A cabinet style Incubator

Want to make a cabinet style incubator? The directions are found here at Backyard Chickens.com:


http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/als-homemade-cabinet-incubator

Sexing chicks

We hatch our own chicken eggs from our Ameraucana/Easter Egger chickens and many people want to know the sex of the chicks. I don't blame them ... if you want hens and end up with a lot of roosters... well there is just so many roosters to have!

To be honest, as hubby Jim says - "I've got a 50-50 chance of getting it right.
So, regardless of what you have been told - it is NOT as reliable as you think, unless you've been doing it for 60 years like Hugh Grove (see The Joy of Sexing link below)

FEATHER SEXING: Feather sexing is based on feather characteristics that differ between male and female chicks. The method is very easy to learn by the poultryman, but the feather appearances are determined by specially selected genetic traits that must be present in the chick strain. Most strains (breeds) of chickens do not have these feather sexing characteristics and feathering of both sexes appear identical.

VENT SEXING: Vent sexing of chicks at hatching has complications that make it more difficult than sex determination of most other animals. The reason is that the sexual organs of birds are located within the body and are not easily distinguishable. The copulatory organ of chickens can be identified as male or female by shape, but there are over fifteen different different shapes to consider. Therefore, few people have experience with determining the sex of birds because of the difficult nature of the process. Most of these highly trained individuals are employed by large commercial hatcheries. The training to be a chick sexer is so difficult and lengthy that the average poultry owner finds it unjustifiable.
You can't wait more than a day or two in order to vent sex.

- Mississippi State University 

EGG SHAPE: Although J. Mulder and O. Wollan swear that they raised 23 pullets from 23 eggs by comparing the shape of their hen fruit (according to them, eggs that eventually hatch into pullets are more oval than the pointy eggs that eventually hatch out as cockerels) . . . other chicken raisers disagree — sometimes most emphatically — with this bit of barnyard wisdom. 

"The fact is," says Veronica Waters (of Wellton, Arizona), "that one hen will lay an egg of almost identical shape every day. This shape also differs from one breed to another. Therefore, the egg's form cannot indicate the sex of the chick it will produce. If it did, all the layings of a particular fowl—or of a particular breed or strain—would be of one sex. Common sense, or any familiarity with chickens, will tell you that this is not so." 


- Mother Earth News

Of course, if you can wait, after a few weeks you can sex you chicks by their comb (roosters are generally a teeny bit larger)

Here is  a chart to help you with some clues from Sage Hen Farm - " It is absolutely, positively guaranteed not to be 100 percent accurate. Please don't use this chart to compare chicks of different breeds, since they will not develop the same way or at the same rate. I have purposefully omitted reference to days or weeks when to expect to be able to observe difference since they will vary so widely by both breed and individual."

Clues for Sexing Chicks After a Few Weeks,
based on secondary sex characteristics

ait or Characteristic		Cockerel		Pullet
		Heavy Breeds (Asian, American, English)	Mediterranean & Other Light Breeds
Comb & Wattles		Comb early to turn pink. Later comb and wattles noticably larger & redder	Comb early to turn pink. Later comb and wattles noticably larger & redder	Comb and wattles usually remains yellowmuch longer
F e a t h e r i n g	EARLY	Still mostly fluffy & downy	Fairly quick feather development	Quick feather development
	LATER SIGNS	Development slow and in patches. Some barenessat shoulders, back & wing bows	Development only slightly slower than pullets	Even development on back, chest, & thighs. Reaches complete feathering sooner
	FINAL CLUES	Development of long, pointed & shiny hackle and saddle feathers	Development of long, pointed & shiny hackle and saddle feathers	Feathers in hackle and saddle areas are oval & rounded
Tail	Stumpy, curved; slow to develop	Curved, but only slightly shorter and slower to develop than pullets	Long, straight; quick to develop
Legs		Long, sturdy; spurs developing	Long, sturdy; spurs developing	Short, delicate
Head		Larger & more angular	Larger & more angular	Small & round
Size		May be larger (perhaps shorter in length but stouter, more thickset) or becomes noticably larger	Becomes noticably larger eventually	Small, although may be longer
Posture		Upright & erect	Upright & erect	Lower set
Behavior		May be more alert, aggressive, & noisy; will emit pre-crowing chirps before crowing	May be more alert, aggressive, & noisy; will emit pre-crowing chirps before crowing	May be more docile, but can also be aggressive & noisy

For more information, read: The Joy of Sexing 

                    Sixty years spent telling one newly hatched bird from the next

Bobcat Part 2

The day after we spotted the bobcat, we headed to Ohio to visit our brand new grandson (this makes #2 happy happy).
We put the chickens in the coop with their food and water, we locked  the rouen ducks in their enclosure, and prayed that the bobcat wouldn't jump into the Swedish duck pen, or the Welsh Harlequin duck pen.
We left early on Friday morning and came back Saturday evening - because of my elderly mother living with us, and our animals, we can't leave for much longer than 1 night. We make sure everyone has lots of food and water that will last them until we got back.
We had a quick but very enjoyable visit, and when we arrived home last night, we checked the pens... the bobcat had apparently gotten a rouen through 2x4 fencing... all that was left were a pile of feathers on the outside of the pen.

