Hatchery Update

Yes, I do believe my adventures in incubating are now successful enough to call it a hatchery!  Batch #3 started hatching last night, and we are at 10 chicks so far.

We moved the incubator out to the new coop after the last batch because it was too hot in the house.  Not too hot for the chicks - the heat of the incubator and heat lamp was too hot for the people!

It's a more streamlined process now, with new chicks going straight from the incubator onto the floor of the pen.  There's no overcrowding, and lots of noise from all three batches of chicks.

I believe we'll be ok to do one more batch outside this year, then probably back in the house in September.

The first batch is almost big enough to move outside now.  I have a few repairs to do to the greenhouses after a bit of a wind storm the other day, and then I think it will be safe to relocate them.  (It's safe for them now, but not for my veggies!)

The second batch is doing well, although I'm surprised by how much colour their showing.  Most of them have at least some black feathers, and a fair bit of red.  Few are solid white.  These are offspring of my crossbreed chantecler/frey's dual purpose hens, same as the first batch.  I think the younger ones were laying more eggs when I started this batch than the first.

The new batch are from after the chanteclers went outside, using eggs from all of my hens with the alternate rooster.  I'll be keeping the whiter ones and offering the rest for sale.

Egg production is up to at least a dozen per day, sometimes as many as 16. 

The black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS) are really paying off.  I'm feeding one coffee can of BOSS and one coffee can of scratch grains per night.  They get one 500mL sour cream container scoop of sprouted barley in the morning and forage through the day.  Although the BOSS are more expensive to buy, they don't require as much feed this way, so it actually saves me money.  I plan to continue with it through the winter, which I hope will increase egg production and over all health.

Eggs will be saved for incubating over the next few days, and batch #4 should be started by Monday.

Last Batch for 2014

My last batch of chicks for 2014 has hatched- 11 more balls of fluff.  One more black (barred rock cross), and two more reds.  The chanteclers are great producers.

They look dead, but they're just napping, lol.

I think I have too many chickens for the winter coop.  The four main pens should hold 8 hens plus a rooster each.  The fifth pen is smaller.  I think I'll use it for the geese.

So, space for 36.  I have 15 chicks from the last batch, 11 from this batch,- all too little to do anything with, and too many roosters!  Ten original chickens (8 hens, 2 roos).  And 9 chicks from the first batch that aren't quite big enough to butcher.  45.

9 heads need to roll.

The older roos, the red hens, and the barred rocks will be first in the freezer.  I need to get a new rooster next year anyway, for fresh blood lines.  The smaller birds can double up a bit for now, and then I'll need to butcher the younger roosters through the winter as they get big enough.

One More Batch

After selling the last batch, I put another 29 eggs in the incubator. Despite some temperature fluctuations this month, 17 chicks have hatched so far.

Chicks just hatched

Chicks moved into box with heat lamp

Most are happy, healthy, energetic balls of fluff.

The first black chick (barred rock cross)

We even have one black chick- bigger than most of the yellow chicks.  This should be a barred rock cross.

But then, there are a couple of chicks with issues, that are unlikely to survive.

Issues- this chick hatched with a dark goopy string across it's back.  It's smaller than the rest.  The goop is drying up, but I think it might be intestine or something not properly developed.

Issue #2- this chick has it's head stuck to a chunk of shell.  It's not walking and the others are picking at it.

Again, I will leave the incubator on today, but I think they're probably done.  59% hatch rate.

The New Hatch

They weren't due to start hatching until Monday, but Friday night the first chirps were heard.  We actually thought one of the older chicks had gotten loose and come up to the house at first.  Then I realized my eggs were chirping.  Quickly out of the egg turner and onto the screen.  Three eggs were already pipped and all three hatched that night.

Saturday morning there were 6, then another 3 throughout the day.  Sunday morning the incubator was overloaded with balls of fluff.  11 went into the box beside the incubator.

