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

[Arielle]

Quote: ANd that is why as my numbers dwindled I stopped helping the cats. Too expensive even when I was working full time to pay for everything. My ferals had a happy life with me, protected by my dogs and free to cruise the woods and evade the coyotes and cars. My last two are from far away, trapped as kittens, born to a feral mother who evaded the traps. THey are aging. I had good vets that gave me discounts but the bills kept piling up. Fortunately several more rescues have been organized and I don't feel guilty for being at 2 cats now. A bag of chow lasts for weeks now rather than days!! THe down side of aging pets is there is one last expense to plan for. Oddly my vet chages for an office call and the euthansia. Can't see the point of the office call when all I need is the animal to be put down so I can take him home for burial. We have a pet cemetary-- actually TWO! lol

 

[Manningjw]

Well at just 16 days old I think I can already tell a few who are going to be Roos

.

I think this boy might have even been the first one out of the shell who other people said on day 1 that he was a boy...






His mixed Pea comb is already turning pink at 16 days old which was surprising to me. The size may or may not help me to determine gender because his parents were mixed with White Leghorn.

From back when I posted what i think was his day old pic:

Sure looks like it to me and well, also that big and that young, I've always gotten a roo.

 

[wolftracks]

Well at just 16 days old I think I can already tell a few who are going to be Roos

.

I think this boy might have even been the first one out of the shell who other people said on day 1 that he was a boy...






His mixed Pea comb is already turning pink at 16 days old which was surprising to me. The size may or may not help me to determine gender because his parents were mixed with White Leghorn.

From back when I posted what i think was his day old pic:

Sorry bout that.

I have weird hatching going on. As we all know my hatches suck big time again. This morning I was checking for eggs so I could see if I had extras for someone and noticed my broodie who tried to hide eggs from me was out with 2 chicks. Only 2! I looved where the nest was hidden and had to move wood and a bunk frame to get to it. I was going to wait till I had met up for the eggs and move them to the bator, but I heard peeping. I found what I thought was a pipped egg with a dead chick first. I wasn't very careful taking the top off, but the chick was alive and I ran it into the incubator. Then I candled the rest and heard 2 peeping, but still nothing from those. The other is completely out and making a lot of noise. I'm worried that now that they are in here, I won't get any more out. I have shiped Fav eggs in the Sportsman and that hatch should have been on sunday. Woke u to one of my Lav AMs hatching and I just added it to the brooder, but I don't see or hear anything else in there. I snatched up one of the broody's chicks and it's now in the brooder, but I need to catch the other. I tried to get it and ended up with poking myself with a sharp froume from the palm tree and the momma saw the blood and kept attacking my hand. She's out digging holes for the baby, so when she isn't looking I need to grab that one too. I've got lots of gopher holes in my yard and I've had chicks drop in and never be seen again, so I hope I can get this baby.

 

[Manningjw]

Sorry bout that.

I was hoping for at least one of the pure black chicks to be Roos anyhow. I was just amazed that it may be able to be determined day 1 based on a large comb. Now I am just crossing my fingers that out of the 5 black chicks 2 of them are females

. I really want to give one of them to my friend, and I want to keep 1 roo and 1 hen with black feathering for myself. If 3/5 black chicks are hens I will be very pleased but right now I am just hoping for 2.

 

[wolftracks]

I was hoping for at least one of the pure black chicks to be Roos anyhow. I was just amazed that it may be able to be determined day 1 based on a large comb. Now I am just crossing my fingers that out of the 5 black chicks 2 of them are females

. I really want to give one of them to my friend, and I want to keep 1 roo and 1 hen with black feathering for myself. If 3/5 black chicks are hens I will be very pleased but right now I am just hoping for 2.

I hope you get some pullets.

