Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

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Beat me to it!
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BlackBrookPoultry - the bash is going to be a 2.5 hour drive for me, but it's totally worth it! I dragged my two youngest sisters along last year and they had so much fun (mostly carrying around those baby bunnies all day
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) that my mom took off work to bring them along again this year, since my fiancée and I don't want to deal with them in the car that long!
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And I'll definitely be bringing some Calls along - Blue Fawn and Blue Bibbeds for sure, I'm keeping the Black Bibbed and the Black Bibbed/Magpie-ish ducklings I've hatched so far and the little Lilacs, and I'm going back and forth on the Mallard-Grey one that just hatched yesterday. If I'm getting Lilacs, I SHOULD eventually hatch some Chocolate Bibbeds as well - I'm crossing my fingers for those!
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Don't really want to keep any Chocolates, just think it would be cool to hatch some!
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The small batch of 9 eggs in the 'bator that were due tomorrow look like they're all done hatching. I got 6 out of the 9 - two Calls and 4 Hookbills. Will admitted to helping one of the Hookbills out of the shell while I was at work yesterday even though I TOLD him to leave them be!
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Luckily, the duckling he "helped" was ready to hatch anyways, and he's happy and healthy in the brooder right now. Plus, Will made up for it by cleaning all the brooders and driving three of the oldest babies out to my mom's to live with the adult flock for me.
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Next batch of eggs isn't due until the 24th, but I have PLENTY of babies to keep me busy until then! Here's a few pictures of the bigger baby brooder right now!

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Do you ever just feel like there's a hex on you or something?

I plan for a year to obtain Iowa Blues, delighted then to find someone who would send me a couple dozen pullet eggs to incubate along with the 8 chicks from Sandhill. I end up with a nice set of 6 Sandhill, 6 from the incubated eggs due to some difficulties with temp flux (107 temp spike late in incubation, very nice). Was perfectly happy with that number and they were growing great. Then mother's day my husband decides to boil air and kills off half of my chicks (Iowa Blues and a selection of others) with teflon toxicity. After throwing out the teflon and getting him to only use cast iron, I buy a cabinet style incubator to negate the temp flux issue and get 79 total eggs from a couple gals who had small flocks of Iowa Blues from Sandhill from last year. Incubator seems to be doing fine other than a minor temp differential from top to bottom. I watch the thing like a hawk, candled at 14 days and threw out about 40% of the eggs that showed clear/scrambled/bloodrings/not viable and had 44 good looking eggs to pull from the turners a couple days ago. So far so good and the temps had been holding rock steady. Day 20 the ones from the warm spot in the incubator begin to hatch. This morning I was up to 7 chicks out with several pips and thought things were progressing well for day 21 as the rest of them begin to show signs of hatching. Went down just now to see my incubator hopefully full of black fuzz butts and...the incubator is dead, temp is 80 degrees, the previously hatched 7 chicks are huddled and cold in a corner, eggs cold to the touch with nothing progressed from this morning. It had been 6 hours since I checked them last and the incubator was working fine at that time. It's not in a place where it would get jostled and I refrained from touching the thing, just looked through the window.

So, I quick checked the power, the power strip is fine, the cord is plugged in, nothing appears awry. Checked the fan in the unit to see if maybe just the bulb had simply burned out, nope, fan off too, bulb appears to be normal but I haven't plugged it into another socket. No tinkering, testing, jostling, or coaxing made any difference, couldn't get the fan to turn back on, didn't see any sign of life. Turned the thermostat, nothing. Thing is dead in the water.

Will have hubby take a look at it tonight as I am not electronically gifted, see if he can fix it, but I'll get to write myself a nice email to the seller if it's not a quick and easy fix.

Sigh. 7 chicks out of 79 eggs. The thing that really makes it hard to swallow is that it happens right at the beginning of hatching when everything was going so well. 44 great looking - developing - on the verge of hatching eggs, 7 chicks. Seriously? Did I torture a kitten as a kid or something? The Iowa Blue gods have it in for me.

Thanks for listening to the rant, doubt anyone else I know would understand why I feel like I'm living a poorly written sitcom with this breed.

Well, hope at least this handful make it. Transferred the eggs to the styrofoam incubator, but not holding out much hope. Timing could not have been worse.

Better go check the styrofoam incubator temps again. *grumble*

Beautiful day otherwise, and the rest of my chickens are doing great.
 
