South Carolina

[FarmerJohn3285]

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that is your problem. your humidity needs to be 30 to 40 percent for first 18 days then bump it up to about 60 percent. that should give you a better hatch.

Now that you mention it...the very first hatch i did -- the humidity was around 30-40 and then 50-60. What a retard mistake!

SO having said all that, Here's to a better hatch this go round!!

 

[huckleberryfarm]

John, Glad you figured it out. Now that I reread the humidity, it's way too high. Glad there's some smart people on this board!

I just hatched the craziest looking silkie! It looks black but the vaulted crest and beard are silver with a super black face. It looks like a monkey I've seen. I'll take a picture when they are out of the incubator. That's what I get for hatching eggs before separating the colors! I also have one that looks greyish/black with silver stripes. No clue! They'll be fun to watch grow up!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

So how did everyone fare during the storm last night?

As you can see we had a bit of wind damage.
I had locked Jolie, the LGD, in my red contraption for the night because I knew she would be gone during the storm so I jumped up at daylight and ran out to let her out and what do I see?

I ran over and made sure all the birds were okay. There were two pens side by side like this when I spotted them. The Golden Cuckoo pen was flipped over onto the fence but did not get tore up.
The bantam Cochins were not so lucky. I had 3 hens in the box on eggs. Eggs are now gone, hens still in nest boxes!
Praise be that none of my birds were harmed. There were 6 in the Golden Cuckoo pen and 6 in the bantam Cochin pen. I am so glad no one was hurt! I just knew I was going to find a dead or maimed bird under these pens. One of my GC hens was still inside the upside down pen and I had to open the gate and call her to me to get her out so we could flip it back over.

As you can see the pens took down a whole fence line there. AND it was 2 fences! A hogwire one and a dog fence one with separate fence posts but side by side! It busted down 7 posts and several were concreted into the ground. We now have that fence back up with those green metal posts. Again, praise the Lord that I had just bought some and they were ready to be used. So I was able to let the chicks out of the shed but they are confused by the pen next to the fence.

It certainly did not look like that yesterday!

We flipped the Golden Cuckoo pen back up and got everyone back inside but the bantam Cochins are in the shed for now. Once we tried to right their pen the panel with the door just crumbled. The metal had gotten wrapped around that tree and there was no saving it. I suppose we will save the other panels and reconstruct something but meanwhile, I am down a pen and have too many roosters in the others. If I could get DH to help me put about 18 roos in the freezer then I would free up 3 pens.

Always something!

I had everything ready and thought the storm would come from the west but it came from the southeast and even though I had stakes holding these frames down the wind just ripped them right up. Naturally the M*A*S*H units are in great shape. Can't budge them suckers without wheels.


Anyhow, I hope everyone else was spared.

 

[huckleberryfarm]

Good gracious! So glad the chickens are okay! I haven't been out to the farm yet. Almost scared to go.... except my coops are all bigger buildings so I'm sure they're fine. Hope the chickens hunkered down inside. My garden on the other hand....

We always have a lot of wind on the farm since it's all cleared and there's not many trees. And we definitely had the wind last night!

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

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OMGGGGGGGG! Sorry you awoke to such chaos! Glad all the chickies made it through. Poor eggs must have blown into the next county!

I have not been out to look at anyone, but what I can see from the dining room window & deck everyone is OK and things are still standing.

I expected to see at least one of those dead pines in the woods down. Fortunately, they are still standing. If some fall the wrong way, they could hit pens! When DH has time to cut them down, it is either raining or too windy.....so it is a waiting game to see who will get the trees down first - us or the wind.

Wind is horrible here again today.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

Finally back in from checking for damage. One tree did fall - perfectly - and missed everything!

However that dog is back.......he got my d'uccle, Pedro, one of Nicole's OEG hens, & the one roo that had been hurt that we set in a cage as bait. (I know I am horrible for that but this dog needs to be killed.)

Body count is now 30 + 1 duck.
Injured is 1 goat & 1 OEG roo, and 1 Japanese bantam hen.

We all thought we would have this dog within the first two nights at the latest. Me, DD, DH & the neighbor & his wife all waiting with guns. Neighbor's 2 kids have even tried to call the dog and find him.

Of course DD & I both have missed him once each...me with a .22 with a scope...I have never learned to shoot with a scope!....the neighbor even missed with his 22 rifle twice. Now I am armed with a 20 gauge & slugs, DD with the .22 that she can shoot well, DH with something or other big LOL

We do not even go feed our animals without being armed.

This is getting ridiculous. I am not even going to try to recover most of what I have lost, I don't think.
I do not want to even dwell on how much this dog has cost me. My chickens have been the best thing for me, other than my dog, healthwise.

I have way to much in my silkies to lose any of those so guess it is back to no sleep for me.

 

[huckleberryfarm]

Oh, no! What a nightmare. I'm so sorry. Stupid, jerk dog.

Is there anything else you can do? Call animal control or something? When you're ready, and if you're interested, come get some hens. They won't replace your babies but at least it would be something. I'm sorry, sweetie.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

Nothing other than shoot him. He is part wolf so is proving to be very cunning and smart...

...he is only coming during the night or very early pre-dawn hours - I did not go out last night due to the storm coming thru & finally think I fell asleep right after or right before it ended.

 

[Joycats]

Oh my goodness Amy Nadine, looks like the storm hit you pretty hard. Everytime I walk outside I see something new somewhere it's not supposed to be. The wind blew a tin roof off of one pen. I had another pen covered with a tarp and the tarp is gone, haven't been able to find it. It blew a swing over, I'm still finding things, but I think all of my birds are ok. The sunshine would be so nice today if the wind would just stop for awhile. Hope you get it all put together quickly. At least you don't have to hunt Jolie today.

Kim - ya'll will get this dog/wolf. His time is running out. I hope quickly.

Take care everyone, I'm off to wash eggs and feed chickens.

 

[huckleberryfarm]

All I saw was a kennel tipped over. The chickens are crawling all over it. Too heavy for me to upright but my husband will be home tonight.

Okay... Chicken People.... I have a 4-day old Lav Ameraucana that won't put one of its feet down. Just keeps it held up by its body. If I pull it down and straighten it, she doesn't seem in pain but it won't stay there. I put the spraddle leg bandaid treatment on her for the last two days but she wouldn't move. I took it off this morning. Still just hops around a little but not eating or drinking that I can tell. Any thoughts? At least I had some hatch this time but they are having a lot of issues! Oh the joy of raising chickens!!!