Surviving Minnesota!

[I Love Layers]

No chicks yet. Not even a pip.
My mom just now realized that I have to get birds to the State Fair on Friday and now I have to find someone to hitch a ride with up there since my family can't come until Sunday morning or very late Saturday.
Cleaned both chick brooders today. They Should be moving into an outside coop on Monday, as long as we can figure out some kind of tractor we can move around that fits 40 chicks to use during the day. This is probably the only downside to not having a fun for my chickens. Especially with the bald eagles and red hawks, to name the 2 most prominent, they cannot be outside without me there until they are a bit older.
The dog will also be moved down with the chicks as we are going to seed grass around our house and her and her doghouse are in the way, and this way she can be down by the outside coop amd the chicks at night. Since she stil has to be tied up due to her ACL we didnt want the chicks outside since we have some monster coons here but if she's down there it's fine.
Black Cochin Cockerel bred one of the blue pullets today, he fell off a few times but is slowly understanding what he is supposed to do. Hopefully I can set some eggs beginning of May and they will actually hatch on time.

Have a great & Blessed Easter everyone!



Христос воскрес
він воскрес

 

[Momof3plustwins]

You never know what may happen by morning! Some hatches are fast and others seem to drag on. This one will probably drag on due to the early start.

 

[jerryse]

Morning . HappyEaster . No word from Ralphie . I bet he is tired from the sale .

 

[jerryse]

Totally unexpected as I walked in the room with the incubator to check the humidity. They have been on lock down for 24 hours. It is day 19 and 5 hours according to the hatch timer. WELL TWO eggs have externally pipped and I heard chirping! I as NOT expecting that yet! They have 2 days left to cook! So Ralphie had one arrive a week early, right? Now I have at least 2 trying to come early. WHAT IS GOING ON?? I am not sure. I do know that all of the eggs I set were all collected and set on the same day they were laid so I could not have had any counter starters, where as maybe Ralphie did? Either way it was an exciting thing to find as MAYBE we will have Easter Chicks! Or they could sit there like that for 2 days. Who knows.

From experience I have found a early hatch is often due to temp being a bit high . Say 1/2 degree . A late slow draggy hatch a bit low by 1/2 degree . Thermometers can be off a little . You can check with a fever thermometer . I usually just adjust as I know from experience . This is if it does it every hatch. I usually have weekly hatches in the same incubator .

 

[duluthralphie]

Morning



I got back alive.


I sold some birds, but the crowd was smaller than I expected.

I am rethinking all of the hatching and traveling to sales. I will do a few more this year, but that might be it. I am just getting too old for it. That bump on the head a has really set me back. I never really felt "old" other than a few aches and pains. Now I feel old. I have seen it before in people they look good a small injury and it ends up killing them in the end.

NO I am not dying just feeling old.

I really like going to New Ulm so many nice friendly people down there in their bird club.

I think, though I will cut back on hatching to just a couple hatches a year. I sold $500 worth of chicks but I lost money on each chick, so I tried to make up for it in volume.


Judy, would like to retire, I cannot continue to spend as much on chickens as I do if she retires. I am going to get rid of some breeds. People seem to think all chicks should cost $1.50 like they do at Runnings, the feed stores or TSC. They do not understand the concept of "loss leader" and how much those places make on the junk and feed they sell you.

Also I am tired of parents that cannot keep their kids from "touching" my birds and things. The little "typhoid Marys and Marks" drive me nuts. I am not as tolerant as I was of little brats I guess. When I say " don't touch please"

The parents look at me like I just beat their kids. Not that a good swat* to the butt would not help some of them. The funny thing is I actually like kids, their parents not so much..

It appears quality only matters to a few people. So I will hatch early birds for myself and maybe friends that will be it. I am not going to build a hatchery like I was, if I lose NPIP it is not a big deal. I will just test my birds before shows.

I am going to finish the area and heat it t about 45 degrees to keep my best roosters in over winter. I do not want my SS roosters combs to be touched even the little Cuddles got his touched today.

Speaking of birds that have passed. My Cuckoo Maran rooster that was a barn rooster, the one that injured his leg has died. In the last week he had jumped me from behind a couple times. The last time I was in the open so I swung around and kicked the Poo out of him. He ran off and hid, I thought we had then come to an understanding. He has not jumped me since, but gave me wide berth.


Yesterday he made a fatal judgment in error. He attacked Judy from behind almost knocking her down. He lost his head over that move, Judy was not happy with him. My Mother is roasting him for dinner today. Yum Yum, fresh old non-cured non-rested old rooster for Easter, what could be better?





Is this image ok, BC?


