The Old Folks Home

[Arielle]

ON another subject-- baking up a storm in the kitchen yesterday. Making 2 batches of hermits, lemon bars, and a LC apple coffee cake. THe later is the latest in a series that I am having my family taste test. Each boy took a pinch and muttered "yuck" and I responded with " eat a whole slice and then vote" Well the first sign was they both ate the whole slice which is very telling. IF it not edible one bite is all that will pass their lips. lol THen they voted-- "5-- yeah, we'd eat it again."

CLearly they need more training on the voting structure-- a previously tested dessert that one would not eat more than 1 spoonful got a 7 rating!!

The LC apple cake is a winner in my book.

 

[ronott1]

ON another subject-- baking up a storm in the kitchen yesterday. Making 2 batches of hermits, lemon bars, and a LC apple coffee cake. THe later is the latest in a series that I am having my family taste test. Each boy took a pinch and muttered "yuck" and I responded with " eat a whole slice and then vote" Well the first sign was they both ate the whole slice which is very telling. IF it not edible one bite is all that will pass their lips. lol THen they voted-- "5-- yeah, we'd eat it again."

CLearly they need more training on the voting structure-- a previously tested dessert that one would not eat more than 1 spoonful got a 7 rating!!

The LC apple cake is a winner in my book.

We need recipes!

 

[getaclue]

Humidity is the most over blown part of incubation. Good point about something other than humidity causing evaporation or the liquid in the egg going away. I think the chick absorbing the yolk correctly makes the biggest difference. I have had 0 sticky chicks this year so far. That is not because of humidity.

What I often post is that hatch rates will be lower and will lead to.... The main thing I try to make Hatchers understand is that humidity is different every where and you need to adjust for your place and the time of the year.

The information you posted is correct. You could also have posted that you did not turn the eggs and still had a good hatch.

It's about the hatch rates. If we did not care about getting all of them to hatch, lower hatch rates would be fine.

Poultry science and research both show that low humidity and high humidity cause problems and will lower hatch rate. The range is from about 25% to 60% during incubation. Within that range, weighing the eggs and using an air cell chart will, once again, Increase hatch rates.

Find the humidity that works best for what you are hatching and adjust based on the condition of the eggs.

A fellow in Florida is having a hard time now getting and Ostrich egg to the correct low humidity needed to hatch an Ostrich!

Great topic!

Ron, I'm in Florida, so I understand your friend's dilemma regarding humidity for his ostrich egg. When I put my eggs into lockdown, we were having a cold snap. The cold wasn't an issue, but colder weather here means there is less humidity. I had my humidity level at 65, which is a little higher than I really wanted, but that way I thought I would minimize having to open the incubator to add water during lockdown. The next day was rainy. My humidity jumped to 69, without the addition of water. I don't really want it that high, but figured I would leave things alone, and normal evaporation, etc. would bring the humidity down. Wrong! Today is cloudy, and my humidity is at 67. I want to remove some of the water, but I am concerned that by doing so could do as much harm as leaving the humidity a bit too high.

My daughter, who has hatched several hundred eggs, with a very high hatch rate, just informed me that she never increased humidity at lockdown (Where was she when I needed this info). Since the humidity is so high here to begin with, and increases so much on cloudy and rainy days there is too much fluctuation to deal with, so she just added the same amount of water in the channels each day through the entire process. Some of those days the humidity was low, some days it was where it should be, while some of those days it was too high, but each day the same amount of water was added. By doing it the same each day, it all balanced out in the end, and she had great hatch rates.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I almost did exactly that last weekend - all they had left was about 30 straight run White Leghorns, quite old enough to start picking out the pullets - but I'm bursting at the seams right now, have to wait until numbers go down a little (which is not likely to be soon, as I just set 79 eggs for the Easter Hatch Along). If they're still there this weekend, maybe I'll try to make a deal for them and figure out a space.

I'm still pondering. I have 4 hours to decide. They're asking $2 each. I think I'll go see if they'll take $1 each for the lot.

THese mtns are amazing-- like no other mountains I have ever seens. Very jagged.

If I ever make it to Vietnam, I want to go here. Halong Bay
there's supposedly more than 3000 limestone islands scattered around the emerald water




...would like to offer that sometimes lower does work.

My last batch ran at 15-20%-- much lower than I usually run the humidity, but I kept it at that because the cornish x eggs were not making a large enough air cell fast enough. I was worried even going into lockdown that the air cells were not big enough. All very odd certainly-- but I did get a few a in 2, chicks out of it. A buckeye hatched too. On time, 1 with help because I didn't bump up the humidity soon enough ( it had already externally pipped).


