The Old Folks Home

[vehve]

Well, fingers crossed. Töyhtis went broody on Friday, and we moved the eggs from the incubator under her today. Two of them were squeaking already, so we should have some internal pips. I hope she will believe that she's somehow managed to hatch out her chicks in three days instead of three weeks. I need to put together a better sanctuary for the chicks so that the big ones don't eat all of their feed and make a mess of their water, bouncing around a couple of design ideas in my head.

 

[vehve]

OK, now I finished Chicken Sanctuary Mark II. My earlier model was basically a wooden box with slats that only allowed small chicks to go through, and a hardware cloth roof. The upside was that I could use a heat lamp with it, but the big ones kept sleeping on it and pooping into it, so here's what we're trying this time:



I cut one of my favorite things to work with, a compost cage panel in two so that I could combine the two parts together to form a cage with a slanted roof. The footprint is about 2x2½ feet, and the corrugated plastic roof is hinged. I should be able to get the feeder and waterer in there out of reach from the grownups, but the chicks can still get through the spaces. The openings are about 2"x3½" on the bottom, I think that should be enough. Once they grow, I might cut out some slightly bigger openings, but they will probably be able to eat with the big ones by the time they no longer fit in there. It'll be interesting to see what we get, we started with 5 of our mutt OE eggs and 6 powerproducers, I don't know what they are exactly but some sort of production hybrids. I'm guessing Hy-Line Browns or something similar, a friend of our's has had the same birds for a couple of years and she's been very happy with how they manage in her flock and their output, so when she ordered some more eggs we decided to get some too. By the time we moved them out under our broody almost half of the eggs had quit. Some of our own mutt eggs were a bit older already because our only OE had been laying a bit sporadically, so we're down to two in those, and we've got 4 of the hybrid eggs left. One reason for such a low hatch rate is also that I may have been a bit lazy at turning the eggs in our Brinsea Mini Eco. Also, it's only built for 9 eggs, so cramming 11 in there was too much. Yet another limiting factor is that it may have been running a bit too dry, the humidity in there without water in the well has been about 20%, and I think it has been sitting without water for a couple of days every once in a while. I hate using incubators, I prefer letting broodies take care of the whole process, but we didn't have a broody when the eggs went in. Luckily Töyhtis stepped in at the eleventh hour, and will save us the trouble of either using a brooder or placing the chicks somewhere else.

We're going to try to raise this batch of chicks with a minimum effort approach, I'm not going to give them more than a 60W heating lamp in there, so mommy will have to take care of keeping them warm until they feather out. It's looking like temps are going to be slightly above freezing, so it shouldn't be a problem. We managed to keep everyone alive through 0F temps with a 200W lamp last winter, so I'm not foreseeing a temperature problem with this batch of chicks either.

 

[vehve]

Just checked on the eggs under our broody, and at least two have pipped externally. Just a small hole so far though, but in the evening we might have a couple of chicks.

I kinda feel like I'm talking to myself here, you guys sleep for way too long.

 

[perchie.girl]

Blink Blink... Its 6 am here .... I normally dont go to bed before 2 am.

Still doing blood pressure checks.... Today was the first day the number were in the green....

124/77

deb

 

[Bunnylady]

Just checked on the eggs under our broody, and at least two have pipped externally. Just a small hole so far though, but in the evening we might have a couple of chicks.

I kinda feel like I'm talking to myself here, you guys sleep for way too long.

Vehve, this is TOFH, remember? You can't really expect coherence from us before we've had time to absorb a couple of cups of coffee and get the ol' blood sugar up, can you?

 

[superchemicalgirl]

That's a good idea, Vehve. A couple springs ago all my hens went broody and I set up a bunch of cages with a mom in each. After they hatched it was pandemonium - the chicks would slide out between the bars, play with the other chicks, visit each other, etc. It was cute to watch but not everyone made it back to their assigned mother. This is a much better idea.

 

[Wisher1000]

I'm here, Vehve.

I like your design for the Chick Cafe. I have experimented with several of those, myself. Yours looks good. I have found that as they get a bit older, I can squeeze the bars together along one side, or the ones on the ends, to make some larger entrances.

It looks like this ... | )( )( )( )( )( | or like this ... | )( | | | | | )( |

Broodies, as I'm sure you know, become broody as a result of hormonal changes. It is not an "on/off" switch. They need some time to build up the levels to go from the "Zombie Trance Stage" to the "Mother Hen" stage. It is good that they are peeping in the egg, that helps to trigger it, but there needs to be enough of the hormone present to cause that shift. Sometimes they will accept a brood within a week after starting to set, but three days is pushing it. I'm not saying it won't work, just that you need to watch her closely. There is a chance (a better chance) that she will not accept the chicks once they hatch and could eject or kill them as intruders to her nest.

I find it interesting that everyone has their own systems worked out to deal with chicks. I have different stages of brooding. From hatch to two days old, they go in a laundry basket in the laundry room. I have it set up with a light and a towel in the bottom so I can put them in there as it gets too crowded in the hatcher. After two days, I put them in a large cardboard box in the garage with a lamp for two weeks. Then, they are moved to one of the four 2x3 brooders in the feed room of the coop with two lamps if it is below freezing at night (in case one of the bulbs blows. I can leave them in this until they go into a tractor at six weeks. After that, I will let them free range a bit and start combining batches as I generally hatch off a tray (up to 46) a week through hatching season.

