Utah!

[RedIII]

My solar panel came today!!

My girls are almost all on strike right now, which kind of surprises me. I've got a BSL, a RIR, and a Leghorn that I thought for sure would be decent layers, even in the dark winter months. The only one that's laying is my BO pullet. So, I just kind of look the other way when she jumps the fence and meanders around our back yard to eat grass.....

 

[Sphinx]

Ooooh, I'm jealous of the solar panel! That sounds so cool!

I'm averaging 5-7 eggs a day. Considering I have 9 hens of laying age, it's fair, but not great. Then again, I chose breeds for pretty birds and pretty eggs, not prolific layers, so probably not bad.

Haven't set eggs. yet. Dying to see what would pop out of my legbar egg. DYING. I'm not sure if my polish boy is getting much action. Frankly, I've been so busy with work (which is such an amazingly good thing) that I haven't had a chance to hang with my birds. Plus, the roosters seem to know not to mate with the hens when I'm around. When it comes time, my two polish will go in my tiny time out coop. Then the legbars will go in another pen, probably with a couple of the light brown egg layers, so I can get some green or olive babies. Then the marans will go in the other coop with the lavender ameraucana- I don't want to get her eggs mixed up with my legbar. But, I don't think I'll do that til January or so, in preparation for March/April babies.

Is anyone interested in a yearish old mallard duck girl? She thinks she's a chicken that can swim, and has spent her whole life with chickens. Or a bantam buff orpington cockerel? I have a friend who has to rehome both. She has cranky neighbors.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Cynthia, I loved your advice on hatching, please ALWAYS chime in if you have help! Your NN is so nice! Wow she is very cool looking.

Birdguy, love the solar panel idea. I may have to check into that on a mini scale it would be great to have solar power out there. We have itty bitty solar lights up and down the eaves on the run roofing, to keep "spotlights" going at night to scare off the critters....it would be great to have a whole panel converting to light inside the coop at night, and even to power other things out there!

Sphinx, I have 20 laying girls, 3 are broody, 3 are molting, and my egg count is going the wrong way...I was getting over 90/week, this week only 68. Not even ten a day.....less than half?! With lights too. I have a few that just stopped for no apparent reason. Hmmmm.....I started feeding them the fodder and they really started laying good, now they are used to it (they yell at me in the morning if I do not have it with me lol) and I also think they are spoiled. If chickens can be spoiled...mine really are. So I scolded them today and let them know things are gonna turn around or their treats or going to be slim pickins. I had a guy come buy the rest of my eggs today, and I have 3 little ones left in the door of the refrigerator, that is all! I hope they don't stay slowed down, I just finally got enough people buying them so that they were getting used at about the right pace.

I taunted Mesha on the Idaho thread....she really should try that new incubator out, right? I don't think I could stand it staying in the box for more than.....a day. She has some Marans hens from Michelle I think?. Mesha is your roo from RoloIdaho? A blue one? Can't remember all the details, I just remember thinking you had the right birds to make some awesome Marans chicks.

Blujems, that roo is being nasty huh? Hope he settles down so you can keep him long enough to get some chicks too

 

[Daloorashens]

Shawn, are you kidding me, YOU are running out of room??? Now THAT is chicken math gone crazy=) What kinds of Ameracaunas are you going to breed?

 

[Daloorashens]

Lisa... I've been reading an interesting thread on shipped eggs...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/641760/settling-shipped-eggs-necessary-with-auto-turner

I'm dead set, NO incubating till after Christmas... chicks in the house that long makes me itchy, lol

I've had the same experience as Michelle with the roos when I was younger..... I had to be the dominant roo... doesn't take them too long to figure it out, but you have to be consistent... Same concept as being alpha dog...

