The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Turkeytruff]

Originally Posted by Sally8

I am so drooling over all the new chicks. The incubator has been up and running for 3 - 4 days. My temps are steady. I'm ready and excited. I've been saving eggs for a week storing in temps higher than I should have, gathered eggs only 2x a day, might have froze, i'm still going for it. Every egg I cracked open for eating has been fertile. Going to take obscenely accurate notes, this hatch is mostly learning for me. Most will turn out to be mutts but of breeds I like (to eat, ha ha). So excited! So excited. So excited!
Dumb question - how can you tell that the egg is fertile by cracking it open? is it the little 'blood clot' thing or something else??? thanks

 

[Sally8]

Dumb question - how can you tell that the egg is fertile by  cracking it open? is it the little 'blood clot' thing or something else??? thanks

When you crack your egg open, you will see a little white bullseye on the yolk. It's smaller than a pencil eraser but very easy to see. Not sure if you can see it through candling. I might check on that.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

I had a rooster with spurs that needed tending to and watched vids online. I choose the 'push down and twist method' using pliers (sp?) it worked very well but you have to push down hard and twist for it to work. It bled a bit but I stopped it with baking soda. No big deal. There were little spurs growing in the ones that I removed. Maybe hers weren't big enough to easily remove.

My hen is a year and a half now, and the spurs are maybe just under 1" long.

 

[Toast n Jelly]

Quote: Still a little small to remove I would think.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Maybe I'll just leave her be then.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Check these out...look at the "hot pad heaters": http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_automotive?_encoding=UTF8&field-brandtextbin=Kat's&node=15684181

I just bought the smallest one (1" x 5" - 25 watts). They are little flexible silicone pads with peel-and-stick adhesive on one side. They're designed to be stuck to the oil pan of a car to make it easier to start in cold weather. I stuck the 25 watt model on the outside of a plastic bucket with nipple waterers on it. So far, so good. Water isn't hot, but isn't even close to freezing, either. I'm hoping this one is big enough, but if not, they go up in wattage by 25 watt increments. They're much less expensive than bird bath heaters, and if 25 watts will keep 5 gallons of water from freezing, will be more economical to run -- since most bb heaters are 75 watts or more.

More details after I have a few days and nights experience with it. For $15.99, it seemed like a great cheap solution.

Thanks for posting those...I had never seen them before!!!! I'll be watching to see how they do for you. One question I have would be if the material it's made from would be toxic at all if the birds are pecking at it.

Kinda late to the party, but I just went all over the blog and it is FANTASTIC! !! love it. All I ever wanted to know, in alphabetical order

 

[Leahs Mom]

Oh...JeffO.... are those things flexible? I'm wondering if they could be wrapped around the necks of the cup waterers that I use (a couple at a time that are close together on the bucket) to keep the mechanisms in the neck from freezing...

 

[JeffOeuf]

Oh...JeffO.... are those things flexible? I'm wondering if they could be wrapped around the necks of the cup waterers that I use (a couple at a time that are close together on the bucket) to keep the mechanisms in the neck from freezing...

Leah,

They're silicone, so I am going to go with non-toxic. They're also tough and slick, so I don't anticipate any pecking problems.

I have mine on the bucket just above the outlet that goes to a tee and two cup waterers. I'm hoping that it is close enough to keep the lines and waterers from freezing. Temps in the upper 20s this morning, and no problem. They are very flexible, but the smallest one seems to me would be too big to wrap around a small pipe or fitting.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Yah...I was thinking maybe placing it right above the necks with perhaps a little of it on the neck itself rather than wrapping. My cup waterers are about 8" apart I think.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Whoops. Just looking again and it says the small one is only 5" long so that wouldn't be long enough to get across both of them. maybe a larger one.

Right now I'm using the birdbath heater which works great until the temps are in the teens. Then the necks get frozen. It only takes a couple min. to unfreeze the necks by using the heat in my hands right up on them but it would be wonderful if these things could warm the water AND keep the necks from freezing too.

It seems that the dampness on the springs in the mechanism is what gets frosted up - and not really that bad - so I thought one of these might fix that!