I have decided to sell or eat a bunch of chickens. The Pollacks are gone. Too worthless and the few people that want them want to pay near nothing for their chicks.

I am going to cut back on the Yokis. I am thinking 2 hens and a rooster. We will see how well they free range. If they were not so cool looking they would be gone too.

I am going to cut back to 6-8 Legbars of each color keeping the best and the rest will be gone. I am stilling going to hatch a few of them this year, but with different breeding matches. I do not have the perfect bird yet. I will be keeping a 10 whites also, looking for the perfect bird.

I like the PC's but again 6-10 hens and 2 roosters will be my limit.

I am going to cut back on the Appletini's too, their cold weather performance and small appetites, paired with the size of the egg for the feed they eat makes them a winner. I am thinking one rooster and 2-3 hens. I will be opening the cages and let the hawks decide which ones I keep as they have no SOP. Lots of cages being opened this week. Let the weaning begin.


I hope this does not make is seem like I am down or depressed, I am not, I still love my birds, I just want to change how many and what I do with them all. I will do like the large hatcheries if I keep the NPIP. I will set my price and only hatch eggs when the chicks are paid for in advance.

Judy, is pretty adamant on this. People will call me 2-3 times a week and spend 30 minutes or more on the phone, ordering chicks and when I tell them I have them, I get a "oh, I 'm sorry I already got some at TSC when I was there"....


Anyways my life today...

Have a Super Easter. I will spend mine doing the taxes I might have procrastinated on.






* for you liberals here a swat on the butt is not a "beating" it is a little attention getter is all. (yep, I am old school)

 

[bantiesrule]

Happy Easter All!!!

 

[BantyChooks]

Morning

...

NO I am not dying just feeling old.
...

Judy, is pretty adamant on this. People will call me 2-3 times a week and spend 30 minutes or more on the phone, ordering chicks and when I tell them I have them, I get a "oh, I 'm sorry I already got some at TSC when I was there"....
....

Have a Super Easter. I will spend mine doing the taxes I might have procrastinated on.

Good, I got worried for a minute, thought I was going to have to stalk you until I found your address and then drag you to the hospital for observation.

They back out AFTER they are reserved??

IMO backing out should be reserved for when you absolutely can't get them, like you're sitting in the hospital in traction or in an iron lung...

You have no pollacks? Now you're not gonna have a reason not to tease me mercilessly for owning silkies.

Yeah, I think you procrastinated just a little. Have fun.

 

[Cebarmlds]

Morning all, have a happy Easter.

 

[Siggie]

morning everyone! Thanks to everyone for all your great input on my new chicks. I am providing the starter feed with fresh herbs, and some veggies and water with rocks in the bottom so they won't drown. I have been spending hours just sitting and watching the chicks and of course taking pictures! (I know I'm nuts so no need to point it out) I have watched the broody break up the starter pellets and the chicks will either pick up the crumbled pieces or actually take them right from the end of her beak! She continually showed them how to peck at the crumbles on the plate until they started doing it themselves...it was amazing! The chicks would occasionally peck at a piece of veggie or the herbs but mostly went for the crumbled starter feed. I have seen all of them drink so I am a little more relaxed and not thinking they will dehydrate.

I have good news and bad news though....my broody had two more chicks over Friday night/Saturday morning....I had to leave them locked up Saturday because we had a class down in Duluth but then skipped out and came home around 1pm.... I found a dead chick in the center of the coop.

Sadly I think since the roosters fight when they are locked up and not free ranging, I think they may have accidentally stepped on it and killed it...I don't want to think one of my birds killed it on purpose...I have watched the other hens come into the coop to lay, check them out without any aggression and even the sub-rooster came in and didn't have issue with them or show any aggression at all. Even the broodies were calm with no growling when the other birds showed curiousity. but in any case I built a (really ugly) make shift cage to go around the two nest boxes that the two broodies are sitting in. It IS ugly but it will work for protecting the chicks when they all need to be locked in the coop/run.

Also, maybe some one can weigh in on my next observation.....I FREAKED OUT yesterday when two of the chicks decided to visit the other broody...then they both squeezed under her! She looked a little surprised at first but then settled down and never gave it another thought! I watched this go on for about 2 hours yesterday...they are SHARING the chicks! I though she would attack them and originally thought maybe thats how the one died but she accepted them without a thought. Then the chicks just went back and forth between the two broodies???!!

Hence my idea to make the cage cover both broody hens....

Oh and Ralphie...I think if more kids these days were swatted on the butt a few times we wouldn't have such disrespectful youth!

 

[I Love Layers]

1 egg was pipped when I left. We are heading to Fairfield for mass and lunch at my grandmas so I can't wait to get home