There are 17 now, with 11 eggs left unhatched.  I'm going to give them another day before I shut the incubator off, but I think they're probably done.  61% hatch rate.

The last chick to hatch had a hard time of it.  Part of someone else's shell got stuck to his shell.  I don't know how long he had been trying to break free when I noticed it.  I peeled off the extra shell for him, but his inner shell had already started drying out.  He managed to break free, but there are bits of shell stuck to him.  He's kind of wobbly on his feet too.  I don't think he'll make it, but time will tell.

With this hatch I added a small dish of feed inside the incubator.  The shells provide all the feed they need for the first 24 hours, but the last batch didn't seem to be eating until about day three.  I thought putting a little feed in the incubator with them might help.  It seems to have worked.  This batch is off to a good start eating and drinking lots.

Now I know I should quit for this year- that's a lot of chicken to feed this winter- but an empty incubator makes me sad.  So I advertised this batch on kijiji.  Oh!  Maybe I'll make some money...  I'll start collecting eggs for another hatch...

Incubating

Happy Birthday, Canada!

New batch of eggs started yesterday, June 30th.  Due to hatch July 21st.

A busy few days ahead, getting the three oldest boys ready and off to camp.  Then two weeks alone with #4.  Then 4 more weeks with #3 and #4.  #1 and #2 will both be gone for six weeks! 

Finally got some rain yesterday, so things have cooled off nicely, but of course, the bugs are back.

Chicks!

Remember that last batch of eggs?  Well it seems at least some of those girls were in with a rooster.

The first egg hatched 2 days early, on the 16th.  I heard the first chirps from the incubator in the morning, then quickly moved all of the eggs out of the egg turner tray.  Within two hours the first chick was out.

By evening, three more had made their appearance.

The morning of the 17th, another pair.

These eggs weren't 'due' until the 18th.  How did that happen?  Well, I thought I might be having some trouble with my egg turner.  Nothing hatched from the first two batches this year, and every time I looked at the incubator the eggs always seemed to be in the same position.

After the new hens arrived, I cleaned out the incubator, scrubbed everything down well, and put the egg turner back in place.  I left the egg turner plugged in while I was collecting eggs for this hatch, and conveniently stored the eggs in it.  It seems the warm spring weather combined with the motion was enough to give these chicks a head start.

All but one of the early chicks was very light yellow.  Fingers crossed for more chanteclers!  The odds should be pretty good, since all of the other hens should produce coloured chicks, except the meat hens mated with the meat roosters might hatch out light coloured rooster chicks.

One of the chantecler chickens

When the 7th chick hatched on the morning of the 17th, I moved the four driest fluff balls into a box right beside the incubator.

They won't be there for long, but I want to keep them close so the ones still in the incubator, and especially the ones still in the eggs, can hear their siblings chirping away.  This helps the unhatched to know that mama hasn't taken the clutch and abandoned them.

By bedtime, we were up to 11 chicks, so I moved two more into the box.

One hatched overnight, and the last one hatched the afternoon of the 18th.  Sadly, we lost one little one last evening.

 

 So, an even dozen.  12 adorable little balls of fluff.  They'll be moving outside to the 'winter' coop soon.

Another Batch of Eggs

21 eggs in the incubator.  Fingers crossed that those chanteclers were in with a rooster before I bought them!  Temps in the house have stabilized, so this should be a good hatch- June 18th. 

Incubating

Let the count down begin.

Just eight eggs in the incubator this round.  I put a towel over it to stabilize the temperature somewhat. 

With the nights still so cold, I couldn't get the temperature to stabilize without it.  The towel is helping substantially, however, it's also covering the vents, so I'm not sure what that will do to the humidity level. 

I decided to keep enough eggs for breakfast, and give it a go with the remaining eight.  Not too much to risk.  With a little luck, we could have chicks for the first day of spring.

