These little balls of fluff are so cute! We have 1 from Roo, 1 from Muffy, 2 from our golden laced Wyandotte, 1 from an Ancona, and 3 from our brown Leghorns. The one we lost was one of Muffy's and from the look of the comb it was a hen. So far by looking at combs, we have at least 3 roosters out of the 8 that hatched. Telling by combs is not a normal way to determine sex, however a few years back when we hatched out 14 chicks we could tell by the combs. I do not recommend this as an alternative to vent sexing or feather sexing. Hatching eggs is such an exciting thing. I was careful when collecting the eggs, making sure to mark with a pencil the date I picked it up and who laid it if I knew. I picked up eggs for 7 days and all eggs were unwashed and refrigerated until 24 hours before placing them in the incubator. I have heard that you should not do it this way, however it has worked for us. I recommend doing what is best for you and your situation. Most say to keep out at room temperature until ready to put in the incubator. My husband did the incubator part. He made sure it was cleaned, plugged in for a couple of days and ready to go for hatching these chicks. He also made sure to check temp and humidity throughout the time the eggs were in the incubator.
I like this incubator we have, as we can do duck, turkey, chicken, and even quail eggs. That being said, I would like one that would hold more eggs so we don't have to do so many batches. For now I will have to settle for what we have until I can get some funds together. I would have already had it had I not spent it on an upgrade for the chicken coop. Decided that the nesting buckets we currently have are too much of a nuisance and wanted some external ones and build roosts for the chickens to sit on instead of sleeping in their nests.
I had no idea how we were going to add external boxes onto our existing coop so I took to searching the Internet for help. I came across this one http://www.thegardencoop.com/blog/2011/03/10/external-nest-box-plans/ , however I had to make some alterations due to the fact that I have a much bigger setup. We made it longer and added a 2nd tier to it. If I had to go back and redo it I would definitely make some changes. As it was I had to dig out some of the run in order to finish attaching the hinges for the bottom nesting box door. I also would probably make the whole back piece 1 piece and cut out the doors. Everything has its flaws and we shall see how this one works.
Next up we are purchasing a chicken fountain from, http://chickenfountain.com/ so we will no longer have dirty waterers or the need to refill them since it will be hooked up to the garden hose. Plus I am going to be tilling up the run, digging it out and putting in sand. It always ends up super muddy in there when its wet out. Not a good thing for anyone checking for eggs or the chickens feet. Eventually we will be changing the layout of the run fencing, adding a roof that extends over the chicken coop and put up a rain barrel system to help with watering the garden and plants out in that area of the yard. So many things to do and they are not little things. I also would like to paint the chicken coop as well making it look prettier.
That's all for now. Time to enjoy the rest of today, it being Mother's Day and all I want to wish all the mom's out there a Very Happy Mother's Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment