The Trap Nesting Thread

[galanie]

I am self employed. I work on my ranch so checking the trap nest would not be a problem.
I have found that the fertility rate drops in my eggs when the temp drops below 38.
three weeks ago the temp was 40 + and the eggs i collected had a 74% fertility.
the batch of eggs i started last week was under 52 % the temp was 34.
that is why i was wondering if the hen would keep the eggs warm while she was in the tarp.

Since it rarely gets that cold here, I can't tell you. But maybe one of the others can. I know when I let them out usually the eggs are pretty warm.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Roosters have to be photostimulated to be fertile as do the hens so it could be daylength.
I've also read that rooster fertility is affected by extreme cold.

 

[FiveMoreMiles]

light is the key. i have been doing an experiment with red lights. we are calling the hen house our red light district. we want to see if the red light spectrum helps with egg laying.
red with a good white light seems to be working well.
here in Montana the temp drops to -10 often.So i would have to agree that would freeze there balls off.

 

[galanie]

... which are just inside their backbones. LOL!

 

[MANOZ]

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE,

Sighs........well it was a tough year for me.I did manage to keep a solid record by way of ''trapnesting'' This is what my stats look like.

my red came out on top with a total of ...........227 eggs

ms. pearl came in second with a total of.........205 eggs

uno had.........................................................182 eggs

and deuce had..............................................153 eggs

one of my australorp crosses unknown............gave 129 eggs

my sexlink [which is my meat bird].................gave 112

i now have my top five birds pinpointed and i know who laid every last egg. These will be my breeders. Everybody else is bar-b-que.....lol I did manage to breed ms. pearl. I had two roos and two hens from her. one of the roos still lives. i have him with all of the above right now. i did however lose many birds this past year. i killed six snakes this past year, biggest one was 6 feet long. one coon the other one still taunts me.that big snake killed 5 birds before i caught him.HE SWALLOWED one of my barred rock month old chicks and got stuck inside the cage and couldnt pass back through the wire. Caught a coon in a wire boxtrap, he and his posse killed so many of my little chicks that i lost count. I was litterally camping outside with a shotgun ......the wife thought I had done lost it!!! She understood after they started eating all of her figs this year. it was an adventurous year thats for sure.

 

[MANOZ]

jeanette 56........

thank u for reading and posting.

 

[MANOZ]

galanie.......

ki4got.........

chicken canoe.......

and anybody i forgot to mention i would like to thank you all for keeping the thread alive. I wasnt going to post anymore but i think I've had a change of heart.

 

[MANOZ]

fivemoremiles...............welcome aboard, this thread has a lot jewels esp. the links to the old authors who documented trapnesting back in the day. I've compilled all that I could find on the net from designs to literature.I have just completed 1 whole year of trapnesting and it does work. the belgian style doors are very easy to build, they work beautiful, I could not be more happier for doing this project. I have 2 pullets that just started laying and I didnt have to teach them to use the trapnest. They took to them with no problem.

galanie......has improved on the design making the boxes more ventilated, the wire door makes me jealous,,,,,,,,lol,,,,,,,,Wish I would have thought of that.

This method is tried and true!!!!

I am confident I can improve on my egg laying flock. Trapnesting is no joke, sure their are other ways to do this. For me this was the easiest and it gave me the facts about every bird that i own. I marked each egg as I pulled them from the nest.No guesswork anywhere on my lil farm. Its a solid way of going about your back yard chicken endeavors.

 

[genesis1verse1]

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE,

Sighs........well it was a tough year for me.I did manage to keep a solid record by way of ''trapnesting'' This is what my stats look like.

my red came out on top with a total of ...........227 eggs

ms. pearl came in second with a total of.........205 eggs

uno had.........................................................182 eggs

and deuce had..............................................153 eggs

one of my australorp crosses unknown............gave 129 eggs

my sexlink [which is my meat bird].................gave 112

i now have my top five birds pinpointed and i know who laid every last egg. These will be my breeders. Everybody else is bar-b-que.....lol I did manage to breed ms. pearl. I had two roos and two hens from her. one of the roos still lives. i have him with all of the above right now. i did however lose many birds this past year. i killed six snakes this past year, biggest one was 6 feet long. one coon the other one still taunts me.that big snake killed 5 birds before i caught him.HE SWALLOWED one of my barred rock month old chicks and got stuck inside the cage and couldnt pass back through the wire. Caught a coon in a wire boxtrap, he and his posse killed so many of my little chicks that i lost count. I was litterally camping outside with a shotgun ......the wife thought I had done lost it!!! She understood after they started eating all of her figs this year. it was an adventurous year thats for sure.

Hey, I have really enjoyed reading this whole thread and I will be making trap nesting boxes myself very soon. About your predator problem, do you have a dog? My dogs keep everything at bay. I understand the horrors of losing birds to predators, but I haven't had any issues since I've had my German Shepherd dog, Esther.

 

[Jeanette56]

Please keep posting MANOZ!

This has been a very interesting thread to me even though I am not practicing trap nesting. Yet!
If you can get a Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dog you will likely see a major drop in predation. My girl is only one year old (and I was fortunate to have gotten her from a poultry farm) but we have not a lost any birds to coons or really any predators since we've had her. I can't say enough about how wonderful these dogs are! Where I live they are not expensive dogs (generally $100 - $150 - unregistered).
Like any breed there are some worthless ones out there but if you make sure that any youngster you get comes from serious working lines it will be money well spent. This is my first Pyr so we have both made mistakes in training but I will not willingly be without a Pyr as long as I have any kind of birds or livestock. There is Lots of good info on training them on the internet and several good Yahoo! groups for them too.
Thanks for all your hard work in keeping records and sharing them with us!

I wasnt going to post anymore but i think I've had a change of heart.