The 5th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[Sally Sunshine]

Cattle panels laid flat on the ground tied to the base of the pen is the best dog proofing you can do. They try to dig next to the fence and are not smart enough or devoted enough to start digging 4 feet back away from the pen. You can cover with dirt or grass will grow threw and cover them. Plus they are galvanized so they will last a long time

this is a good idea, I have stone in front of the fence in most areas, I can lay this down and add more stone on the drive!

Quote: I love that last image!! ha ha ha stones are a wonderful idea, why the heck I didnt think of it and live in the woods is beyond me!! Dont you have when stuff is right at your finger tips and you have a major DOH factor!! ughhhhh Thank you!!! I have a pile of rocks out front in the woods!!! kids get the wagon!!!

 

[Xovan]

OMGoodness! I love the ones that look like snowballs! What are they??

They are AMERAUCANA's

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I wonder if one can by exotic bird eggs, like those big parrots and such?
HarmonyAnn asked for a bird for in the house and I think it would be fun to hatch one, and I am home and can care for one, I think it would be fun to try.

Here's a book for you.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Parrot-Incu...843?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item486380b9b3

there's some information in the cage bird section
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/33400/parrot-hatching-eggs

Unless it's budgies or something similar, I'm sure they'd be extremely pricey if you can find any available. People with breeders probably won't let them go and they don't ship them.

Some more info here
http://www.voren.com/

This is my personal opinion but, I would think long and hard before acquiring something that lives more than 10-20 years.
Many of the larger parrots mate for life. If you only have one, they'll take someone in the household as their mate. I knew a girl that had a macaw. She went away to college and when she came back, the macaw attacked her every chance it got. She was it's mate and a macaw would never leave its mate for 4 years. He absolutely hated her for leaving him.

A friend of mine that does rescue has had a lot of them come through her home. She now has an eclectus and an umbrella cockatoo. The cockatoo lives up to 60 years or more. He's on his third home and she can't keep him much longer. He'll be in at least 2 more in his lifetime. He's a little crazy.

The singing incubator from hell strikes again, I just found it at 93 degrees for the last 6 hours.... are the last 4 eggs done for? Say it isn't so? No death song on the contraption.....

They're probably ok depending on what day they're on. Here's a good read.
http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/poweroff.html

There are indeed places that sell them. I think a chicken incubator could work for them too. My Brinsea came with special directions for Parrot eggs but it sounded very intimidating. You also may have luck with local parrot breeders who are looking for help with incubating. If anybody can incubate a parrot egg, it's you Sally

http://www.farmingo.com/wild__amp__exotic_birds

It would be fun but a real challenge.
incubating for a local breeder is a good idea but they may not trust an egg out of their sight and care.

Sally I would think you should be able to find hookbill eggs, although they are likely very pricey. Many breeders have the hens hatch their own, then remove the first chick(s) that hatch from most of the larger parrots to ensure all hatched chicks live - cockatoos are notorious for hatching two and raising one, or at least that was the last I knew many years ago when I had parrots. They take a LOT more raising, but are so neat. If I was ever going to have parrots again, I'd get African Greys, Goffins Cockatoos, or one of the smaller Macaws. Greys are so smart, and usually pretty quiet as parrots go, Goffins are quieter than other Cockatoos and smaller as well, so easier to manage, and while I only ever had the larger Macaws I had a friend with a pair of ... cannot remember, Severes maybe? that were smaller than my Green Wings and Blue and Golds, and they seemed much calmer and quieter than my birds. ChickenCanoe can tell you LOTS more about Macaws than I can, though.

X2 on those choices.

Most of the Scarlet and Great Greens we worked with came from makeshift zoos or rescued from hotels or households they had outlived Many of them were nuts. A couple really hated people. No telling what their history was. The juveniles that were hatched there were much better.
One was bald except for the feathers on its head so he was plucking himself constantly.
We had a breeding pair that was 95 years old.

This is the invalid ward.









This newly mated pair built a depression on the ground and laid an egg in it. Usually you can control laying by not providing a nest but young ones just want to raise a family.
They were out of space for more birds so we removed all the nest boxes. We had to install one for this pair. We used 100 liter oil barrels.


These are the old ones.


Juvenile flight cages.


Great greens (buffon's) are one of the rarest in the Americas. They're also the largest in their range.




Root crops, melons, chayote and oranges from the produce market. We cut them up every day for the macaws. We couldn't afford pelleted parrot food.

Pineapple, mango and papaya storage.
There was another area for plantain and banana storage.


Fruits of the morning's labors ready to go feed the birds' second meal of the day.
At dawn the birds would get gallo pinto (rice and beans) with their vitamin and mineral supplement mixed in.




Scarlet juveniles.


~~This macaw that had its beak bitten off by a hyacinth macaw. Its mate had to feed it every meal.





Sorry for the poor picture quality on the last one but we had just drove out of the mountains, hit the beach and saw them flying. My friend whipped out her phone while I was driving.
The above picture is a scarlet macaw flying free along the Pacific Ocean near Tárcoles, Costa Rica. IMHO, that's where they belong.

