The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

Sounds like a great hatch and many baby's to add to your flock. All of those vault should be girls!! Yeah Silkies!!

 

[lalaland]

Mumsy, take a look at this: http://www1.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/wasp-and-bee-control/

if your poison and tarping don't work, it might be that you need the insecticide powders described in dealing with concealed wasp nests. It also talks about sealing the nest cavity so it can't be re-used.

 

[MumsyII]

Praying it all works out for you. At least you went places after the farm.
You did a great job with your tenting. Since you are bothered by the spray, is it possible to have a teenager come and spray it for you? Growing up with brothers, I have noticed many teenage boys love to kill or catch bugs. I'm sure the right one would think it was an adventure and might even start a bug collection. Boys also love food, you might get away with paying the boy with pizza or pie or milkshakes.

I wish but the teenage boy across the road is more afraid of flying insects than I am of insecticide. He doesn't come outdoors often. My husband works long hours and has been coming home too tired to help much. At sixty five he works harder now than when he was thirty.

I just came in and there is just one or two flying in circles over the tent. Those trapped under are slowly dying. I'm going to reapply the spray under the tarp tonight when it's dark and cool out.

The Silkie chicks are giving me a sweet diversion. I want you to be the first to see Dumplings first chick. Karen Larson rehomed Dumpling to me. She has severely curled feet and I nearly lost her over the winter when she ate shavings and they lodged in her esphoagus. I didn't know If I could get chicks from her. She is my darling 'Dumpy'. This is one of her precious babies.





Dumpy was battered pretty hard by the males during breeding. I separated her and gave her a quiet pen to recuperate. She lay a lot of eggs and I got two to hatch in the bator that I marked with a crayon when I took them from under her. The broodies outside are sitting on some of her eggs but they are unmarked so I'll not know which chicks are hers. I think this is a female and it's less than twelve hours old. Dumplings chicks get yellow food coloring. One chick jumped over the partition with Bonney chicks and it was marked with red! So I'm not sure which it is. Got to figure something else out with separating eggs.

These chicks are the most vigorous and active Silkie chicks I can ever remember. They were running all around! Had a had time catching them and getting them to settle down for pictures but here are a few.



Nine of eleven chicks have a vaulted skull. They are a small cranium hernia. Just enough bump for me to see and feel. I think a Posey chick is posing as a Peggy baby. It's going to be hard to tell them apart even with food coloring on their toes.

 

[aoxa]

I wish but the teenage boy across the road is more afraid of flying insects than I am of insecticide. He doesn't come outdoors often. My husband works long hours and has been coming home too tired to help much. At sixty five he works harder now than when he was thirty.

I just came in and there is just one or two flying in circles over the tent. Those trapped under are slowly dying. I'm going to reapply the spray under the tarp tonight when it's dark and cool out.

The Silkie chicks are giving me a sweet diversion. I want you to be the first to see Dumplings first chick. Karen Larson rehomed Dumpling to me. She has severely curled feet and I nearly lost her over the winter when she ate shavings and they lodged in her esphoagus. I didn't know If I could get chicks from her. She is my darling 'Dumpy'. This is one of her precious babies.





Dumpy was battered pretty hard by the males during breeding. I separated her and gave her a quiet pen to recuperate. She lay a lot of eggs and I got two to hatch in the bator that I marked with a crayon when I took them from under her. The broodies outside are sitting on some of her eggs but they are unmarked so I'll not know which chicks are hers. I think this is a female and it's less than twelve hours old. Dumplings chicks get yellow food coloring. One chick jumped over the partition with Bonney chicks and it was marked with red! So I'm not sure which it is. Got to figure something else out with separating eggs.

These chicks are the most vigorous and active Silkie chicks I can ever remember. They were running all around! Had a had time catching them and getting them to settle down for pictures but here are a few.



Nine of eleven chicks have a vaulted skull. They are a small cranium hernia. Just enough bump for me to see and feel. I think a Posey chick is posing as a Peggy baby. It's going to be hard to tell them apart even with food coloring on their toes.

Very nice looking chicks!! Love Dumpling's baby. I actually have a silkie with a strange foot. It started out she was just moving around on her belly and is now standing with the one leg out to the side or lifted now. Getting around to eat and drink okay. I did not splint it in time unfortunately. I caught it two days after hatch, and by then the chick needed food and water, and I didn't have time to bring it to food and water multiple times a day. I find if I catch them within a few hours of hatch, I can splint and the splint is either okay to remove by the time they need to go in the brooder, or they are steady on their feet WITH the splint.

I haven't had much success splinting silkie legs once they are 3 days or older. Must be my lack of time

Anyway.. I like your name Dumpling.

 

[armorfirelady]

Mumsy fingers crossed you killed all your bees.

