Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[kristip]

Just fired up our incubator. Now to rotate out my 2 year old hens for some babies. I think we have 15 in the coop right now( not counting the bantams for fair in my garage) There are 15 eggs in the incubator... Going to sell 3 birds this week and 3-5 end of summer and go from there! Getting around a dozen a day on good days.

I personally have never had luck with eggs over 2 weeks old either. Lets hope we have a good hatch. Traded a Pretty cochin rooster for some Amaracuana and OE eggs so lets hope for some nice color in the coop!

 

[jvls1942]

good morning,

the goose has been absent for a couple of days. I went behind the garage and there she was , sitting on her nest.
I gave her the 3 eggs we have been saving in the house.
she immediately pulled them under herself.

then I started Ollie up and worked on the driveway again,
There was a puddle I wanted to fill in before it became a crater.

I am running on two donuts and coffee. pretty soon I will have to make something more substantial to eat.

I watered the scions . and I took a bunch of them out of the dirt bucket and put them into a water bucket. I don't think they will root,. but there is nothing to lose by trying.

.........jiminwisc.......

 

[GranolaGirl72]

Taught two classes already, no time to cook now so pot pie from the freezer it is. Heading out to clean out the coop as soon as I eat it. Gave the three kids home on break a choice to help with coop, clean out the car or clean up the property. Think they will divide up the chores pretty evenly if I know them like I do.

Saturday will be getting 4 new 10mo old hens, anyone have any experience in merging flocks? They are silver wyandottes that someone has too many of. She is only charging me $10 a hen, they just have too many and I can't pass on an opportunity like this. Getting them on Saturday so I have till then to figure out how to do this. Any suggestions welcome.

 

[Celtic Chick]

Taught two classes already, no time to cook now so pot pie from the freezer it is. Heading out to clean out the coop as soon as I eat it. Gave the three kids home on break a choice to help with coop, clean out the car or clean up the property. Think they will divide up the chores pretty evenly if I know them like I do.

Saturday will be getting 4 new 10mo old hens, anyone have any experience in merging flocks? They are silver wyandottes that someone has too many of. She is only charging me $10 a hen, they just have too many and I can't pass on an opportunity like this. Getting them on Saturday so I have till then to figure out how to do this. Any suggestions welcome.

You presently only have 4 hens? If so, adding 4 more shouldn't be too hard. It'll be an even fight.

I would quarantine the new ones & observe them for healthiness before adding them to your flock. This doesn't always guarantee that one group won't pass something on to the other one but better to err on the side of caution.

I have a hen that lays soft shelled eggs from time to time. When she leaves the nest box, a few others move in & try to have a snack. They will sometimes just leave an empty shell & other times barely leave a trace of anything. I am betting you have an egg eater.

If soft shells are the problem, mix some oyster shell right in with the feed. That solved my issue. Good luck.

 

[corewassen87]

wwll the girls were on lockdown all day and gave me one egg. I'm thinking they're just slow right now.

Gonna have to beef up the stock cuz I haven't bought eggs in 2 years and I will absolutely not

 

[jvls1942]

wwll the girls were on lockdown all day and gave me one egg. I'm thinking they're just slow right now.

Gonna have to beef up the stock cuz I haven't bought eggs in 2 years and I will absolutely not

we jumped from a steady 8 eggs per day up to 11 today.
I did a quick head count as they poured out of the coop.
there are about 30 hens/pullets.
I provided extra water for them,
what kind of egg formula are you feeding ?
I get mine from Town & Country near Fleet & Farm in wausau or Marathon Feed just South of Marathon City.
Mill mix. $10.4o/50 pounds. last year it was $9.4o..
No extra calcium required. the shells are nice and thick.

 

[Daethen]

My daughter loves the new chicks!

 

[corewassen87]

we jumped from a steady 8 eggs per day up to 11 today.
I did a quick head count as they poured out of the coop.
there are about 30  hens/pullets.
I provided extra water for them, 
what kind of egg formula are you feeding  ?
I get mine from Town & Country near Fleet & Farm in wausau or  Marathon Feed just South of Marathon City.
Mill mix.  $10.4o/50 pounds. last year it was $9.4o..
No extra calcium required. the shells are nice and thick.

i get layer pellets from the antigo country store. Never had a problem in the past couple years with the feed. Who knows

 

[wyoDreamer]

I feed Sprout Layer crumbles and have additional oyster shell available and still get soft shelled eggs occasionally.

I believe that it is just one of the chickens that is having the egg laying problems as this has been happening from Day 1 and is fairly infrequent. I occasionally find a slightly deformed egg in the nest box - ie. pointy tip, little swirl nobs on the shell, extra long like it has had an additional section of eggshell added to the middle length of the egg.

 

[wyoDreamer]

@jvls1942 If I remember correctly, you started your grape vines by just putting them in water, right? There are some rose bushes at work that are growing out over the sidewalk that I want to trim back. Do you think I could root them? they are not the hybrid tea rose type, but more of the "wild" type.