THE MOTHER'S DAY HATCH-A-LONG!!!! The last day to join in and set eggs with us is April 28th.

[jandrusrn]

still too funny to keep from laughing!

I seem to have super(wo)man hearing too. ALways listening for sounds around the farm and when the kids are home. Mommy ears.




Oh . . .that's chicken obsession!! I do it too!! I watch on trash day looking for goodies.

Noses whistling, asthma wheezing, incubators squeaking.... I love this. Here's the part that kills me..... my daughter can be talking right to my face and I may or may not hear what she's saying, but dear God if the girls outside are preening particularly fluffily (word?) I'm up and looking out the back door to make sure there's nothing going to get them. Aaaaah, Mommies.

And on another subject... only mildly related, I would have been hatching today but had 100% fail rate.... will be living it up watching you all love on your babies!! Go get em everyone!! yaaaay

PS Not giving up.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

I got all of my duck incubating information from here and from google, since I'm 100% new to all of this. Mine are Welsh Harlequins that take approx. 28 days. Horrible wait!
I just use a little handheld flashlight that my boyfriend uses when he gets my horses in at night. Not the brightest thing at all, yet illuminates inside the egg just wonderfully!

HAA haaa! My DH uses our 1 LED flashlight to put my horses away at night too.

Then I use it to look at eggs. Not the brightest light, but I can see air cell growth and see some growth and filling, or not! But not veins.

Quote: My first broody, last fall, was a BO and sshe fif a wonderful job. She disappeared and I thought a traveling coyote had grabbed her. No she was holed up in a little used stall. She hatched most of those eggs. Then a BA went broody, gave her a few eggs; come spring she was broody again. I did not let her have eggs this time. Broody for weeks then finally gave up. I'm not set up for broodies. Most of my hens were picked for not going broody. Need them on the job!

Quote: Are the ducks like turkeys then, just take a little longer? THe waxy coating doesn't need anything special?

So sorry for all the typos! That's what I get for not reading it before I post it!

That's what mine would look like if I didn't edit! Very funny.

Quote: Is the wire mesh in the incubators ok? Or do you mean you use it to prevent spraddle leg in the brooder? I use shavings in the brooder.

 

[emrys]

I just almost had heart failure. I've been watching pips in four of my five eggs all day long with no signs of advancement. I just went to check again and there was this dark THING thrashing around in the Brinsea. My first hatchling is out. Can't wait till it dries so maybe I can tell what it is. Yea, Yea Yea.

 

[yinepu]

Are the ducks like turkeys then, just take a little longer? THe waxy coating doesn't need anything special?

Is the wire mesh in the incubators ok? Or do you mean you use it to prevent spraddle leg in the brooder? I use shavings in the brooder.

the wire mesh is fine if you don't leave the chicks in there for days.. the sooner you can get a good solid footing under them then the better for their legs
I use the shelf liner in both the incubators and brooders.. that way if i end up leaving a chick in the bator for a while I don't have to worry about pulling it out and finding I have to deal with spraddle leg

after a week or so in the brooder on the shelf liner I switch over to shavings..


nope.. the muscovys aren't quite like turkeys... the eggs have different humidity requirements.. also shipped muscovy eggs are handled differently than ones from your birds.. are the eggs you are planning to set shipped?

 

[Arielle]

I just almost had heart failure. I've been watching pips in four of my five eggs all day long with no signs of advancement. I just went to check again and there was this dark THING thrashing around in the Brinsea. My first hatchling is out. Can't wait till it dries so maybe I can tell what it is. Yea, Yea Yea.

It qualifies as a participant in a horror movie. When it is dried and fluffed it becomes the cutest thing ever. Reverse Gremlins.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I have 2 hens that produce an egg every day. I'm hoping an Equadorian family will return for more. I'm over run with duck eggs.

I'm curious though, why are shipped eggs handled differently?

 

[ChestnutRidge]

Love the incubator flooring discussion! That must mean that lockdown is coming soon.

We're still collecting child-and-chicken or pet-and-chicken pictures for the week 3 contest. Heck, any kind of fowl with any sort of mammal (even reptile, perhaps!) will do.

Today is nearly lockdown, Day 17. Not much to see here, though, I'm afraid.

 

[yinepu]

I have 2 hens that produce an egg every day. I'm hoping an Equadorian family will return for more. I'm over run with duck eggs.

I'm curious though, why are shipped eggs handled differently?

shipped eggs are handled differently because of damage to the air cell as well as damage to the albumen.. I used to just hatch out eggs from our muscovys.. then I started getting shipped eggs in order to get some different bloodlines.. I found out through experimentation that they hatch better when handled in a certain way.. if you handle them like regular shipped eggs you can hope for about a 30% hatch rate if you're lucky.. once I hit onto a different way of handling them my hatch rates on shipped eggs went up to about 90%.. basically if they show signs of life I can get them to hatch


for your home grown eggs.. what all did you need to know for the incubation?..
lol.. i should probably write up a page on muscovy incubation sometime

 

[yinepu]

Just got my tracking number... my Freedom Rangers have shipped!

 

[Arielle]

Quote: GIve me the details on the shipped eggs, because I'm messing up the shipped chicken and turkey eggs really bad. And I have another order o turkey eggs due this month, so I would like to have a better hatch rate than 0% or 5/28 . Depressing rates. I had promised myself not to hatch muscovies, but DH put the idea in my head!