I do think exchange rate of the air in the incubator plays a part in the evaproation of the eggs.

X2
IMO very dark eggs are different than white ones for instance.
I usually run between 20% and 40% during incubation and weight loss is usually spot on.
I've even had whole trays of eggs that all were losing the appropriate weight with about 4 or 5 losing twice the weight.
One just never knows. Life's like a box of chocolates.
I even pump air into both the incubator and hatcher. I try to keep the hatcher at 60 or so.


Jagged is usually younger mountain ranges. When you say jagged a few jagged mtn ranges come to mind

The Tetons in WY The wife and I skied there when she was pregnant with my daughter.


Alps, the Dolomites at Cortina Italy. Skied there in 1980.


The Matterhorn on the Swiss/Italian border. You can ski between Zermatt, Switzerland and Cervinia, Italy.


The Jungfrau region. Skied there in 1980.




The Arlberg region. The kids and I skied there in 2005. The area is immense. That's close to where they discovered Ötzi the Iceman, the mummified remains of a prehistoric man found in a receding glacier.
From Wikipedia.
"~~Ötzi's clothes were sophisticated. He wore a cloak made of woven grass[26] and a coat, a belt, a pair of leggings, a loincloth and shoes, all made of leather of different skins. He also wore a bearskin cap with a leather chin strap. The shoes were waterproof and wide, seemingly designed for walking across the snow; they were constructed using bearskin for the soles, deer hide for the top panels, and a netting made of tree bark. Soft grass went around the foot and in the shoe and functioned like modern socks. The coat, belt, leggings and loincloth were constructed of vertical strips of leather sewn together with sinew. His belt had a pouch sewn to it that contained a cache of useful items: a scraper, drill, flint flake, bone awl and a dried fungus."

...
And in my news, I have a dilemma. A single Serama chick hatched in my homemade incubator yesterday after 23 days' incubation. There aren't any other eggs in there that are due to hatch any time soon, so this is an 'only chick.' There are 6 EE and BR 10-day-old chicks in the brooder (yeah, so much for Idonotneedmorechickens, right?); I can't put the Serama in with them, they'd kill the tiny little thing. I'm thinking that I need to set up a partition that will allow the tiny cheepie to see them, but stay safe.

I brood in a large space and once the chicks are mobile, say day 3 or 4, I'll put young ones with chicks up to 3 weeks older. Even older if the young ones are more numerous.

There's almost a 3 week age difference there

Just say no lol

Yeah, I was thinking that this morning until I saw Pozees post above.

 

[ronott1]

Ron, I'm in Florida, so I understand your friend's dilemma regarding humidity for his ostrich egg. When I put my eggs into lockdown, we were having a cold snap. The cold wasn't an issue, but colder weather here means there is less humidity. I had my humidity level at 65, which is a little higher than I really wanted, but that way I thought I would minimize having to open the incubator to add water during lockdown. The next day was rainy. My humidity jumped to 69, without the addition of water. I don't really want it that high, but figured I would leave things alone, and normal evaporation, etc. would bring the humidity down. Wrong! Today is cloudy, and my humidity is at 67. I want to remove some of the water, but I am concerned that by doing so could do as much harm as leaving the humidity a bit too high.

My daughter, who has hatched several hundred eggs, with a very high hatch rate, just informed me that she never increased humidity at lockdown (Where was she when I needed this info). Since the humidity is so high here to begin with, and increases so much on cloudy and rainy days there is too much fluctuation to deal with, so she just added the same amount of water in the channels each day through the entire process. Some of those days the humidity was low, some days it was where it should be, while some of those days it was too high, but each day the same amount of water was added. By doing it the same each day, it all balanced out in the end, and she had great hatch rates.

The balance is important!

That is a great story about adjusting for the conditions.

I sent eggs to Colorado for hatching. High elevation and very different humidity. I can't wait to see how the eggs hatch for her!




They are Partridge Pene and UofA Blues eggs.

Those Rose colored Pene eggs are very hard to candle!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Humidity is the most over blown part of incubation. Good point about something other than humidity causing evaporation or the liquid in the egg going away. I think the chick absorbing the yolk correctly makes the biggest difference. I have had 0 sticky chicks this year so far. That is not because of humidity.
.
..

good stuff.

I sometimes have trouble seeing the air cell in them.

Wow, isn't that the truth.

Cornish are different!

I read an article about a person that checked humidity under a broody and the humidity changed during incubation. At the end, she raised it fairly high too. I need to see if I can find that article.

I'd love to read it.

