***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[artsyrobin]

are the chicks healthier? with a dry hatch?

 

[lonnyandrinda]

It was great to see you all! I think if I leave my husband at home with the kids I will be able to visit with you all. I didn't know it but Rinda was right next to me. Next time it would be fun to have your grandgirls! My daughter (with the messy hair and cheeto mess clothes) is 4 and my son is 8. My oldest was at a church event. She's 11. She is the reason we have bantams. Silkies are her obsession.

Rinda, I am SO sorry! I thought that was you but I saw you once and your hair was pulled back this time so I wasn't totally sure. I didn't want to be the stranger who asks someone "hey are you...?" Wish I did. I got to talk to your husband a little before we all left. That's when I had the Ah ha moment and realized it was you. You have beautiful children!

Bring them! My kids would have a lot of fun! We bought only 3 chickens but got a rabbit box and a collapsible crate which will come in handy when I take the next batch of chickens to auction. It will be awhile but oh well. At least my cochin cockerels and Splash Marans cockerels went. It breaks my heart to part with my marans boys since I hatched and raised them but I had to let them go. Oh, and our last auction was when we came home with a lion head bunny and some short hair breed bunny. It increased our chance after our 4 yr old gave Daddy those big brown eyes and batted them a few times.

Haha you know what I thought you were familiar BUT... I see so many faces connected to "chickens" I just always smile and act friendly because I'm SURE I know you! And I have a terrible memory for faces. LOL. The kids actually did REALLY well I thought. I managed to stay for 2 1/2 hours this time. Turned out the reason why Lydia (the 2 year old) was being so snuggly was she didn't feel good- I was up until after midnight with her feverish and pulling at her ear. Thank goodness for tylenol and colloidal silver- she is almost better today. Still a low-grade fever though.

On the porus ones I wait until around day 14 when the egg is really dark from the growing chick. Same with Marans.

X2 Even the porous ones you can tell by around day 10-14.

@Cathiesue there was a SFH trio there that went for $50/head. I thought of you.

Uh... yeah that was my hubby that brought those home...

I had to leave early to take the kids home to bed. Him being at the auction unsupervised is not a good thing. I need to bribe someone to sit next to him and hold his hand down.

But at least he has finally learned to watch for signs of sick ones. He learned that one the (very) hard way when we had to put down everything he exposed by not quarantining.

So that leads to what we spent ALL DAY LONG doing- building a duck pen down by the pond. Because he just had to bid on a quad of Chocolate Muscovy ducks. I am so beat tonight... he came home with way more birds than I had planned, as usual, but luckily we somehow had some empty pens so they can quarantine fairly comfortably. I'm a little worried about some young cockerels I had to put in with some grown roos but I will keep an eye on them tomorrow and separate if necessary.

My 8 year old is ecstatic that daddy bought naked neck chicks!!! We are going to have to keep at least one he has asked for them for such a long time. @TRUE5 your daughter was ogling them as we were holding them. I don't think you saw but I let her pet one.

I was wondering if that person behind me was a BYCer. It was a lady that was also a fan of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. If you are a BYCer, mystery GS cookie fan, then "hello" and next time I will have to formerly introduce myself. Its crazy that I had all of you BYC members around me and I didn't know it! We need a shirt, hat, flag, ringtone, something that way I know that I know you... just not former in person know. Im working on that...
Cathysue, let me know if you get any SFH that you don't need. I will take it off your hands!

Im thinking of having a roo with mine. Even though it will be 6 mos until they start to lay... I just need an unrelated roo. I would have bought a roo and two hens last night but someone snagged them up pretty quick.

But it's ok. Only because I know who did it.

Haha I'm sure Cathy Sue has an extra SFH roo for you.

The lady behind you was Lisa LeRay from Tahlequah and her friends that carpooled with her. She's on FB but I don't thinks she's on here. She has an amazing registered Alpine goat flock and I want some from her so bad. As soon as the old house sells we will have a little more wiggle room for fun stuff like that.... She has some of my Cream Legbar line and just took home a young trio of blue Isbars.

Means I don't put any water in the incubator until lockdown. Now sometimes if I feel the air cells have not grown enough I add water or a few weeks ago I had a reading of 11% humidity so I added some water. But then the wells went dry it stayed around 16% then at lockdown I added water until the humidity was up. In my brinsea, I usually have humidity around 65. In Grace's sportsman, I have recently learned that I need humidity about 75. (for lockdown)

I think hatching depends A LOT on your individual incubator. It takes some trial and error to find what works best. The very best way to know how things are going is to watch the air cells. You want 1/3 of the egg to be air space by hatch day or you will lose chicks to drowning.

