Surviving Minnesota!

[lvie]

My sister got her birds a couple weeks ago and may be joining soon. She does a little social media but not a whole lot. She mentioned something this weekend that she "should get on BYC." She is my favorite sister. A chicken newbie. When she writes me emails I absolutely love them- she writes with lots of soul and nostalgia. Her writing is fun to read. I hope she comes on-- sorta. Means I'd have to behave though. And I think I tell you guys things I don't always tell others.

Come on sester. We would welcome you with open arms. Hmmmmm a family connection? Might add more interest. Not that the genetics and graphing discussions are not interesting. Not saying they aren't interesting at all.

 

[KlopKlop]

Good morning all! It was a busy weekend and had too much going on to keep up!
Ralphie, bummer about the troubles going to the sales. Live and learn I guess I'm sure you know what you will do differently next time. I know it can be painful to learn lessons at the expense of chick lives. I learned a lesson this weekend that cost me 2 CX chicks. Got their heads stuck in the tractor feeder and trampled. Breaks my heart but at least I know what needs to change.

I hope you all got out and enjoyed the sun. Not the warmest weekend but at least the sun is as shining! Farmers market was a bust this week. Only 5 dozen eggs and 26 plants sold. Nobody wanted to come down to the market when it is 37 degrees. Oh well next weekend is supposed to be nice. I also got the garden fence up so I can plant this week!

 

[chickenlover292]

Hey everyone, MY CHICKS ARE IN and they are all healthy, here are some pics

 

[lvie]

Good morning all! It was a busy weekend and had too much going on to keep up!
Ralphie, bummer about the troubles going to the sales. Live and learn I guess I'm sure you know what you will do differently next time. I know it can be painful to learn lessons at the expense of chick lives. I learned a lesson this weekend that cost me 2 CX chicks. Got their heads stuck in the tractor feeder and trampled. Breaks my heart but at least I know what needs to change.

I hope you all got out and enjoyed the sun. Not the warmest weekend but at least the sun is as shining! Farmers market was a bust this week. Only 5 dozen eggs and 26 plants sold. Nobody wanted to come down to the market when it is 37 degrees. Oh well next weekend is supposed to be nice. I also got the garden fence up so I can plant this week!

Good Morning Klops. Sorry to hear about those lost chicks. Ahhh the lessons we learn from each other.

 

[KlopKlop]

@Bogtown Chick I just got a text. The first egg at the school is starting to pip! It is a day sooner than expected but oh well. Very exciting!

 

[bantiesrule]

My day...Yesterday.....The day from Hades. A day anything that could go wrong did.

Friday I spent setting up the van to haul chicks and chickens to Brainerd for the 4h show and swap. I put cages in secured them had laces for incubators. I got 3 invertors so I could run the incubators.

I was hatching all day Friday, I opened the hatcher around 10pm I must have had 60 babies all pushing against the door to get out. I hatched in 2 trays. One on the first level and one on the bottom level with 2 open levels. I had a great hatch despite the humidity being a tad low. I need to figure out how to get more water into it. I have the auto fill thing running and 4 sponges from GQF in the tray and still only run around 59%.

I had sorted the trays out by breeds and parents so I knew who came from where. I marked the ones I wanted with Polish. Everything was going good. I had a white sport hatch on the top level and 4 of Bert's baby toads hatch on the bottom level. They are the only white birds so I know which is which. Judy decided to help me while I was gone so, she moved them all to a brooder, I cannot tell which white chick is which now,,,

She told me when I got home last night, " right after, I moved them together, I thought I might have screwed up.".....(understatement of the day)

Back to my day, I got to bed about 1 am on Saturday.

I was up at 5 loading birds. I loaded 15- 8 week old turkeys and 8-8 week BA's. I had 4 SS around 10 weeks old. I had 3 incubators of day old assortments in incubators hooked to the invertors. I took 3 January Hatch CLB's with me. And about 10 dozen hatching eggs....