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Bigz, I used to have so many troubles with deer eating everything in sight in my yard until I read an article saying to make "hair balls" out of human hair stuffed in an old onion/mesh bag & hang it in the plant that is being targeted. I have very long hair & I seem to shed constantly, so it doesn't take me too long to collect up enough for making hair balls, but if I need a lot of them, I'll also collect dryer lint & used dental floss to mix in with the hair. And they don't have to be big. I make mine about the size of a golf ball or less. The deer don't like the human scent, & it seems that our hair manages to hold onto this scent for a while. They don't sound very pretty, I know, but they really do work & they don't cost you anything.
Every year we are planting new tree seedlings that look literally like twigs, and since doing this, I no longer have missing seedlings the following morning chewed all the way to the ground. After a couple of seasons, the birds will sometimes raid them for nesting materials, so they wind up serving 2 purposes.
If you don't have an excess of hair on hand, you could maybe ask a local barber/hair salon to save you a small bag. I am sure they wouldn't mind. Just another one of my wacked-out thoughts.
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Early Evening All....Yikes Hurley wish I could help someway with words that could make a difference literally. What the heck...I figured for sure you were in recovery of the Iowa Blues.....

Thanks celtic chic...I'm gonna get some free hair from the local barber and give it a try. I don't pay for hair cuts there...just the gossip....so I'll be able to gather up some hair no problem. it will be fuel for the barber for more hair cuts...
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Oh my SF those pics are precious.

It was a joy watching the flock today. What a constant asking the girls to please leave and go outside and play like chickens.
The zoo on the hill was a busy one today.

I'm not sure what I'm doing for the white elephant gift yet?

I was at the farm store today...40lbs boss over $20
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I was buying 30lb bags at the mill for $6.50 last fall. I have three left and wish I would of bought alot more.
 
Evening all!

Had a lot to catch up on here!

Hurley-I'm so sorry to about your Iowa Blue hatch troubles. I wish I had some to give to you.
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SF cute ducky pictures!

Frizz-so sorry about your birds. A Red Fox....never thought of a fox....makes sense though like Bigz said. If you need some extra birds, let me know as I can part with some Barnevelders if your interested. I've got 2 or 3 extras.

DrH- hope you had fun fishing and caught lots!


Well, I mowed the lawn--again- the mower seems like it's just as much of a gas hog as my truck!! Dh and I planted the rest of the trees. We ended up with 2 American Hazelnuts, 3 Sugar Maples, 3 Paw Paw's and the 2 peach. We also planted some more corn and he got some type of bean. A Butterscotch Bean. That is all I know about them. Their name!
When dh and I were planting the trees, we would find grubs. I made a comment about that if the chickens only knew they were missing out on grubs, we'd have a riot. So dh decided to bring the free range "experience" to the Girls. He sacrificed many grubs to the Chicken Gods. The Gods were happy but not to pleased when the grub supply ran out! I think he had more fun "sacrificing" the grubs then the chickens did eating them!
We went to the movies as a treat and saw Super 8. Totally great movie! If you like Si-Fi movies this is a terrific one. Not to scary, not really gory-a little blood, the language was not to bad- a few cuss words (one of my huge pet peeves in film- bad language.) Liked it way better then Avatar. It was fun to go and hang out with my dearest one and I even treated myself to Milk Duds. Yummmm! Of course the title made way more sense after the movie was over and dh had to explain it to me on the way home!! LOL!!

Well, I've got to go finish the laundry....have a great night!!
 
Quote:
Beat me to it!
smile.png
BlackBrookPoultry - the bash is going to be a 2.5 hour drive for me, but it's totally worth it! I dragged my two youngest sisters along last year and they had so much fun (mostly carrying around those baby bunnies all day
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) that my mom took off work to bring them along again this year, since my fiancée and I don't want to deal with them in the car that long!
big_smile.png
And I'll definitely be bringing some Calls along - Blue Fawn and Blue Bibbeds for sure, I'm keeping the Black Bibbed and the Black Bibbed/Magpie-ish ducklings I've hatched so far and the little Lilacs, and I'm going back and forth on the Mallard-Grey one that just hatched yesterday. If I'm getting Lilacs, I SHOULD eventually hatch some Chocolate Bibbeds as well - I'm crossing my fingers for those!
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http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae306/Sweetfolly-Annarie/June2011Ducklings3.jpg

[URL]http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae306/Sweetfolly-Annarie/th_June2011Ducklings1.jpg[/URL] [URL]http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae306/Sweetfolly-Annarie/th_June2011Ducklings2.jpg[/URL]

What route are you taking to the bash? Maybe I could meet you somewhere on your way.
 