The New Chicken Coop

The add a room was our first major construction job.  In August 2009, before I started blogging, my Father-In-Law came to live with us.  My Mother-In-Law had fallen, broken her hip, not enough bone density to walk again, diabetes, dementia...  She was accepted into a nursing home, he wasn't.  The nursing home would take all of her money, leaving him unable to pay his rent.

Our house is much too small for permanent house guests- 3 bedrooms, 3 closets, 6 people.  We set up a bed in the livingroom for him.  It was cramped to say the least.

However, the summer before we had helped Mom and Dad build an add a room on their trailer on the corner of our property.

This was their cabin in the woods, before they bought the place next door.

We had some building experience, and we had room, so we decided to build FIL an add a room as well.  The first step was to get the trailer in place, and set up logs around it for the foundation.  The logs had to be BIG and solid.  Then levelled off.  We enclosed our trailer inside the structure to add insulation.  Windows  and doors were framed in.  We built around the propane tanks, keeping them and the trailer hitch on the outside of the building.

Press board sheeting was used on the roof, not quite in time for winter. 

Press board sheeting was put up for the exterior walls.  Windows and doors were installed.

Construction moved inside for the rest of the winter.  We installed the floor.  We insulated.

We put up vapour barrier.

Press board walls for the interior.  A partial wall was built in around the inside side of the trailer, leaving the windows exposed for light and heat.

My Dad built the wood stove and delivered it.  We used four 2'X2' patio stones for the floor, and a piece of tin siding for a heat shield.

Spring came, and we went back to work outside. 

The boys and I laid shingles, while Husband cut a hole in the roof to install the chimney.

Chimney in, flange tarred, no leaks...  Heat!

A little deck, a little porch.

Paint and firewood.

We added the firewood lean-to.

And then filled it and cleaned up the yard.

FIL moved in, using the trailer's propane heater as soon as the weather was bearable.  My interior pics seem to stop there.  Husband installed lights, electric sockets, wiring. We painted the inside.  #2 put up interior wood panelling.  Husband added a pipe and fan to blow hot air under the trailer.

We did all of this while Husband was still driving long haul, the Bigs weren't very big yet, trying to run a farm, looking after FIL, bringing MIL home on the weekends...  And less than a year later FIL went to live with one of Husband's brothers.  Six months later, another brother.  He's in an old age residence now.  MIL passed on February 7, 2013.


At first it just sat there.  What were we going to use it for?  A guest house maybe?  We don't have that many guests.  We thought about tearing it down.  That's too much work.  Eventually it became the playroom-

pool table, dart board, air hockey table, card table.

It was great until the insurance company decided that they wouldn't insure the home made stove.  Then it was pretty useless most of the year.  So it sat there.

And then I got an incubator for my birthday.  And now I hatch eggs.  And I have big plans for more eggs next spring!  And now it's a construction zone again.

We removed the chimney and patched the roof with a sheet of tin.

We took out the wood stove, heat pipe and fan, and ceiling fan.  We started building pens!

Mouser has moved in, and has given it her approval.  She's not crazy about the loud noises from saws and hammers, but she's happy to be out of the cage and loves climbing up the side of the pen.

We thought about removing the trailer, but it would be a lot of work.  The plumbing froze and split when FIL was with us, four windows are cracked, the floor is rotting, and the roof leaks.  Where are we ever going camping in that?  For now it will remain in place as storage. 

The back section (in the pic above Mouser) will be divided into two pens.  Then there will be a small pen on the wall side in front of the window, and a larger pen from there to the door.  The trailer side will have one large pen in the corner for turkeys.  There will be a walkway down the centre and to the trailer door.

Nesting boxes will go on the walls, with brooder boxes above.  The brooder boxes will hold each batch of chicks when they come out of the incubator. 

The geese and ducks will spend the winter in the old chicken coop, with the cement floor.  Geese and ducks are very messy. 

