Washingtonians

[blueducklings]

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Congrats!!

OOhhhh you must be feeling those butterflies big time.

It seems like an awful long time but I got my bator 3 weeks ago and hatchatitis has caught on big time in this here household. OK just me.

Just not sure what I'm going to do with all the duckies I'm going to have. I save all the eggs I get from my 2 ducks in a shoebox and incubate them every saturday.

The last batch I had 13 eggs!!

I should have about 18 eggs in my bator now.
& yesterday my DS & I put a whole bunch of sand filled easter eggs in the bator to help keep the heat in the bator.
It looks cool. Orange, purple, pink, blue & green eggs.
You have a brooder yet? 21 days comes really quickly.

Mine takes 28 days so I have an extra week.

I got to build the brooder this week though.
Too cold in the garage, even with the heat lamp.
Share pics of your incubator!
Here is mine.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/77616_duck_incubation_017.jpg
You can see the eggs + the easter egg temp stabilizers.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/77616_duck_incubation_018.jpg
Here is the hatch box I made out of stuff I found at the local good will & what I have in the garage. $5 bucks later.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/77616_duck_incubation_019.jpg
Here is what it looks like inside. The light , fan and temp control. the insert on the left is where the ducks will hatch out. Thanks to CL for the idea.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/77616_duck_incubation_025.jpg
Here is my duck tractor. Cant push it anywhere now cause it is stuck in the snow.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/77616_duck_incubation_024.jpg
Here is where they will live when it is all done.

The little black blob on the right is the duck coop and the bigger blob on the top is my shed.
I got the space between that all wired off. Just need a gate & bird netting.
Hi ho hi ho its off to building a coop I go.

Last year, when we brought home chicks, I made a brooder out of an old cold frame. The lid is an old 6 pane window w/o the glass. I put screen on the inside to keep the babies in. It is 2x4 and 18" high. Gives me lots of space... need more chicks!
Oh and I see the easter egg idea... much cleaner than my pebbles! I'll have to go huntin for some of them! Thanks.

I saw a whole bunch or them at Target. They have easter egg lights too. So cool. I'm using theose for inside my coop.
OK outside too. Haha

 

[Ogress]

I LOVE all the hatching chicklet photos ... and all the Easter Eggs in Blueduckiling's incubator; I can see them hatching neon colored chicks!

I'm resisting .... not going to buy a bator. Sometimes I have to skip the posts so I don't pull out the CC and order one; though I doubt there is room on the CC now after building the cabin coop .... wish I had put in a nice stone fireplace ... I'd be hanging out in there right now!


Any input on my RIR with the Hershey Squirts (very dark brown, almost black)?

 

[cheryl98117]

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When you candled how many were viable? Just curiouse as to what the hatch rate on these will be. I'm eggcited!!! Will wind up having chicks coming out my ears this year. lol

Do you think my steady 60* tack room will work for brooding the chicks? Obviously I will have a heat lamp on them, but would this be a steady enough temp to raise these babies up?
Ack!!! I gotta get working, must get a brooder set up before hand, so its not a complete caotic panic to get it all done last minute. lol Time sure does fly!

And my incubator should be here this week!!!

Uh oh... Its snowing again...

Under a heat lamp, you can brood chicks in a walk in freezer, it was done as an experiment by some college

Just protect from drafts and vermine, and other birds.
I have not candled yet, I will on lockdown, and it is going to take me hours !!

It is the incubator that really needs a steadily warm place, especially a place that does not get too hot.

Ok thanks! Ive never reared chicks during the winter, so I figured I should probably ask. lol I generally brood during the summer out on my back deck. lol But it is WAY to cold to do that now.

Pretty pictures Chickilady. About 5 minutes ago I couldn't see more than 50 feet out my window. Winds are picking up, small flakes are falling fast, and the fresh tire marks have all but disapeared.

BUT my DH called and told me that I dont have to pick him up tonight!

I was not looking forward to driving into town again today. So all I HAVE to do today is go turn in some horses, and safely get my behind back home.

 

[Ogress]

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DH is still plowing the driveway so he can get out in his little red bug! DS is helping with a shovel, but we've got a loooong driveway. I have a feeling that I will be driving him to the bus stop in my Pilot.

Too bad the shuttle is not door to door.
BUT it is an excuse to get one of those snow throwing toys that spit the snow like a lawnmower. Them little red ones.

We got a big, shiny red one about 8 years ago, and every 10 feet it spits out all the bolts holding the handle on and the blades in. It shakes so bad the nuts fall off, can't find cotter pin bolts the right size, so we tried destroying the threads on the screws where the nuts are supposed to sit, hoping they can't work their way back out. It works better than the nuts, but you can still hear DH screaming out all sorts of applesauce when he uses the dang thing!

It works well on dry, pwdery snow, but not deep, wet snow.

 

[monicas]

broodytood wrote:
OK... so those great summer pics helped me to be distracted from to snow enough to remember something.
If anyone wants some perennials from my yard just let me know and I can bring them to Monroe. I have orange geums, snow in summer which is white and hardy geraniums that have a purple bloom and great red foliage in fall. The geums reseed themselves nicely and the other two spread by under ground roots. All are easy to keep in check though. Just let me know!


Hi broodytood. if you have any to bring I and my bee would love some. I can bring you some honey perhaps as a token of their appreciation.

 

[broodytood]

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I'm always up for honey, even so I'd still bring you some! Any thing in particular?

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

...Yeah....SO not complaining about what WE got last night....even though the roads were super icy...

 

[Chicken Rustler]

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Well then I guess we better cherrish that bright light that is out there right now.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

cheryl I am far from an expert or pro on this but. For the chicks I have brooded I have an old 100gal water trough that I have made a screened lid for and I just hang a heat lamp on jack chain. This whole thing just set out in the barn and they have done just fine. IMO you don't need to have them in a heated area as long as you have a heat lamp on them and they are out of draft.

 

[Chickielady]

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sounds like something he ate, but I would give him some chick starter just to be sure in case he has some Cocci going on, get medicated start n grow & give to him for a few days.