 

[WHmarans]

Very good advice those that do not recommend parrots as pets. Beautiful birds that belong in the wild. I got a little green cheek conure when I was 15. She is about 20 years old now and has gone through college with me and moved all over the country. Now wants to bite my little sons fingers and i have to keep her safe from my dogs. She hates other birds. It's hard to think about all the phases of life you have to fit these birds into when they live even 30 years. You don't even intensively raise most children that long and that's what they are sort of like. 2 year old children. Loud messy smart emotionally needy. Bless you people who support rescues for them.

 

[Quailsong]

Love the quail video, that's probably the next thing I will hatch.

I def recommend it. They are very addicting!

@ Sally Sunshine - Uh oh, what have I done?! Within the past hour my chicks are suddenly rambunctious, chirping & running around like mad. It's Murphy's Law. I had a good thing going till I questioned it.

 

[PetRock]

Most of the time on shipped eggs you are lucky to get even half of them to hatch. But some time you get lucky on the shipped eggs. Sorry so many of your 93 eggs did not do good, Good luck on the ones left, Hope they hatch for you.

My buff eggs show the rooster in that pen was not doing a great job, but that is what testing the eggs helps us to see what the different roosters are doing.
I notice some of my roosters favor some hens and hardly pay attention to other hens in their flock!

I knew that in my head going into it but the reality hit hard. This is only the second time I have tried hatching shipped eggs. Last spring I had a breeder send me around 3 dozen Langshan eggs. But the week he mailed them from AZ to CA, was the week we had a horrible heat wave. Not a single egg developed. That was really heartbreaking! I think that from now on I will concentrate on my own breeds (BBS Langshan and Pita Pinta) or get eggs from breeders within driving distance. Fortunately, there are many breeders within 2 hrs of where I live in the SF bay area of CA.

Most of my breeding flock is at a friend's 10 acre farm but I have my Pita Pinta flock here in town. Zorro seems to really like the wide bodied girls but some of them are experts at avoiding him! His 7 Pita Pinta girls and the Cream Legbars follow him around like they are his groupies!

 

[hiddenacres]

so i should keep this egg in the incubator until lock down or should i just keep it in till they are done hatching

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I think you have defective squirrels.

...

They seem to be. I think there's just so much natural food around. I have rabbits, squirrels, deer, and all sorts of things but rarely have garden damage. Coons did eat all the corn one year. Once I had a beautiful crop of peaches. I tasted one and it was awesome. I decided I was going to pick them the next day. They were all gone in the morning.
I can walk out in the morning and count at least 20 squirrels.
They used to ravage the wild bird feeders until I got a bucket truck. I suspended the feeders from cables and pulleys way out on branches too high for them to shimmy down and too far from the trunks for them to jump out to the feeders. The feeders were about 10 ft. off the ground and I could lower them to my height for filling.
I felt bad for the squirrels and started feeding them.

Where did you find those containers, ChickenCanoe? I may have to get some, there is a lot to be said for that kind of storage!

We have 42 acres, most of which has lain fallow going on 8 years now, the people that used it before we bought it ran 7 horses on it, which effectively destroyed it. It grows prairie grass every year and each year it's a bit better and more profuse, but we've also had drought conditions almost every year. This year I'd like to scatter some seed in swatchs and see what will grow and survive with only an initial watering, is it possible buckwheat could grow that way? I am late to do it already, should have done last month, but still want to try.

They carry them at my local Handyman True Value hardware store.
I found this for you.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUU-BH1888102PK/

The buckwheat grows very fast so if you have a brief wet period they could work. They can't take a frost though.

Cattle panels laid flat on the ground tied to the base of the pen is the best dog proofing you can do. They try to dig next to the fence and are not smart enough or devoted enough to start digging 4 feet back away from the pen. You can cover with dirt or grass will grow threw and cover them. Plus they are galvanized so they will last a long time

You could even cut them in half. 2' could be wide enough.

Very good advice those that do not recommend parrots as pets. Beautiful birds that belong in the wild. I got a little green cheek conure when I was 15. She is about 20 years old now and has gone through college with me and moved all over the country. Now wants to bite my little sons fingers and i have to keep her safe from my dogs. She hates other birds. It's hard to think about all the phases of life you have to fit these birds into when they live even 30 years. You don't even intensively raise most children that long and that's what they are sort of like. 2 year old children. Loud messy smart emotionally needy. Bless you people who support rescues for them.

My friend with the eclectus constantly has her paperwork destroyed. Her boyfriend's $300 flight manual was eaten by it.

 

[roostereggs]

The last time I candled I only saw 11 of my 31 moving around with good veining. I was pretty bummed about all the clears and a few blood rings. However, I am SO happy I left them in, because last night when I pulled out 11 clears, I could see that 15 were moving!!!

So I think a few of the blood rings were actually alive and just hiding from me! I may have two early quitters, but I am leaving them in just in case.

We have family and friends coming over next weekend, so I am very happy that there will *hopefully* be some new peepers here. If not, I will be out looking for day old chicks. Which I might still do since I need more EEs.

 

[Quailsong]

so i should keep this egg in the incubator until lock down or should i just keep it in till they are done hatching

If it's still growing I would give it a chance. Keep them as long as they need. Chicks hatch when it's the right time, not exactly on day 21 or whatever.^^