The four pens in the new coop will each have 1 rooster and 4-8 hens.  One will be a meat rooster with meat hens.  One will be a meat rooster with new hens- my incubated chicks.  One will be an incubated rooster with meat hens.  The last will be current rooster with mixed meat and laying hens.

Most of the old laying hens will be going to the stew pot.  I'll take one out at a time and put them in the new pens to figure out which ones are actually laying eggs.  They'll be the keepers.

The turkey pen may not be used for turkeys this year.  I can't tell yet whether they're toms or hens.  I only have seven of them, and for this to work, I'd like to have two toms and five hens.  If they end up not being a suitable mix for breeding, I'll use the pen for another batch of chickens.

Round Four

Eight little hatchlings this time, and I think it was because I screwed up.  I didn't write down the date I started the eggs in the incubator, and therefore wasn't sure when they would be hatching.  Oops. 

Sunday morning, sitting here in front of the computer, I heard the first little cheeps.  Usually the cheeps do not begin until a day or two after I remove the egg turner.  This time the egg turner was still running.  Uh oh...  I quickly pulled the egg turner out and set the eggs back in the incubator. 

The next morning, I was greeted by the first four little peeps.

In my previous hatches, it's been nearly 24 hours between the first and second chicks, and sometimes two or three days before the last one makes it out of his shell.  By Tuesday morning, all eight were out and chirping loudly, no latecomers on Wednesday or Thursday.  There was one who didn't quite make it out of his shell on Wednesday, but I'm afraid I may have drowned him.  I refilled the water pan Wednesday morning, a little too full I think, and the way the shell was turned, chips toward the bottom, it might have wicked water up inside.

Otherwise, this has been the loudest, most active, and largest hatch so far.  My plan is to wait until I hear the first cheeps from the eggs before removing the egg turner from now on.  Four of these were my eggs, and four were from the neighbour who washes and refrigerates.  The other neighbour had agreed to save me a dozen unwashed, but lost her rooster before she got the chance. :(

I have no eggs saved right now for another batch- since I wasn't paying attention to when the last batch was supposed to hatch.  The incubator will be taking a little break.

In the meantime, I need to catch the last batch while I can still identify them, and band their feet.  The first two batches are all about the same size as my meat birds now, and since I'm raising Frey's dual purpose, their colours are a bit of a mix and I'm not sure who's who.  The male meats are supposed to be white, and the females are supposed to be red.  Most of my hatchlings had a reddish tinge to them, and there are far more whites with black than I could have hatched.

Since the meat birds grow faster than the layers though, I should be able to tell again in the next few weeks.  The whites (males) far out number the reds (female) though, so likely I'll be keeping all of the hens to over winter and incubate their eggs next spring.  Provided of course, that I don't get too overzealous and screw things up.

 

Because I've decided to free range the birds a bit.  They are so hungry all the time, and not really interested in the raspberry bushes and few weeds that are still growing in their pen.  I let them out into the yard in the morning now, water them, and go to the garden.  They have complete freedom to wander, eat bugs, and forage for greens while I'm in the garden picking their weeds for the day.  When I'm done I take the weeds back to the turkey pen, and most of them follow me to see what I've got.  The rest are soon lured in by the sound of grain and happy munching sounds.  A couple get caught outside the fence, but are easy to catch and toss in, as they're eager to get to the food. 

It's only an hour or two in the morning, but still, it seems to make them happy, and hopefully will cut down on the feed bill a bit.  They're up to four bags a week now, two each of turkey grower and scratch grain.  I also mixed in a bag of whole corn yesterday, as I think the ducks and geese can handle it, and maybe it'll entertain the chicks for a bit while they work at pecking it out.

I am seriously regretting not planting a row or two of mangels for the birds this spring.  The turkeys seemed to enjoy them last fall, and I think they'd make an easy fodder crop for them as well.  I am tossing buckwheat and clover seed between my rows as I weed- growing weeds on purpose for the birds.  I figure I have to pull weeds there anyway, it might as well be something a bit more nutritious for the birds.