Everyone else was fine, so we headed for bed. This morning we discovered that the bobcat had found the Swedish duck pen and one of my females was gone. Of course, she was the only one with the crest on her head. *frustration*

So tonight all the ducks are in lock-down. The dogs have been allowed to spend the night outside and hopefully this will at least deter the bobcat until we can figure out what to do. From what I have read, they are not easily discouraged from such easy "Happy Meals" we are supplying!

Bobcat

On a normal day, I wait to open the chicken coop up (to give the girls time to lay their eggs). They have an outside enclosed run (for early morning) but I let them wander outside all day getting bugs, worms, grubs, seeds, scratching and dust bathing. They have free-range and it keeps the bugs down and the feed bill down. As I'm heading out today, I hear a terrible commotion... There to my wondering eyes is a HUGE cat... "BOBCAT!" running around their enclosed pen. The chickens are going crazy! I headed back into the house, still screaming "JIM!!! BOBCAT!!!"
Needless to say, the bobcat took off, and my chickens are probably not going to lay for a day or two.
They are staying in the coop today. I can hear their exclamations as they are discussing the events of the day.

Now I know that the live-trap we use for raccoons and 'possums is totally useless ... and apparently my dogs are too..

Brooder box for your new chicks

Last Spring, Jim and I hatched out all sorts of eggs. Emu, ducks, chicks, turkeys and quail. It was tough trying to create a good place for those babies to stay warm.
Over the years we have done all sorts of innovative things.

The first year we got chicks in the mail, we were living without electricity. We blocked off an area under our stove and set a pot of hot water wrapped in a blanket on the floor. The chicks discovered how to cozy up to the pot in between folds of the blanket and stayed warm and cozy. However, as they grew feathers, they also discovered they could have run of the house!
We have kept them in the bathtub with a heat lamp, but cleaning the tub afterward was horrendous!


Last year we found plastic bins with lids at the local Walmart. Jim cut the lid to allow the heat lamp to be placed above it.

Then, as needed, we raise the heat lamps and add a screen to keep them from flying out.

Pictured above are day old quail. We move them from this container in the basement at 1 week old,  to a larger 4x5 brooder in the barn, and then into 12x10 pens to grow out. We move then so often because each week we have at least 100 -300 quail hatched.

We use these bins for ducklings, chicks, turkeys for their first week or so depending on how many we have hatched out.

Preparing your chickens for winter (and keep them laying)

What do you need to do to keep your chickens laying and happy through out the winter? 

A couple of things come to mind: 


Preparing the coop:
The coop should be draft free, but have plenty of airflow. Make sure that the airflow also keeps predators and rodents out of the coop. Plug up all the holes. :)
Supplementing light:


Chickens need at least 12-16 hours of light in order to maintain their egg production. The ideal is about 14.5 hours. Many farmers add light to their hen house at the end of August. If you haven't started the light already, your production will go down. The hens will molt, and then they will start up again. But you will lose a few weeks of eggs.  
You can add 15 minutes of light each day to maintain the 14.5 hours (if you begin at the end of August) but many of us completely forget about it until September rolls around and we suddenly realize that the days are getting shorter (then there is the dreaded Daylight Saving Time)

Some set their timers at the end of the day and then again at dawn... For example: the timer is set at 5 am and go off at 8 am, and also set it for 5 pm till 9 pm. This gives the hens those extra needed hours of daylight.

I read somewhere that it is best to give light only in the morning. The reasoning behind this is when dusk starts gathering, the hens all begin to find their place in the coop and on their perch.

There is a hierarchy and the oldest most mature hens get the top roost, and the younger ones go for the lower roosts... unless you have hens like mine and the young ones manage to find a foothold on the ceiling beam closest to the wall. For this reason, there is sometimes a little bit of scrabbling to get to the roosts.

If you are adding supplemental light at that time, and the light suddenly goes out due to the time you have set, then the hens may be caught on the floor eating, or walking about and have to find their places in the pitch dark. So, for that reason, I add all the light in the morning and let nature tell the hens when to roost in the evening.

