Surviving Minnesota!

[KlopKlop]

Grats.

The inspectors I had here were pretty nice guys too, but he was into poultry and fell in love with JJ and Ethel.

The electrical inspector was a real nice guy too. He even gave me a hint on how I could get the electrical final before I finished the building.

I told him how much my quote for the trenched power line was and he visible flinched lol

that tells me the quote is crap (as if i didnt know that already) makes me think maybe i should get a second quote just for reference.

 

[Momof3plustwins]

That sounds like a pretty good plan.  Want to come do my coops, barn and brooder house too? 


I almost forgot, I got me a PURPLE Carhart Vest last year!  It is good for this time of year with a sweatshirt.  Poop is poop, and if it gets on brown, purple or pink, I treat it the same.  Broken eggs in the pockets requires washing no matter what the outside color is too.


It is amazing how fast they can bloom into their manhood when their hormones kick in or they are no longer bullied by other roosters.  I had a BLRW one year who I knew was a cockerel, but he was just lagging a lot with the other dominant rooster in the pen.  Then Spring rolled around an in a week he went from pale and no male feathers to "POOF" full bloomin' rooster.

Pretty much what happened! I am sad I am down one more laying chicken though.

 

[KlopKlop]

Can any of you identify this bird sound? is it doves? it is a kind of cooing sound if you ignore the chickens. I have been enjoying being serenaded by the pheasants this week but this one is new to me. (Excuse my dirty window sill lol)

 

[Momof3plustwins]

I did not forget but am just slow at getting the information! Here is a picture of the incubator I have. Someone asked what kind it was.

I had a separate temp/humidity gauge in there but the one on top while it didn't give exact temp/humidity just has a range on the dial that say incubating and hatching and those ranges matched my gauge also. So it is accurate. I kept the top plug out during incubation or the humidity was too high and put the plug in during hatching to raise humidity. 9/11 hatched. One was a quitter and one died after it pipped. So pretty good rate. It should hold 27 eggs in the turner. I think we are going to get another so we can have a bigger hatch this Spring. The instructions are not very good. But if you have done this before or at least had looked up on incubating like I had it is very easy.

 

[Momof3plustwins]

Can any of you identify this bird sound? is it doves? it is a kind of cooing sound if you ignore the chickens. I have been enjoying being serenaded by the pheasants this week but this one is new to me. (Excuse my dirty window sill lol)

I think pigeon not dove. Could be wrong.

 

[MNChickMom]

I did not forget but am just slow at getting the information! Here is a picture of the incubator I have. Someone asked what kind it was.

I had a separate temp/humidity gauge in there but the one on top while it didn't give exact temp/humidity just has a range on the dial that say incubating and hatching and those ranges matched my gauge also. So it is accurate. I kept the top plug out during incubation or the humidity was too high and put the plug in during hatching to raise humidity. 9/11 hatched. One was a quitter and one died after it pipped. So pretty good rate. It should hold 27 eggs in the turner. I think we are going to get another so we can have a bigger hatch this Spring. The instructions are not very good. But if you have done this before or at least had looked up on incubating like I had it is very easy.

THank you! It was me looking for incubator ideas.

 

[MinnesotaNice]

I did not forget but am just slow at getting the information! Here is a picture of the incubator I have. Someone asked what kind it was.

I had a separate temp/humidity gauge in there but the one on top while it didn't give exact temp/humidity just has a range on the dial that say incubating and hatching and those ranges matched my gauge also. So it is accurate. I kept the top plug out during incubation or the humidity was too high and put the plug in during hatching to raise humidity. 9/11 hatched. One was a quitter and one died after it pipped. So pretty good rate. It should hold 27 eggs in the turner. I think we are going to get another so we can have a bigger hatch this Spring. The instructions are not very good. But if you have done this before or at least had looked up on incubating like I had it is very easy.

Did you get that off of ebay? I've bought from Incubator Warehouse via ebay before. I like the clear top yours has. Do you have to roatate the eggs yourself? My first incubator used wafer technology. I had really good hatch rates but man, it stressed me out! I was always messing with the temp because our entire home temperature fluctuates so much. I'd wake up multiple times during the night to check on it. I finally caved and bought an automatic temp bator with a fan. Incubating life was good after that!

 

[Momof3plustwins]

​

Did you get that off of ebay? I've bought from Incubator Warehouse via ebay before. I like the clear top yours has. Do you have to roatate the eggs yourself? My first incubator used wafer technology. I had really good hatch rates but man, it stressed me out! I was always messing with the temp because our entire home temperature fluctuates so much. I'd wake up multiple times during the night to check on it. I finally caved and bought an automatic temp bator with a fan. Incubating life was good after that!

It has an egg turn so I only opened it to candle or add water. I filled all three trays with water when I went into lock down. Was too much because I had to leave the plug off at the start or I was at 90% humidity or better. I would put it on and off trying to keep humidity at the right level. It has a fan. I put it in a small storage room which stays pretty dark all the time and kept the door closed so the temp in there stayed close to the same temp all the time in there. I feel like I can trust it now so I won't be checking it all the time. We even left for a wedding out of town gone for 2.5 days and it did just fine on its own. We ordered it off Amazon. About $130-150 I think it was. The clear top was very nice during hatch time. The chicks were so funny. One time one jumped around and laid its head on an I hatched egg and fell asleep. Its head slowly slid off the top and woke it up again but it was really funny!


