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

[lazy gardener]

Since we are talking about light. I give my guys a "night-light" (I know they are extremely babied), it's a low-watt, pink light. Would this be considered enough light to effect the laying process? Just curious.
I've gone 5 days without touching eggs that had loose cells and had a 60% hatch rate. I've never gotten a detached air cell to grow, though.
Good luck!!

keep us posted on development in a few days!

I doubt it, but... light 24 hours/day can't be a good thing. I think it would mess up their circadian rhythm.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Awesome!! Love the color too! That is a duck egg, right? Didn't know they laid that color!
They are shipped, right? I would leave them un-turned in the bator for 48 hours then do a gentle candle. Those that look good, start gently tilting. Those that are still loose, give another 24 hours.
It SNOWED here today!!!
Oh no!! So how many are still good, 9??

My son had poison sumac really bad and I tried this stuff called zanfel, it's expensive but really works!!!
Interesting! I wonder how this ties in with the round vs oval egg shape and gender?

Didn't know they laid anything but white...lol
Here too, unfortunetly!

It is the main reason why it would not work--The little bitty ovum cannot change the shape of an egg--the gender is determined before the shell is formed.

The shell is formed in an organ towards the end of the canal and the shape of the organ determines the shape of the egg.

Hens usually lay the same shaped egg every time. Age and illness may change that but it will have nothing to do with the gender of the ovum.

But can a hen be predisposed to laying majority of females vs males? Hen's ovum carrying mostly ZW. And generally laying rounder eggs.

Yep. I especially can't wrap my head around which way to turn the screwdriver to back out a screw. Wanna mess me up real bad? Give me a nut and bolt to work on!

I love sponges for humidity. Give me a sponge, some aquarium tubing and a syringe, and I'm a happy camper. I even screw a sponge to the wall of my styrobator when it's so full of eggs that there's no room for extra humidity material!

I feel for the writing callous on my right hand.

Calcium shouldn't be an issue. Oomphalitis: swelling abdomen, lethargy.

Generalist: Someone who learns less and less about more and more till they know nothing about everything.

Increase their protein. Switch to multi-flock.

I thought it was supposed to be warmer and wetter??? I'll take your choice.

I weighed both sides of the lighting = get eggs, don't light = don't get eggs dilemma. The first year, with 5 girls, I did not light. I had one girl (EE) who faithfully gave me 3 eggs/week. No one else contributed. I increased flock size to 17 (including one roo) the following winter, and decided I did not want to feed that many free loaders, so gave them light. Got pretty good production all winter. I've decided that if I'm feeding chickens, I want to get eggs. So, I will provide light, and hatch a few (or perhaps more than a few) replacements every year. Our winters are long and gloomy. So, without light, my flock would stop laying in mid Oct. and I'd not see an other egg until mid to late Feb. My birds are not pets, though I get lots of enjoyment out of them. When their production is done, they will go to the freezer. So, for me, it's a no brainer to give light. I understand, and to a point agree with the idea that taking a winter laying break is more natural for the life cycle of the hen. IMO, there is no right or wrong decision in this debate. It depends on your goals. One place that I differ is in my decision to provide all of my light supplementation at the end of the day, rather than in the morning, like "they say" to do. It gets dark here at 4:30 PM, so... to get 14 hours of light, I'd need my light to go on at 2:30 AM. No auto pop door here! I'm not getting out of bed to go let the flock out at 2:30! Nor am I going to go out to feed them at 2:30! Nor, do I want Jack to greet the day at 2:30! They took a few nights to figure out when the light went out! No problems with bed time after the first few nights!

I wash with straight ammonia at first sign of Poison Ivy. After that, I treated with Tea Tree Oil. It didn't work as well as I expected it to. Added natural Aloe to the TTO, and the rash dried up and itch went away within 48 hours.

I love that!

 

[kwhites634]

I doubt it, but... light 24 hours/day can't be a good thing. I think it would mess up their circadian rhythm.

Had to look up "circadian rhythm", but now that I have, you're probably right

 

[lazy gardener]

But can a hen be predisposed to laying majority of females vs males? Hen's ovum carrying mostly ZW. And generally laying rounder eggs.

I believe that's possible. For the same reason that some families end up with all boys... Yes, supposedly it's a 50/50 chance with each single pregnancy, but when you have a family that has 4 or more boys, and not a single girl, and perhaps this may continue for more than one generation... it makes you wonder if: In the case of humans where the male cast's the deciding vote, if he's perhaps blessed with an abundance of Y sperm and very few or no X sperm, or perhaps the female's ova are only receptive to Y.

Worth noting, if you can identify your flock's eggs by shape/color and know which hen lays which egg... Does the hen who lays the consistently rounder eggs consistently produce more female chicks? And does the hen who lays the pointy eggs, consistently produce more male chicks? If there is a correlation to be made, and I was able to do so in my flock, I'd be sure to set eggs from the hen who produced a much higher percentage of pullets. Old wive's tale? Sure! Worth playing around with? Inquiring minds want to know, and some folks... like me... spend a lot of time asking "what if" types of questions. Certainly keeps life from being boring!

