Good Morning! <=2017

[Killerbunny]

I don't think it ever becomes any other day! Better under a broody because when I use the incubator I pretty much spend the days (and nights) after lockdown on the sofa next to the hatcher checking temps & humidity LOL!
Part of the problem was, I think , the heat. She was rolling eggs around and a couple got steamrollered leading to the shrinkwrapping. When I candled them I mentioned to OC that something looked iffy with development in some.
For a first timer she did great in that weather.
Even when I was hatching hundreds of pheasant and partridge eggs in those huge commercial incubators it never got routine, always excited to go in on hatch day. The difference was that a 5 or 10% hatch failure rate was acceptable but at home it's personal!

[WLLady]

I've been hatching for about 9 years with broodies and incubators and the only thing that got me less worried was major spinal reconstruction. i seem to be much less worried about a lot of things now....lol. i do NOT recommend having this surgery as a way to help you focus less on hatching. LOL

good morning everyone! well, suspicions confirmed. my welbar boy is a jerk, the girls don't like him, only 30% fertilized. just hatched a bunch of chicks the last few days. ees, wheaten and blue wheaten ameraucanas, welbars, rhodebars, RIRs and marans. time to offload the slacking freeloaders (freezer camp) and select the lines i will continue with and those that i will not be. i think i'm going to rederive the ameraucanas against the ee line i have, they're 3/4 wheaten ameraucana already, and i have a really beautiful blue wheaten boy from kathy to proceed with. my marans are going.....i'll keep some girls for the dark eggs, but that's it. my welsummers are nice and dark too, but i need to replace all of them as well. lots on the plan for this weekend.

had a baby turkey hock walking...tried all the vitamins and stuff, didn't make it today. not mareks, but i'm sure deficient in something, but the 20 other poults with it were just fine. there seems to be one in every batch for some reason...one that's weak or feek or damages itself or doesn't learn to eat or drink. i think i'm getting used to that after so many years. ah well. everyone else is looking amazing.

beautiful weather, got cooler last night. we had one HUGE thunderstorm roll through right about 530 last night that had me fighting to get the barn doors closed. i could hear the wind coming and got the big sliders half closed and the wind hit and pushed the slider so hard against the barn i couldn't pull it! i did get it closed before the rain.....along with the greenhouse, all the coop windows and the house.....but wow. the wind was crazy! and right after it was dead calm.....until the next one at 9:30. at least we got a bit of rain, we needed it. grass is green again.

i need a good siding, windows and doors company. any recommendations? at least a good installer....we will likely go with centennial for the production of the windows and doors, but they don't install in our area. hm. online was VERY helpful last night-first the storm knocked out the internet signal, then my search gave me 3 companies in glencoe arizona....i learned something yesterday, there is a glencoe in arizona. who knew?! and then the next storm knocked out the internet signal again. apparently we don't get phone books anymore, and then i got sucked into a really horrible episode of the arrow....so i gave up.

my barn broody is on day 11 (chicken) and the turkeys are on day 12.....so still quite a while left! we cleaned all the pens in the barn on the weekend, lifted the nesting box with broody and eggs and all out, and she stayed zen on the nest and then got up to dust bathe, eat etc and i cleaned the nesting box (one broken egg), replaced the shavings and she climbed right back in all zen...good hen. my one sitting turkey is now attacking everything she can reach under the stall door ....don't stand too close....even if the door is closed that beak comes out under the bottom! the cat will learn....

hope everyone has a great day.

[Ontario Chick]

SO the final tally for my first time broody is - she hatched 9/9 but one was shrinkwrapped and died, 2 more (last to hatch), died overnight. The rest look bouncy and active. 2 of the dead ones looked like the yolk hadn't totally absorbed and one may have just been small and got stepped on. With the hot weather she was very fidgety the last few days. Anyway, very pleased she did so well she has either 5 or 6.

Great big congrats!!!

[Ontario Chick]

Congrats @Killerbunny
And I just learned something. I thought problems like yolk absorption and shrink wrapping were really just issues in artificial incubation. Didn't really realize it could go so wrong under a broody. My first timer Cochin girl's hatch is due this weekend. I think she only has 3 developing eggs (and 3 unfertilized that I left and will discard when I check again). I will be a pacing nervous wreck lol. How many times do you have to do this before it just becomes any other day and nothing special?

I have been hatching under Brodie's on and off for years, only broke down and got an incubator about 6 or 8 years ago when I realized that growing flock 6 chicks at a time is going to take a very long time.
Brodie's can be very good or not so good, but I have never had one go as badly as this one, yet two years ago the same broody hatched 10 out of 10
This makes me wonder a bit about how difficult this unstable weather is on the broodies.
And no Happy it never gets ordinary :chicken-hatching:

[Killerbunny]

Confirming 6 babies!

[baronrenfrew]

That's the last hatch of chickens for me: 32 fuzzbutts, 13 from Jim's legbars, with the rest bantam cornish or bantam RIR.
Quick math is a hatch rate of 70%

Next week comes an order of pheasant chicks and "slow growing" meat birds.

Oh yeah, better call KB for those turkeys.

[JimW]

Congrats Baron they look good.

JimW

[Killerbunny]

So the baby turkeys are growing and to prove it one decided to squeeze through the dog pen wire from the wyandotte enclosure. They do this regularly, mostly I think to terrorise the trio! Today he got stuck. I had to go rescue him, sort of like popping a cork out, too funny!

[kenya]

Baron So much better than a box of chocolates! Congratulations!

[Ontario Chick]

image.jpg

That's the last hatch of chickens for me: 32 fuzzbutts, 13 from Jim's legbars, with the rest bantam cornish or bantam RIR.
Quick math is a hatch rate of 70%

Next week comes an order of pheasant chicks and "slow growing" meat birds.

Oh yeah, better call KB for those turkeys.

That looks like a great hatch baron, congrats!!! :running-chicken:
I hope you realize that KB raises lap turkeys?