, but then I got scared I'd really messed-up.

SunnyDawn heres the kink to the newspaper write up on the accident.
http://elkodaily.com/news/local/article_dc31eae2-93cd-11df-998f-001cc4c03286.html
To see all four of the crew emerge from the heap of metal was a joyous moment. The pilot had a head injury and was flown out, yup by helicopter

, to the hospital.
Even the flight for life helicopter was havin' difficulty.......we decided to take cover jus in case it took a dive. Naaaaaaw we wernt freaked

Having been there witnessing the accident we had to shake our heads at the reporting. Funny no one asked us to give a statement about what we saw.
The person thats quoted in the news report was up at the campsite, and had a totally differnt view point......we were under, then along side, the darn helicopter, with no more than 50 feet between us. I was doin' this

and prayin' for everyone.
I find myself

today but yesterday I was a wreck.
We made a run back up to the lake today to return a shirt that our granchickie had borrowed, unbeknownst to us, and found the family was still camping..... actually they were unable to leave because their row boat was roped off as evidence to the crash scene. Anyhooooo, they had gotten a video of the helicopter crash that they're sending to it us so Jaiden can have a visual reminder of her 2010 visit to Papa & Gama's.

Poor kid will never want to go fishin' agin.

Back to chicken yappin'......
Yar, check

, I did mark the dates on the eggs with very light pencil the day they were put under the broody.......then when I moved them all to the incubator I started a notebook, keeping record the day & time I put them in the bator, candling observations, and temp & humidity readings.
I wasnt certain how to determine the hatch date .....from the day they were set under the broody or the day they were set in the incubator.
Penturner has eased my mind about that...... I think.

Since the broody didnt really "set" them I'm going with the day I put them all in the incubator...... 5 eggs on July 4 @ 10:30 pm ........with 2 more the morning of July 5... with candling showing them all to be at the same stage.

Worst guess would be about a day off. But I'm goin' for Thursday as "lockdown day"
Whaycha think? Close? Or do ya think differnt? Please speak up, I'm always listenin'

I been keepin' the humidity around 40%, checkin' the air cell development to determine if less or more humidity is needed.
What would ya recommend the humidity % be during the last 3 days?
You guys are a so patient with me and soooooooooo helpful.
Yer inputs appreciated.

 

[Knemeyer]

Bloomie, your granddaughter definitely can't say she had a boring summer! Her friends are gonna want to come next time after hearing her stories!

 

[SunnyDawn]

Whew!!! So glad to hear they all survived! That is amazing!

Bloomie thursday sounds good. If you are off a day it's not that big a deal. The typical recommended amount of humidity for lockdown is 65%. You will hear a lot of different recommendations though (I've even heard someone say 80% for lockdown but from what I've read this is a great way to drown your chicks just before hatch). If you err, err on the side of too little humidity rather than going over. Too much humidity is the most common cause of hatching problems. Good Luck!

Lacey, how is the sunburn healing up?