Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[magsrags]

Oh, btw, I made the jump and just bought a hovabator genesis 1588. It has really good reviews and I just couldn't justify the extra 150 for the octagon adv. I hope I made the right choice. I got it directly from GQF and it comes with the universal turner and the quail rails, plus 30 quail eggs. Now, I hadn't planned on quail, but what the hay. Anyone want some quail if I am successful?

I am in so much trouble when that arrives.

well now you've gone and done it "ollie".

 

[magsrags]

Thanks Maggie In the bator I have black x paint, lavender x porcelain/buff from a friend and my guys giving me blue, black, splash. I have 3 white hens in there with them so getting this lighter splash which isn't correct but I love the coloring. As soon as it gets a little more warmer I'm building another coop/run for another project I'm thinking about

so whats popping out so far Jeanette!!! Eggcited to know how your making out.

 

[magsrags]

OMG I haven't been feeling well, and I log on.
Carolyn, THANK YOU so much for the info. I will try to get him an e-mail as soon as.....

Hubby is in school for the next few days, I had ideas of cleaning up the house a little.
Don't know how much the garbage man will appreciate it on Thursday morning, though.
I have bags of poopie litter from all the chicks in the house.
I usually bring it to the compost bins. But with all the snow piles all over the place, I haven't put a priority on shoveling paths to them.
So I have bags of poopie. Yippee. I can't even make it to my garden yet, so I've been saving it for a special occasion.
I think they call it Spring. Or Summer....

And now the ice log jam is backing up onto my front door. Need 6" gutters, so this morning when the doorbell rang, there was nobody there.
An icicle rang the bell. If I don't keep up on the melting, it will flood my downstairs pantry.
Another yippee.

Anyone have any gutter people connections?
At least the totes that I use as brooders can catch the water, and I can go out every few and check/ dump them.
Yippee.

Now to compose a nice letter to the man at the post office.

Your girls are welcome for as long as you need, please don't think they are in the way. they are so sweet.
I need a nap.

I hope your feeling better roberta!

 

[magsrags]

Hi All, its been so long, but I havent forgotten you guys. I actually missed you all horribly shortly after sandy. Life has been hectic. I just wanted to check in and say that the girls are big now and I am loving them more than I ever expected all eleven survived my care
I am hoping that one of these days life will return to normal and I will have time to read and chat more. Best wishes to you all,

S

Good to hear from you!

 

[lichick28]

After 12 years of doing this I still get so gitty when I have chicks hatching. So far one lavender chick with really nice toe separation.

 

[Carolyn252]

Scored a big find yesterday and am so eager to share it with you all.
I found an ad on craigslist for free woodshavings and answered the ad and later chatted on the phone with the fellow who posted the ad.

He's at a very large woodworking concern, designing and manufacturing kitchen cabinets. They have huge amounts of woodshavings and sawdust that result from making the cabinets.

I drove over to their warehouse/factory and found bags and bags of the stuff piled literally to the ceiling. Hundreds of bags. Nice, clean, stuff; all hardwoods. No pine. No cedar. He mentioned three of the hardwoods that they use, I think he said oak and maple and walnut. He said that they keep the walnut shavings separate from the other types because he was told that walnut shavings are not good for horses and since someone might use the shavings in horse stables, he keeps the walnut out of the mix.

He said that it's expensive to have to pay to have the shavings collected and dumped as waste, so he's giving it away to anyone who wants to come and collect it.

There were two sizes of the bags that he's storing the shavings in. One size was clear plastic bags that stood as tall as my shoulder. Several of them were not sealed as yet and I was able to put my hand in and see that it was all clean as a whistle, soft, and fresh looking. The consistency was mixed in the bags, i.e., each bag had a mix of large and small pieces, but none of pieces were as large as the commercial shavings that I get from the pet store and the Hicksville Agway. The smallest of the particles was like bread crumbs, I guess. But mostly it was small shavings, like you get from using a woodworking plane. I think it will be perfect for the deep litter that I use year round in my ChickArena and playhouse coop.

He said that they used to have a guy who came and collected it all from them, but that they haven't heard from him since the big flood here on Long Island, so they're overloaded with the stuff. He's got it already bagged up, either in those clear, shoulder-high bags, or in the milk-white opaque plastic bags that I took. Those are about hip high. I took TWENTY-TWO of those opaque bags. That's as many as I could stuff into my car. Front passenger seat, whole back seat and floor, and the trunk. STUFFED.

I unloaded them temporarily on to the walkway against my house and took photos. The bags are easy to lift and carry, but still he asked one of his workers to help me load my car.

I told him that I had chicken-keeping friends that might be delighted to come and help him out by taking this stuff off his hands. He said, Great!

He's located in Oceanside. I'm in Freeport, and it took me less than 15 minutes to drive over there.

Send me a pm if you're interested and I'll give you his name and phone number. All he asks is that you phone him first to let him know that you're coming.

For those of you too far away to take advantage of this, I suggest you look in your local communities for any woodworking firms (furniture makers, cabinet makers, lumberyards, etc.) that might be all too happy to let you come and take away their leftover woodshavings.

Here are two photos of the bags after I unloaded my car: ( They're sealed shut with twisted metal wire, and are probably rainproof, but I don't want to take a chance and will transfer them into my garage later this afternoon.)

 

[magsrags]

After 12 years of doing this I still get so gitty when I have chicks hatching. So far one lavender chick with really nice toe separation.

holding my breath for you!

 

[magsrags]

Scored a big find yesterday and am so eager to share it with you all.
I found an ad on craigslist for free woodshavings and answered the ad and later chatted on the phone with the fellow who posted the ad.

He's at a very large woodworking concern, designing and manufacturing kitchen cabinets. They have huge amounts of woodshavings and sawdust that result from making the cabinets.

