She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[sjturner79]

Ok thanks for the info on mareks. I will definitely have to do more research. I work with 2 flocks, 1 is at 6 birds, with 15 chicks nearby and 12 eggs under a broody. The other had 21 birds.
There is one bird that went from the big flock down to my smaller flock and back to the big flock. It started have issues staying on its feet just before it went back to the big flock .
The person that lives out with the bigger flock thinks that the bird has mareks. Would that mean that dons advice would be to put down all 40odd birds or just the one showing sickness. No other bird in either flock has shown any signs of illness or odd behavior.
There is another flock 4 houses down from my smaller flock. About 180 feet away. I don't know if they have any symptoms.

 

[HiyokoInNippon]

Curiosity: Has anyone heard of an aircell detaching at lockdown which had been solid before?

 

[WalnutHill]

Which one did you decide on?

DeSantis SofTuk. The closed end PPK holsters won't fit the longer PP properly so my options were dramatically reduced. Ankle and shoulder holsters were readily available, but there were only a couple of IWB within reason.

 

[sjturner79]

Good luck and happy hatching, everybody!
SC, I like your little coop!
Ruby, my white silkie rooster from Meyer has a red-purple comb. it's turned more red as he ages. The mama of Pigeon is his daughter, and she has a very bright red comb.

Good luck and happy hatching, everybody!
SC, I like your little coop!
Ruby, my white silkie rooster from Meyer has a red-purple comb. it's turned more red as he ages. The mama of Pigeon is his daughter, and she has a very bright red comb.

My silkies have the opposite problem . Thier combs are pure black instead of purple.

 

[silkiecuddles]

My silkies have the opposite problem . Thier combs are pure black instead of purple.

I personally think black is better than mulberry red.

 

[WVduckchick]

11 out of 14 is great, the ones I got were 2 out of 12. They also had detached aircells, these are now rock solid no movement at all on those aircells. I waited 7 days to start turning on those.
I switched the turner on last night for my new batch from Ravyn. I am not going to candle until Thursday night. It is probably good that I have a staggered hatch. It prevents me from obsessing. Th coolerbator seems to be doing well. Lock started today. I will increase the humidity on the nasties tonight. The shells are full of chick.

I'm anxious for you! Amazed that you might have a good couple out of that mess. And I can't wait to see the ones from Ravyn!!

Right now I am steady at 30% with no water and the vent fully open. In January it takes both wells full of water and the vent half shut to maintain 40%. The beauty of the pump is you can maintain the higher humidity with the vent fully open

Thanks, I'll try that to start. You probably keep your house fairly cool in the summer?

I set 21 turkey eggs for a customer. I set them at 12:01 a.m. so I can find out how accurate my incubation temps really are.

No project birds this time? Midnight... that's cool. I might think about doing that too...

DeSantis SofTuk. The closed end PPK holsters won't fit the longer PP properly so my options were dramatically reduced. Ankle and shoulder holsters were readily available, but there were only a couple of IWB within reason.

Sweet! I'd love to know how you like it, after you test it out. I need to find a new one for my Cheetah, and we've tried so many brands, but not that one yet.

 

[sjturner79]

I personally think black is better than mulberry red.

I would love all my chooks to have combs like cluck cluck did. If I wasn't on mobile I'd pull one of my pics of her off the site and add

 

[BYC910]

Don, when I first started hatching my own chicks, I debated whether to vaccinate for Mareks or not. I actually did do a lot of reading, and it seems the opinion of whether to vaccinate or not is divided right down the middle. I chose not to, not out of laziness, but because my flock had never had issues. I read compelling debate for both sides, and went with the no vaccination policy. I would have no problem vaccinating chicks, but there seemed to be a lot of people saying that vaccinating a flock with no problems was actually introducing a problem that otherwise wouldn't have been there. I have a totally closed flock, I don't take in any outside birds. I can see why you would have to vaccinate so heavily when you are showing, and constantly around birds from all over the country, but do you really think it's necessary for a closed backyard flock?

hate to do this know it's going to hurt you can smack if you like three letters BBS outside birds

 

[WVduckchick]

My silkies have the opposite problem . Thier combs are pure black instead of purple.

Mine have nice combs and wattles... but only one of the two has any leg feathers, and those are sparse...

 

[WalnutHill]

There is one couple (like your brother) in my area, that sells breeder quality silkies. They are beautiful birds. And they know it. Straight run chicks are $10 firm. They don't sell with vaccinations. They also mock BYC and the members. They don't know it yet but next year I'd like to be their competitor and sell silkies cheaper but of the similar quality. The other people that sell silkies in my area have ugly birds. Red combs, no five toes. They must have mixed blood. So it would be interesting to see if I can find a leg up on that one couple.

Sell better, not cheaper.

Don't drop your price to improve sales, but at first if you don't compete head to head (for instance if they sell white and black, you offer other colors at first) you can be successful without undercutting yourself.

I can't compete in the Cornish X broiler market or broad breasted turkey market locally on price or quantity. But no one wants to raise heritage turkeys, so I do. I raise broilers, but primarily for family consumption. When I sell them, I sell for $5/lb. If I sold more, I'd have to drop the price.