Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[AnneInTheBurbs]

So after the farm show and reading tonight I've decided I want to add wyandottes, minorcas and ameraucanas to my chicken flock. I would love some cubalayas, but seem like they may be hard to find. Definitely going to be tracking down Cayuga ducks and maybe some indian runners too.

Troyer has gorgeous Cubalayas, that's where my hatching eggs came from.

 

[msladyhawke]

Matt:

Bunch of folks on here have some really good lines of chooks that will be hatching chicks pretty soon,,,,just post what you want and you'll be surprised.....production to exotics,,,they are here in PA...my two cents....

I hatched chicks yesterday and today.

Troyer has gorgeous Cubalayas, that's where my hatching eggs came from.

Definitely nice birds at Troyers!

 

[wingstone]

Thanks for the idea's on the heating pads, my point of using corn is to use what I already have, which is dried field corn and plenty of old clothing for material.

Today is my first day home of being jobless and I had a bad decision, the house was so quiet except for the sound of rain hitting the window that I slept way to long and now will not get everything done that I wanted to today...so much goingthu my head that I want to do.

With all the incubator's being fired up, could some of you post what you are putting in them..... I could use some new Muscovy and would rather buy from someone here.

 

[fisherlady]

Wing,

Could you crack the corn to prevent it from 'popping'? I would think just a coarse ground (just enough to break kernels into halves or thirds) would be all you need. The kernels pop because of pressure build up from moisture in their core, breaking them would eliminate that.

After cracking them you could rinse them to remove dust/contaminants if you wanted and then make your heat packs.

 

[fisherlady]

With all the incubator's being fired up, could some of you post what you are putting in them..... I could use some new Muscovy and would rather buy from someone here.

I don't have any incubator fired up, but do have 4 broodies.... 3 setting on meaty type barnyard mixes. The 4th waiting for eggs.

 

[Bettacreek]

I'm trying very hard to not plug the bator in. I need to increase my quail. I do have a clutch of Toulouse geese eggs in the coop under their momma.

 

[dheltzel]

Today is my first day home of being jobless and I had a bad decision, the house was so quiet except for the sound of rain hitting the window that I slept way to long and now will not get everything done that I wanted to today...so much goingthu my head that I want to do.

With all the incubator's being fired up, could some of you post what you are putting in them..... I could use some new Muscovy and would rather buy from someone here.

Sounds like the first thing you need to do is fire up your incubator

Last night I put the following in the incubator, best as I remember:
50+ Rhodebars
30+ Welsummers
10 CCL's
10 Midget White turkeys (not sure about fertility, but I have to try)
13 blue egg laying black sex links (Ameracauna roo over Barred Holland hens)

Still dodging the "do you have room for all those chicks?" questions with the statement that I plan to sell most of them. I will make an extra special deal for my friends here . . .

 

[wingstone]

Today is my first day home of being jobless and I had a bad decision, the house was so quiet except for the sound of rain hitting the window that I slept way to long and now will not get everything done that I wanted to today...so much goingthu my head that I want to do.


With all the incubator's being fired up, could some of you post what you are putting in them..... I could use some new Muscovy and would rather buy from someone here.

Sounds like the first thing you need to do is fire up your incubator 

Last night I put the following in the incubator, best as I remember:
50+ Rhodebars
30+ Welsummers
10 CCL's
10 Midget White turkeys (not sure about fertility, but I have to try)
13 blue egg laying black sex links (Ameracauna roo over Barred Holland hens)

Still dodging the "do you have room for all those chicks?" questions with the statement that I plan to sell most of them. I will make an extra special deal for my friends here . . .

I would be interested in putting together a small flock of those midget white's... keep me posted on them.

 

[dheltzel]

I would be interested in putting together a small flock of those midget white's... keep me posted on them.

I will. I thought I saw some veining last night when I was candling, but I'm not certain because I'm new to raising hatching turkeys. I'm pretty confident in discarding non-developing chicken eggs, but will keep all the turkey eggs until I'm sure, I'd hate to toss out a developing poult.

I moved our Royal Palm tom into the coop near the Midget whites yesterday in the hopes that the (very active) MW tom might "inspire" him by example, since all our eggs last year were infertile and he seemed disinterested in the hens. When we first got the MW's, my sister commented that they did not seem smaller than our other turkeys. When they were side by side for the first time yesterday, the difference was striking. I wouldn't call them bantams (still larger than our biggest roos), but definitely smaller than the RP tom (and RP's are known to be smaller than most breeds).

My niece loves our MW's, the tom is so tame compared to the RP. She picks him up regularly and he doesn't seem to mind having his feathers stroked, something that we could never do with the RP tom. It makes all the difference with how they are raised, I think. The ones that were pets before we bought them are still very tame, the tom that grew up in a flock with lots of other toms is standoffish.

I know some families that like to raise chicks for the first few weeks. I know they'd love to try some turkeys and that would make them very tame to have kids play with them a lot. That's my plan - as long as the turkeys see it that way too.

 

[wingstone]

I was given a bunch of these boxes and do not know what to do with them, never had them.