**~~>>Second Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatchathon<<~~**all poultry welcome!

[debs_flock]

Nice and rustic, "Gold Country" kinda look, doncha think? I absolutely love it!

Wow Linda, I love it. I'd float around in it on an air mattress..............maybe before the ducks do, LOL How deep is it? What did you use for a liner? How was the filter set up? How are you going to set up access/exit?

Maybe I could come and take a look at it? My waterfowl population is rapidly increasing and I'm starting to envision a sea of blue kiddie pools that will need dumping daily.

 

[dsqard]

Linda that is absolutely gorgeous! You and John have outdone yourselves. I can just imagine sitting outside on a nice evening with an "adult beverage" watching the water and the animals. Very, very soothing.

 

[debs_flock]

Or better yet, how much did your contractor charge? Maybe he can start a whole line of duck ponds, LOL.

 

[wolftracks]

I'm trying to build up some of my flocks and when everyone else can hatch out my chicks and I flop I get discouraged. How do I fix that? I set another hatch. I've got more eggs to put in today after everyone lays and I think I should just go to the main sales page for my eggs from now on. I have very little sales this year using the auction threads. Far from a business though. I love my birds and to feed them I have to sell some of those eggs. Last year I don't even want to think about what I spent. I've had some good and not so good hatches so far this year and then some total flops. I got luck with the Easter hatch. I have had a waiting list for forever and got a decent number of what was wanted. Only 42, I think it was, but that sure beat last year. I had a lot of clears though too. Not all of my birds were laying and most of what I set were from when the others had just started laying, so I was acually pretty happy. I had a broken phoe though and didn't get any pics of all those pretty babies.

 

[wolftracks]

I think John needs to become more mobile. Like country wide! he does such an amazing job on everything. Linda you really lucked out finding him when you moved there. I know you already know that, but the things you 2 come up with are just fanstastic. Maybe you 2 need to work together designing for others.

 

[mlm Mike]

gryeyes - Love the duck pond!

 

[NotAFarm]

Nice and rustic, "Gold Country" kinda look, doncha think? I absolutely love it!

Very "Gold Country" looking and gorgeous..

Now......we need a pic of the Skippy filter and horse trough.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I only have one in there now. I'm calibrating one of them. I only left 2 in over night to see how far off from eachother they seemed to be. I'm just hoping since I found that the vents were closed, that I'm just anicing and that they got enough oxygen after I opened it all up. I had scrubbed that thing inside and out and I had left them closed while it dried, so it wouldn't be wet under the plate. I just didn't think about it later when I went back and set it up. I never close my vents, so I just wasn't hinking about it. Everyone in there has air now though.

Wolfie, I'm a very scientific person and even I don't calibrate my hygrometers. In fact, I ignore mine. I do what DiDi does and just add water every few days and try to keep it from going dry. When they hatch I may or may not throw in a wet washcloth to increase the humidity.

I generally keep the troughs about 1/4 full during days 1-18 and 3/4 full at lockdown. That's my scientific method. My wells have gone dry and I don't freak out. I leave my vents at least half open during days 1-18 and at least 3/4 full at lockdown and hatch.

Don't overthink it.

I just try to remember that my hens outside aren't adding or removing water to change the humidity. It's really dry out there, or really damp... and that won't change no matter what the hen does.

 

[uphilljill]

Love the pond & flume!

 

[wolftracks]

That's the thing. I could hatch like crazy till I started coming on BYC all the time. Marans hatched out great and now I panic, cause the minute I read where people had problems, I had problems.

I'm pulling the dang hydrometers. I was thinking about buying new ones, but I'm going to put these away and try without. AGAIN! After several years of watching them.

I remember that my great grandmother would put eggs in a bucket with a towel and leave it outside and get chicks. I hatched 3 chicks out of 3 eggs when I was 12 and did it by lining a shoe box with cotten and setting them under the lamo on my nightstand. My mom would sometimes turn that lamp off. I knew nothing about humidity and my mom told me once that she was going to toss the eggs after the time they were due and buy me chicks, but they hatched one morning and I woke up to them just finishing up. My mom was shocked and let every one in the neighborhood and relatives all over the country know. I hatched about 300 quail a month for my neighbor to pickle and her husband to take to bars and sell for me. I did those with a big box and lamp. Now I have REAL incubators and I suck! I'm not only going to set all these eggs, but I'm going to collect form my layers who are in with my purple egg project and stuck them in a bucket. If they stink I'll just toss it, but I'm curious!