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

[Yorkshire Coop]

So, the next couple of days I should be busy getting everything done and ready to get away for a couple days. It's been two years since I last took a little vaca and got away from the house and my caretaker responsibilities. I love my dad and wouldn't want it any other way, but I really need this. When I got out of college I moved a couple hours away, down by my sister and lived there for 12 years before my mom died and I moved back to take care of my dad, so I have a whole life down there I miss too and my Bestest best friend is down there. So, excited to get away for the weekend and just hoping my van doesn't strand me anywhere between here and there.  My other sister will be coming up to take care of our dad and my chickens. I just need to get motivated and get everything done....lol

Hi Amy, hope you have a fabulous time away on your weekend. You sure do deserve it with all you do for your family. Nice that you have your sister able to take care of your Dad and chickens. Must make you feel better while your away that they are all being looked after.

Hope you have a great time and fingers crossed your van gets you there ok

 

[WalnutHill]

Well 6 just pipped yesterday and I will try and offer litlle bits of help before a full blown hatching for them.

Sorry, I must have gotten 6 and 8 mixed up. I thought 6 pipped a couple of days ago.

 

[scflock]

So, the next couple of days I should be busy getting everything done and ready to get away for a couple days. It's been two years since I last took a little vaca and got away from the house and my caretaker responsibilities. I love my dad and wouldn't want it any other way, but I really need this. When I got out of college I moved a couple hours away, down by my sister and lived there for 12 years before my mom died and I moved back to take care of my dad, so I have a whole life down there I miss too and my Bestest best friend is down there. So, excited to get away for the weekend and just hoping my van doesn't strand me anywhere between here and there. My other sister will be coming up to take care of our dad and my chickens. I just need to get motivated and get everything done....lol

That sounds like a good getaway. Just try and forget about everything for a few days. I will still be here to

you when you get back.
I'm going to go ahead and warn WV that she may have to bear the brunt of my wrath while you are gone

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

A swimming pool and a pint

Yorkshire!!!
Sold the new chicks yet? I don't know if you have been reading much, but I sold my entire Polish breeding flock to a young man that wanted to start breeding them. They just weren't selling for me

Can't get pool out!! Got coop and run on where we usually put it. This is forecast for all week and poss into next so I will HAVE to move them. Only sold 4 of these chicks seemed to be better in the spring for selling but I'm ok to keep them untill I know what's hens and they should sell better if I've still got them. Roos will get the knock on the head if they have not gone after 2 weeks of advertising. If they get through this heat, everyone is just so hot.

Can't believe you have sold them all I'm not sure how I would feel about that myself.

 

[Kraftcrazychick]

I hope it takes it away.




There is NOTHING boring about being a single mom. That's a crazy hard job.

I really like feathered feet. I have a blue Marans roo that I need to get rid of but he has awesome leg feathers and loves the kids.

That is called Cat Karma.. And yea, cats are jerks.

I have some good news that I must share. My wonderful DH told me this evening that he fixed the small refrigerator in his garage by using parts from another one he found.... The good news isn't that he fixed his, it's that now I have a non-working one that I (he) can turn into an incubator!!! Yeah!!

YAY! You'll have to share the process. After my birds start laying I have an electric cooler that demands to be modified.

So egg 8 wasn't making any good progress really. It was looking dryer and dryer so I helped it out. It looks ok just acting real weak. Egg 6 still just has it's little pip with a little beak showing.
So I put 11 original duck eggs in. 1 was infertile, 1 got ring of death first week. 1 died around 14 days in, prolly from a heat spike. 1 tried hatching upside down and died. 1 got dried out out and needed help hatching but looks overall ok. 1 still needs to hatch but is pipped good. 5 hatched without issue or any real help.
Overall think this went well for my first solo attempt in a homemade cheap incubator. Looking to hatch 7 outta 8 from lockdown point.

I think that's a great start in a homemade incubator. I've heard of so many people that swear off hatching after all their eggs quit in their homemade.

I just wanted to update real quick. The charcoal/carbon moisture control stuff I picked up at the dollar store took my inside incubator humidity from 55% to 25%! I am so pleased. I only used a small cup of the stuff. Probably over a dozen cups in the actual container. Loving that it only cost $1 and worked amazing!

What a great idea. Keep us posted!

So, the next couple of days I should be busy getting everything done and ready to get away for a couple days. It's been two years since I last took a little vaca and got away from the house and my caretaker responsibilities. I love my dad and wouldn't want it any other way, but I really need this. When I got out of college I moved a couple hours away, down by my sister and lived there for 12 years before my mom died and I moved back to take care of my dad, so I have a whole life down there I miss too and my Bestest best friend is down there. So, excited to get away for the weekend and just hoping my van doesn't strand me anywhere between here and there. My other sister will be coming up to take care of our dad and my chickens. I just need to get motivated and get everything done....lol

Go out and enjoy. I was out for a girls weekend a few days ago. I loved it so much. Just let go and let loose!

 

[scflock]

Can't get pool out!! Got coop and run on where we usually put it. This is forecast for all week and poss into next so I will HAVE to move them. Only sold 4 of these chicks seemed to be better in the spring for selling but I'm ok to keep them untill I know what's hens and they should sell better if I've still got them. Roos will get the knock on the head if they have not gone after 2 weeks of advertising. If they get through this heat, everyone is just so hot.

Can't believe you have sold them all

I'm not sure how I would feel about that myself.

