YO GEORGIANS! :)

[speckledhen]

All 14 Khaki Campbell eggs look good going into lockdown tonight. The broody maran has 5 eggs that look good for a Sat. hatch. And Lil' Sonya, the Flemish/New Zealand cross had her kits today!
We just busting out over here.

I follow a cool lady on Youtube and FB, Patara Marlow, used to be a backup singer for Ronnie Milsap, and she swears by Khaki Campbells for egg production and ease of maintenance. Her channel is Appalachia's Homestead with Patara. She also has a closed homesteading group on FB. Very interesting lady with a farm in East Tennessee.

Oh my goodness! This one is a live wire! Raising hell and chirping and then flopping down on the other eggs. There are now 5 more pips, and this little nut is determined to wake the neighborhood. Interestingly, it's all @juststruttin eggs that are pipping on day 19-20. The rest of them are laying around like rocks lol.

Any extra advice y'all have is greatly appreciated!! I guess my concern overall is that the Brinsea Maxi is only so big and with this wild chick + 14 other eggs, the chances that it gets rowdy in there are great!

Exciting, this hatching thing. I used to call the last three days Intense Bator Watch (IBW), but folks said that sounded like an intestinal ailment. LOL.


@brucifer sorry about the snake issue. I've seen them all over here, rescued some from our deer netting a few times-husband held the snake while I cut the netting; how they got into those tiny holes, I can't imagine- and sent them on their way, but never had one get into any of the coops, thankfully.

 

[livhatcher]

Y'all!! My family got to watch the first chick hatch last night and I captured it on video! It was awesome! And we woke up to three chicks and one zipping! Now we have four – – two boys and two girls! I'm so in

!!!

I know everybody has their preferred methods of incubating, but I have to say that I'm super impressed with Brinsea & the full view **** so the kids can see everything that's going on! My three-year-old was just dazzled!

I have three more pips at home and Eight more eggs to go! Today is day 20!

 

[Flowerbh]

Khaki Campbells are suppose to be the best egg laying duck out there! Mine lays almost every day....only misses maybe one day every 3 months!

About the chicks in the incubator. Yes, it's like a soccer match in there. I have the regular Styrofoam ones and at lockdown I put the eggs in a cut back egg carton with all the air sac 'dips' facing me. That way I can see at one glance which ones are pipping. The eggs stay in place and are not kicked around. And, some breeds hatch earlier than others, so don't give up on the ones that haven't pipped yet. Chicks can go without food or water for 3 days, so unless you have a problem, keep them in there until the end of the hatch.

But, you have the Brinsea, which is an excellent machine. If they said it holds 14 eggs, then don't worry. Just don't open it up while you have pipping eggs in there. That's why they call it lockdown. Just think of the environment in there like this.....you are in your shower taking a wonderful hot shower. You are all nice and comfortable. Then you turn off the water and you are still comfortable. Then you throw back the shower curtain and you are hit with cold air and all your nice humidity is gone! Your skin shrinks up and you get goose bumps! Well, that is what it is like for pipping chicks if you open the top up while they are pipping. It can cause the interior membrane to shrink wrap the chick inside. Just enjoy the show! And keep us updated!

Nothing much new with my hatching ducks except I now have 2 pips. Not due til Friday

 

[livhatcher]

Khaki Campbells are suppose to be the best egg laying duck out there!  Mine lays almost every day....only misses maybe one day every 3 months! 

About the chicks in the incubator.  Yes, it's like a soccer match in there.  I have the regular Styrofoam ones and at lockdown I put the eggs in a cut back egg carton with all the air sac 'dips' facing me.  That way I can see at one glance which ones are pipping.  The eggs stay in place and are not kicked around.  And, some breeds hatch earlier than others, so don't give up on the ones that haven't pipped yet.  Chicks can go without food or water for 3 days, so unless you have a problem, keep them in there until the end of the hatch.

But, you have the Brinsea, which is an excellent machine.  If they said it holds 14 eggs, then don't worry.  Just don't open it up while you have pipping eggs in there.  That's why they call it lockdown.  Just think of the environment in there like this.....you are in your shower taking a wonderful hot shower.  You are all nice and comfortable.  Then you turn off the water and you are still comfortable.  Then you throw back the shower curtain and you are hit with cold air and all your nice humidity is gone!  Your skin shrinks up and you get goose bumps!  Well, that is what it is like for pipping chicks if you open the top up while they are pipping.  It can cause the interior membrane to shrink wrap the chick inside.  Just enjoy the show!  And keep us updated!

Nothing much new with my hatching ducks except I now have 2 pips.  Not due til Friday

Dying to see baby ducks!! I'm just so pleased & amazed that I've got 6/7 pips on my eggs all the way from California---even with the wonky air cells. They are so stinking cute!! I now have 4 additional pips. Going to be a crowd in there!!!

 

[brucifer]

Im so sorry about your chicks

I'm throwing some extra measures up on my girl's coop, although I was wondering, the run my girls are in is covered on the bottom with hardware cloth, 3 feet up, should I cover the remaining 3 feet above that with my left over chicken wire as extra protection from snakes and such?

Thanks Missy. First, your coop improvements look great!

