The Old Folks Home

[ChickenCanoe]

She's in Thanh Hóa now.

I found out why she found out her 'Easy Rider' buddy was so annoying.
She wanted to ride north with a few other people (brits and scots) but she wanted another day in the national park and they were leaving. They told her Joost was staying another day too so they could pair up. She said, 'cool'. She wanted to make it to Hanoi in 2 days. She and Joost decided they'd get up at 7, eat breakfast and be on the road by 7:30. She said it was after 8 and still no Joost. They finally got on the road at 9:30. She said he stopped three times in the first 15 minutes. The first time he wanted something to drink, not just get a bottle of water but sit and drink. A few hours and many stops later, he said, "I don't think we can make Thanh Hóa today". She said, "I'm making it to Thanh Hóa with or without you". So she left him and got there right at sunset. She said people don't ride at night because you can't see, there's apparently a lot of fog.
Joost texted her later and asked, "how far did you make it?" She gloated and said, "I made it all the way".
She called my wife when she got in and said her butt and back hurt and she was covered in dust and bugs so she was headed for a shower.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I thought winter was over. It's 28 outside right now. I hope my auto waterers don't freeze. I had to go out in the middle of the night to cover vegetables and collect eggs. It was only supposed to get into the low 30s.

 

[pickitfarm]

Rain is the weather for today and for the foreseeable future......Yup April has arrived. Though temps are up, it still is cold in my opinion....When will it eeeeennnnndddd.....Yes I am whining and I do not want any cheese with it!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Just say no lol

I went back to the feedstore Saturday afternoon about 2 o'clock. They close at 3.
I was standing by the chicks trying to talk customers into taking some home. There were 21 left and the feed store so wanted to be rid of them.
I talked one guy into buying the last 3 barred rocks. The manager and clerk came over and put his chicks in a box and took the heat lamp away. They're not open on Sunday and I wondered why they took the heat source away for the weekend. They then packed all the rest of the chicks into a box while I was blabbering to a woman about the amazing aspects of chickenry. I said to her that apparently someone else had bought the rest of them. I went to the register and asked, "who bought the others?" They said, "you did".
I said, "we didn't even discuss a price nor did I tell you I wanted to buy them (today)". The manager said, 18 chicks = $15.
I'm now the proud owner of 3 week old white leghorns, australorps and my first ever bantams, those are black wyandottes. Hopefully some of our local meetup group wants some of these breeds. They'll be in much better care here than they were there.

 

[chickadoodles]

Wisher, So happy the weather let you all go and have such a wonderful time camping.

 

[chickadoodles]

I went back to the feedstore Saturday afternoon about 2 o'clock. They close at 3.
I was standing by the chicks trying to talk customers into taking some home. There were 21 left and the feed store so wanted to be rid of them.
I talked one guy into buying the last 3 barred rocks. The manager and clerk came over and put his chicks in a box and took the heat lamp away. They're not open on Sunday and I wondered why they took the heat source away for the weekend. They then packed all the rest of the chicks into a box while I was blabbering to a woman about the amazing aspects of chickenry. I said to her that apparently someone else had bought the rest of them. I went to the register and asked, "who bought the others?" They said, "you did".
I said, "we didn't even discuss a price nor did I tell you I wanted to buy them (today)". The manager said, 18 chicks = $15.
I'm now the proud owner of 3 week old white leghorns, australorps and my first ever bantams, those are black wyandottes. Hopefully some of our local meetup group wants some of these breeds. They'll be in much better care here than they were there.

TSC have chicken swaps pretty often or you can join some online facebook poultry pages to help you find some homes for some of them. Hopefully, good luck. And that was very nice of you to take the poor little ones home.

 

[Dragonfly216]

You are quite right, ChickenCanoe! May ALL our days be long and filled with joy! In fact, this is one of my favorite sayings, an old Irish blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

I may be a woman, but I agree on the bringing a bunch of girls camping! Camping was our dinner vacation as a child, so I love it! We spent less money on where we slept so we could eat out for a few dinners and spend more money on fun stuff, plus waking up outside is so lovely! Not to mention the whole cooking outdoors= deliciousness! But most girls I know, would be complaining about the lack of social media, tv, phones, malls etc! I tried to take one of my cousins hiking with us one time, and woke she did have a good time, geez she complained the whole time! Taking too long, bugs, hot, whatever! Makes it so much less fun for everyone listening to you! But I have a feeling, if I have any daughters, they will be tomboys like me

And I want to hear about the breakfast cooked by your father! :-D bet I'm not the only one!

