Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Hinotori]

Quote:
Great grandma sold eggs as a business. She always mixed a few grains and that was what they got for food. It's desert over there so you must feed your birds. In this area, if I let the birds out for free range most of the year they eat very little feed. Plenty of grass and plants they love and even the silkies pull up bugs I wouldn't think they could find. The large fowl seem able to trick worms to come up. A few of the large fowl girls will go wade into puddles and dig around for water bugs.

 

[Hinotori]

Psssssssssssssssssst:
Don't tell anybody but this morning we had our NPIP inspection and testing & we passed !!!
We are now waiting for them to assign us a certification number !!!

Congrats!

 

[Hinotori]

Alright Washingtonians, I got my first incubator (brinesea mini eco) and put my first set of eggs in last night. I have a hygrometer in there so I have one more thing to worry about, but with one of the tanks full of water it was running at around 70% humidity. I looked it up and that seemed too high so I took out the water and it is holding around 40 dry. I live right next to the beach so it's about 50% in my house. Being the typical worry wort I am stressing about potentially killing 10 babies! There are so many opinions on what is the right humidity when you look in the threads... what works for washington? I weighed them last night when I put them in, do I just weigh in a week and add water if they lose more than 5% since they should lose 15% in a week? HELP!
Crazy first time incubator

I'm not sure as I've only used the incubator a few times, I like hens to do the hard work. I do know that I've just ran it at 45% humidity straight through from day one to all hatched. The hatches have been pretty good. 90% of fertile eggs. I have the brinsea advanced with the humidity pump, though, so it keeps it's humidity really good.

 

[NanaHess]

My 1st Dozen Day!!!

To be fair to my girls it probably would have happened many times the past couple years if I didn't keep having to give away my layers to make room for my hatching. Should change my screen name to BatorAddict

 

[Two Chicksahs]

Amberjem that's quite a green thumb you've got going! I just put some starts into larger peat pots yesterday myself. Your coop is really coming along too! We had to take some time out to get some construction work done due to rats getting into our house.
E.S.

 

[Two Chicksahs]

Psssssssssssssssssst:
Don't tell anybody but this morning we had our NPIP inspection and testing & we passed !!!
We are now waiting for them to assign us a certification number !!!

Wow! That's awesome Chickielady! Kudos to you both! All that working your Arse off paid off! How are you gonna celebrate?

 

[Two Chicksahs]

Chickielady, you mentioned that we were possibly overfeeding our chicks, but how do you know if the jar on top is just 16 oz and the bottom part gets shavings in it. I clean it out several times a day of the shavings but... ? I am now trying to add dried fruit or trail mix. Ruby, the sweet one we got from you and the RIR are top of the pecking order and kind of hog the treats and run over the others with their rear ends.
We had to take time out of building the brooder due to prescription woes with Walgreens mail service which took days to rectify and had me running to Aberdeen two days in a row. I love the stuff about the bygone days. (reminds me a bit about having to walk to school in the snow stories) I keep telling Claire that in most countries the chickens run in the streets and what she drew up is a fancy hotel compared to that. It seems many of us get bogged down in the detail but we do get a hell of a lot of rain here in Pacific County and she says we want them to be able to get dry and warm. She has a point. Mine's on the top of my head I think. Gotta go take care of dinner. I got steaks for a nice change. Yahoo! We are meat and potatoes kind of gals!

 

[Shanny050]

Sounds like you are on the right track, and I think CarolynF is looking at your roof trusses & thought they were your roosts.
Easy mistake to make, given the roof is off & the pic was sideways ..

Oh my! I didn't think of that! Here is an updated pic taken from the view of where the boxes will be.

 

[Shanny050]

Back in the Olden Days.......................
Grandma & Great Grandma never fed their birds, ever, cept some scraps.
There was no such thing as trips to the feed store (or grain mill) for "chicken feed"
LOL
The pigs got the scraps (and the dogs) and the chickens free ranged, and sometime in the afternoon, these women would walk out in the dusty yard & toss scratch to the birds.
That was the only grain the birds got.
No soy protein, no marigold extract.
No vitamins or amino acids..........................
These women also did not have incubators, (or Silkies !) and the birds had to be broody on occasion to keep their flocks sustainable.
There was hatcheries, even way back then.
But not many could afford to spend money every year on chicks, especially during the dust bowl & the Great depression.
My Dad had chickens even when I was a baby, and we had no hen house, the birds slept in trees, and free ranged, and were given a scoop of scratch a day.
Finding eggs everyday was a hunt !
So, moral of the story is, I think chickens were fine 100 years ago living on dirt & scratch, they'll be fine now.

Thanks for that! Especially for someone as new as I am to the chicken game, I stress in everything being "perfect".

 

[torrelee]

I'm not sure as I've only used the incubator a few times, I like hens to do the hard work. I do know that I've just ran it at 45% humidity straight through from day one to all hatched. The hatches have been pretty good. 90% of fertile eggs. I have the brinsea advanced with the humidity pump, though, so it keeps it's humidity really good. 

thanks, that is comforting! It got down to 35 today, which the dry incubator people seem to like, but I added a little water to bring it up a bit since I have 3 showgirl eggs in there and I am thinking that they look a little porous. Hate to bake them dry considering I bought the incubator for them specifically!