November/December "Hatch-a-Long"

[DeannaA]

DeannaA - that vid is adorable!!! I can't figure out how to get mine up...will try later.
How do you get away with letting a turkey sleep in bed with you? Matt's pretty tolerant of my weirdness but he would never let me try that one....

P.S. I think it's awesome tho.

Oh and what is your Grey's name? Mine is Nadirah aka Na-Na. She'll be 3 in January.

I am not married. I can do what ever I want. I prefer a turkey in my bed, less hassel and easier to clean up after.

My Grey is Baby. She will be 9 years old in Jan. Wow, I didn't realize I had her that long. She is wonderful. Sings, dances, talks, laughs at my jokes, tells me I'm beautiful. Love that bird.

 

[19home]

I am not married. I can do what ever I want. I prefer a turkey in my bed, less hassel and easier to clean up after.

My Grey is Baby. She will be 9 years old in Jan. Wow, I didn't realize I had her that long. She is wonderful. Sings, dances, talks, laughs at my jokes, tells me I'm beautiful. Love that bird.

wow shes pretty.

 

[Varglet]

Woke up around 4am to a chick yelling. Went to see what the fuss was about, but it wasn't coming from the brooder. This little one hatched sometime last night.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Who hatches shipped eggs upright in egg cartons? Please give your experience with this and also if you have hatched homegrown eggs this way.

 

[Heidisgran]

Woke up around 4am to a chick yelling. Went to see what the fuss was about, but it wasn't coming from the brooder. This little one hatched sometime last night.

 

[sjshaw1980]

Quote:
LMAO!!! Ours won't dance but she already 'gurges (on me only, so I guess she plays for the other team?

) and has quite a vocabulary, but can be quite demanding...if she doesn't get what she wants she starts cursing..."Bu11sh1t!" is one of her favorites "beeeeeerrrrrrrr!" is another...she also demands a shower every morning and asks for coffee as well. But she does say "Helloooo" whenever someone walks in the front door which endears her to most visitors, and yells at the dogs which confuses the hell out of them so we laugh. We love our Na-Na for the most part.....occasionally want to strangle her, but generally we just stuff a grape in her mouth and that keeps her quiet for at least 5 minutes.

 

[faerieannette]

So lock down was thanksgiving. The sponges i put in there dried up pretty quickly and he humidity dropped to 20% so I put in a container of water and three sponges yesterday got the humidity up to 80% its (75% today ) But the temp is sill only 97 on one thermoter and 99 on the other today So i am concerned that was too cold yesterday? :-( that with teh humidity drop are the chicks going to be okay? I am stressing
out here.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I don't know what kind of incubator you have I dry hatch and they come out looking like this

so don't worry.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Chicken math...Actually, *7* not *4*.

I always think it through to the end of the road...with everything that can go wrong (infertiles, quitters, non-pip/zippers, failure to thrive, etc.) it's like some bizarre kind of insurance. AND I'm willing to raise ALL of them if I should be so lucky. I have orders for Marans pullets as soon as I can identify them as layers, so I have to hatch them if they are going to get to the saleable stage. The extra cockerels are meat and if there's ever too much of that people will always buy or barter OG chicken. Depending on how the shipped eggs hatch, I won't need to set again until spring. I have rationalized my decisions like a champ.

how much do you plan to sell marans pullets for? just curious, I will also be selling my extras but closer to the 12-ish week range. I don't think I will have excess marans pullets (I think there's just 2), but I WILL have lots of extra Welsummers.
My eggs are going in today; 15 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and 9 Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas (see how I spelled it right and everything!!

)
The English Lavender Orpingtons seller fell through. Ugh. She was in Oregon and everything. =\ when people flake, and it's through the internet, I somehow lose trust to go back to them again.

2 of the BLRWs had detached air cells upon arrival. I am thinking that I will go ahead and treat them ALL the same (detached); no turning for the first 48hrs of set, and hand turning after that. Candling inside the incubator until day 15 as to not disturb the re-attaching membrane. I figure they were all in the same shipment, it's possible they have damage I can't identify. I didn't want to roll them all around when I candled, in case they were detached. I think I am just going to treat them all as detached to be safe... What do you all think?

Quote: I feel the same way! And I still eat 2 eggs for breakfast everyday lol. My husband is either sick of or grossed out by eggs at this point. I just think they are amazing.

I think I set 47 shipped eggs last time, and ended up with 21.. 15 of those didn't make it to lockdown.. as they are getting bigger, 21 is a LOT of chicks! I try to hold them each day, but I can't really get to each one! I want them to be hand raised and human comfortable no matter who they end up with. Still, I can't wait for them to get feathers and move outside hehe. I have a 2nd brooder for the next set of chicks, but I also need to construct a brooder expansion for these 2 week olds...

 

[Farmer Viola]

So lock down was thanksgiving. The sponges i put in there dried up pretty quickly and he humidity dropped to 20% so I put in a container of water and three sponges yesterday got the humidity up to 80% its (75% today ) But the temp is sill only 97 on one thermoter and 99 on the other today So i am concerned that was too cold yesterday? :-( that with teh humidity drop are the chicks going to be okay? I am stressing
out here.

I would be concerned about the humidity drop, the temperature drop can probably be overcome. it's natural for there to be some temperature fluctuation in nature when the mother hen gets up off her nest. my broody even got off the eggs twice daily during what would have been "lockdown" for 20 minutes at a time..

BUT with the humidity drop, you risk the chicks membrane drying out. Keep the humidity up, the temp will go down a little when you increase the humidity, do not adjust the knob just give it time and it will re-adjust (don't open it or the process starts over). I use sponges too, and I do have to re-wet them once a day during LD. When is day 21? tomorrow?

edit: also my lockdown humidity is bout 65% not 80%. this might change depending on your humidity the first 18 days of hatch. I keep mine at about 40-45% the first 18 days, and LD is at 65%. hope this helps