***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[Ksane]

Kass, OMG that's hilarious the way they're sleeping lol!
Bill, you have automatic dibs on ANYthing I'm not keeping from now on. I'm the opposite of a hoarder. I'll all of a sudden go through things and get rid of 75% of it just cuz I want it out of the way.
Christina, that SUCKS only 2 were fertile! It's sure not for lack of trying on his part. Sometimes he gets the wrong end though, sheesh. I've got the turkeys sold I think, she's supposed to take them tomorrow so we'll see for sure then.

 

[jcatblum]

Mitzi I Hope that the turkeys go to a great new home. I kept saying I was getting rid of oldest DD peafowl.... Been saying it for wks. Now when I think about it I know we will all miss them. The peacock is very entertaining. He gets excited & hops around in his pen & then of course we all enjoy watching him display! My peahen is boring though She doesn't talk to us, she never wants to see me, the peacock is by far my favorite! Much more personality! Plus my girls LOVED making hairbows & earrings out of the peacock tail feathers. Come July we will have our feather supply replenished if I hold onto him!

 

[Elwood Lightfoot]

Elwood Lightfoot- how about improving the air flow, your humidity was defiantly high enough! Could you drill a few holes in the sides & make covers to open & close the vent holes -like the way gqf cabinets are set up????
Hope everyone had a great weekend.

I think my problem is too much air flow inside the cabinet, I had two fans and disconnected one cause it made a cool zone on one shelf the other I kept to keep air stirred so it wasn't warmer at the top than the bottom but I think it is causing the membrane to dry out sticking the chick inside the egg so I've disconnected it now also, the air will still be moved around some as the fans in the top part move heated air down, I'll find out next hatch if that works which should be just over 3 weeks I already have the next group of eggs ready as soon as I clean it out,

Bill, you have automatic dibs on ANYthing I'm not keeping from now on. I'm the opposite of a hoarder. I'll all of a sudden go through things and get rid of 75% of it just cuz I want it out of the way.

Well, Ummm.. I'm not a Hoarder... I'm a Collector, with low standards and indiscriminate tastes...

I have 35 chicks in a brooder now that are just fine and 45 more still in the bator that I helped out of their shells some are surely not going to make it but it looks like I might have saved a bunch from being stuck for too long those I'll move to the brooder tomorrow after they have dried out and cull the ones that were stuck too long... Hope it turns out to be a small number

 

[jcatblum]

Elwood I understand now! Too much forcefull air causing bird to dry to fast. How about get to work on that hatcher then you dont have to alter you incubator? I am sure you can get it done in the next 3 wks. Are you finished moving all the flooring now?
We LOVE using a separate hatcher. Hardest part is keeping the eggs straight by the dates. No it shouldn't be challenging, but with DD in charge of the incubator sometimes her way of doing things is far from simple. She tries to explain her methods & I just nod.

 

[Oceanseve]

maybe just put her in a hen pen? have a friend who raises silkies and has a bachlorette pen.. the other option, don't laugh, duck tape her neck?


hmmmm... post pics, wonder if there is a way to trim it so he can adjust? if not, i can always work with it...

lost one of my serama hens tonite, my little white frizzle passed in my hands- not sure really what happened- and i don't know what her age was, she began breathing hard and went into convusions, its been very warm here, and they were on the porch in their cage, and the guineas were racing up and down - could that could have stressed her??

Galahad is beautiful, sorry about your hen

Elwood Lightfoot- how about improving the air flow, your humidity was defiantly high enough! Could you drill a few holes in the sides & make covers to open & close the vent holes -like the way gqf cabinets are set up????
Okie ridge -- candled guinea eggs & took out 3 more that aren't fertile. The rest will begin hatching this weekend!
Ksane- hate to report only 2 fertile turkey eggs, but the end result could be a nice pair of birds right? The eggs that were dated the same only 1 was fertile. The same day the turkey eggs were sat I also put a peahen egg, and it is forming. Could be an exciting hatch!!!
Spent the morning butchering 20 Roos. Thankfully DH Was home & he helped. He was just excited to scald birds & use the plucker. DH says another 30 or 40 birds & we might master the scalder & plucker. In the past dh has never participated in processing, but I only have done 4-5 birds at a time. My poor nephew watched process one& he was doing ok. After 2 he decided it was gross & he said he hoped his mom came before lunch since he didn't want to eat chicken! All the birds I did today I hatched in October. They were NN, EE, & RIR Roos. The NN were in a different ball park!!!! Much bigger carcass, I will stick to NN in the future I think. EE seem to have more feathers, that are thicker. Once the birds were done I brush hogged & mowed the yard. Grass was about 2 ft high were we had not yet mowed this yr, so the brush hog was a necessity!
Hope everyone had a great weekend.

