Got the big coop set up with a temporary nest box, and the small coop and run all cleaned, a layer of clean chips, some repairs done to the wire, set up feeder and waterer, and got the 5-week-olds out there!
I did not complete the door in the opening between the little and big coops (but DID solve the door problem, just need to install the pieces) so we just stapled a square of hardware cloth over the opening, where you can see the hen peering in.
We went ahead and put the shrink-wrapped baby in with the others, since she's totally caught up to the others in growth, and all of them are so confused about the big wide world right now, having a new one among them is a relatively small thing - they could see and hear each other while in the brooders anyway. Shrinky is a bit timid, but nobody's picking on her, and she's fine about coming in among the others to eat.
There's only one I'm positive is a cockerel, it's the mostly-white one on the left, and the brown one with greenish legs I'm pretty sure is a hen. The rest I have no clue as yet.
The big hens are really curious about them, and keep coming over to the fence to stare at them and cluck at them. Do they guess that these are their own babies? Or just drawn to the babies and sound of their chirps, I don't know but it's really entertaining to watch them.
We got the brooder they came out of all cleaned, disinfected, new shavings, food and water, all set up for tomorrow when these little guys will move in:
Out of 15 eggs we only got 5, and I'm willing to bet that's all we will get - the other eggs show no sign of even a pip. Even so, I'm trying to wait patiently and not open up the incubator until Sunday night (day -1) even though "Early bird" hatched Friday morning, we do not want a repeat of the first hatch with one shrink-wrapped baby and two that never made it out of the shell.
35% hatch rate and 40% fertility rate seems pretty bad, doesn't it? Part of the problem might be with two roosters, they seem to spend more time chasing each other away from the hens, than actually breeding the hens! The other factor is, one rooster is 6 years old, some of the hens are even older, and possibly not as fertile. So I've probably been choosing the wrong eggs to set.
But hey, we still got a bunch of good ones and we're continuing to learn a lot!
you had to rely an the radio for the weather forecast, no internet app which tells you when it might rain ( or sunshine for longer periods) and when the hay got wet, you had to buy expensive hay
I think round bales had just started to be produced, kind of a novelty, the square bales were the ones which were normal, also, they could be carried and stacked, the round bales were just left on the field, too heavy to be moved by one person , nobody had the money to buy a baler, so we had to rent one for 3 days and pray during that time the hay would dry and no rain would come
