Poultry Update

Wow, it's time for the next hatch! I'm really excited about this. I put some of the "woven", nonslip cupboard material down to help the chicks strengthen their legs better and to keep the incubator a little cleaner. My first thought when I had heard of doing this is it is much more comfy for the new hatchlings than the wire mesh. Being woven it allows air flow. It can easily be disinfected for reuse. I'm also going to put some down in the brooder this time for a few days to help the chicks strengthen their legs and see if I have less leg issues.

In the incubator are some Jersey Giant eggs (larger brown), Americauna x Favorelle (green eggs), "Orpicauna" x Favorelle (drab green eggs) and Favorelle eggs (small pinkish). There might be a couple of Cochin eggs and there is one Americauna Cross x Cochin (blue egg). I didn't write it down but the eggs are marked so I'll know that way and the cochins will have feathery legs/feet like the Favorelles but should be marked differently.

The Hovabator that was given to me has Americauna x Favorelle (green eggs), "Orpicauna" x Favorelle (drab green eggs), Americauna Cross x Cochin (blue eggs), Cochins (brown eggs), Orpington x Cochin (brown eggs), Favorelle (smaller pinkish eggs). I was also handed 3 Guinea keet eggs Sunday and added them. They take 28 days instead of 21 for hatching. I'm looking forward to seeing the % of hatch I get from this incubator on fresh eggs that weren't shipped. I hope it's much better than I've been getting.

This am the incubators were too hot when I got up and checked them. They were 103 and 104 in parts and I'm now hoping that I don't have cooked embryos! The heat wave hit us and has affected both incubators - NOT good.

I do need to take a quick pic of the incubator on lockdown. I find it helps me to know which chicks hatched from which eggs when I wasn't looking!

Later this week I'm making a trip (couple hours) to pick up some Royal Palm turkey poults. I've got 6 coming and I so hope that they can all survive. As I posted before, I didn't have luck with turkeys in the past but have a different game plan for this attempt. Keep your fingers crossed for me please!!!

The silver-laced Cochin trio are doing great. I'm trying to decide on their new digs.

I want to open the partition in the horse trailer and give the "youngsters" from the 1st hatch (along with the 2 light Brahmas I got a couple weeks ago) and these from the 2nd hatch more room to hopefully avoid the 2nd hatch being picked on by the 1st hatch youngsters. I'll put food and water on both ends too so they have multiple areas to get to feed and water. The horse trailer is working well. The only time any sun hits it is early morning. The rest of the day it's shaded by a tree next to it and several fruit trees behind it. It's a stock trailer so has the 2 open slats at the top allowing heat to escape easily.

There are some CUTE youngsters in there. I suspect the gold and blue chick (from the Buff Orpington hen x Cochin roo) is a pullet which I greatly appreciate. She's a cute and very friendly chicker. There's a blue Cochin which I think MIGHT be a roo. It's also quite laid back, friendly and cute. He's going to be a great replacement for Blue Man who was taken out by a predator over the winter. There is 1 that I think is an Australorp pullet too (if I'm lucky). The 4 Brahmas are doing great. One I think is a roo due to the chest puffing up and challenging another younster who is a cross from an Americauna hen and Blue Man. It's a darker blue with some rust. If a pullet it will stay in the laying flock and if not it will be in the meat pen.

That's it for the poultry news. I'll do a goat one as soon as I can. I want to get some more pics to do it.