NY chicken lover!!!!

[vmdanielsen]

I never put it in anymore until June 1st. Got burned (ok frosted) too many years.

I like to have it in Memorial day weekend. But Memorial day isn't until next Friday.

 

[JLaw]

Rather than posting a lot here would ya'll mind checking out my thread about anchoring down my next chicken coop. It will be a 4x8 coop. Here is link

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/785702/anchoring-a-coop-down

 

[brahmapapa]

Well I went out and bought it. Got it plugged in when we got home. Right now it's at a steady 100 degrees. (the thermometer it came with and the one I bought) I'll leave it plugged in thru the night and see where it's at in the morning before I set eggs. Right now I have 5 - 4 silkie eggs and one from my orps, which I highly doubt is fertile. They haven't been near my silkie roo in a couple of weeks now. I'm hoping to get one more egg from one of the silkie hens and place them all in there in the morning. Now a couple of questions, Can I add more to the mix in the next few days and just keep in mind that those will obviously hatch a day later for each additional day I add to the incubator? I have to open it to turn the eggs anyway and figured while I do that I could add another. Also, I've seen people place eggs in incubators but in egg cartons (the bottom half). Should I do that or should I just lay them on their sides on the screen?

you are much better off to incubate all your eggs at the same time, same starting date etc. When you go into lockdown on day 18 you have to stop turning the eggs and keep the incubator humidity high. If you have to open it to turn eggs that aren't into lockdown yet you will screw up the humidity on those that are ready to hatch. in regards to using egg cartons to hold eggs in bator, thats fine, it can make turning eggs easy, hold one end of the carton elevated with a wedge, and when you want to turn them move the wedge to the other end of the egg carton. continue moving wedge from end to end each time you turn them. If you don't use egg cartons, consider spreading a terrycloth wash cloth on the screen then but the eggs on it on thier side on it, it helps to keep them from rolling around .I for one have always gotten better hatch results from eggs incubated on thier side.

 

[Gramma Chick]

Quote: Welcome to the thread ...May you have many chicks !

 

[Gramma Chick]

Quote: So sorry to hear of lost Babies . Can you only let them free range when you are home ? And keep them penned when you are not home ..Or were you both home ?
Much safer for them . Even a little free ranging is better than none at all

 

[JLaw]

Our neighbors have been a bit on edge recently since their house was broken into a couple months ago. I try to forewarn them if we'll be shooting. The coop is also very visible from the road, so I hate to be walking around with a .22. lol Police would probably show up quickly.

Learn your laws as best you can for carrying and shooting stuff. I tend to google a lot about questions and ones I see people posting here about shooting stuff. The dec website for ny is pretty good there are also numbers you can call to find out the True laws about what you want to do. Depending on your location walking with a .22 shouldn't be a problem keep unloaded and a full mag ready to insert into it for killing an animal. Yes you can advise your neighbor your on look out for critters so they don't jump the gun and shoot back. What some people don't know is there maybe a nuisance officer close by to you to hunt game for a fee or you can get nuisance tags to kill yourself on some protected animals. All depending on time of year and such though. I don't know if people have seen the facebook link where someone was carrying a gun in a city and someone called police. This video is in main so laws will be different but this is someone knowing the law which I think they did it just to get attention. But just an example of knowing your laws to protect your rights. Now make sure you get your laws from a legal and legitimate source not some random blog. Here is the video.


By no way am I trying to say start stuff with police or anyone in your neighbor hood. I just want people to look stuff up before assuming they cant do something. The laws are there to protect you and the police and others.
Personally my neighbors are glad when we come over in middle of night with loaded guns. we are in middle of no where so we watch each other but we announce that we are there before going over. Last case neighbor was takeing trash out my kitchen window reflected light back like someone was in his field I went to get shoes wife said its from his garage area I told her grab gun and two shells. I yelled across road on my way over when I got to end of my drive he yelled back and we talked at end of his drive both with loaded guns my 12 gage his hand gun.

