Washingtonians

[itsren]

Just wanted to say hello We have had a stretch of rotten lately. First I got hurt. Then my SIL passed after a long battle with cancer. That was 2 weeks ago. Now My Grandfather has had a massive stroke and its unlikely he will recover. Add to that all the fall time colds and such ... has made for a bum go. So Ive just been lurking and trying to Keep up with ya all Thats a full time job in its self..LOL

I'm so sorry.

 

[itsren]

Squirrels + pellet gun = yummie pie

My step dad shot one in the back yard once and taxidermied it. That was the ugliest thing I've ever seen. LOL! Yes, it was illegal. And, yes, my mom was really mad. Us kids thought it was pretty funny though. She's in her late 70s and still talks about how frustrating it was dealing with him and that squirrel.

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: It would have had to be incubated to a certain temp for a few days anyway. Maybe it got warm enough wherever they had them, or yeah a hen sat on it for a few. Yuck!!

 

[FeatherFrenzy]

Western WA - near Olympia! How-DEE!

 

[itsren]

I have only hatched by incubator once, and with Hallerlake's eggs that I picked up (no shipping & totally fertile & adorable chicks!) and the Brinsea Mini Advanced - we were very lucky and had seven out of seven hatch.




Too bad I had to sell the incubator and am not allowed to hatch in the house anymore. It was fun, and the two Brabanters I still have from this hatch are my friendliest chickens!

Last night my youngest boy asked me what we were going to do if all 5 hatched because we're only allowed to have 3 more. Ooops. The child knows the law. I had to explain the chances of all five hatching wasn't very high, and, if they did, they would live in the garage until they were big enough to go outside. As long as they were tiny enough to live in the garage, having 5 more would be OK. I also told him we would have to give away any roosters that hatched.

Dawn.... just curious why you can't hatch in the house any more? I remember reading that a while back and it made me nervous because I was afraid it was going to stink or something. So far, so good. They don't stink... yet. I have my incubator on a book shelf out of the way, so it hasn't bothered DH at all and the kids forget it is even there. DH is actually finding the process fun. When I told him I was going to candle the white one last night - he came into the bathroom to look at it, too. He thought it was pretty cool.

I did weigh my eggs before they went into the incubator. I haven't weighed them since. Maybe I should do that to see if the others are developing.

 

[itsren]

I'd love to see pics of your chicks! You can also post pictures of your molting chickens in the 2012 molting contest thread =)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-worst-chicken-molt-pictures-fall-winter-2012

Oh no! An ugly chicken contest.

This I've got to see!

It's gonna be fun seeing a bunch of chickens experiencing a bad hair feather day.

 

[itsren]

It would have had to be incubated to a certain temp for a few days anyway. Maybe it got warm enough wherever they had them, or yeah a hen sat on it for a few. Yuck!!

Hopefully it wasn't transported in a warm truck. Eeewww. The thought of that - because if a truck was warm enough to start fertile eggs to start incubating, any food that was in that truck would begin to spoil.

Did any of you see that documentary on how trucking companies were turning off their cooling systems while transporting cold foods across country to save on fuel costs? The truck temperatures were becoming so high that food was spoiling before it arrived at the store. The trucking companies turn their cooling systems back on in time for things to reach proper temperature before delivery and stores are completely clueless that their delivery is filled with spoiled food.

Indiana now has a refrigerated truck police force. Here's just one article of many: http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-poli...unit-was-turned-off-20120719,0,1277579.column

 

[itsren]

Western WA - near Olympia! How-DEE!

Welcome! This is a fast thread, but it is a very helpful thread and lots of good information can be found.

 

[itsren]

Good job! Ya know Jennifer, it's your hatch and there are things that everyone has to learn by doing. There are things you can do to help get a better hatch rate, but, the bottom line is everyone's house and hatch area are different, and those LG's are so sensitive it's ridiculous! I think all you can do is follow your gut, do the best you can and take care of your chicks well.

Jennifer, I agree. You are doing a good job. You trying. You are learning, and that's what is important. And it sounds like you are using a more difficult incubator.

I know my hatch (if we get a hatch) will be completely different because my incubator is very different. There are a lot of things that are posted about incubating that will not apply to me at all because it is not something my incubator is set up to do. I've been reading about my incubators - both of them are meant to be classroom incubators and don't have the ability to monitor things like humidity, and such. There no holes to poke any wires through. They're tiny - not much will fit in it besides the eggs. I'm not sure how air is even getting in there. The web site states that they are purely meant for children's education. That may be their way of saying you might not get a hatch out of it. We'll see how it goes.

 

[itsren]

OK... I'm going to ask a question that I think may have been asked before, but I didn't understand what was being asked at the time. How are you guys quoting multiple people in a nested quote? I can't, for the life of me, figure it out. When I quote someone, I get the last person who wrote only - which quite often leaves my posts not showing what the topic I'm referring to is.

Edited to add... the "Multi" button doesn't quote nested quotes for me. So... I know that's not what I'm looking for.