NY chicken lover!!!!

[Lynzi777]

Glad your order came in Pyxis!!!! Hope you can get some pics of that gosling to share before it grows up! ;-) Do goslings grow as fast as ducklings??

 

[PhoredaBurds]

Ideal did indeed ship my poultry! All arrived today and everyone made it except one polish chick. Another was on the brink of going but I saved it and it was running around the brooder when I left. The gosling is so sweet and cute and already talks to me when I pick her up. It's so adorable, she already stretches her neck out to talk like a big goose. And she'll be the biggest goose I own; bigger than Lacie and the sebastopols, whose eggs I also recieved today, all in good shape. Goslings truly are the cutest, sweetest babies I think. This will be my first time doing goose eggs so wish me luck. I still don't know whether to incubate them vertically or horizontally so if anyone has any advice that would be great. I'm also really happy because I ordered a mystery crested chick and what I recieved is, I believe, a sultan. I hope it's a pullet!

Also some sad news - I found Thistle's daughter, Plum, dead in the coop today. Not a mark on her. She was halfway hidden under the nesting boxes just splayed out on the floor with her feet behind her. I really have no idea what happened there. She was only three, so it wasn't old age or anything, and she was high up on the pecking order and nice and fat, so it isn't likely she was bullied away from food or something else. In fact, she was running around just fine yesterday. I wonder if the sudden drop of temperature overnight got her, but I don't even really think it would be that because she was a very fluffy, very feathery hen. She even had 'leg warmers' - nice feathered legs.

Baking I'll text you about the order. There may be some things I'd like

Ugh I'm jealous: a gosling, sebbie eggs, and a bunch of baby chicks. I've been trying my best to resist adding more geese, but certainly itching for more.

I don't have experience with incubating goose eggs, but have read that goose eggs require higher humidity. A method used is to open the bator daily and spritz them w water & close up quickly. The slight cooling and dampness is to simulate the mama goose going off to the pond & coming back to her nest with damp feathers. Positioning I would think same as chickens, fat side up? Perhaps someone w experience could weigh in?

Sorry to hear about your chicken, Plum. Sounds like she had a happy life even tho it wasn't real long.

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

What is that old wives tale about sexing chicks by laying them on their back.. Is it if they lay still it is a pullet and if they struggle it is a cockerel? We were playing with the ducks and the cochin chicks last night and I realized that one was chill on it's back. It is the smaller of the 2 and the other bigger one freaks out on it's back. I already told the kids that if any were roosters that we would be getting them new homes. I already have 2 roo's we don't need any more. Problem now is that DS is very attached to the chicks. He says that the ducks are Mommy and Sissy's and that the chicks are his. He is only 3 I hate to break his little heart.

I am going to down size the flock that I have. I have decided that I'm going to rehome 4 of my red sexlinks and a black copper maran. If any one s interested let me know. The reds will be a year old on March 28th and the maran will be 2 this summer.

Holly Cow! I was typing and one of my dogs was in the window going nuts. I went to look at what he was barking at. Usually it is a deer in the woods across the street. not today it was the fox. It is back. I went running to see where my girls were. I had let them out a few hours ago to free range in the driveway. I wanted to go find them and took the BB gun with me, not like it would have done much. Well all the girls were in their run. What a relief. I closed the gate and said a prayer. I guess that it is time to get that gun we have been talking about.

 

[rancher hicks]

I hatched him last summer from 2 I had. I hatched out a couple of birchens from my black coppers. They are from Bev Davis. Greenfire got theirs from Bev as well, from black coppers. I always help out a chick if its started to pip the shell. There are a lot of reasons that they get stuck, so why not? If I remember, I'll try to take a pic, he is a beauty, not quite as silvery as yours, but a great body and came from a very dark egg.

So it's finished I think.

One Del and two Marans didn't hatch. The two marans I helped seem to be okay and the incu is crowded. I still think it's a genetic thing. 27 of 30 eggs. So this is the best I've had. Alot of pretty chicks for sure.

I'll most likely replace some older birds with the hens from these. I will say for being two my marans are giving me lots of eggs.

I did lose a Del hens the other day for an unknown reason. She was fine but when I went in to collect eggs in the evening there she was. I really should do a head count in the morning.

Well lots of work to do.

TTFN,

Rancher

 

[Metella]

Fox has circled my hoop coop two nights in a row - saw him once ... fresher tracks AFTER I had done the crazy lady yell and chased him away.

They must be nearly starved right now ....

 

[Pyxis]

Glad your order came in Pyxis!!!! Hope you can get some pics of that gosling to share before it grows up! ;-) Do goslings grow as fast as ducklings??

Faster! Goodness, with Lacie I went on vacation when she was a week old and left her with my grandparents to babysit. I came back a week later and she had doubled in size!

 

[marquisella]

Quote: Crack open the unhatched eggs, where the air cell is. Find out why they didn't hatch.

 

[marquisella]

Ideal did indeed ship my poultry! All arrived today and everyone made it except one polish chick. Another was on the brink of going but I saved it and it was running around the brooder when I left. The gosling is so sweet and cute and already talks to me when I pick her up. It's so adorable, she already stretches her neck out to talk like a big goose. And she'll be the biggest goose I own; bigger than Lacie and the sebastopols, whose eggs I also recieved today, all in good shape. Goslings truly are the cutest, sweetest babies I think. This will be my first time doing goose eggs so wish me luck. I still don't know whether to incubate them vertically or horizontally so if anyone has any advice that would be great. I'm also really happy because I ordered a mystery crested chick and what I recieved is, I believe, a sultan. I hope it's a pullet!

Also some sad news - I found Thistle's daughter, Plum, dead in the coop today. Not a mark on her. She was halfway hidden under the nesting boxes just splayed out on the floor with her feet behind her. I really have no idea what happened there. She was only three, so it wasn't old age or anything, and she was high up on the pecking order and nice and fat, so it isn't likely she was bullied away from food or something else. In fact, she was running around just fine yesterday. I wonder if the sudden drop of temperature overnight got her, but I don't even really think it would be that because she was a very fluffy, very feathery hen. She even had 'leg warmers' - nice feathered legs.

Baking I'll text you about the order. There may be some things I'd like

You have Sebis? Where did the eggs come from? I have 5 and only 1 is laying. I have 3 in the incubator, and 1 waiting a few more days. I don't know if they are fertile yet.They say to lay on side & turn 5 times a day...around day 10, take out for half hour each day too cool and mist. Don't raise the humidity more than normal. Hatcheries usually add boys as the mystery extras. Good luck with the eggs.

 

[rancher hicks]

Crack open the unhatched eggs, where the air cell is. Find out why they didn't hatch.

The one chick that started to hatch was malpresented I think. His head was not where it should have been. The egg that never started had a fully formed chick but not much of an air space at all.

The Del egg that did not hatch had a huge air space. I did not crack that one open as it might have been to undeveloped.

 

[rancher hicks]

Fox has circled my hoop coop two nights in a row - saw him once ... fresher tracks AFTER I had done the crazy lady yell and chased him away.

They must be nearly starved right now ....

Please you must deal with that fox. A permanent solution would be best. Though I suspect more will move into the area.