NY chicken lover!!!!

[Lynzi777]

I was wondering if anyone has water candled in the past and at what day would yield the best results.

I've only water candled when I had eggs I was waiting on to hatch and it was past say day 21. They're so dark at that point and if they're not making any noise it can be difficult to tell if they are still alive. So since there were no pips I placed one in a bowl of water and it wiggled within 5 or so seconds so I took it out and stuck it back under my broody hen at that point. It hatched the next day. But I've never water candled before that point in time.

 

[Pyxis]

My EE hen Chickpea is a brat and has been laying under my broody for two days in a row now. To do that she has to wait until I open the dog crate, in the afternoon, to let the broody out, wait until I'm not around, zip in there and lay before she is noticed by me, and then go back about her business so I don't suspect anything. The extra eggs were pushing the broody past her limit of what she could handle so I had to candle her eggs tonight and pull the ones that were just laid. While doing so I discovered a broken egg, with an embryo in it I don't know if she broke it on accident because she had too many eggs thanks to Chickpea, or if it had died and she went to eat it and forgot? Whatever the case, some of it got on a couple other eggs. I wiped them off as best I could without using water. I had an egg explode under a silkie once and all the other eggs made it so I'm not too worried about them. But still, yuck.

 

[dragonlord483]

Well sad news I list 5 hens and maybe a duck due to fox I'm hoping that Josh might be able to hatch some for ne they got 2 br bantam s a lb Leghorn 2 silky s and possibly rouen duck and ee no evidence of them 2

So Sorry ..I hate foxes ! do your chickens free range or were they in the coop / run ?
Ours are not out unless we are home ...We learned our lesson we lost 2 to a fox ..

They were out free ranging but now if he return I put electric fence around run tapped into horse fence

 

[Nuttyfrom6kids]

Yup....time to eat whats eating your eggs.

Well the little monsters are moved out to the coop with the brats. I have a barrier up and everybody is checking out everybody. Amazing to see how different they are at four weeks apart. The brats look like giants next to the little monsters. I counted at least 8 roos among the brats and thats 7 too many. Also figure that out of the 30 monsters at least half are roos. Looks like my pantry will have quite a few jars of canned chicken! Airing out the brooder so I can fix it up for the silkies to use and get rid of the box. Dust patrol is never ending. Hatching is done once my blues hatch out. It got warm today and the little black flys are out. I hate them. Mosquitoes are worse. Time to go make dinner.

Ta ta for now.

It did get warm today I was out most of the day planted some strawberries, rose bushes, and some pumpkin seeds. Got both the corvettes out of the garage and washed them chickens just sat there and watched. Bugs were out here too both black flys and mosquitoes but they didn't start bugging me until late evening.

 

[melbu23]

If anyone in the buffalo area is willing to sell a barred rock hen (chick) or a white bird and white egg layer (like a white leghorn) I would be very interested. Mine are currently coming up on 2 weeks old and I would like to generally be at the same age for all of them. (Yes ....I know....lots of requests...right? )

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Morning all. Beautiful morning and everyone was demanding out. I let the silkies out to freerange this morning and they are enjoying themselves immensely. The little monsters made it through their first night in the coop and are happy for the extra room. I dont think the brats like sharing their coop and were antzy to get out. A couple of the boys were doing some serious sparing this morning and I had to go over and speak to them. I can only hope to make it to butchering age for these guys. Candled my silkie eggs in the bator and pulled 5 clear. Hopefully the rest go all the way.

County--nice babies!

Melbu--its not hard to can meat. There is a canning thread on here. I just followed the instructions in the Ball Blue Book of canning. I raw pack my meat and add a little broth. Comes out perfect. I did venison cubes with no broth, just raw pack. Dang tasty!

Happy Mothers day to everyone out there!

 

[AQHAchick22]

I thought it was you ?

Did you mention your broodys were driving you nuts? in & out of different nest boxes ?
I just meant to add ..that blood sugar also plays a role
Yes hormones of course do play into their crazinesss  also .
By hand feeding / giving water to my newest broody I have seen her eyes lose that glazed / zombie look . She is famished when I feed her
Yesterday she was setting on 3 eggs . So someone kicked her out to lay in that box ..she returned to the right box this time .( I havent checked today yet LOL )
I have heard of hens that are broody losing weight because they dont eat ..so I make sure they have that nourishment that they are missing by setting 24/7 .

My broodys were and still are playing musical nests. I've given up and I'm just taking the eggs for now until I decide what I want to do.

 

[AQHAchick22]

Well sad news I list 5 hens and maybe a duck due to fox I'm hoping that Josh might be able to hatch some for ne they got 2 br bantam s a lb Leghorn 2 silky s and possibly rouen duck and ee no evidence of them 2

So sorry about your hens. I had a baby fox hanging around this morning. No mom or other babies in sight. This was around 10 am. Needless to say the gun is standing by and the trap is going out.

 

[rancher hicks]

I am interested in canning chicken - just bought a pressure canner for my birthday last year but so far only canned applesauce. I will have to check this out. Intrigued!

There is a "what are you canning now" thread. Lots of help there.

 

[rancher hicks]

Hi everybody! I finally broke down and got some silkies(sorry rancher) I got a beautiful pair of blues. Will post pics after they get a bath!

Rule #6: Never apologize — Its a sign of weakness. - L. J. Gibbs