Nice score Caroline. Saves a nice chunk of change over time that is for sure.

 

[smkchick]

Scored a big find yesterday and am so eager to share it with you all.
I found an ad on craigslist for free woodshavings and answered the ad and later chatted on the phone with the fellow who posted the ad.

He's at a very large woodworking concern, designing and manufacturing kitchen cabinets. They have huge amounts of woodshavings and sawdust that result from making the cabinets.

I drove over to their warehouse/factory and found bags and bags of the stuff piled literally to the ceiling. Hundreds of bags. Nice, clean, stuff; all hardwoods. No pine. No cedar. He mentioned three of the hardwoods that they use, I think he said oak and maple and walnut. He said that they keep the walnut shavings separate from the other types because he was told that walnut shavings are not good for horses and since someone might use the shavings in horse stables, he keeps the walnut out of the mix.

He said that it's expensive to have to pay to have the shavings collected and dumped as waste, so he's giving it away to anyone who wants to come and collect it.

There were two sizes of the bags that he's storing the shavings in. One size was clear plastic bags that stood as tall as my shoulder. Several of them were not sealed as yet and I was able to put my hand in and see that it was all clean as a whistle, soft, and fresh looking. The consistency was mixed in the bags, i.e., each bag had a mix of large and small pieces, but none of pieces were as large as the commercial shavings that I get from the pet store and the Hicksville Agway. The smallest of the particles was like bread crumbs, I guess. But mostly it was small shavings, like you get from using a woodworking plane. I think it will be perfect for the deep litter that I use year round in my ChickArena and playhouse coop.

He said that they used to have a guy who came and collected it all from them, but that they haven't heard from him since the big flood here on Long Island, so they're overloaded with the stuff. He's got it already bagged up, either in those clear, shoulder-high bags, or in the milk-white opaque plastic bags that I took. Those are about hip high. I took TWENTY-TWO of those opaque bags. That's as many as I could stuff into my car. Front passenger seat, whole back seat and floor, and the trunk. STUFFED.

I unloaded them temporarily on to the walkway against my house and took photos. The bags are easy to lift and carry, but still he asked one of his workers to help me load my car.

I told him that I had chicken-keeping friends that might be delighted to come and help him out by taking this stuff off his hands. He said, Great!

He's located in Oceanside. I'm in Freeport, and it took me less than 15 minutes to drive over there.

Send me a pm if you're interested and I'll give you his name and phone number. All he asks is that you phone him first to let him know that you're coming.

For those of you too far away to take advantage of this, I suggest you look in your local communities for any woodworking firms (furniture makers, cabinet makers, lumberyards, etc.) that might be all too happy to let you come and take away their leftover woodshavings.

Here are two photos of the bags after I unloaded my car: ( They're sealed shut with twisted metal wire, and are probably rainproof, but I don't want to take a chance and will transfer them into my garage later this afternoon.)

Thanks, Carolyn. If you send me a PM with his number I will give him a call. And any of the LI folks that don't want to take the trip all the way out there, I can share what I get.

 

[littlecritters]

http://www.amazon.com/The-Granny-Square-Book-Techniques/dp/1589236386/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361363075&sr=8-2&keywords=granny+square+crochet This one is great. I've given you the amazon link, but I've seen the book at Michaels. This is a ravelry pattern. Gorgeous. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ladys-rose---6-square Here's a link to other 6" square patterns - lots of flowers there too. http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/6in_squares.php

Hope that helps!

Thank you Suzanne, lots of beautiful squares to choose from.

Richard said that he has been buying sprouting seeds from sprout people.org also. Check out that site as well.

I'm really enjoying doing simple sprouting with ball jars and cheese cloth....

So, got the call for the chicks this am. There were supposed to be 15. There were 12. 2 frozen solid. 2 near frozen. 4 barely alive. The 2 near frozen didn't make it long. The 4 barely alive got the heater treatment in the car and rode home inside my shirt. All 4 are still with us, but 2 are in sketchy shape (eating and drinking on their own though). The other 4 have the zoomies already. They look like they would have been very robust chicks, so at least they seem like good quality. The hatchery is doing a full reshipment. They have been wonderful to work with and I will not hesitate to use them again. They even had a hotpack in there (I didn't request and was not charged for it, pretty considerate) because they knew the cold would be tough on them. I will let everyone know who makes it. Currently there are 2 WCB polish, 1 WCBl polish, 1 buff polish (pretty sure they sexed this one wrong: wing feathers say girl, stance and attitude say boy), 1 BPR, 1 br leghorn, 1 RIR. The WCB polish have such big caps on their heads already. So cute.

I'm really sorry for all the problems with chicks. Please keep us posted.

Oh, btw, I made the jump and just bought a hovabator genesis 1588. It has really good reviews and I just couldn't justify the extra 150 for the octagon adv. I hope I made the right choice. I got it directly from GQF and it comes with the universal turner and the quail rails, plus 30 quail eggs. Now, I hadn't planned on quail, but what the hay. Anyone want some quail if I am successful? I am in so much trouble when that arrives.

We are having terrible luck with our new incubator. Our first hatch of bantam Polish was a flop and now our second hatch of Silkies and Nankins has also been a disaster. For some reason, eggs are not pipping by Day 23 and Day 24. Yet when I do eggtopsies, the chicks are fully formed. I'm told that late death in the egg can be related to low temps...but we ran this last batch at 100.5 and had the auto cool feature turned off. We actually had one of our own silkie eggs hatch in this second batch, and live for two days until I lowered the humidity on the incubator. The unit started dripping water directly onto the baby chick and it died this morning. My daughter was crying today. I felt so bad. Brinsea is having us send back the incubator so they can test it and possibly recalibrate. I'm not giving up and will keep trying till we get some good hatches!