I find my sportsman is much more sensitive to having the door opened than my little white styrofoam one. If I have to open the door for any reason the day of the hatch I have to open it again that evening to check and assist any chicks that got "glued" in their shell from the humidity swing. I have finally learned to leave the door SHUT until the day after the hatch. I want SO BAD to get the clear door that can go on my sportsman so I can still SEE... maybe next year!

 

[shelbydog]

@lonnyandrinda. Ooh....you guys got Tasha's trio....I love the blue based hen in that trio. I wanted a drake out of one of the groups but I couldn't get them to hear me ask if they would allow buyer's choice. I will hopefully have some scovy ducklings soon if you want some for the kids.
Are the NN chicks all the same color?

@TRUE5 did you get Tasha's blue Cochin hen that has a bronze/gold-ish hue? If yes, I thought she was very pretty. Congrats on the eye candy. I thought about bidding on her.

I got home from the auction a little before 4. I got a Toulouse goose and a scovy hen (I feel sorry for adding her to the yard today since the drakes are in mating frenzy mode). Had to get the chicks and ducklings Poco Pollo brought for me settled in. Got to sleep about an hour and then feed everyone before going to work. But I had a great time at the auction. I used to go to auctions with my ex and didn't enjoy them quite like I do now. What a difference being in good company makes.

I've got 6 orloffs, 3 olive eggers, 1 English orp, 2 legbars, and 4 le flèche in one brooder box that were hatched within last 7 days. I've got 5 new hamp reds and 3 welsummers in another brooder box that were hatched in late January. And have 6 black east indie bantam ducklings that hatched this past week in their own brooder box.

 

[Kyzmette]

Rinda... so you're saying your hubby is as bad as the rest of us?!

It was a nice looking trio.

 

[cathiesue]

I would have been in trouble big time if I had gone to the auction! @lonnyandrina did you get your flowers from Tasha? She sold me my first trio. Really nice folks. @true5 as soon as I know what I've got I will save a roo for you. It is windy out there right now. I was going to play musical pens today but maybe it will get warmer later.

 

[muesky]

Wish I could have gone to an auction but was really tired from lack of sleep that I just rested and puttered around the house. Going to spend the day with my DD today so that will be nice. Hope everyone who got chickens at the auction have a good time with them. It is going to be a beautiful day!

 

[lonnyandrinda]

@lonnyandrinda . Ooh....you guys got Tasha's trio....I love the blue based hen in that trio. I wanted a drake out of one of the groups but I couldn't get them to hear me ask if they would allow buyer's choice. I will hopefully have some scovy ducklings soon if you want some for the kids.
Are the NN chicks all the same color?

The NNs are yellow/reddish fuzz and black. Most have bow-ties and hats.

I would have been in trouble big time if I had gone to the auction! @lonnyandrina did you get your flowers from Tasha? She sold me my first trio. Really nice folks. @true5 as soon as I know what I've got I will save a roo for you. It is windy out there right now. I was going to play musical pens today but maybe it will get warmer later.

Yes it was the trio from Tasha. They are the first birds from her that I have gotten but they are very nice.

 

[artsyrobin]

had to share a few pics... Mj's Obrian is pure eye candy





my only serama roo Boaz, always a busy body





this is eliza, giving her wry neck vitamins, tumeric and asprin, yesterday she is starting to turn her head to the left, hadn't been able to do that for awhile






and, if anyone needs duck eggs i crawl under the porch once a week and collect their stash

 

[NanaKat]

Wow...sounds like you all had a fun time at the auction and scored some nice birds! Coweta was just too far a drive for us so we spent the day working around the farm.
I was able to clean up in the garden and get some beds ready for cold crop seedlings and onions. Have more to do today but it is still a little cold this morning. Roger and his brother worked on a neighbors hay spike...it was nice enough for them to do a little welding on it. We had two calves born..one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Both are doing great. Sure like having the low birth weight Angus bulls.

Today, I need to pluck the fluffy bums on the Cochin and Wyandotte to improve fertility. I need to build another outside coop for another breeding pen, set out some onion, cabbage and collard plants. Then sow some rows of spinach, lettuce, beets, turnips and Sugar Snap peas. The boys just left with 12 calves to take to market so I have the place all to myself...which project do I start first...think I'll have another cup of coffee and go watch the baby chicks....lol.

Kyzmette, PM me your address. I cleaned out some of the iris yesterday and have some tubers to send you. I can get them to you faster if I mail them. Do you want a few daylilies too?

 

[Kassaundra]

NanaK, I am setting up beds too. I am finally trying a simple hugelkulture set up this year. And I'm even thinking about trying some potatoes again, we'll see if I actually get around to that. lol