A simple 40 watt bulb will work for a 10x10 coop.

Feeding:

The hens will also start eating more at this time. Our hens are completely free- ranging through out the day... no fences at all, they wander at will gathering the bugs and seeds from plants. But they also know that winter is coming, the temperatures are dropping, so to compensate, we give them a supplemental feed. When snow is on the ground, we feed the chickens a mixture of corn, wheat, oats and sunflower seeds. We also bring out a lot of left-overs from our meals. They love it.



Watering:

Be sure the chickens have water... warm water will be greatly appreciated. Be sure to check through out the day. Water will freeze very quickly, crack your water bowl and leave the chickens the option to eat snow - not a good idea.
If you have electricity in your coop, you can make your own heated waterer.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/heated-chicken-waterer-zm0z13fmzhun.aspx#axzz3OFczKP9j


Heat:

I do know that there are some that add heat to their coops. We have never done that. In fact the first year we had chickens we didn't have a coop. They roosted in the trees through out the winter. In the morning the snowy blobs in the trees would move and shake. Snow would come down off the chicken and they would fly down to the ground where we would feed them.
Chickens with rose combs are fine without heat, but chickens with the large single comb will suffer from frost bite. The comb will turn black and eventually fall off. If you are not going to add any heat, be sure that the chickens you have a winter-hardy. Some common winter hardy breeds are: Dominiques, Australorps, Easter Eggers/Ameraucana, Orpingtons, Brahma, Cochin, to name just a few. 

If you do feel you would like to add some heat, by way of maybe a heat lamp, be sure that the hens do not have the opportunity to actually sit on the lamp (it is really useless to have it so high that they can't huddle under it anyway). Heat lamps can be very dangerous and will start a fire (we have personally experience with a fire from heat lamps).

Chickens put off a lot of heat, and there are places where the coop is attached to a greenhouse giving the green house supplemental heat. If your coop is well insulated, the chickens will be quite warm from their own body heat. Make sure there is a sufficient amount of litter on the floor.

If you feel you really do need heat, try a radiant heater These can be put on the ceiling. You can find some on the FarmTek site:  http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/cat1;ft1_heaters_accessories;ft1_tube_heaters

Finally... be sure to gather your eggs a few times a day, or they will freeze! 

  
Chickens venturing out of the coop and into the snow

Happy National Egg Month! Our first recipe

It is obvious, by our homestead, that eggs have become a passion with us. We gather them, we incubate them or we eat them
This is National Egg Month.
Recent research has found that men and women who ate 2 eggs for breakfast as a part of their low calorie diet lost 65% more weight and had a 61% greater reduction in BMI. Eggs keep people more satisfied until their next meal.

**SCRAMBLED EGGS (generally use about 2 eggs per person $.26 a person $1.04 for family)

 In a small bowl, crack open 6 eggs Using a fork, or whisk, beat in 6 tablespoons milk until blended. 
 Heat a small skillet over medium heat, add 1 teaspoon butter or cooking oil (or use cooking spray) until just hot enough to sizzle a drop of water.  Pour in egg mixture.  Reduce to medium-low heat.
 As mixture begins to set, this is a good time to add anything – mushrooms, onions, cheese. Then with a wooden spoon, gently scrape the eggs across bottom and sides of pan, forming large, soft curds. 
Continue cooking until eggs are thickened and no visible liquid egg remains.  

Hatching your own chicken eggs

There is something about hatching your own chickens that keeps me doing it year after year. My husband is the best at it. We have a small styrofoam incubator that we bought many years ago for about $40. (I believe they are $60 now.) I have never been very diligent in keeping track of the temperature and humidity, but have still managed to hatch out a few chicks.

  

 This year, Jim and I decided to go for it. He took over the task of watching the temperature and humidity. We put a total of 36 eggs in and hatched out 28. Here is a picture of the same one we have that Stromberg's is selling:

http://www.strombergschickens.com/product/1602-School-Observation-Incubator-Hovabator/basic-incubators

We also bought a small thermometer/hygrometer that sits inside with the eggs. It takes about 28 days for the eggs to hatch.
The temperature to hatch out chicks needs to be about 99.5* from day 1 - 18. And the humidity should be 50%. The eggs need to be turned, as if the mother hen was adjusting herself on the nest. Jim would simply roll his hands over the top of the eggs and move them slightly.
From day 19 - 21 you no longer have to roll the eggs around. The temperature should be 99.5* but the humidity should be at 70 - 80%. Sometimes a spray bottle with warm water works. This helps keep the chick moist and not dry out as it is hatching.