I spent my whole winter building roofs over 50% of my pens, just for the shade. Summers can be miserable here, and this one is the hottest in years, so the timing was perfect. My hens have been panting some, but overall look much more comfortable than last year, even on the worst days.
The Polish were just a business decision. They were costing me more than I was making from them, and although they were beautiful birds, they were quite flighty, and that was the only pen I had that all chickens didn't come running to me when I walked in. The young man that got them (13 years old) bought them with money he had saved from selling his own eggs, and is planning on breeding them to show. I sold them to him cheap, because I was proud for him to have them, and I replaced them with a fantastic group of BBS Ameraucanas, so it worked out for both of us

 

[WVduckchick]

It's been in the mid to upper 90s for three weeks down here. 70% humidity. I would die without central air. Our condenser went out Tuesday, and I paid extra for the after hours service. I'm not posh, but I'm a big ol' boy. I can't sleep hot

Hot and humid here too. I'm glad I don't have any eggs in the incubator right now. Hard to tell what would be happening with them!

Ha! My hubby is hvac certified. Sorry for your luck!

Definitely impossible to live without central air here. We've been working on our "camp" cabin for several years, and figured we wouldn't need central air in it. We have a wood stove for heat. But its been so hot already this year, he installed the air last weekend. Ahhhhh, between the a/c and the rain tinkling on the metal roof, sleeping doesn't get any better!

So, the next couple of days I should be busy getting everything done and ready to get away for a couple days. It's been two years since I last took a little vaca and got away from the house and my caretaker responsibilities. I love my dad and wouldn't want it any other way, but I really need this. When I got out of college I moved a couple hours away, down by my sister and lived there for 12 years before my mom died and I moved back to take care of my dad, so I have a whole life down there I miss too and my Bestest best friend is down there. So, excited to get away for the weekend and just hoping my van doesn't strand me anywhere between here and there. My other sister will be coming up to take care of our dad and my chickens. I just need to get motivated and get everything done....lol

Good for you. I'll be out of town later next week myself. Much needed too!! So good luck to us both.

That sounds like a good getaway. Just try and forget about everything for a few days. I will still be here to

you when you get back.
I'm going to go ahead and warn WV that she may have to bear the brunt of my wrath while you are gone

Haha.... I'll take it while she's gone, then she'll come back and I'll be gone. Then we can gang up on you when we I get back! (of course I'll be around via mobile some, so don't let your guard down!)


----
And another missing quote (what's up with those?)


@RubyNala97 -- love the new avatar pic! You are beautiful and your kids are just adorable!!

 

[scflock]

Hot and humid here too.  I'm glad I don't have any eggs in the incubator right now.  Hard to tell what would be happening with them! 

Ha!  My hubby is hvac certified.  Sorry for your luck!     Definitely impossible to live without central air here.  We've been working on our "camp" cabin for several years, and figured we wouldn't need central air in it.  We have a wood stove for heat.  But its been so hot already this year, he installed the air last weekend.  Ahhhhh, between the a/c and the rain tinkling on the metal roof, sleeping doesn't get any better!




Good for you.  I'll be out of town later next week myself.  Much needed too!!  So good luck to us both.


Haha.... I'll take it while she's gone, then she'll come back and I'll be gone.  Then we can gang up on you when we I get back!  (of course I'll be around via mobile some, so don't let your guard down!)


----
And another missing quote (what's up with those?) 


@RubyNala97
 -- love the new avatar pic!  You are beautiful and your kids are just adorable!! 

Oh no, you and Amy gone at the same time? Gonna be a long week for rossfam

 

[RubyNala97]

SW Florida? Is that where your new avatar picture was taken? I swear I see the legs of a poling platform in the background, but I thought "nah, she's in NY".
Rossfam will know this, but before the jokes start I want to say that a poling platform is a stand on the back of a shallow water boat that you can stand on to push the boat through very shallow water with a pole

No, it was actually taken on a hay ride/tractor at the apple orchids when we first moved back to NY and the kids had never been apple picking before, since they were both born in FL. I'll have to look on the big computer, I can't make it out on the phone! I love that you're so observant. That's something you grow up learning in NY. Always know who/what is around you at all times.

We have got into the 90's here in England!! That's right we have these temps right now and I have to say it's horrid My birds are too hot and the chicks in the shed are even hot without the lamp, the door is open too. Don't know what else to do for them they have shade, ice water and lots of cold veggies out of the fridge but they are still panting in the shade. We are so not used to this type of weather over here!! I've got burnt and my arms are killing me just feels like there is no air.

Any tips to help would be very much appreciated

I was reading about keeping chickens during the summer just the other day. And I read they can get overheated easy and won't seek water. So you should keep a bucket of cool water near the pen and if you see that a chicken is getting extremely over heated, you dunk them up to their neck in the bucket and it brings their body temp back down. And I think it was Amy that said she makes ice blocks with veggies frozen in them for the chickens. I like that idea.

 

[NTBugtraq]

http://www.enasco.com/product/C10606N

but the rib spreaders appear pretty useless if you don't have an assistant.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Weitlaner-R...349?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a20ba821d these are real veterinary rib spreaders, and the smallest size I found. They lock so you can use both hands for the task at hand.

It's amazing but I could not find one retailer in Canada who sells such a kit...so I have ordered it from Nasco and am waiting for them to call and tell me the shipping costs. I did find the retractor from a Canadian seller, and have ordered it also. My roos are approaching 7 weeks old so I will try on them...

I'm sure you guys have probably already seen this but incase anyone hasn't, this thread shows step-by-step pics and directions for caponizing.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/210041/how-to-caponize-a-rooster-warning-graphic-pics

Thanks Ruby, I hadn't seen that thread. There are quite a lot of youtubes also.