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

[chicapee]

Yep. I bet she never had some random redneck throw her a parade online

Nope she probably hasn't. She certainly is as lucky as me. Bet she doesn't have chickens either.

 

[WVduckchick]

Yep. I bet she never had some random redneck throw her a parade online

Speaking of parades... what percentage did you end up with??? Are we gonna have to wait 3 more weeks for one??

 

[RubyNala97]

My husband is a fiberglass production/fiberglass repair man as well as a car/boat motor mechanic on the side so he buys alot of tools from Snap-On, which I have about wrung his neck several times for some of the things he's bought and the prices he's paid (I'm sorry but $250 is just too much for a set of wrenches or sockets!) But they do have a lifetime warranty and he pays payments monthly so I've gotten to the point that it doesn't bother me quite as much anymore, but he has a small Snap-On super bright LED flashlight that has has the rechargable battery packs that you can swap out with other tools that would be amazing for candling if I could find something to put around the end. Foam is a great idea, I think I'll try that next. I tried a gun bore light, lol, it was the perfect size but it just wasn't bright enough. I eventually used my cheap little $1 hot pink mini LED flashlight from Walmart that I keep in my purse on the occasion that I get home after dark and forgot to turn the porch light on before I left. I took a piece of cardboard to put between the light and the egg and poked a hole in it about the size of a pencil and candled the eggs while they were still sitting in the carton so I didn't have to move them around. I found that if I don't candle straight down and do it instead slightly off center from the top, like to the back or side of the top of the egg, I can see the air cells much, much better. I think I'd have had better results with the Snap-on light but with the eggs in the carton I couldn't move it around to the right positions without taking the eggs out of the carton and I really didn't want to move them a lot since they are shipped eggs. But all the air cells looked to be ok, this was my first time candling so I don't know much but they all appeared to be in good shape and attached to the shell pretty good and there were no saddle shaped cells, so I put the eggs in the bator yesterday afternoon and they are now on there incubation journey and I'm just hanging on for the ride, lol.

I usually only incubate white/light cream eggs, so candling has been easy. But I've got some darker, speckled eggs in my incubator now and I couldn't find the air cells or see much of anything. So I grabbed a cut down egg carton with a hole cut out in the bottom, that was sitting right next to the incubator and it worked awesome. So just throwing an easy candling idea out there.

This one is 12x8. I started off with about 4 inches of leaves, when those got composted down I added course pine shavings. I have used about a 3rd of a bale of hay for nest boxes, 1 very large coop and 1 run. The other big run still has plenty of leaves. The other coop has pine. I haven't needed to clean out anything yet just under the roost about once a month in one coop. I add a small amount of de. It all stays dry and no bugs not even flies and I am in south ms. I give the m scratch 3 times a week so they turn and aerate the litter.
Here you go. I give them scratch 3 times a week so they aerate and fluff up the litter. I also sprinkle de, I have no smell and no flies and I am in south mississipi in the woods.I also add pine straw any material with carbon. It will compost in the run ready for planting I will put it in my compost area to let it finish.

Got it! Thank you. I needed a visual to get the full idea. I'm planning on trying this 100%. I pull up weeds around the yard and give them to the chickens, should I just leave the dried up stuff that they don't finish in there?My run floor is super bare!

 

[scflock]

Speaking of parades... what percentage did you end up with??? Are we gonna have to wait 3 more weeks for one??

I wound up at 55%. I think Amy is safe until I start incubating the cuckoo marans in the January. Those are my 95% eggs.
I really need to figure out how to get better rates. These BCM are in high demand around here, so if I'm tying the incubator up for 3 weeks at a time, I need to get more than 10 or 11 chicks. If this hatch doesn't do any better, I may read the link that Ruby posted again. That one was suggesting incubating at 55%. I just can't imagine that would work with those dark eggs, but I had read it on the Brinsea site before. I may have to try it.
I just don't get it, because the chicks that did hatch are so healthy. None of the post hatch deaths like I had last time. It's not a rooster issue, because the eggs were fertile. Could be health issues with the chicks. I just don't know. I've read that BCM can be tough to hatch, but surely it's not like this all of the time

 

[sideWing]

I wound up at 55%. I think Amy is safe until I start incubating the cuckoo marans in the January. Those are my 95% eggs.
I really need to figure out how to get better rates. These BCM are in high demand around here, so if I'm tying the incubator up for 3 weeks at a time, I need to get more than 10 or 11 chicks. If this hatch doesn't do any better, I may read the link that Ruby posted again. That one was suggesting incubating at 55%. I just can't imagine that would work with those dark eggs, but I had read it on the Brinsea site before. I may have to try it.
I just don't get it, because the chicks that did hatch are so healthy. None of the post hatch deaths like I had last time. It's not a rooster issue, because the eggs were fertile. Could be health issues with the chicks. I just don't know. I've read that BCM can be tough to hatch, but surely it's not like this all of the time

You didn't have any DIS?

I can't catch up on the last 349 posts.

If anyone wants to give me the highlights it would be appreciated.

 

[scflock]

Got it! Thank you. I needed a visual to get the full idea. I'm planning on trying this 100%. I pull up weeds around the yard and give them to the chickens, should I just leave the dried up stuff that they don't finish in there?My run floor is super bare!

That's exactly what my pen floors looked like until I started adding the lawn clippings and leaves. I really like the idea of putting the coop litter in there. I can see where that would be very beneficial.
I throw in as much greenage as I can. That's why I'm glad we can grow greens in the winter down here. They will last until I get my spring garden planted

 

[scflock]

You didn't have any DIS?

I can't catch up on the last 349 posts.

If anyone wants to give me the highlights it would be appreciated.

8 DIS. My big highlight for the weekend was the hay bale got shredded

 

[sideWing]

8 DIS. My big highlight for the weekend was the hay bale got shredded

 

[scflock]

It did have large talons

 

[WVduckchick]

I wound up at 55%. I think Amy is safe until I start incubating the cuckoo marans in the January. Those are my 95% eggs.
I really need to figure out how to get better rates. These BCM are in high demand around here, so if I'm tying the incubator up for 3 weeks at a time, I need to get more than 10 or 11 chicks. If this hatch doesn't do any better, I may read the link that Ruby posted again. That one was suggesting incubating at 55%. I just can't imagine that would work with those dark eggs, but I had read it on the Brinsea site before. I may have to try it.
I just don't get it, because the chicks that did hatch are so healthy. None of the post hatch deaths like I had last time. It's not a rooster issue, because the eggs were fertile. Could be health issues with the chicks. I just don't know. I've read that BCM can be tough to hatch, but surely it's not like this all of the time

That's why I asked if you were opening them up. You have no idea why/when they died, right? Malposition, disfigured, upside down, inside out... I would have had to open those, but that's just me. I didn't open any of my last hatch. Well, I opened the air cell end to make sure they were dead, but I didn't dig into the membrane.