 

[Tab's chicken obsession]

Glass--Hope you had a nice day yesterday.

I cleaned house most of the morning, which took my girls minutes to trash. I didn't really feel like hanging out in the cold rain yesterday. Hoping the sun shows its face today. Going to rotate my horses into the small pasture for the day to give them more to munch. Tonight I'm going to have to cover my garden. I planted quite a bit of greens ( collards, chard, arugala, lettuce), beans, zucchini, parsnips, beats, radishes, brussel sprouts, broccoli, tomatoes, and peppers. Along my house I have buttercup squash and rouge v'temp pumpkin. I still haven't planted my butternut sauash and jack o lantern pumpkin yet. The only thing that didn't come up which didn't surprise me was the carrots because it was really old seed. I just plan on filling the space with something else. This is the first year I have ever planted this early, but I was working with the time I had. I've always waited until after memorial day.

 

[featherz]

My baby has two moms!! That sounds like an afterschool special, doesn't it? Well I had my one little surprise chick that hatched in the coop the other day and two of the broodies have taken the poor thing on. I'll have chicks hatching next weekend to keep it company but for right now it just has two mommies.

Bad cell photo - didn't have a chick feeder set up yet so until I put that out today just putting a dish of chick food out. Hey kid, the food is riiiight here..! See? Yummy!

 

[marquisella]

Quote: Another reason not to add eggs is the hatching chicks will poop all over everything. You will have a mess with the unhatched eggs. If you lay them on their sides, the chicks will move the unhatched eggs around. I personally use the egg cartons for hatching.

I use the shelf liner that is like rubber with holes & put it on top of the wire. Then I put paper towels on top of that. The holes allow for circulation of air, and the paper towels keep the incubator cleaner. I used to just leave the rubber liner on it so the chicks could grip the floor better but then it would get "poopy" & it was hard to wash. The paper towel keeps it cleaner. Both together, make cleaning the incubator very easy. Imagine, 3 days of chicks, pooping all over the incubator, and the chick dander is also a mess to clean off the bottom of the incubator. Does your incubator have a plastic tray on the bottom?

 

[Lynzi777]

Another reason not to add eggs is the hatching chicks will poop all over everything. You will have a mess with the unhatched eggs. If you lay them on their sides, the chicks will move the unhatched eggs around. I personally use the egg cartons for hatching.

I use the shelf liner that is like rubber with holes & put it on top of the wire. Then I put paper towels on top of that. The holes allow for circulation of air, and the paper towels keep the incubator cleaner. I used to just leave the rubber liner on it so the chicks could grip the floor better but then it would get "poopy" & it was hard to wash. The paper towel keeps it cleaner. Both together, make cleaning the incubator very easy. Imagine, 3 days of chicks, pooping all over the incubator, and the chick dander is also a mess to clean off the bottom of the incubator. Does your incubator have a plastic tray on the bottom?

Didn't even think about the mess, I'll have to lay some stuff down before placing them in there. Which I'm going to do very shortly. Thanks!

you are much better off to incubate all your eggs at the same time, same starting date etc. When you go into lockdown on day 18 you have to stop turning the eggs and keep the incubator humidity high. If you have to open it to turn eggs that aren't into lockdown yet you will screw up the humidity on those that are ready to hatch. in regards to using egg cartons to hold eggs in bator, thats fine, it can make turning eggs easy, hold one end of the carton elevated with a wedge, and when you want to turn them move the wedge to the other end of the egg carton. continue moving wedge from end to end each time you turn them. If you don't use egg cartons, consider spreading a terrycloth wash cloth on the screen then but the eggs on it on thier side on it, it helps to keep them from rolling around .I for one have always gotten better hatch results from eggs incubated on thier side.

I didn't even think of that, Thanks!! I think I'll stick with my 6 that are in there and leave it at that.

Featherz - Great photo!!