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Lisa... I've been reading an interesting thread on shipped eggs...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/641760/settling-shipped-eggs-necessary-with-auto-turner

I'm dead set, NO incubating till after Christmas... chicks in the house that long makes me itchy, lol

This is interesting info huh! I have read similar comments....last season I usually let the shipped eggs do three to five days in the bator upright without turning, then I would turn the turner on.....but was finding the hand turned eggs seemed to have a better hatch rate, so now i put them in a carton upright to start development, then gently lay them on their sides and hand turn (if the batch is small enough it is not a pain) Mostly if the air cells were crazy I believe the stillness is good in the beginning. I like three days...five for crazy air cell eggs...I do not think I would dare go 7 though. I did not have sticking problems with the embryos...mostly the issue was either non fertile in the beginning or never developing or chicks making it to lockdown then being too wet and goopy. Then I went to dry hatching, that helped alot with the goopy chicks. It is so hard, every batch is just so different! I will never forget my first hatch.....eggs came unplugged in the night, bator said 67 in the morning. I threw the eggs out, then Sphinx commented I should still try..so I ran out and got them out of the trash, back in the bator...then on hatch day I went to throw them out again and I cracked the first open and the chick was alive...scared the heck out of me! I called Cynthia, like crazy fast, and she helped me figure out what to do. Red has two of those chicks/now chickens, how cool is that? They are alot hardier than we think! I still cannot believe they hatched. They were nicknamed the 'nearly deads' or something like that. :/ I had not learned what "candling" was at that time, i think I got a lot more gray hair during that hatch lol

I took from that whole experience, a tad low temp is better than a tad high Now I am scared I am going to fry them, but not too worried about if they drop just a little.

 

[sundancenbare]

This is interesting info huh! I have read similar comments....last season I usually let the shipped eggs do three to five days in the bator upright without turning, then I would turn the turner on.....but was finding the hand turned eggs seemed to have a better hatch rate, so now i put them in a carton upright to start development, then gently lay them on their sides and hand turn (if the batch is small enough it is not a pain) Mostly if the air cells were crazy I believe the stillness is good in the beginning. I like three days...five for crazy air cell eggs...I do not think I would dare go 7 though. I did not have sticking problems with the embryos...mostly the issue was either non fertile in the beginning or never developing or chicks making it to lockdown then being too wet and goopy. Then I went to dry hatching, that helped alot with the goopy chicks. It is so hard, every batch is just so different! I will never forget my first hatch.....eggs came unplugged in the night, bator said 67 in the morning. I threw the eggs out, then Sphinx commented I should still try..so I ran out and got them out of the trash, back in the bator...then on hatch day I went to throw them out again and I cracked the first open and the chick was alive...scared the heck out of me! I called Cynthia, like crazy fast, and she helped me figure out what to do. Red has two of those chicks/now chickens, how cool is that? They are alot hardier than we think! I still cannot believe they hatched. They were nicknamed the 'nearly deads' or something like that.

I had not learned what "candling" was at that time, i think I got a lot more gray hair during that hatch lol
I took from that whole experience, a tad low temp is better than a tad high

Now I am scared I am going to fry them, but not too worried about if they drop just a little.

When you think about it, hens get off the nests and walk a bit and eat and drink so the eggs would cool a bit everyday/ A funny hen story. I have 3 hens that are broody just now. The silkie and cochin sit in the nest facing frontways. Now the Barnvelder is different. She is sitting on a fake egg and faces backwards. Her butt is in front and her head is facing the back and her head is in the back caxing the sall. I try to turn her around but she turns back as soon as I walk away she turns around. I guess she likes looking at the back wall. I don;t want any chicks right now but they are determined. Too bad

 

[pawtraitart]

Quote: Hey, Mesha....if you are using a blue roo you need to start hatching NOW! You will lose egg color in your first generation because of the dilution modifier and all the stuff that needs to happen to get the egg color genes matched up right. Get hatching, girl! You know you want to! If memory serves me right, Rolo is using blue over black and not splash over blue/black so you should be in good shape......but.......start hatching. LOL

 

[pawtraitart]

Quote: Ummmm....no more turkeys. I promised my husband. LOL

 

[RedIII]

Sundance, that was your Cochin that was broody? How funny. She wasn't shy about yelling at us to get out the other day

Oh boy. Everybody has incubators and broody hens. None of my girls have gone broody. I've been half tempted to stick a few eggs out in the nest for my BO to see if I can coax her to sit on them, but I don't think she's that interested right now.