Sorry there haven't been a lot of updates lately! I'm about to catch up the last three weeks. Here goes...
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Friday, July 18, 2014
Comic moment on the farm
Wow. This just blew my mind. I'm not sure whether the horse was grooming Bear or being playful or just trying to eat the dog! Give me your best guess.
Horse eating a dog: http://youtu.be/0dxy-LFEpZU
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
New arrivals
Well, after having turkey eggs in the incubator almost 20 days, it looks liked the first one that will emerge is Henny Penny's little egg that joined late. I've got the brooder in and ready to set up. Tomorrow morning we should have a new chicken on the farm!
P.S. don't leave the incubator open for very long when they're coming out. They need that moisture to keep the membrane loose and easy to get out of. We're keeping the incubator at 60 plus % rh.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
More Birds!
As we wait for word from our incubator...
We picked up another Tom Turkey and a rooster. The rooster is likely a Black Cockerel, but I'm not sure. Our friends who are moving had these two poor birds left so they have now joined our flock.
This of course, brought no little disgruntlement from our current rooster and tom turkey!
The current tom quickly put his rival in his place (as of this morning though, they seem friends).
However, this was not the case for "Rusty Rooster" and the new rooster affectionately called Blacky.
Those two locked in battle for a good half hour under our porch trying to pull each others comb off. At the end of the first battle, Rusty who is maybe 2/3 the size of Blacky seemed victorious and Blacky exiled himself to further down the fence from the roost are of our porch.
Not leaving well enough alone though, Rosty later followed him to his exile and battled him again. Rusty was pretty badly defeated this time and left on the ground while Blacky moved back up the fence line to the roost area. When I and Caleb got to Rusty, he was still on his back. Upon seeing me, Caleb and Bear, Rusty rolled over, got back on his feet and scurried back up the hill. Coming behind a bush he ambushed Blacky and joined battle with him once more!
Bear, who had made a good effort to stop their previous battle at the porch, this time physically separated them. I'm guessing Rusty was claiming Bear as his "muscle" and with a loud crowing let Blacky know to leave the roost area again!
At the end of the day, Rusty resumed his dominate place at the top of the enclosure with Henny. Blacky took a room in the butterfly bush that has been turned into apartments by the bantams and Rhode Island Reds.
This morning, they seem to be coexisting.... (seem)
We picked up another Tom Turkey and a rooster. The rooster is likely a Black Cockerel, but I'm not sure. Our friends who are moving had these two poor birds left so they have now joined our flock.
This of course, brought no little disgruntlement from our current rooster and tom turkey!
The current tom quickly put his rival in his place (as of this morning though, they seem friends).
However, this was not the case for "Rusty Rooster" and the new rooster affectionately called Blacky.
Those two locked in battle for a good half hour under our porch trying to pull each others comb off. At the end of the first battle, Rusty who is maybe 2/3 the size of Blacky seemed victorious and Blacky exiled himself to further down the fence from the roost are of our porch.
Not leaving well enough alone though, Rosty later followed him to his exile and battled him again. Rusty was pretty badly defeated this time and left on the ground while Blacky moved back up the fence line to the roost area. When I and Caleb got to Rusty, he was still on his back. Upon seeing me, Caleb and Bear, Rusty rolled over, got back on his feet and scurried back up the hill. Coming behind a bush he ambushed Blacky and joined battle with him once more!
Bear, who had made a good effort to stop their previous battle at the porch, this time physically separated them. I'm guessing Rusty was claiming Bear as his "muscle" and with a loud crowing let Blacky know to leave the roost area again!
At the end of the day, Rusty resumed his dominate place at the top of the enclosure with Henny. Blacky took a room in the butterfly bush that has been turned into apartments by the bantams and Rhode Island Reds.
This morning, they seem to be coexisting.... (seem)
Candled and waiting...
We stopped the eggs from turning Friday and candled them as we took the turner out of the incubator.
From my count of 12 (+1 of Henny Penny's):
5 duds
2 probably
6 definitely got a bird in there! (including Henny Penny's egg)
Here goes nothing! Just the waiting.
From my count of 12 (+1 of Henny Penny's):
5 duds
2 probably
6 definitely got a bird in there! (including Henny Penny's egg)
Here goes nothing! Just the waiting.
Friday, July 11, 2014
Free range is where you find it...
Well, I no sooner opened the garage doors this morning than in walked one of our Rhode Island Reds. He proceeded overt to a shelf in the garage and headed in to make her impromptu roost.
I guess home is where you found it.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Moisture in the Incubator
The turkey eggs are about to hit day 21 in the incubator. That means it's time to stop rotating them.
We've been keeping them at about 100° F and 50% humidity.
These are the guidelines we've gotten from a few different sources. One of our friends, who have been very successful, said they don't worry about the humidity at all. They don't have a hygrometer in their incubator even.
Their success speaks for it self, but I decided to mind the humidity none the less. My last (unsuccessful) run of eggs I had a hard time maintaining the humidity.
This time I patched a lot of the holes with black electrical tape. By using it at the bottom in particular, I was able to keep the moisture level up. I also avoided the mess from missing the water channels.
As with most Styrofoam incubators, mine has water channels. Getting the water into them is not easy when you have an automatic egg turner. Last time I seemed to get more into the base with its drainage holes and in turn lost that water all over the wooden filing cabinet in the mancave. I also covered some of the upper holes.
These are the guidelines we've gotten from a few different sources. One of our friends, who have been very successful, said they don't worry about the humidity at all. They don't have a hygrometer in their incubator even.
Their success speaks for it self, but I decided to mind the humidity none the less. My last (unsuccessful) run of eggs I had a hard time maintaining the humidity.
This time I patched a lot of the holes with black electrical tape. By using it at the bottom in particular, I was able to keep the moisture level up. I also avoided the mess from missing the water channels.
As with most Styrofoam incubators, mine has water channels. Getting the water into them is not easy when you have an automatic egg turner. Last time I seemed to get more into the base with its drainage holes and in turn lost that water all over the wooden filing cabinet in the mancave. I also covered some of the upper holes.
In short, my veteran incubator friends are secure with "set it, forget it". Me, I'm the nervous type. I like seeing my temp/humidity levels every time I go to my desk.
Below is the hygrometer we got from amazon to complete our incubator.
It's cheap, but pretty accurate. I like the min/max function also. It tells me how its been while I wasn't watching.
Below is the hygrometer we got from amazon to complete our incubator.
It's cheap, but pretty accurate. I like the min/max function also. It tells me how its been while I wasn't watching.
More tomorrow! I'll let you know how the candling goes.
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