It was a barnyard in the van. I drove for a little over 2 hours. Having complete faith in the incubators. STUPID MISTAKE. I had one incubator on the passenger seat floor so I could watch one assuming the other chicks would do about the same. The chicks near me rode great no problems.

When I opened the rear of the van I saw the temp had spiked to 110 on the one incubator, I opened it and every birds was comatose or dead!~ Second incubator the same thing. I got them cooled down and some came around. I refused to sell any birds from those incubators. I spent the day baby sitting them while trying to sell birds.

I lost 8 on Saturday.

I sold quite a few birds, all my Sussex went, most the BA went.

I was hoping to sell the three CLB's as a breeding trio. They were not my best trio, they were a good breeding trio, but not a great rooster for showing. A very light color for breeding. I almost had him sold. A guy was interested and asked me if they were friendly. I said they are no "unfriendly" but I do not have pet like birds. They are barnyard friendly.

He said "so they would be safe around kids?"

I told him "yea, they are not mean at all, even if they are a little flighty."

The guy reached a finger into the cage, The rooster reared back and let him have it full force, taking a good 1/2 inch of skin and dripping blood.

The sale was off.....


When it was time to load the van to come home, a kid had let his "prize Pigeon" escape. They would not let us open the doors until he was captured. We had to wait for Heidi to bring a long net to reach the pigeon.

She says " Hi, to everyone" we discussed a bunch of stuff mainly BS. She did not realize she had the white sport gene in her CLB's. She wanted to see a bunch of pictures of the white sports. She wanted me to tell everyone she cannot get on the internet right now. So I did....



I finally got everything loaded to come home. The chicks fit in 2 incubators instead of 3 after the sales and deaths,,,,,,,,

I put one back on the floor so I could watch it. The other in the rear. I had the Case of eggs on the passenger seat. When I got to Pierz, I though " gee, idiot, put the chicks up here and the eggs in the rear"...



So I stopped at a SuperAmerica to change them around so I could watch all the chicks.... I took the incubator out of the rear of the van, the wind grabbed it ripped it from my hands dumping every chick on the ground....Then the darn lid flew up and landed on some chicks. More dead chicks...I should not be allowed to own a chick!


I got them picked up and put on the seat. I watched the temps and chicks all the way home. It appears on the one model of incubators the inverter somehow screws with the thermostat and it runs high. DO not use invertors on farm Innovator incubators!



I got them home and stuff put away Chicks tucked in, I think I lost 3 last night and 3 over night so 14 dead birds because of my stupidity!....

On the bright side today is going better...

Hey Ralphie, I take it that was you sitting at the table selling chicks. I didn't think about you being there selling until after I had left. Dang-nab-it, It would have been nice to introduce myself. Maybe you can remember me though, I was the lady in the blue flannel shirt that said I was only looking for bantams. I was very disappointed in the swap area (I'm glad you sold some of your birds) and didn't stick around real long. It did look like the kids were having fun though.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Kloppers it will be a full day for you And if they have a live stream you will get about zero done.

 

[KlopKlop]

Kloppers it will be a full day for you And if they have a live stream you will get about zero done.

No live streaming unfortunately. I am advising via text. The humidity is only in the low 50s so I'm hoping they can get a little water in without disturbing anything.

 

[I Love Layers]

Are there any poultry shows in Minnesota other then 4H?

 

[duluthralphie]

Hey Ralphie, I take it that was you sitting at the table selling chicks. I didn't think about you being there selling until after I had left. Dang-nab-it, It would have been nice to introduce myself. Maybe you can remember me though, I was the lady in the blue flannel shirt that said I was only looking for bantams. I was very disappointed in the swap area (I'm glad you sold some of your birds) and didn't stick around real long. It did look like the kids were having fun though.

I was wondering if you came. I figured you would know I was the one sitting there with the BYC business cards on the table.

There were a couple people only looking for Banties... Did you have a man in tow? There was a couple there that wanted bantams. BTW I am thinking about getting some of them too. Yesterday, I sold 1 lone SS to a woman from the city with a couple dozen kids. They had just come from Milaca where they bought 5 fufus and banties.

City people like banties and fufu's.