lol I ordered a book a couple of weeks ago (turned out to be not what I was looking for, but oh well) the later half has butchering step by step w/ color pics. I warned my 5 year old when she picked it up that it had someone killing and gutting a chicken. When she finally found that section she seemed pretty distressed about it. She was asking me questions then I would respond and she would just sit there quietly staring at the book. I warned her, she'll be seeing it in person next year so I'm glad she's taking it better than I thought.

Well, Ummm.. I'm not a Hoarder... I'm a Collector, with low standards and indiscriminate tastes...

Went to Atwoods yesterday, left with guinea keets

I think I need to order online since no bycers have any right now, cause $5.19 a keet is ridiculous. I thought it was 3.19, sign was in the wrong spot, d'oh.

 

[BBAcres]

Candled more eggs lastnight. My temps been going up to 104 and I have no clue how long it sits like that and why on earth my bator doesn't want to lower the temp. Grrr. But so far the are still alive. Thank goodness. Question though. My babies are so small. They don't even take up the whole egg. (not including the air sac) Hatch day is Saturday morning for me. Do they just double in size the last few days or is it normal to be so small?? These are Silkie's I'm looking at. Can't see through my Ameraucana's of course. Finger's crossed those have developed and made it.

I think I've stressed out over hatching eggs more than anything else lately. I even dreamt I was showing a class of Soldiers how to hatch out eggs last night.

Maybe I miss being in the military just a tad too.....haha.

 

[Oakieridge]

Oh that is great on the guinea eggs!!! I can't wait to see the little darlings and your daughter will have some for herself as well. I bet she could sell them quickly! We set 1 1/2 dozen guinea eggs in our new incubator Thursday since it was going to be the next Blanchard auction before we saw you again. I knew the eggs we had wouldn't last that long. I hope a few of those hatch as well. Last week I probably would have said keep all the keets because my guinea boys were being a huge PITA and making 9 kinds of noise. Made me think twice about why I have guineas. But things have settled down this weekend, I am guessing it was mating hormones and now they are settled into who got the girls and who didn't, lol.

We set eggs in our new still air cabnit incubator last week. I candled them a tad early (was trying to hold out for day 10 but couldn't help myself when I went to turn them this morning, lol). I only did 2, and saw veining! I can't believe it! I am trying to not get to excited about hatching our first batch since A) I am using $2 a dozen eggs from the auction and B) I don't have a clue what we are doing, haha. I thought the incubator temps were spiking at first so yesterday stole the aquarium themometer out of the LG incubator I have set up to use as a hatcher and it is holding right at 100 degs. Not going up to 102 like the other one says. So I think it is that dumb egg shaped themometer we got with the incubator.

Well gotta get started here at work, my boss lost her mother this weekend suddenly so the office is going to be crazy this week. But we can do it as long as no one calls in sick. Then today is Nathanael's birthday he is the big 10 now. Thanks again Carl for the cute little birds, he wanted to bring them in the house last night, I told him no they would be happier outside where they can get fresh air.

 

[BlanchardOK]

Man wish my atwoods had keets - even for 5 bucks! I have four french keets but looking for another blood line to make sure they are okay to grow out a small flock.... shoot now I am going to have to go to atwoods today!

 

[RetiredArmyWife]

try giving him only afternoons- like visitation, wonder if that would work?

I'm not trying to have babies anyway.Do you think he might get too frustrated and lonely if he doesn't mate? I am going to see how things go. H e has always been a nice guy. Maybe once he figures things out it will be fine.

 

[Oceanseve]

Went out this morning and finished getting the last two fruit trees in the ground, I found this tiny black/green snake. I'll try to post a pic later, from what I can find online it maybe is a racer?