***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[Kassaundra]

Hi to all my fellow Okies on BYC! I haven't been on here in a while. I've been busy getting the new house put together and getting the garden and flower beds ready for Spring. I have a hen that has sounded "croupy" for several weeks now. I have put antibiotics in their water, that didn't help. I tried coffee, (read that it was a bronchodilator), that didn't work. As far as I know, none of the others are experiencing this. I'd like to mark her with food coloring so that I can make sure she is the only one. Anyone tried that, or have other ideas? They are all laying, eating, and acting normally.

Food coloring would work if she is light colored, I would stick w/ blue or green. I would make a leg band out of duct tape, easier to remove don't have to wait until the next molt.

 

[kimberlischicks]

Food coloring would work if she is light colored, I would stick w/ blue or green. I would make a leg band out of duct tape, easier to remove don't have to wait until the next molt.

Thanks, that's a great idea!

 

[Kyzmette]

I just came in from my chicken chores and I have 24 chicks from the 51 eggs I put in the incubator, (38 making it to the hatcher). - not my best hatch rate

I got 9 chicks from the 23 eggs (1 cracked) from the Cowetta Auction's Orpington breeder's grow out pens. There were 9 white eggs and 14 lt. brown eggs - like Orpington eggs to begin with and at the end 6 from the white eggs and 3 from the lt. brown. Two eggs were rotten and 2 didn't develop and the rest quit at some point. I will sell the chicks from the white eggs and keep the 3 from the lt. brown eggs to raise and see if they turn out to be Orpingtons. One of them is brown like the 2 chicks that hatched that I know are pure Chocolate Orpington.
 - Does this all make sence? -
That is my part of the saga of the eggs from Cowetta - "As the Egg Tray Turns"

Out of all those eggs I got ten chicks. I had about half a dozen rotten eggs, and a lot of the eggs had bacterial growth inside. Of the chicks that hatched, a couple have foot deformities. And note that most of the eggs that hatched were fully incubated in the brinsea, so no temp fluctuations. The hatches mostly look like orpingtons but who can tell, right?

None of the white egggs I got hatched, and I was really looking forward to seeing what those ended up being. What do yours look like?

This is what I got. Most of them are black.

 

[Kyzmette]

Kass, I've been wanting to try winemaking for ages, and should have peaches and pears to use this year. What would you suggest as tools and supplies to begin with?

 

[mjgigax]

Out of all those eggs I got ten chicks. I had about half a dozen rotten eggs, and a lot of the eggs had bacterial growth inside. Of the chicks that hatched, a couple have foot deformities. And note that most of the eggs that hatched were fully incubated in the brinsea, so no temp fluctuations. The hatches mostly look like orpingtons but who can tell, right?

None of the white egggs I got hatched, and I was really looking forward to seeing what those ended up being. What do yours look like?

This is what I got. Most of them are black.

Out of the white eggs I got 2 yellow chicks, big chicks, 1 chipmunk and 3 black chicks.

Out of the lt. brown eggs I got 1 black, one blue and one brown. I will raise those 3 to see if any are Orpingtons.

 

[ashtree]

This happened:

It was our only duck egg to hatch. And it's a boy!!!! So happy! He's going to be super loved.

 

[Kassaundra]

Kass, I've been wanting to try winemaking for ages, and should have peaches and pears to use this year. What would you suggest as tools and supplies to begin with?

I am pretty low tech, I use these cool (cheap) containers from wally world for fermenting and racking. They are only $7 each hold 2.5 gallons and have a big screw cap for adding pulp and big stuff and a small spigot end for bottling and for the water lock. I tried the commercial locks and hated them so now I just use a balloon w/ a couple of pin pricks. The container is square for easy storing.







And I bottle in quart canning jars. (Gary calls it my moonshine) I put the balloon where the spigot is, then when fermenting is complete and I am racking I put the spigot back, just remember to "burp" every few days.

 

[Kassaundra]

Thanks Coral, it is a combo of me being to frugal to spend willy nilly on all kinds of stuff, no storage space for tons of stuff, and tired of waiting to start until I had all the stuff the wine makers kept saying was "ness" Wine making threads / sites can get pretty "snooty" lol lol lol (like some not to be named chicken breed threads!!! lol lol lol)

 

[Kassaundra]

Oh and the chocolate wine in the first picture, not one drop made it to the bottle!!!!!! Quality control did a number on it!!!!! lol

 

[ashtree]

I had a cancellation on the brinsea Eco 20 incubator (without turner). It's about 3 months old and comes with a brinsea spotcheck thermometer. PM me if you're interested. I *might*be willing to do a partial trade for a Brinsea Mini if anyone is interested.