Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[cheeka]

Love the Easter Basket pic MC!

so glad you had a successful fishing trip Scrambles - I can't wait for May - Striped Bass is my chocolate!

lindz, I wish I could be of any help, but you know I've only used a broody, and don't do eggtopsies, because most of the rejected eggs were pretty sloshy sounding, and the others, I didn't have the heart to open.

my plan for today was simple. chill out at home and play outside with the flock. my sweetie talked me into going for Chinese buffet (like he had to twist my arm!!!) and then go just up the road a bit further to spend my Chico's gift card that I got from my Mom for Christmas. I thought about how awful it would be to try on clothes after eating 50 lbs of food... he was cute tho'... really wanted to take me shopping - kinda bizarre for me... I got 2 pairs of jeans, one dark blue, one paisley - at Chico's, you get the kind of service that all department stores offered until the late 70's... and I was chatting with the sales woman - about why I won't wear white pants... and the chickens... and she lit up, dashed off and returned with the paisley pants! yessiree I need some fancy chicken chore jeans!

so I free ranged the flock from 5-7 this evening and it was just lovely out! 70's, breezy, more like summer. the Day Lilies are popping up and the Lilacs are budding. I noticed right away that parts of the "lawn" is turning green. I use quotation marks because it's all orchard grasses, wildflowers, edible weeds, and the occasional thistle.

22 Eggs today

 

[mortie]

Hi all - I've been reading but I just have a minute so i'll just jot down our chickeny goings on quick.

I am not happy with my chicken watering nipples I got. I used them without a problem for 10 days or so in the basement brooder but when I moved the hooligans to the garage I put a new one on a larger bottle so I wouldn't have to fill it twice a day. Twice now this one has gotten clogged or something and stopped working, which has left my chicks with no water...while it appears they have water. The first time it happened, I was working on the coop in the garage and I noticed that they seemed to be drinking a lot (could hear them pecking the thing). They would not stop. Finally I checked it out and it was not dispensing water. I cleared it out and then a couple days later we had to go out of town. I warned my chicken sitter to watch out for that. I got home tonight and the bottle was suspiciously full. I checked and yup - clogged! I filled up a dog bowl and put it in there for the night but this is a problem.

While I was messing around with the chicks I picked up my daughter's favorite which I have suspected from day one was a little boy. I have been reading up on sexing ameracaunas. Little Twidget is looking more and more like a rooster every day. I've told my kid all along that I think that, but she'll still be sad when it's confirmed.

Supposed to rain for the next week....that's really going to mess up my coop construction

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I just had my first ever incubator hatch.... I set 33 eggs. 3 were clears from the first candle, but I left them until the next. At lock-down we saw development and movement in all the eggs, with a couple that were dark and we weren't sure, so we left them in. 10 chicks hatched- one died because yolk hadn't been absorbed, so 9 healthy chicks. 2 pipped, but never zipped. The rest did nothing.
Egg-topsied this morning because the incubator was starting to smell funky. Out of 19 eggs left, 1 quit pretty early-you could see development, but not a formed chick. 1- quit early, but had a nearly formed chick, but it was small. The rest had fully formed chicks, several were malpositioned, 2-3 had pipped internally, but MOST had a LOT of fluid. So I am thinking that humidity was too high sometime during lock-down. What do you all think? I didn't take pictures because it was only me doing it, and I couldn't do both. Not sure what I am going to do next round.... I have 2 dozen Salmon Faverolles eggs coming around the 21st.... I don't want to screw up that hatch, because the eggs aren't exactly cheap! So...for those of you that incubate regularly.... What did I do wrong?


I put eggs in the turner fat end up. Did NOT add any water, and humidity stayed between 16-25%, temp stayed 99* (therm. just did whole degrees...) I candled at day 7, 14, 18. I "twisted" the eggs in the turner once every day or two so they were turned more than one way. At lockdown I dropped temp down to 97* and bumped humidity up to 60%.... It did get up to 74% at one point when all the chicks started hatching.... I'm thinking that may have been the problem....



Ok, I know this reads kinda funny since you all know what is going on... but I'm going to copy and paste into the incubation thread. I'm lazy this morning, and only wanted to type it once....

Really, you did all the right "stuff" if they are going to hatch, they would have. Were they your own hens eggs, or shipped? opening the bator once a day is no different than the hen leaving the nest. Congrats on your babies!

We are back from the fishing trip. The weather was beautiful! We caught a few small mouth bass and I caught a beautiful Walleye. My biggest so far.

Wayyyy too many ticks out there. We must have pick at least 7 ticks off of my DH and myself... plus the dog. Today on the drive hone, I felt a tick on my head and we had to pull over to pull it out of my scalp.

Came home to 6 eggs and Rumples is still being a great broody.

