It was a sad day today. Our little Auggie passed away. I realized he wasn't eating as much as he needed and he was declining quickly. He passed away in our hands and he will be buried in our garden later this spring. Summer, his little buddy from the tiny egg, was relocated to the farm with her other siblings so she doesn't have to be alone. She was quite upset at being in her brooder alone and William had to hold her most of the evening while I made arrangements for her to go somewhere else.
Speaking of chicks, the chicks that hatched are doing well! One did pass away from what I suspect was a bowel obstruction issue, but from what I've been told the rest are doing well. There was also some farm eggs hatching at another person's house. Four of those have hatched out well and they are still waiting to see if there will be more.
Incubator update : Running two incubators is more time consuming. One of them is requiring hand-turning so I've been planning that about three times a day. At first I was turning every single egg, but then I imagined what a hen would do and I gently run my hands down each row and they kind of roll a little. (shrug) We will see what happens with that. There are over 50 eggs in that incubator. In the other one, with the turner, there are 17 bantam eggs (out of 18) and 19 standard eggs (out of 23) growing. Well, technically there are 4 eggs I can't tell in the standard ones but until I can tell I'm going to count them. BOTH incubators are having a bit of trouble stabilizing their temperatures all of a sudden, and I think it's the sensor in both of them. I am wondering if it just gets super dusty. I'm temped to vacuum it but … it would suck if the sensor broke completely. My turner is also losing it's motor. I've been checking it often and even turning it off for a couple hours here and there. I'm going to need to invest in two more thermometers. Right now I have one in each but I feel safer with two in each. I don't worry about humidity during the incubation until lockdown, then I bring it up to about 60% ish. The first eggs should be hatching close to the 1st of May.
Other news, it was finally nice outside for me to really take stock of the chicken yard. I had a friend make a chicken saddle for my hens and it works really well! Or … at least it looks adorable and she looks so fashionable wearing it. My friend is going to make me at least 4 more. These little hen saddles protect my hens backs from the roosters. A couple of my girls have gouges from being the 'favorites'. Poor girls.
I also have a hen in my bathroom, again. I really thought she would be dead by now but I can't bring myself to throw her outside. I have been giving her a bath in ACV and Epsom salts daily as well as hand spooning her vitamin water. Tomorrow I'm going to hard boil some eggs and give her two baths and hope that helps. I'm fairly certain she is egg bound OR the egg has cracked inside of her. I need to act quicker when this happens.
We are also looking at changing our feed. I want to start mixing it ourselves. Corey is less eager for this project. I will be looking for flax seed, oats, barley, maybe some split peas, corn maybe? I will see what's available around me from some local farmers. I want to get myself set up for the winter too, but that project might be trickier. We have to fix up our summer barn to be a little better for the winter so I can house MORE chickens than usual. Plus guineas.
Alright, that's a big update. I'll leave the rest for tomorrow!
Speaking of chicks, the chicks that hatched are doing well! One did pass away from what I suspect was a bowel obstruction issue, but from what I've been told the rest are doing well. There was also some farm eggs hatching at another person's house. Four of those have hatched out well and they are still waiting to see if there will be more.
Incubator update : Running two incubators is more time consuming. One of them is requiring hand-turning so I've been planning that about three times a day. At first I was turning every single egg, but then I imagined what a hen would do and I gently run my hands down each row and they kind of roll a little. (shrug) We will see what happens with that. There are over 50 eggs in that incubator. In the other one, with the turner, there are 17 bantam eggs (out of 18) and 19 standard eggs (out of 23) growing. Well, technically there are 4 eggs I can't tell in the standard ones but until I can tell I'm going to count them. BOTH incubators are having a bit of trouble stabilizing their temperatures all of a sudden, and I think it's the sensor in both of them. I am wondering if it just gets super dusty. I'm temped to vacuum it but … it would suck if the sensor broke completely. My turner is also losing it's motor. I've been checking it often and even turning it off for a couple hours here and there. I'm going to need to invest in two more thermometers. Right now I have one in each but I feel safer with two in each. I don't worry about humidity during the incubation until lockdown, then I bring it up to about 60% ish. The first eggs should be hatching close to the 1st of May.
Other news, it was finally nice outside for me to really take stock of the chicken yard. I had a friend make a chicken saddle for my hens and it works really well! Or … at least it looks adorable and she looks so fashionable wearing it. My friend is going to make me at least 4 more. These little hen saddles protect my hens backs from the roosters. A couple of my girls have gouges from being the 'favorites'. Poor girls.
I also have a hen in my bathroom, again. I really thought she would be dead by now but I can't bring myself to throw her outside. I have been giving her a bath in ACV and Epsom salts daily as well as hand spooning her vitamin water. Tomorrow I'm going to hard boil some eggs and give her two baths and hope that helps. I'm fairly certain she is egg bound OR the egg has cracked inside of her. I need to act quicker when this happens.
We are also looking at changing our feed. I want to start mixing it ourselves. Corey is less eager for this project. I will be looking for flax seed, oats, barley, maybe some split peas, corn maybe? I will see what's available around me from some local farmers. I want to get myself set up for the winter too, but that project might be trickier. We have to fix up our summer barn to be a little better for the winter so I can house MORE chickens than usual. Plus guineas.
Alright, that's a big update. I'll leave the rest for tomorrow!
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