My weird hatch day is crazy! I caught the chick with the broodie and I've had to help chicks out of the other eggs. Two are very weak, so I still may lose them. So I go out and take an extra broody out of the crate with my SPPR broody. An egg rolls out and one side has a HUGE area open and a chick screaming in it, so I stick the hen and the egg back in the crate. I still need to get her out of there, but some of the eggs, the SPPR isn't tucking under her, so what the heck. I kept going in and out of the house and finally figured I'd just bring the crate inside. Just had a Wellie pullet hatch from that egg and not sure what else is happening under the girls. I have 3 chicks from the broody that had the 2 babies out this morning out of eggs and in the brooder with a Wellie cockerel that hatched the other day and the lavender AM that hatched in the Sportsman and the 2 chicks I nabbed from the momma hen. I have bantam Langshun sitting on Chocolate bantam AMs and those should be due the 26th, but I'm watching close since they may be early. Two days ago I stuck LF AM and Wellie eggs under a Broody Game hen and today I set more Lavender and BBS AMs under another broody. I have 2 Phoenix hens on eggs from them, Chocolate AMs and a couple of LF AMs and who knows what else and those are due tomorrow. I've been working on chicks, broodies and eggs all day. I need to set eggs under the hen that's trying to take this hatch tonight, a Silkie and one of my FBCMs is broodie. I may stink when I incubate, but my girls are doing pretty good so far. Unfortunately the second chick that had been in the yard with the broody this morning was with her for hours. Everyone else is eating, sleeping and drinking and this chick won't shut up! Momma is laying on the patio next to the back step. Gonna be a long noisy night!

 

[Arielle]

How was your night??

Babies doing ok??


I have another batch of turkey eggs in the hatcher-- one is EARLY: Externally p ipped 2 days early. But no others . . .so I'm am worrying this will be another bad hatch.

 

[karimw]

Quote:
The wildest of them I always had to catch while pregnant when the ywere too big to move very fast, but the others I caught in a live trap using canned cat food as bait. I let them have their litter in an enclosed shed and handled the babies a lot. Blind Willie was the wildest mama and it took me two years to figure this out. She was too smart for the live trap. I found where she kept her litter and took them away from her at about 5 weeks, before they got too quick for me to get a hold of. Yes, that's early, but they took to food right away and were easy to tame.

 

[Wisher1000]

Was Blind Willie (great name!) blind?

 

[wolftracks]

How was your night??

Babies doing ok??


I have another batch of turkey eggs in the hatcher-- one is EARLY: Externally p ipped 2 days early. But no others . . .so I'm am worrying this will be another bad hatch.

I was up til 5am. Lots on my mind anyway. Just took a Lav AM from under my SPPR broody. The 2 weaker ones are still in the bator and I just gave them some more Polyvisol and just waiting, but all these other babies are fine. Thank goodness. Nothing more from the abandoned broodies eggs or that dang Sportsman! Now it's time to fill feed buckets and get feeders and waterers filled and check on my Langshun. Those are the eggs due next and nervous about them hatching in the coop. Long way down in the walk out of the box and end up outside.

Hope you get more babies. I don't wanna have you as a bad hatch buddy! BTW, how are your eggs doing?

 

[NotAFarm]

I went to the Post Office this morning to pick-up a couple of boxes of eggs I was expecting and was asked if I wanted the other parcel they had for me.

What could that be? I wondered.........

It was the Brinsea Spot Check that CayuseRanch had gifted me for the "Clothe Arielle's Avatar Contest"!! What perfect timing!! The eggs I was picking-up are a prize from the WYGS (happen to be the right number swapper that week) from corancher. A dozen (she send an extra so 13) eggs from Lemon Cuckoo, Lav and Crele Orps, Cream Crested Legbars and Rhodebars! The other box of eggs are some Norwegian Jaerhorns for a friend of mine. I hatched two (well, actually it was my Icelandic hen that hatched them) earlier this month and Amyable (who I got the eggs from) said they were both pullets!! These are from cjwaldon. Hoping to get a few more to make a start for her flock (she lost her flock of 14, including some Icelandics from my flock, a Golden Campine pullet I hatched for the Easter Hatchalong last year from debs_flock and a Blue Isbar rooster that I hatched from The Sheriff, to a mink that got into her coop by digging under it. She is of Norwegian descent and mentioned she'd like to have some NJs so, hopefully, they will do well. It will be hard waiting three weeks to see what happens with them.....I've had some terrible hatches from shipped eggs.

P.S. Arielle, I smile every time I see your avatar. Thank you for using it!
And, thank you CayuseRanch for hosting the contest and for the wonderful prize. It will soon be put to good use!