And wow, Wisher! That's crazy about the egg!

 

[Pozees]

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.

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.

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



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

I have also had good luck adding young chicks to the brooder with older ones, I have a 4x8 pen with 2 heat plates at different heights plus a lamp above the patio blocks the waterer is on (they were not drinking enough when I first set up the pen, and I thought it might be because the blocks were cold) and am about to add 30 day-olds to the pen, they will join chicks as old as 6 weeks. The 6-week olds are Welsummers I hatched from shipped eggs, and I am completely smitten with them after watching one of the pullets try to cover younger chicks 2 weeks ago.

Oh - so now it's my fault you're a soft touch for chicks? LOL

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!

Your hens have nice thick-shelled eggs, and I can't see a blasted thing in there, so I'm going with, so far so good! LOL Jason sent some White Empordanesa the next day, and I split his between the incubator and a broody hen who refused to quit - a very experienced Silkie who is the absolute best little Mama I have. I can't wait, too!

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.

What a great trip!

Just set 83 eggs for the Easter hatch. Two years in a row I had anywhere between 180 and 250 eggs. Didn't order any since I can't seem to get much to hatch anymore. I have a couple of broodies that I've left on some mixed eggs and not even going to see how many they have. Just gonna leave it alone. My mixes go to the auction to hopefully pay for feed. My last hatch I got 2 out of 16. I did find that I lost all the others beforee lockdown, but they were the eggs I couldn't see into. The hatch that was due yesterday is doing nothing, other than I lost an OE the day before they were due. It pipped at the wrong end and I could tell there was way to much humidity. I had smallish air cells and used no water at all until lockdown. This hatch I did see 3 internal pips and that was Thursday. Thought I heard peeping yesterday off and on, but nothing has hatched and it's quiet in there today. What happened to me?? I can talk people through and they do fine, but I just haven't had a decent hatch in almost.................OMG... 3 1/2 years! Stressful thinking about how many eggs I've gotten to lockdown that didn't make it out. Maybe I won't add water at lockdown. IDK.......frustrating.

I am so sorry! I would try that, and I think you said earlier you disinfected your incubator between hatches, right? I wonder if spraying it with activated Oxine, letting it dry in the sun, might help? Only other thing I would suggest is ensuring your thermometers are calibrated and reading accurately. What a bummer.

I went back to the feedstore Saturday afternoon about 2 o'clock. They close at 3.
I was standing by the chicks trying to talk customers into taking some home. There were 21 left and the feed store so wanted to be rid of them.
I talked one guy into buying the last 3 barred rocks. The manager and clerk came over and put his chicks in a box and took the heat lamp away. They're not open on Sunday and I wondered why they took the heat source away for the weekend. They then packed all the rest of the chicks into a box while I was blabbering to a woman about the amazing aspects of chickenry. I said to her that apparently someone else had bought the rest of them. I went to the register and asked, "who bought the others?" They said, "you did".
I said, "we didn't even discuss a price nor did I tell you I wanted to buy them (today)". The manager said, 18 chicks = $15.
I'm now the proud owner of 3 week old white leghorns, australorps and my first ever bantams, those are black wyandottes. Hopefully some of our local meetup group wants some of these breeds. They'll be in much better care here than they were there.

You are TOTALLY my hero now!!!

I went back too, last evening, they had sold all the older chicks and had a whole new slew of them, along with goslings. Every chick is yellow/white, so I'm guessing more Leghorns. Goslings were very adorable. I've never raised them and haven't the first idea how, so I bought a bale of shavings and left.

Had a really busy day yesterday, we went and picked up some materials for elevating some new small coops we're building from wooden shipping crates, and some pallets to make an above-mud area for washing waterers. Then had visits from 5 people stretching through the afternoon, all here for chicks (yay!) and I think only one remembered a box, so I'm very happy I took up valuable space storing boxes I've received in the mail the last several weeks.

Today is supposed to be very warm and VERY windy, so we're watching the end of the Formula One race recorded overnight and then getting outside to try and get some work done ahead of the wind.

 

[Pozees]

Oh I forgot - let's hear about the breakfast at the country club!

 

[Barbiejo]

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!

Sending positive thoughts and prayers your way.