Sounds like the weekend is ending and for Hurley and Friz none to soon. So sorry for your loss Friz
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Good to know you (relocated) that fox. Hurley how frustrating for you, hope you find out what happened and maybe you'll still get some out of the ones you relocated to the styro bator.
Bigz, thanks for the info on the Bash directions from the North. I hope you have been getting good news from the eye Dr.
BC the McD's in Denmark is also in the running for the slowest
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SF those are such cute pics, thanks for sharing
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DH with my help
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was working on the water line for the heat register that runs along the wall that will be the home of a new patio door.
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can't wait. Done with that (my job was clean up).
Then built in an air conditioner we got from my Sister and her Hubby. Hope it works, we don't need it that often but the older we get
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sure would be nice to cool off at least to sleep. Was a cool and damp Sat. and today was about 65 and some sun. Sounds like tomorrow will be a nice day seeing as how I'll be at work
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Hope those of you that can be out enjoy it.
About the white elephant gift ?????? Just a wrapped item someone else could use that you can't ???????

Good Night to all, Susie
 
good evening, spent all day in the garden.. dragged it, and then back-bladed it.. BIL came early and we got 16 rows of corn planted.. then daughter #1 came with her son and his friend. They planted 24 tomato plants, 48 cabbage,califlour,,broccoli, brussels sprouts.. 1/2 pound of yellow and green beans.. some lettuce, beets and carrots.. still have some things to plant, but have to find space for them.. might have to sacrifice a part of a corn row..

rigged up a new plastic 55 gal barrell for watering the plants.. Of course, now that I have the garden planted, no rain is in the forcast..

I parked the tractor on the road with the barrell in the bucket raised up high.. gives a good water pressure for the hose that way.. wouldn't you know ,, the battery went dead on the tractor..Just because I was on the road, I suppose.. had to get the Blazer and push start the tractor.. I figured that would be a good place to end it for the day..

Hurley, those eggs might still hatch if you have them in another bator..

I was just informed that the heater in the turkey brooder is not working.. why do things like this happen just when it is getting dark?
 
Good morning and good evening! I headed out to the garden at 9 this morning so I had no time to read anything...now I have been reading for an hour! I came back into the house at 9:10 tonight! 12 hours of gardening
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I am pooped! On a good note though...ALL the plants are in!
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FINALLY! I do have to plant some spinach, beets and squash and still do the potatoes...but at least I dont have to water plants in containers any more! It was really tough this year doing it so late and not having my tiller...we dug the whole thing by hand and took all the roots out. I am hoping that by doing that I wont have so many weeds this year
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Hurley--I am sooo sorry to hear of your continued troubles with those Iowa Blues! Maybe that is why they are called Blues? (bad joke sorry!
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) I am with Jim on that one too...they might just hatch anyhow! I had a hen that let her eggs get cold and then went back on...I was really glad that I didnt toss them that morning cause they all ended up hatching! I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

Bummer about the fox! At least you got it though...I hope it didnt have any pups...we just took a picture of one on the side of the road eating road-kill when we went to the dog park...it let us get really close! ( of course it was adorable...I told it to stay away from my place!)

That is a bunch of stuff to plant Jim! Good thing you had help me thinks! No matter how big your garden is it always seems like you need more space for something! I ended up planting the Zucchini on the outside of the fence! Bet your place is pretty darn busy come harvest time! I am happy that I will have a canning buddy this year. The woman that I am sharing my garden with is interested in learning how--so I will have help with that too!

It was so nice to see the sun today wast it? Towards 7 PM we got a sprinkling of rain...didnt last long; I just kept pulling weeds! I hope everyone got the things finished that they needed to...so nice with NO BUGS!

OK--now I am really tired...going off to bed! Sleep tight everyone! Terri O

(PS) My neighbor said he will take all the white calls that you can hatch and also would like 3 pastels. (for any of you hatching calls!)
 
Oh Hurley!
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It is so discouraging, isn't it, to lose chicks. When you are a famous, reputable Blues breeder, you will have quite a story about your beginnings.

Frizz, so glad you caught the culprit. How one little creature can wreck so much havoc...

Today Julie and I took our kiddos for a little jaunt down to Shanti's place
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What a super lady! Pony & horse rides, duckies, and Mitch the 3-legged wonder dog, lol! Had a great time, can't wait for the next visit. Susie J, are you up for carpooling/caravanning to the Bash? Julie and me plus rugrats will fill up one car, that leaves Shanti; thinking about heading out about 9am Sat.

Gotta get thinking seriously about the Bash...white elephant gift, food, plants & seeds to swap, maybe some eggs to swap...less than 2 weeks to go!
 

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