NY chicken lover!!!!

[Cass]

ETA: And when I counted the eggs on Friday she only had 9/10 under her. I'm thinking she ate one? I double checked my cartons to make sure I didn't pick it up by mistake.

I have had eggs go missing from under Broodies before. I think they know more than we give them credit for and they eat/abandon those eggs that aren't developing.

I once kept replacing an egg the broody shoved aside under her. (A great big green one, so I knew it was the same one each time) That hen hatched every egg under her EXCEPT that great big green one. Seems she knew. I never candle eggs under a broody....irrates the hen and gives me a headache....but I also never take orders for chicks until they hatch....cuz you know "never count your chickens before they hatch" LOL

 

[Lynzi777]

Just candled over a dozen eggs that my broody Silkie is laying on. 4 were clear so that tells me those were laid recently by the other hen and she laid them where my broody is laying. So I moved her into the other coop with the rest of the bantams and shut the door in my broody to keep anyone from bothering her. I have 3-4 Orp eggs that are all developing and the rest are Silkie eggs that are all developing. She's got about ten under her now.

 

[melbu23]

Melbu23 - Welcome !

The discussion of buy or build often gets heated because those who can sink a nail in the right place (not me) realize how much they save and want the best for their friends .....

However for me - when I had to get a coop fast - the SnapLoc was the one I got and I have had it over a year and LOVE it .


If building - a hoop coop is tough, hardy and the cheapest way I know to go.

Thank you Metella. I am checking them out as we speak. If all goes well I will have at least 6 hens

so I need a good size coop =). How do you keep your water from freezing in it? Homemade or bought water heater? Lots of questions I know....I'll pay it forward when the next person asks =).

 

[ag29ande]

Well Hello there fellow NY Chicken lovers. I am new to this but love reading all this threads.
Being new, I clearly have more questions than answers. Right now, the question I need to decide on is how to build or where to buy a coop. I am not very handy and so buying seems like a lot better option. What are all of you housing your ladies in given the crazy winters we get? Pictures and if bought where would be great.

Welcome to our crazy world!!

Here's our coop, we made it out of old deck boards that were left from the previous owners. First thing I've ever built! It's going on two years old and has stood up to the winter weather! I've since added a rock wall/planter and a run. You're birds won't care if its fancy.

Today's hatch! Orpingtons! So fluffy!!

[

 

[rancher hicks]

I have a Brinsea Octagon 20 and I am starting to hate it. It holds perfect temp and humidity until about the 2-week mark, then the temp starts to go all over the place. When I go into lockdown and add more water the temp drops, but as the water evaporates and the humidity goes down a bit, the temp spikes way up. I just managed to hatch out 6 turkeys in it and it is a wonder the poor little things didn't bake or chill.

The incubator sits on the dining room table in the middle of the house and the room air is pretty stable. The styrofoam incubator does way better at holding the temp. Go figure. When the Brinsea sits empty it holds the temp like a rock, but add eggs and it gets all crazy. Maybe I just got a bad one.

High traffic areas are no good for incubators. You may think the temp is stable but the incubator may not. There are drafts and breezes you may not feel. This is why you should keep your incubator in a room that gets little traffic.

Believe it or not it's not just the temp of the room that fluctuates but also the humidity.

Right now my incubator fluctuates between 100.5 and 100.9. When I take the turner out it will fall to 99.3 or so. The motor of the turner adds to the temp and for me this is frustrating.

When I first started I had it on the pass through to the living room. The living room is warmer that the dinning room. I did not realize that every time someone walked by they were creating an unfelt draft, which contributed to my having trouble maintaining a steady temp.

If you have not done so. Try to keep a steady humidity %age, as well as a steady temp. With as little fluctuation as possible. Try moving the incubator to another room and see if that helps.

I wish you well,

 

[melbu23]

Oh that's cool. I would be very happy with a coop like that. And those chicks are adorable!!! Nice JOB on both accounts!

 

[horsekeeper]

In response to the incubation and candling comments and questions:

I usually start my eggs out at 35% humidity and let it fall to 20%, then add about a tablespoon of water to bump it up to at least 30% and let it fall again. That works for me to get the air cell to a correct size. I candle at 7 days and 14 days and if the air cell looks too big or too small I adjust the humidity to get it right before hatch. I had to keep adding water this time because the air cells were shrinking too fast in the Brinsea and the humidity was down as low as 10%.

Last year was my first year hatching and I was a paranoid new hatcher. Then I watched my broody hens and decided that eggs were pretty tough.

The first hatch this year was a single goose egg I rescued from freezing and a dozen duck eggs I threw in to keep it company. The goose egg quit halfway through, but I hatched out 3 muscovies and 5 pekins. Most of the other eggs were clear or early quitters. I took the top off the incubator for 15 minutes a day to let them cool and sprayed them with water. All but two hatched with no help and the two I assisted were so big they couldn't move. All are doing well.

Also hatched 4 out of 15 shipped eggs and 10 out of 13 mixed LF cochin eggs from my own flock. Yesterday I hatched 6 out of a dozen turkey eggs.

I mention this because the turkey eggs were the first laid by the flock and the poor eggs were so abused. I thought they were goners and only left them in the Brinsea so I could fiddle with the temperature and try to get it to regulate. Those poor eggs were candled every day, they got chilled, overheated, handled like they were dead, and when I decided to check one last time, one of them waved at me and I left them all in to preserve the heat sink and keep the temperature regular. Imagine my surprise when six hatched.

The lesson here? If the egg is a solid dark mass with a decent sized air cell, don't give up. I retreat to my closet during the day with the eggs in a carton and candle with two of those little metal LED flashlights, one at each end. I turn the egg willy-nilly to get a view from every direction so I can be sure what I am seeing. My hens are not very careful with their eggs as far as kicking them all over and rolling them back in, especially when another hen moves in to lay a fresh egg. Some of them are off the nest for quite a while, so I figured I would just pretend to be a mother hen and stop treating them as super fragile. My biggest concern is cooking them if the temp spikes too high.

 

[rancher hicks]

Well Hello there fellow NY Chicken lovers. I am new to this but love reading all this threads.
Being new, I clearly have more questions than answers. Right now, the question I need to decide on is how to build or where to buy a coop. I am not very handy and so buying seems like a lot better option. What are all of you housing your ladies in given the crazy winters we get? Pictures and if bought where would be great.

Welcome to BYC.



I converted a garden shed into two coops. These are some of my hoop coops. You may find some great ideas and plans on the internet. Or check your local library for books on poultry/chickens.

 

[rancher hicks]

I have a computer question. Maybe one of your kids can answer it if you can't.

I've been deleting my spam each time and quite frankly I get a lot of it. 60-70 or more, every time I'm on. If I didn't I have over 200 in a day.

Would it help if I moved it to "trash" instead of deleting it? Would Google get the hint that this stuff is trash and not let it through?

I can't follow every chicken newsletter or stuff like that and I'm really not interested in a Russian Bride. Women who speak English are hard enough for me to understand let alone one who speaks a foreign language.

 

[Metella]

Cass -

Melbu - I just take out a small pan in the morning - black rubber (for horse feed) ... and take out another in the late afternoon. The rubber is great - thick and black - so the black color holds any heat and sun - and I put them upside down on the ground and stomp on them and the ice block comes right out. so I use more than one water pan in the winter.