Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[ValerieJ]

Are your chickens molting? I'm in Seattle and only 1 of my 5 adult girls is molting. In past years they are all molting by now. Wondering if they are just late this year. Or is it possible they won't molt at all? They are 2.5 to 4.5 years old.

I think it's possible they won't molt at all. My older chickens don't molt much. We have a lot of feathers to clean up in the coop this time of year, but we don't see any featherless chickens. Ralphie, our young rooster has lost some of his tail feathers, but this would be the year for it. He is just a year old.

 

[ValerieJ]

Good morning Washington! We tried a freeze dried soup last night. This was one that was commercially prepared. It tasted a lot like packaged food, which we are not accustomed to, so it was just okay to us. But, really, in a disaster it would be quite a welcome meal.

Next week, on Sunday, I'm going to try one of the freeze dried meals I made in my freeze drier. I'm hoping for much better results. I'm doing all this because freeze drying is one thing, but I'm not sure how to reconstitute it. I thought it would be a good idea to experiment with it before it's something we HAVE to eat.

The commercial freeze dried food comes with instructions, so that will help me decide how to do my own. They basically have you add back in the water that has been taken out. Fortunately I thought to track how much water was taken out of the food I freeze dried by weighing it going in and coming out of the freeze drier. I think the difference is the water weight.

Always one grand experiment after another around here.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey all no good ideas not done much myself.
Sitting here with my coffee almost finished.
I do have a couple birds dropping feathers.

 

[Smokerbill]

The New Hampshire pullets seemed to lose feathers constantly as they were growing, but now that they're laying they're not losing any.

They've laid a couple eggs in strange places lately, one in the coop and another I found this morning outside the coop in the day run.

The garlic is starting to sprout out of the ground after 18 days of being buried. Two up, 88 more to go.

 

[Smokerbill]

And the new incubator seems to be working. The digital readout of temp and humidity shows higher than it actually is, according to a temperature/humidity monitor that I put inside next to the eggs.

Humidity is running around 40% more or less, and the temp ranges from mid 98 to a little over 100. But I might have messed up by not turning the eggs I saved up over about 2 weeks. They were stored pointy end down in an egg carton.

 

[ValerieJ]

And the new incubator seems to be working. The digital readout of temp and humidity shows higher than it actually is, according to a temperature/humidity monitor that I put inside next to the eggs.

Humidity is running around 40% more or less, and the temp ranges from mid 98 to a little over 100. But I might have messed up by not turning the eggs I saved up over about 2 weeks. They were stored pointy end down in an egg carton.

It has been a long time since I used my incubator, but I think the humidity was higher than that. I'd have to look it up now.

I recommend an automatic egg turner. They are not expensive. I used one and never had to handle the eggs.

 

[Smokerbill]

The incubator turns eggs automatically, I just didn't turn them as I accumulated them before putting them in the incubator.

The manual recommends 50-55% humidity, and the built in display shows 50%, but the monitor inside shows 42% most of the time. I've read that lot of people have better hatch rate doing dry hatches and incubating at a lower humidity level. I'll keep an eye on the evaporation rate inside the eggs and adjust humidity accordingly.

 

[ValerieJ]

I didn't try that, because whenever I have reached under a brooding hen it has been very warm and moist. But, Penny Jo is a much better source of info than I am. I've only done it a few times and it has been years since I did.

 

[pennyJo1960]

The incubator turns eggs automatically, I just didn't turn them as I accumulated them before putting them in the incubator.

The manual recommends 50-55% humidity, and the built in display shows 50%, but the monitor inside shows 42% most of the time. I've read that lot of people have better hatch rate doing dry hatches and incubating at a lower humidity level. I'll keep an eye on the evaporation rate inside the eggs and adjust humidity accordingly.

I seem to have dry hatches more than others,
I see a egg have a hard time hatching may add a syringe of water.
I also have a egg turner is does allot by itself. May have a staggered hatch holing them so long. Should it be fertile will start then I keep them a couple days at most.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Are your chickens molting? I'm in Seattle and only 1 of my 5 adult girls is molting. In past years they are all molting by now. Wondering if they are just late this year. Or is it possible they won't molt at all? They are 2.5 to 4.5 years old.

Some of mine have already molted (I had broodies all the way until fall) and assuming the post broody molt was good enough then those are pretty much done. Other birds are in the middle of molting. I think 2 maybe haven't started yet. Still getting eggs too but slowed down for sure. So it's really spread out in my flock.