YO GEORGIANS! :)

[Jharper]

Yay! New toys! Just remember, it's all fun and games until it comes time to clean the gunk out after a hatch .  That's not icky enough to make me quit hatching though!

Yeah! I'm going to use it as a hatcher, because it has that removable liner on it.

 

[LTygress]

My new Hovabator Genisis 1586 came in today!!! I'm so excited!! I can't wait till I get home!!!

CHICKEN MATH! Let's see how many eggs you can fit in that sucker! And... GO!

 

[Jharper]

CHICKEN MATH! Let's see how many eggs you can fit in that sucker! And... GO!

Lol! I don't know haha!

 

[ChristyinGA]

Of course you don't; you're driving cats from the north! I have some nice recipes for either parts or whole; and FYI, my husband is concerned about getting past the cute factor too. As hard as that can be to overcome, I've come to a place in my life where instead of saying "I can't bear to eat something cute" I've said "I am definitely not a vegetarian, but I cannot stomach commercial processing and poor food safety regulations anymore. Nor can I afford to pay someone else to raise and process antibiotic-free, hormone-free, pesticide-free animals for me; so It's up to me." I'm just supplementing for our household, but every bit helps.

That is it EXACTLY!

 

[farmerChef]

Alright, planning out my chicken pens now - to include the few mixed breeds or extras that I have just sitting around taking up space. Thankfully, they're all female.


But here's my dilemma: I have three breeds coming from McMurray hatchery as pullets-only, and I don't have roos (of those breeds) to put them with. So I'm wondering if I should just put them with other breeds, or if I should get roos for them and breed them as purebreds.


The breeds are Silver-Laced Wyandotte (3), Cuckoo Marans (3), and Barred Rock (2).


abmaddox gave me four BLRW eggs to hatch, so the SLWs may end up with a rooster after all. I could probably ask her for some BCM eggs, and cross the Cuckoo Marans with Black Copper Marans.


That leaves me with the barred rock. There's only two of them coming in, so going through the trouble of getting a roo may not be worth it. In the meantime, I'll have a Phoenix roo with only two hens of his own, LF Cochin with possibly 2 roos and 3 hens (unless McMurray is nice enough to send the SL Cochins as two hens and a single roo), and the Sumatra roo with 4 hens. So the barred rocks could EASILY go into any of these pens. Or I could get a roo and breed them as pure. Which option do you all think I should do?

if you put the barred rocks in with the Sumatra or Phoenix, you should get sexlinked chicks. Barred males, Black females.

 

[mrsdszoo]

I am taking cats!

Can I get past the sweet bunniness and learn to appreciate the yumminess?

Sure you can get past the sweet bunniness. Walk into my barn unannounced. My Am. Chinchilla buck Maximus has a bad habit of "spraying" strangers, and his aim is dead on. His cage is at shoulder height for me, so he's also gotten me right in the side of the head when I came in at night without talking to them as I came in. I tell him all the time he's lucky I like him and he makes a good daddy. His girls are great moms, but neither are particularly "cuddly". They are downright awful to remove from their cages. One good slice from a rabbit hind foot, along with "eau du buck", and the sweet bunniness goes right out the window. Now, my Mini Rex are a different story!

 

[mrsdszoo]

Yeah! I'm going to use it as a hatcher, because it has that removable liner on it.

I wish there were something that was heat resistant but wouldn't mess up heat and humidity/water channel function to line the LG styrofoam bators with. I might try paper towel partial lines on the wire, but I'm worried it could affect air flow and/or humidity. Thoughts?

 

[ChristyinGA]

Sure you can get past the sweet bunniness. Walk into my barn unannounced. My Am. Chinchilla buck Maximus has a bad habit of "spraying" strangers, and his aim is dead on. His cage is at shoulder height for me, so he's also gotten me right in the side of the head when I came in at night without talking to them as I came in. I tell him all the time he's lucky I like him and he makes a good daddy. His girls are great moms, but neither are particularly "cuddly". They are downright awful to remove from their cages. One good slice from a rabbit hind foot, along with "eau du buck", and the sweet bunniness goes right out the window. Now, my Mini Rex are a different story!

I think breed may also play into this. Meat rabbits are not as cute as the smaller non-meat rabbits. Like, I have no desire to eat dutch rabbits - although I hear they have a great bone to meat ratio...

 

[LTygress]

if you put the barred rocks in with the Sumatra or Phoenix, you should get sexlinked chicks. Barred males, Black females.

Well, the good news is, ANY of the breeds that I might want or need to put them with, would end up being sex-linked. Sumatra and Phoenix are two. But then if I get more than one roo from the BLR Wyandottes or Black Copper Marans, the barred rocks may end up going in there too. And those would ALSO be sex-link chicks.

And for Large-Fowl Cochin, I'm getting two blue females, and three silver-laced straight-run. So I may end up with two or roosters THERE. If I do, the barred rocks may go in there, and that would once again leave me with sex links.

Although if they go in with the BLRW, I would end up with all of the males being barred - but half of them would be blue, and half would be black. Kinda cool. But I guess mostly I'll just see how every roo handles his girls, and how many roos I get from those straight run orders, and then move the barred rocks accordingly.

 

[Jharper]

I wish there were something that was heat resistant but wouldn't mess up heat and humidity/water channel function to line the LG styrofoam bators with. I might try paper towel partial lines on the wire, but I'm worried it could affect air flow and/or humidity. Thoughts?

What model do you have? The older one?