Took 20 turkey eggs out of the chicken coop and put them in the incubator. The Narragansett kept laying and sitting on them for a while during the day, but then she would get off at night and the geese would sleep on them. And poop on them. There is a Narragansett sitting on eggs in the front yard, about 8 I think and they should be hatching in the next 10 days or so. Redd just started sitting on a nest of eggs in the chicken yard the other day, so figure they should hatch about 25-27 May. There are 2 other nests in the Black Berry bushes, one has about 6 eggs and the other more. Not sure if any one is going to sit on them or not, but plan to just leave them be and see what happens.
Edith in the Peacock cage is sitting on several eggs also. There was a Narragansett in there also and it was getting crazy. There was one nest in the small house in there and one next to it. At first they each stayed on their own nest, but then they started switching and sometimes no one was on one nest, so I took some of the eggs and tried to separate them. Didn’t work. So this weekend did some major re-arranging of birds. We took the cage apart that had the Barred Rock babies in it. They are getting so big can’t really be called babies anymore, so we call them “Broilers”. We set up a new 4 foot fence in a new area, and moved them to it. The coop went with them. The cage got moved to a new area. We took the Narragansett from the peacock cage and put 4 new hatched poults under her to see if she would adopt them. Well, tonight she was out of the box and had at least 2 under her. I got in the cage and lifted her wing to make sure they were there and ok. And that was enough.
Trusting the birds to be good moms and know what to do is just a little new and rough for me. Because some of them have shown they don’t even know how to stop laying and sit on the eggs. As for babies, right now we have 4 babies that hatched a week ago, and 13 that hatched Saturday. It is 4 of the 13 that went under mom, so we still have 13 babies in the brooder in the house.
In the smaller cage outside are the 3 ducks we bought and 2 chickens that hatched about that time. Figure they will grow up together. Got their pen all set up and ready last night and then we had a thunder storm about 3am this morning and had to go bring them in. It was their first night out, but not the first time they’ve been in the cage, but instead of being under the light and warm and dry, they were in the opposite end of the cage, in the rain, wet and cold. And ducks are worse than geese when it comes to making messes with the water. So I’ve decided that we are going to make a special pen for the geese and ducks around one of the low spots out in the field. I’ll dig it out and put what is left of the old large plastic pool in the bottom of it to help keep water in it. I’ll plant some cat tails I think. Anyway, that is where the ducks and geese are going to be, and Next year I’ll let them sit on their own eggs and raise their own babies, and what ever we get is what we get for babies. Not sure I want to brood them any more; Let mom do it.
So I including the 20 eggs I just put in the incubator, there is probably about 70 eggs or so in them. So far this year think I have been averaging about 50% hatch rate. Not good, and I’m working on that. But that would still mean I have about 30 poults coming, plus what ever we get from the 3-5 nest birds are sitting on. So I’m placing my first ad on Craig’s List to sell the poults I have now. I mean, that has always been the plan, to sell as many as I can, and keep about 15-20 to raise and sell. And if we can get the birds to care for them as they grow up, why not? The thing we hadn’t counted on is where to put mom and babies after they hatch. How do you keep the separate and safe, but still together, you know?
Edith in the Peacock cage is sitting on several eggs also. There was a Narragansett in there also and it was getting crazy. There was one nest in the small house in there and one next to it. At first they each stayed on their own nest, but then they started switching and sometimes no one was on one nest, so I took some of the eggs and tried to separate them. Didn’t work. So this weekend did some major re-arranging of birds. We took the cage apart that had the Barred Rock babies in it. They are getting so big can’t really be called babies anymore, so we call them “Broilers”. We set up a new 4 foot fence in a new area, and moved them to it. The coop went with them. The cage got moved to a new area. We took the Narragansett from the peacock cage and put 4 new hatched poults under her to see if she would adopt them. Well, tonight she was out of the box and had at least 2 under her. I got in the cage and lifted her wing to make sure they were there and ok. And that was enough.
Trusting the birds to be good moms and know what to do is just a little new and rough for me. Because some of them have shown they don’t even know how to stop laying and sit on the eggs. As for babies, right now we have 4 babies that hatched a week ago, and 13 that hatched Saturday. It is 4 of the 13 that went under mom, so we still have 13 babies in the brooder in the house.
In the smaller cage outside are the 3 ducks we bought and 2 chickens that hatched about that time. Figure they will grow up together. Got their pen all set up and ready last night and then we had a thunder storm about 3am this morning and had to go bring them in. It was their first night out, but not the first time they’ve been in the cage, but instead of being under the light and warm and dry, they were in the opposite end of the cage, in the rain, wet and cold. And ducks are worse than geese when it comes to making messes with the water. So I’ve decided that we are going to make a special pen for the geese and ducks around one of the low spots out in the field. I’ll dig it out and put what is left of the old large plastic pool in the bottom of it to help keep water in it. I’ll plant some cat tails I think. Anyway, that is where the ducks and geese are going to be, and Next year I’ll let them sit on their own eggs and raise their own babies, and what ever we get is what we get for babies. Not sure I want to brood them any more; Let mom do it.
So I including the 20 eggs I just put in the incubator, there is probably about 70 eggs or so in them. So far this year think I have been averaging about 50% hatch rate. Not good, and I’m working on that. But that would still mean I have about 30 poults coming, plus what ever we get from the 3-5 nest birds are sitting on. So I’m placing my first ad on Craig’s List to sell the poults I have now. I mean, that has always been the plan, to sell as many as I can, and keep about 15-20 to raise and sell. And if we can get the birds to care for them as they grow up, why not? The thing we hadn’t counted on is where to put mom and babies after they hatch. How do you keep the separate and safe, but still together, you know?
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