I'm getting a late start this year. Good luck with yours!!

 

[vehve]

But I tought old people got up before sunrise?

Deb, great news!

Yeah, it is pushing it a bit, but she yas been a super mommy in the past, and I think last time when she had shared custody, the other mommy had been sitting the nest for two weeks already. Three pips so far, but not much zipping. They will hatch sometime in the night, so if she decides to kill them, we probably won't be around to notice until it's too late. She did seem to spend a lot of time in the nest earlier in the week already, so she's been fixing to go broody for a while, but like I said she didn't commit 100% before Friday. We'll see how it goes.

 

[chickisoup]

Blink Blink... Its 6 am here .... I normally dont go to bed before 2 am.

Still doing blood pressure checks.... Today was the first day the number were in the green....

124/77

deb

 

[bruceha2000]

Yep on the temps... though I prefer low Eighties.

Wanderijng about BYC has helped immensely...

deb

Because chickens are (and thinking about chickens is) therapeutic

I'm not a felon! I'm a registered independent and in Maine I can't caucus unless I register as either a democrat or republican.

Glad to hear that SCG

I guess it is the caucus thing. Here we vote and you tell them if you want the Democrat or Republican ballot, it makes no difference if you are a "card carrying" member of either party or no party at all. And I GUESS if there were a "third party" candidate, you could choose that one. The news reports had some people "crossing the aisle" and voting in a specific party "against" a specific candidate.

Our primaries for non presidential positions are in August. I don't remember if you have the same "which party" choice then. That is sort of unfair if it is because you may have a prefered candidate from one party for one seat but a different party for another seat.

I was wondering myself Lol!
Same here in NY, I'm registered Conservative, can't vote in primaries, it's bull. Registered Independents and Liberal's can't vote either. Democrats and Republicans run on both their parties tickets so I don't get it.

Um, how do you register as a "conservative, independent or liberal"? Talk about a WIDE net.

WOW. Our state just finally got the voter ID law passed. There were just too many of the dearly departed caught voting and too much of the legals voting "early and often" in the last major election cycle.. There is no requirement to officially register your affiliation but in the primaries (no caucus) you have to vote for only one party, no picking individuals. In the general election you can cross lines of course.
The liberals are trying to get the voter ID law overturned tho because they say it prevents illegal aliens from being able to vote because they can't get the FREE voter ID cards because they can't provide the proper documentation to prove they are legal residents. Ummm, yeah,

Um, something sounds "urban myth" about that. Illegal aliens cannot vote therefore cannot register to vote, so why would the inability to get a voter ID card matter?

Far better than all the dead voters is when the polls close and 100% of voters in specific precincts have voted for one particular candidate... ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! Not a SINGLE vote the other way or a write in. Of course we all know that that's completely plausible right?

It works very well in some countries such as Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Vote for me or die, take your choice.

Well, fingers crossed. Töyhtis went broody on Friday, and we moved the eggs from the incubator under her today. Two of them were squeaking already, so we should have some internal pips. I hope she will believe that she's somehow managed to hatch out her chicks in three days instead of three weeks. I need to put together a better sanctuary for the chicks so that the big ones don't eat all of their feed and make a mess of their water, bouncing around a couple of design ideas in my head.

I hope that works out (given Wisher's later comment). Zorra was perfectly willing to believe she hatched 7 chicks in 2 weeks from 3 plastic eggs weighted with small stones

OK, now I finished Chicken Sanctuary Mark II. My earlier model was basically a wooden box with slats that only allowed small chicks to go through, and a hardware cloth roof. The upside was that I could use a heat lamp with it, but the big ones kept sleeping on it and pooping into it, so here's what we're trying this time:




We're going to try to raise this batch of chicks with a minimum effort approach, I'm not going to give them more than a 60W heating lamp in there, so mommy will have to take care of keeping them warm until they feather out. It's looking like temps are going to be slightly above freezing, so it shouldn't be a problem. We managed to keep everyone alive through 0F temps with a 200W lamp last winter, so I'm not foreseeing a temperature problem with this batch of chicks either.

I like the "chick restaurant" design. You clearly need to read the MHP thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update

Blink Blink... Its 6 am here .... I normally dont go to bed before 2 am.

Still doing blood pressure checks.... Today was the first day the number were in the green....

124/77

deb

That is a terrific BP Deb!

Broodies, as I'm sure you know, become broody as a result of hormonal changes. It is not an "on/off" switch. They need some time to build up the levels to go from the "Zombie Trance Stage" to the "Mother Hen" stage. It is good that they are peeping in the egg, that helps to trigger it, but there needs to be enough of the hormone present to cause that shift. Sometimes they will accept a brood within a week after starting to set, but three days is pushing it. I'm not saying it won't work, just that you need to watch her closely. There is a chance (a better chance) that she will not accept the chicks once they hatch and could eject or kill them as intruders to her nest.

I don't know about an on/off switch for time between starting to go broody and willingness to accept chicks but there is one for "I was raising chicks yesterday and today I forgot I was doing that". Zorra was SUPER protective of the chicks from June 12th to August 8th. Then she laid an egg and was just as likely to chase the chicks from food as any of the other hens.