 

[ronott1]

But can a hen be predisposed to laying majority of females vs males? Hen's ovum carrying mostly ZW. And generally laying rounder eggs.

The two things would not be linked in any way.

What happens is that the ovum in a hen is usually 50\50 but chance, like flipping a coin, will determine which gender is ripened with each egg.

Look into the odds of flipping heads or tails and how that works.

It is Chance, or gambling odds.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I believe that's possible. For the same reason that some families end up with all boys... Yes, supposedly it's a 50/50 chance with each single pregnancy, but when you have a family that has 4 or more boys, and not a single girl, and perhaps this may continue for more than one generation... it makes you wonder if: In the case of humans where the male cast's the deciding vote, if he's perhaps blessed with an abundance of Y sperm and very few or no X sperm, or perhaps the female's ova are only receptive to Y.

Worth noting, if you can identify your flock's eggs by shape/color and know which hen lays which egg... Does the hen who lays the consistently rounder eggs consistently produce more female chicks? And does the hen who lays the pointy eggs, consistently produce more male chicks? If there is a correlation to be made, and I was able to do so in my flock, I'd be sure to set eggs from the hen who produced a much higher percentage of pullets. Old wive's tale? Sure! Worth playing around with? Inquiring minds want to know, and some folks... like me... spend a lot of time asking "what if" types of questions. Certainly keeps life from being boring!

I totally agree. Oh I heard a great theory about human ways of improving getting what you want but there's no way I am going into it here. Surprisingly it did make sense....lol

 

[napdognewfie]

Did it have something to do with timing and baking soda or vinegar?

 

[WVduckchick]

I sent her home. Ive become convinced that i cant fix her poor feet. Im pretty sure the bumblefoot infection is in her bone, swelling came down alot and electrolytes helped. If she were mine though i wouldve treated before then, or culled her at that point. Hes got them all on antibiotics, because i discoved like 3 or 4 more cases. Hes not going to do anything furthure though, he doesnt care enough about healing the individual. He will just replace them and write em off on his taxes he told me :-/ I feel like i did all i could without her becoming a risk to my own birds. i almost stuck with it and claimed her as my own, but im so scared my birds are going to be infected with it, i havent had any of those issues aside from pox and so... In the spirit of biosecurity, i had to give it up. Plus she never fit my program, he says shes heritage but i know birds better than That. She was definitly broad breasted hybrid. I feel bad about it but im really Not superwoman
missed you too! So good to "see" all you guys! Im still a constant reader Megan is right, i will add that there is No Substitute for experience! thanks for the advice on the eggs!
I cracked one of my last hatch and did Nothin to try to save it but he hatched, dont loose hope!

Also megan i forgot to tell u bae, those last duck eggs i set were filthy and i never cleaned em? Nobody was sick, so again, dont loose hope!

Really, so good to see you guys! Wish i had more time for sitin online an learning!

I dont blame you one bit for giving that poor bird back! I've never seen anything like it. You tried, and I'm sorry to say, that's more than I would have done. I applaud you for giving it a shot.

They will grow back--some before molting and the rest after the molt. They will be very pretty!

The biggest factor now in the northern hemisphere is light. Hens need light to produce eggs. They are very sensitive to light.

My 8 are still almost all laying daily. I sometimes go 2 days between checking them, and the lowest I have gotten is 12 over 2 day. Even this morning, we had our first frost, and I still had 7 eggs. {knock on wood}
(first egg was July 20th)

Candled real quick a minute ago, most have drawn down a good bit, others are starting to. And... I lost 2 more This is so frustrating.

Oh no, I'm still not caught up reading.

You can wash eggs--Manna pro sells an egg wash that has instructions for washing hatching eggs. I have not seen hatch problems from washed eggs.

If they are covered with poo, then wash them. If they look clean than incubate them without washing them.

I don't think I have ever seen anyone advise this before. Very interesting, and I like it!

No stranger to frozen eggs here, either. They wind up in the bottom of the run, surrounded by birds all too happy to "police" the area.

Yesterday morning before I left for my camp, I got 2 silkie eggs out of the box. Today when I came home, I realized I had left them outside while I finished chores. We had frost last night, but it didn't stay below freezing for very long. Those are still safe to eat, right?

 

[kwhites634]

I dont blame you one bit for giving that poor bird back! I've never seen anything like it. You tried, and I'm sorry to say, that's more than I would have done. I applaud you for giving it a shot.
My 8 are still almost all laying daily. I sometimes go 2 days between checking them, and the lowest I have gotten is 12 over 2 day. Even this morning, we had our first frost, and I still had 7 eggs. {knock on wood}
(first egg was July 20th)
Oh no, I'm still not caught up reading.

I don't think I have ever seen anyone advise this before. Very interesting, and I like it!

Yesterday morning before I left for my camp, I got 2 silkie eggs out of the box. Today when I came home, I realized I had left them outside while I finished chores. We had frost last night, but it didn't stay below freezing for very long. Those are still safe to eat, right?

I sure hope so; I've eaten a bunch just like 'em. I think if the egg's frozen the shell will crack. That's when they're chicken feed

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Did it have something to do with timing and baking soda or vinegar?

Who was that question for? If me no....lol