Yummmmm walleye! Ewww on the ticks tho, i can sure live without that!
great news on the broody rumples!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Love the Easter Basket pic MC!

so glad you had a successful fishing trip Scrambles - I can't wait for May - Striped Bass is my chocolate!

lindz, I wish I could be of any help, but you know I've only used a broody, and don't do eggtopsies, because most of the rejected eggs were pretty sloshy sounding, and the others, I didn't have the heart to open.

my plan for today was simple. chill out at home and play outside with the flock. my sweetie talked me into going for Chinese buffet (like he had to twist my arm!!!) and then go just up the road a bit further to spend my Chico's gift card that I got from my Mom for Christmas. I thought about how awful it would be to try on clothes after eating 50 lbs of food... he was cute tho'... really wanted to take me shopping - kinda bizarre for me... I got 2 pairs of jeans, one dark blue, one paisley - at Chico's, you get the kind of service that all department stores offered until the late 70's... and I was chatting with the sales woman - about why I won't wear white pants... and the chickens... and she lit up, dashed off and returned with the paisley pants! yessiree I need some fancy chicken chore jeans!

so I free ranged the flock from 5-7 this evening and it was just lovely out! 70's, breezy, more like summer. the Day Lilies are popping up and the Lilacs are budding. I noticed right away that parts of the "lawn" is turning green. I use quotation marks because it's all orchard grasses, wildflowers, edible weeds, and the occasional thistle.

22 Eggs today

27 big eggs, 15 quail. everyone is filling baskets, and I have a broody turkey and 2 broody geese

Huey, my favorite scovy is going to be too any day.. see her more and more in the box and less with her drake. This year, the girls can hatch, going to let it happen. My 2 goose hens are flat mean right now, forget touching those nests. I know theres several pekin eggs in the nests too, so I will be buried in ducklings.
LMAO love the paisley pants idea! It was 78 today and just awesome, shorts, tank top and flip flops ahhhhhhh

OoooooO cheeka, love me some striped bass! Camp opened 2 weeks ago, we havent been down yet

they are calling for me and my green jigs

Hi all - I've been reading but I just have a minute so i'll just jot down our chickeny goings on quick.

I am not happy with my chicken watering nipples I got. I used them without a problem for 10 days or so in the basement brooder but when I moved the hooligans to the garage I put a new one on a larger bottle so I wouldn't have to fill it twice a day. Twice now this one has gotten clogged or something and stopped working, which has left my chicks with no water...while it appears they have water. The first time it happened, I was working on the coop in the garage and I noticed that they seemed to be drinking a lot (could hear them pecking the thing). They would not stop. Finally I checked it out and it was not dispensing water. I cleared it out and then a couple days later we had to go out of town. I warned my chicken sitter to watch out for that. I got home tonight and the bottle was suspiciously full. I checked and yup - clogged! I filled up a dog bowl and put it in there for the night but this is a problem.

While I was messing around with the chicks I picked up my daughter's favorite which I have suspected from day one was a little boy. I have been reading up on sexing ameracaunas. Little Twidget is looking more and more like a rooster every day. I've told my kid all along that I think that, but she'll still be sad when it's confirmed.

Supposed to rain for the next week....that's really going to mess up my coop construction

I have some water nipples I still haven't used. Hard to find the buckets with metal handles! I read a horror story on one bucket handle breaking. No chickens were harmed.. but not chancing it. We have a lot of calcium so am not keen on using pvc piping. We are suppose to get below freeing next 2 nights so everything has stalled here, again.. UGH there is a cup style I may go with instead. Will try to find the link and post. I need something the muscovy can use too. they have a pool when they are free ranging, but want to be sure they always have plenty of water.

 

[BullChick]

I have been checking the weather a lot lately. I see some drastic changes. Tomorrow going down to 21 is one of them! I don't mean drastic like a big jump from 75 today. I mean in the next ten days, the lowest it was supposed to get was 34! That was one night, not two! I know. I can't argue with the weather. It was just a shock to just see the change on forecast.
75 today. Windy with a chance of rain. I am putting the poults out. They were frantic last night about twenty minutes after putting them in the brooder, they began slamming against the top trying to fly out! It lasted a while.

 

[mortie]

I have tons of buckets with metal handles since my aquarium salt comes packaged that way. I was not going to hang it though I was going to set it up on cinder blocks when I got that far. What is the issue with calcium and pvc? My aquarium plumbing is all pvc and that water has very high calcium (it is needed for coral growth). I have never heard of an issue with that before. I have seen the little cup versions of the waterers. I am kinda hoping maybe this particular one is just slightly defective...

 

[mortie]

Oh and our forcast is pretty grim, too. It just snowed a couple of inches and it's supposed to get down into the teens. Not supposed to be decent again for like a week. I really want to finish my coop and get the hooligans out there. They are 4 weeks old and fully feathered and ready to go but teens I think is still a little chilly for them.

 

[lindz8504]

My littles went into the big coop last night. That means I can move the babies out to the brooder coop if my aunt doesn't take them. Unfortunately I am going to have to take all the bedding out and treat the little coop for mites....... I flung a bunch of DE in there last night but I need to figure out what kind of oil to use to seal all the wood up..... or I guess I can just wash it out and paint it.

 

[chickenlindz]

Hi all!!! I'm getting big! 40 lbs!

 

[Scrambles55]

Hi all!!! I'm getting big! 40 lbs!

Such an adorable face on that Rawley!!