Vermont

[chickmomindanville]

Hi, I'm from Danville and just had a hatch yesterday. We started out with 21 eggs and have hatched 9 and 1 was born with the sac out of the egg and the remainders have not hatched. We had a second batch put in the same incubator and they're due to hatch on the 3. The ones that hatched are doing fine. They're so adorable.

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

Congratulations on your hatch!

What breeds are you hatching? Are these your first chickens?

There is lots of great info and terrific people here on BYC, welcome aboard!

 

[chickmomindanville]

I bought silkies and threw in some of our own which are muts. I have some more silkies that were supposed to be sent from ebay the same time as my others but were 5 days late in getting here. I'm hoping it works, I continued to open the incubator and turn them after leaving the first batch alone. We'll see. I am anxious. Are you from this area?

 

[Russo's Roost]

Congratulations and how exciting it must be for you. I keep wondering what goes through a chickens little mind the first time it lays an egg, especially in my case where there are no older chickens around that they can observe. Someone told me to put a fake egg in the nesting box to give them an idea about where to go. Does that sound like good advise?

 

[chickmomindanville]

My husband always leaves an egg in the box where they are laying. He takes them all out but one. We used a plastic fake egg once and they kicked it out of the nest. Guess they're smarter than we thought. We have some older chickens and am wondering when they stop laying. We think we have some sitting on eggs outside. We always got 12-13 eggs and we're down to 9 a day. Or something is taking the eggs. We also have turkeys we're raising. They grow so fast. We were told it was hard to raise turkeys but are finding it pretty easy. We started out with 8 and still have 8. We have 7 chicks that are a month old and chicks that are 6 weeks old. We just put the 6 week old ones in with our adult chickens. They stay in their own little groups and don't mingle with the others. What do you have for chickens?

 

[Russo's Roost]

That gives me an idea, I could put a hard boiled egg in each of the 2 nesting boxes I have. That way if it gets broken it wont make a mess. Thanks for the advise.
I have 3 golden comets and 3 Plymouth Rock Barred chicks, 8 weeks old on Wednesday. They have been out in the coop for 3 weeks. I have a well shaded run for them about 50' by 50' and we let them explore around the yard a couple of times a day weather permitting and they eat clover, worms, slugs, bugs and anything else that moves. The run is a dirt floor, we planted some grass in it before we put the chickens there but they have eaten it all. I may section it off and re plant but it doesn't get much sun so I am looking for a good shade tolerent grass. When I weed the gardens I put all the greens in the run for them and give them some scratch every day to keep them entertained.

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

Golf balls work as decoy eggs, as will wooden eggs from the craft store.

I have turkey eggs in the incubator now! I really hope they do well!

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

SO sick of cold weather already! My pullets are starting to think about laying eggs, and I am getting excited for the T fair tomorrow!

oh, and I want a silkie hen, if you've got one hanging around...

 

[Portalguy]

Cold? What cold

? The best part of Summer has just begun. The touristas have been gone from central Vermont since Labour Day, not to return with their environmentally-controlled SUVs until leaf-peeping season begins.

Our pullets are at about the same level of maturity; it is exciting; I've got my mayonnaise recipes out of the file! All Summer we did without mayonnaise at all, since the Middlebury 'natural' foods coop went over to a Monsanto-only selection of corn/soy/canola non-fattening but politically correct phoney-mayos.

 

[jafo]

Hello there from Northfield,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Vermont.