 

[Wisher1000]

I am just glad she is alive, she had blood dripping from her nose and we got ointment and antibiotics for her. Thank goodness she is alright!

I'm glad she survived, I think she will be fine under your care.

Quote:

I like the way it smells too!

It reminds me of the formula we mixed together to feed the calve.

Does it still smell like licorice??

It must be the same stuff in Calf Manna. I snuff it deeply every time I measure some out. Like you said, like licorice.

Well, I've been diagnosed once again with yet another type of cancer. For those of you that would be kind enough to include me in your prayers, I will be grateful. On a lighter note, WE ARE IN LOCKDOWN!

Oh, Clue, I'm sorry.

Stay positive, and prayerful. Keep doing what makes you happy (hatching!?) and do what you need to do to take care of yourself. I'll be praying on this end, as will many others.


I had a camping trip planned for the boys and their friends this week. It is our spring break. Our destination was a place on a hill overlooking the Black Warrior River (my brother's property and about 45 minutes from my house) where there is a covered deck, one room cabin (with a bathroom!,) and you can drive to it (no hiking unless you want to.) There are several lakes on the property and lots and lots of dirt roads to ride. Each of my boys (17, 15, and 13) invited a friend (and one friend's younger brother)and so I bought another 8 man tent. I had been watching the weather and it was up in the air until the last minute. The forecast called for thunderstorms, straight line winds, and possible tornadoes overnight (3 nights in a row) so I knew we might not be able to actually sleep there overnight but the daytime weather was supposed to be partly cloudy and warm. I really didn't want to cancel because the boys were so excited about it. I went ahead and bought groceries for two days and we went.

It was me and seven boys........cool. We took our Polaris Ranger, small boat, trolling motor, and two trucks, loaded down. We had a blast! The boys roasted hotdogs for lunch, and I cooked chicken quesadillas for supper. Of course, there was plenty of stuff to snack on - apples, bananas, tangerines, donuts, chips, cookies, water, sodas. They rode the roads, and climbed the rocks, and ate, and fished, and built a fire, and ate, and laughed, and played cards, and ate, and played "Ultimate hide-and-go-seek," and ate a ton of S'Mores! Fifteen year old DS#2 caught a 6 1/2 pound bass and a channel catfish, the others caught a couple of small ones but not much. It never rained on us, the temp was comfortable in t-shirts and jeans, and it was just a bit breezy, but that was okay. It only meant we had to watch the campfire very closely.

We stayed after dark, by lantern light until the wind started getting stronger, about 10:30 Thursday night, then we locked everything away inside the cabin and went home. Some of the boys spent the night at our house and a couple went home. It POURED down rain during the night, the weatherman said over 2", so leaving the tents and bedding inside and going home was a good call. I wouldn't have wanted to be there with one brand new tent, with yet-to-be-sealed seams, and both tents knee deep with boys and sleeping bags and blankets during that storm.

Friday morning, we got up early, had a huge pancake-eggs-bacon-OJ-milk breakfast, picked up another boy, and headed back. We stayed all day yesterday and just after dark, one of the boys taught the others to play poker. I had to correct them on a few of the finer points, but they got the hang of it pretty quick. I then gave them something to gamble with. I probably shouldn't have, but how bad can it be when you are using marshmallows and gummy bears instead of money?

I think they would have played all night but while they played, I was cleaning up and packing everything in the trucks. When I had just finished, the rain was just starting and the wind began to whip. I was pulling the trailer with the Ranger and I had to put it in 4WD to pull the first steep, long hill, but otherwise it was uneventful.

I think we will be doing this again, soon.

 

[getaclue]

Wisher, that sounds like soooooo much fun, and pass the s'mores. There is nothing quite as good as food cooked over a wood fire, in my opinion. If you are going during the day, but coming back home at night, consider taking extra meat to cook at night, then take it home to freeze for later use. I used to do that with pork chops, and hamburger. Cook it about 3/4 of the way done, so it' won't be too dry or overcooked when you re-heat it. You can take some of the hamburger patties, chop them up, and use them in spaghetti sauce too, and the campfire flavor comes through.

 

[Wisher1000]

I took seven teenage boys.........there were no leftovers..................................

 

[getaclue]

Again, I want to thank everyone that is praying for me, and/or sending positive thoughts. I am grateful. Please know that you are all in my prayers too. Ok, my Australorps are spoiled. Every two days I rotate opening the big run to them, or the comets. I also give some treats to the group that has to stay in their pen. I was getting ready to leave, and heard a commotion from the Aussies, and they were squawking, and pacing back and forth in front of their pen. I had forgotten their treats, and they were letting me know about it big time.