As for snake protection, folks who use bird netting swear by it, but you have to cut snakes free within the first few hours they are entangled or else they will die. My wife Lisa really wants me to use bird netting now, but I think she's overreacting to the snake attack. I really don't want to harm the snakes because they provide more benefit than harm. I just want to keep them away from my chickens and eggs. 1" hex mesh chicken wire isn't going to stop snakes, but it will stop weasels. After thinking about how in the heck a 4 1/2' snake got into our house, I realized that it had to go straight up from a three-foot crawl space under our house to enter through a very small hole. There is no pier or wall near the hole. What an amazing feat!

As a solution for the coops and pens, I was looking for 1/2" hex mesh chicken wire to go over 2 x 4 mesh welded wire, but 1/2" hex mesh is hard to find in a 48" width at a reasonable price. I may just retrofit all my pens with 1/2" x 48" hardware cloth on the sides facing outside and tops, and skip using 2 x 4 welded wire altogether on new construction. I'm not happy with the extra expense, but I want to keep Lisa happy and my birds/eggs protected from snakes.

If anyone has a better solution or idea, please share.

 

[brucifer]

@brucifer sorry about the snake issue. I've seen them all over here, rescued some from our deer netting a few times-husband held the snake while I cut the netting; how they got into those tiny holes, I can't imagine- and sent them on their way, but never had one get into any of the coops, thankfully.

Thanks Cyn.

(Sorry about the multiple posts. I still haven't figured out how to use the multi quote feature in the BYC editor. lol)

 

[brucifer]

Khaki Campbells are suppose to be the best egg laying duck out there! Mine lays almost every day....only misses maybe one day every 3 months!

About the chicks in the incubator. Yes, it's like a soccer match in there. I have the regular Styrofoam ones and at lockdown I put the eggs in a cut back egg carton with all the air sac 'dips' facing me. That way I can see at one glance which ones are pipping. The eggs stay in place and are not kicked around. And, some breeds hatch earlier than others, so don't give up on the ones that haven't pipped yet. Chicks can go without food or water for 3 days, so unless you have a problem, keep them in there until the end of the hatch.

But, you have the Brinsea, which is an excellent machine. If they said it holds 14 eggs, then don't worry. Just don't open it up while you have pipping eggs in there. That's why they call it lockdown. Just think of the environment in there like this.....you are in your shower taking a wonderful hot shower. You are all nice and comfortable. Then you turn off the water and you are still comfortable. Then you throw back the shower curtain and you are hit with cold air and all your nice humidity is gone! Your skin shrinks up and you get goose bumps! Well, that is what it is like for pipping chicks if you open the top up while they are pipping. It can cause the interior membrane to shrink wrap the chick inside. Just enjoy the show! And keep us updated!

Nothing much new with my hatching ducks except I now have 2 pips. Not due til Friday

The eggs we set a few weeks ago for the EHAL go on lockdown today, and I plan on trying out your carton method. Watching hatchlings play bocce with pipping eggs is definitely not a fun spectator sport.

BTW, Sven the Flower Boy started crowing yesterday, and it's become his new favorite hobby...

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks Cyn.

(Sorry about the multiple posts. I still haven't figured out how to use the multi quote feature in the BYC editor. lol)

It's easy, Bruce. On the first one you want to quote, hit Multi, don't do anything else until you get all the quotes you want in one post; then go to the next one and hit multi and at the last one you want to quote in the same post, just hit quote. They should all show up in one post. Hope this helps.

Hey @Nifty-Chicken doing moderator duty again, LOL! J/K.

 

[EmilyP]

Quote:
IDK if you have your heart set on the Chinese Crested but I have mallard duckling and mix ducklings if you are interested! (in Elberton)

 

[missy1971]

 
Im so sorry about your chicks 
I'm throwing some extra measures up on my girl's coop, although I was wondering, the run my girls are in is covered on the bottom with hardware cloth, 3 feet up, should I cover the remaining 3 feet above that with my left over chicken wire as extra protection from snakes and such?

Thanks Missy. First, your coop improvements look great! 

As for snake protection, folks who use bird netting swear by it, but you have to cut snakes free within the first few hours they are entangled or else they will die. My wife Lisa really wants me to use bird netting now, but I think she's overreacting to the snake attack. I really don't want to harm the snakes because they provide more benefit than harm. I just want to keep them away from my chickens and eggs. 1" hex mesh chicken wire isn't going to stop snakes, but it will stop weasels. After thinking about how in the heck a 4 1/2' snake got into our house, I realized that it had to go straight up from a three-foot crawl space under our house to enter through a very small hole. There is no pier or wall near the hole. What an amazing feat!

As a solution for the coops and pens, I was looking for 1/2" hex mesh chicken wire to go over 2 x 4 mesh welded wire, but 1/2" hex mesh is hard to find in a 48" width at a reasonable price. I may just retrofit all my pens with 1/2" x 48" hardware cloth on the sides facing outside and tops, and skip using 2 x 4 welded wire altogether on new construction. I'm not happy with the extra expense, but I want to keep Lisa happy and my birds/eggs protected from snakes.

If anyone has a better solution or idea, please share.

Yes I was thinking im going to just put up the cloth I have now, but will look into the bird netting first. At this point im basically working for my chickens...lol. and now we have a fox prowling around as well as a raccoon..in addition to coyotes, and other varmints