And those silkie babies are adorable. They are definitely a happy diversion from bee slaying

 

[Kassaundra]

No good can come from this!!! I have 2 broodies so I gave them 8 eggs each. The last broody I had sat diligently and didn't get one chick to show for her hard work so this time I put eggs in the bator just in case that happens again they can have babies, but why turn on the bator if you don't fill it up right?????? So 26 eggs went in the bator, that all adds up to too many chicks!!! lol





But I do have homes for 8 feather necked girls, and 3 nn girls w/ dark skin, and a pot for all the boys, so maybe not as bad as it sounds.


Does anyone else have a hard time picking just which eggs go to be set, we need a "divining rod" that points out the eggs that have the perfect chicks in them! lol

 

[MumsyII]

Mumsy fingers crossed you killed all your bees.

And those silkie babies are adorable. They are definitely a happy diversion from bee slaying

Thank you. I went out a minute ago and NO flying or circling of any hornets over the plastic tent! There are fewer visible alive under the tent too. Not sure what I'm going to do when it comes time in a couple hours to put all the flock away in their individual pens and runs. Will need the husband to help me wrangle chickens tonight.

These chicks are the busiest little day olds. I'm used to Silkie babies sleeping. These little ones are very active. I just offered water with Un-ACV and they had no trouble jumping in, drinking and playing in it. Remarkable. I don't use marbles or glass beads.

Holding back another day before offering feed. I need them all to be on the same page with each other. Half of them just hatched this morning.

I broke out the remaining unhatched eggs. Six fully formed chicks with fully absorbed yolks ready to hatch. Not shrink wrapped. Not drowned. Un pipped. Look like they died today. Should have had seventeen live chicks instead of eleven. Strongly starting to think my temp and humidity was too low for how cool I keep my house. Next time I'm raising it from 99.9 to 101. The failure of the six to hatch I will note as error on my part in incubator operation. All six of those dead in shell had vaulted skulls. But they were not malpositioned. There was no excess fluid in the shell. They were unable to pip or hatch.

When I last hatched Silkie eggs with high hatch rate, I used the same temp and humidity readings but my house temp was 72 degrees not 65. This may have influenced the incubator and why eggs were dragging to hatch over twenty four days. Always learning and adjusting.

 

[aoxa]

No good can come from this!!! I have 2 broodies so I gave them 8 eggs each. The last broody I had sat diligently and didn't get one chick to show for her hard work so this time I put eggs in the bator just in case that happens again they can have babies, but why turn on the bator if you don't fill it up right?????? So 26 eggs went in the bator, that all adds up to too many chicks!!! lol





But I do have homes for 8 feather necked girls, and 3 nn girls w/ dark skin, and a pot for all the boys, so maybe not as bad as it sounds.


Does anyone else have a hard time picking just which eggs go to be set, we need a "divining rod" that points out the eggs that have the perfect chicks in them! lol

You sound like me Kass. I can't set eggs unless it's full. Doesn't make sense! LOL. Unless it's my sportsman.. Than I can totally set eggs without it being full, because I do not have room for 300 chicks right now I do fill up a flat at least before setting.

I am already thinking about it, and I just said I was done.. I am addicted.

We have a sale in September. I'd have no problems selling any girls.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Sounds like a great hatch and many baby's to add to your flock. All of those vault should be girls!! Yeah Silkies!!

I would like to see the research where vaulted means girl. I know for a fact I have a Catdance Black Vaulted BOY. Also one of my Blue's is a vaulted Boy

 

[MumsyII]

I would like to see the research where vaulted means girl. I know for a fact I have a Catdance Black Vaulted BOY. Also one of my Blue's is a vaulted Boy

Oh...I don't have any research other than my own experience. Twenty plus years ago, when I was raising Whites, a vaulted skull was a female every time. I am raising chicks out of hens I hatched from a long time breeder of whites. Three of the four are female. Two have vaults. My Catdance chicks I hatched produced six female chicks. Three of those have vaults. The six males, no vaults.

I have no idea yet if my nine vaulted white chicks out of a breeding pen using a non vaulted Catdance male with two vaulted Catdance hens and two vaulted SB pullets will all be female. That is why I am progeny testing. If my strain turns out to be producers of all female vaulted Whites, I'll be on to something cool. I don't know what happens in other peoples breeding pens but what I've got going is awesome right now if my hunch is correct. I have three white breeding worthy cockerels. None are vaulted.

I keep meticulous notes on my hatches and chicks. I will know in another season if my strain is a producer of female vaulted Silkies only.

edited to add: Colored Silkies have been outcrossed and crossed with multiple strains. Vaulted skulls are recessive.

I'm concentrating on Whites.