Oh it also has a digital thermostat on top as well as a hatch timer and you can change the setting on the egg turner for how many times it turns the eggs per 24 hrs.

 

[Siggie]

Good morning all and thanks for the welcome back

Life has been pretty intense the last couple of months but hopefully things are winding down. So..... I know I can't possibly catch up on everything since I was last on but I hope I didn't miss anything REALLY important!! If I did, I'm sorry

Nothing much has changed with me...I am still working FULL time at my part time post office job! My greenhouse is not finished and it is gonna snow any day now...

Oh...yeah, I had one of my roosters become a little bast$*rd and started attacki9ng me everytime I came into the pasture! Makes it hard to feed the horses and the chickens when you are carrying a rake to protect yourself! We also have 3 other bullies (well only 1 now)

my chickens started laying the cutest little pullet eggs I have ever seen!! They are almost to normal size now but not all my birds are laying yet and occasionally I see a new tiny egg...I have brown and pink eggs, don't know if it's the Wyandottes or the Cochins laying the pink eggs but they are cute.

We butchered 3 of our roosters 2 weeks ago (the bas$*rd was the first to go)...very unpleasant task and after catching the second one and taking him out of the pasture, the rest got wise and would not come near my husband. We were only able to catch the third one because he had a bad eye and could not see out of it. I have been told to do it at night but that makes it really rough on us because we are hanging them in the woods to butcher, away from the house and my other chickens. and then I plucked them next to the garage...now that it's getting so cold at night I would rather not be out there in the dark plucking chickens.

We have 7 more to go....I was gonna keep three but not now because they all seem to be getting a little frisky and try to bully me now and again (especially the Australorps - who'd a guessed right?). My Cochin Rooster is very respectful and never tries to bully me so he drew the lucky straw and he stays

everybody else....OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

I had a Cochin go through a mental breakdown (I think ha ha) right before she started laying....she sat on the roost for 3 days and would not come down or move??? I thought she was being bullied too much by the roosters and did not want to come out..then on the fourth day she was in a nesting box and laid an egg! Now she's fine and out with all the others... ahhh...womanhood!

Well I am glad to be back and promise to keep up on everything from here on out! Oh, BTW....my BROWN carhartts are the BEST present my husband ever got me!!!

 

[KlopKlop]

Good morning all and thanks for the welcome back

Life has been pretty intense the last couple of months but hopefully things are winding down. So..... I know I can't possibly catch up on everything since I was last on but I hope I didn't miss anything REALLY important!! If I did, I'm sorry

Nothing much has changed with me...I am still working FULL time at my part time post office job! My greenhouse is not finished and it is gonna snow any day now...

Oh...yeah, I had one of my roosters become a little bast$*rd and started attacki9ng me everytime I came into the pasture! Makes it hard to feed the horses and the chickens when you are carrying a rake to protect yourself! We also have 3 other bullies (well only 1 now)

my chickens started laying the cutest little pullet eggs I have ever seen!! They are almost to normal size now but not all my birds are laying yet and occasionally I see a new tiny egg...I have brown and pink eggs, don't know if it's the Wyandottes or the Cochins laying the pink eggs but they are cute.

We butchered 3 of our roosters 2 weeks ago (the bas$*rd was the first to go)...very unpleasant task and after catching the second one and taking him out of the pasture, the rest got wise and would not come near my husband. We were only able to catch the third one because he had a bad eye and could not see out of it. I have been told to do it at night but that makes it really rough on us because we are hanging them in the woods to butcher, away from the house and my other chickens. and then I plucked them next to the garage...now that it's getting so cold at night I would rather not be out there in the dark plucking chickens.

We have 7 more to go....I was gonna keep three but not now because they all seem to be getting a little frisky and try to bully me now and again (especially the Australorps - who'd a guessed right?). My Cochin Rooster is very respectful and never tries to bully me so he drew the lucky straw and he stays

everybody else....OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

I had a Cochin go through a mental breakdown (I think ha ha) right before she started laying....she sat on the roost for 3 days and would not come down or move??? I thought she was being bullied too much by the roosters and did not want to come out..then on the fourth day she was in a nesting box and laid an egg! Now she's fine and out with all the others... ahhh...womanhood!

Well I am glad to be back and promise to keep up on everything from here on out! Oh, BTW....my BROWN carhartts are the BEST present my husband ever got me!!!

DW can commiserate with you with 'overly friendly' roosters. last night i was putting up the last of the garage trim and here comes DW and our hound dog running across the yard with a rooster in chase just hollering. im yelling for her to turn around and punt it but she wasnt having it. the hound dog finally turned and barked at it which stopped it for a second. then the rooster took a couple steps closer and the pooch was off like a shot. she is a total weenie haha

today the roosters were rounded up in the morning from the roosts and they went into a tractor. they will move to the freezer and soup pot sunday finally. I can already see that the hens are enjoying not being pestered today.