weeeellll, I did it, I took the plunge and bought a really nice incubator/hatcher set up. I figger if I am gonna be hatchin' these Call Duck eggs successfully, I better have some good equipment. :) Now I can't hardly wait for it to get here! lol!
Hi Shar~I will definitely be picking up some extra brooder lights! Good idea. I will have to post a picture of our brooder when it's set back up. My husband and son built a nice one out of those tubs a year or two ago. It's from a clear one, they made a screen to go on top--we have cats--one likes to sleep ON the brooder as close to the lamp as she can get....she actually got INTO it and was curled up in the corner once, when I was changing the waters. Didn't want the chicks..just the heat... the other two will stretch out along the sides of the brooder. Cats lovin the heat! haha :)
Hey! how are you Sparkle? :) I got a Brinsea... with a humidity pump, because I need somehow to really regulate the humidity for the duck eggs.. so I am gonna give this a go. *crossing fingers*
My friend Cindy's webpage.. excellent poultry health and vaccine issues are addressed, be sure to read the links on each one. Plus, Cindy writes with a great sense of humor and it's just plain fun to read her stuff. ;) SW POULTRY
SICK CHICKEN?
WADDL will tell you WHY--or will do so to the best of their ability.
If you are showing, raising, breeding and selling poultry and one of your flock dies for any unexpected reason, it is very important to find out why. You do not want to expose other poultry to a potentially contagious disease.
Plus.. they answer a million questions with the patience of saints. AVIAN HEALTH & FOOD SAFETY
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Also... If you haven't watched Food, Inc -- I highly recommend it. We need to be making better decisions in our food choices!
~*~DID YOU KNOW~*~
Chickens will begin their first molt at about 18 months of age... they will gradually lose feathers while replacing the lost feathers with beautiful new feathers. During this time they will stop producing eggs and focus all their energy into 're-feathering'. A molt generally takes 2-4 months and will occur about every 18 months. { Usually when you have an important show coming up.... ;) }
So don't panic when you see a pile of feathers and your chickens aren't laying... it's probably their molt-time.
~*~DID YOU KNOW~*~
People keep saying 'my hen is broody ... what on earth does that mean??'
Broody means that a hen is wanting to sit on eggs to hatch them. She will have laid enough eggs to build a clutch and will be ready to sit on the nest for the next 21 days. Some chickens, like Silkies, don't even need to have an egg under them to go broody~they have such a strong instinct to sit on a nest. People use them for hatching eggs from other chickens. If you have been gathering your eggs from under your broody hen because you want to eat them, she will sometimes just sit on the empty nest until she is no longer broody. She will not lay eggs during this time. People try to "bust a broody" by putting them in a pen or a hutch to separate them from the nest. I don't usually worry about it, but I do make sure they are eating enough..they don't come off the nest but maybe once or twice to eat and go potty. The brood WILL end eventually. :)
~*~DID YOU KNOW~*~
A CLEAN duck is an OILY duck, an OILY duck is a WARM duck! In the process of preening, a duck will smooth protective oils over their feathers which help keep them warm and keep their skin dry. It is important to provide some sort of water source for dunking even during cold weather. Our ducks LOVE 'fowl' *wink* weather! It is fun to watch them scoot and dip on the snow or happily flap their wings in a down pour of rain.
Hatching is just plain ADDICTING!!!
ReplyDeleteMy advice is get a new brooder bulb and lamp as soon as they are in the stores. Last year a lot of places ran out of them!
I got a couple of storage tubs at GoodWill and I like the opague/clear one best as I can see in it from the side of it when sitting.
Have fun! I can't wait til I can get started again!
Hi Shar~I will definitely be picking up some extra brooder lights! Good idea. I will have to post a picture of our brooder when it's set back up. My husband and son built a nice one out of those tubs a year or two ago. It's from a clear one, they made a screen to go on top--we have cats--one likes to sleep ON the brooder as close to the lamp as she can get....she actually got INTO it and was curled up in the corner once, when I was changing the waters. Didn't want the chicks..just the heat... the other two will stretch out along the sides of the brooder. Cats lovin the heat! haha :)
ReplyDeleteWhich one did you get??? I want to see pictures when every thing is set up! Love the cat story!!
ReplyDeleteHey! how are you Sparkle? :) I got a Brinsea... with a humidity pump, because I need somehow to really regulate the humidity for the duck eggs.. so I am gonna give this a go. *crossing fingers*
ReplyDelete