It was so much fun watching the first egg start to crack open.

After they hatched out, we placed them in a bin with food and a heat lamp. You can find out what the next step is by checking out my blog on it http://wwwhighlonesomeranch.blogspot.com/2012/04/getting-started-with-new-chicks.html

Before you start with the next batch of eggs, thoroughly wash and sanitize the incubator. 

We had so much fun with this, that we now have turkey and chick eggs in the small incubator. We also own 2 large cabinet style GQF incubators/hatchers (www.gqfmfg.com/) and have duck and quail eggs in one, and emu eggs in the other! 

Feeding Your Chickens on a Budget

Most of the time, during the Spring Summer and Fall, feeding chickens will be minimal to non-existent if they are free-range. They are wonderfully equipped to find their own food - bugs, seeds, greens.

When you start with chicks, you can feed them a commercial diet, phase them into a homemade diet, or go homemade all the way.
Adding fresh chopped greens to their diet from day 4 on, is a good way to start them on their way to a home-grown diet. Start adding in some grains- about 2 parts ground wheat, oats and corn (easy on the corn) and one part protein: fish meal, small portion of canned cat food, chopped hard boiled or scrambled eggs. yogurt, cottage cheese, worms grubs and bugs. My children used to love hunting for the worms and bugs for the chicks. Then add 1 part greens - lettuce, dandilion, clover, spinach, weeds finely chopped. Add some ground eggshells for their grit. Save your egg shells and dry them in the oven. Pulverize and crush them. This makes fine grit for chicks.
After about 4 weeks, chicks can eat the grain whole.


If your chickens are confined, they still would love to eat greens. Hang a cabbage head in a wire basket, or old onion bag and watch them peck at it. You can also  get heads of cabbage and push a long bolt through one, put a washer and nut on the end and hang the bolt from a hook. The cabbage is good in antioxidants and other things in addition to being cheap entertainment for the
chickens and you as you watch them swing it back and forth.

The greens are what makes the eggs so nutritious and that beautiful orange color yolk.

Adult chickens are wonderful at eating your kitchen scraps. Peelings, sweet or sour milk, pickles, meat scraps. All the vegetables, banana peels, french fries and stuff from your refrigerator is also relished.  They don't particularly like onions or citrus. (Don't feel them anything moldy). I bring doggie bags home for my critters.

Chicks- feed, shelter, necessities

Once the chicks are fully feathered, they will be about 4 -5 weeks of age. 

You will be feeding them the "starter" feed until about this time and can then begin feeding "starter/grower" 

You can can feed their chicks scraps, or worms and other bugs from the garden... Small amounts of vegetable/dairy  also bugs and worms should be fine for the chicks (and they'll love it!).Just remember that starter feeds contain everything chicks need to survive and thrive, and filling them up with too much of the "other stuff" can throw off their nutritional balance.

And give them as much feed as they want. They will eat as much as they need, and come back later for more. They are good at self-regulating their feed, unlike a dog is.

Chickens do not have "teeth" so they need grit. When they free range, they will find their grit. If they are contained, you will need to provide the grit.  For baby chicks, sand, parakeet gravel or canary gravel, available at your local pet store or grocery store pet aisle.

 When the weather is warm enough, and sunny, they can venture outside. Put them in a wire cage or erect some other temporary housing and place it in the sun, making sure they have access to water and shade if they need it. They'll absolutely love digging around in the grass. But don't leave them unattended! At this age they're good at flying and very susceptible to predators. Also, if it's windy they'll get cold - they'll let you know they're unhappy with their loud chirping.

 By the time they are full grown, they will come when they are called, and stay pretty close to where you have their shelter and food.  Make sure they have access to water at all times. 

 They don't really need much in the way of comforts. It is always nice to provide a chicken coop or they will lay their eggs anywhere they find a nice hiding spot. This type of chicken coop holds about 12 free-range chickens. They lay their eggs in the nest box and you don't even have to go inside to collect them. If you want to keep them contained with a small outdoor run, this coop will take care of about 6 chickens. Interested in starting a small flock? In general, you can have 3 hens (no rooster or crowing involved) and get 14 eggs a week! That's 2 eggs a day! 

Our first set of chickens didn't have a coop the first year. They would roost in the trees. When we had a snow, the following morning, they would shake the snow off and fly out of the trees to the ground. The weather didn't phase them. This is our chicken coop now, you can see that they aren't afraid of a little snow!  

                                      

Of course, during the winter you will have to provide food. They will scrounge around in the snow looking for tidbits - especially under bird feeders, but they need something of their own to keep their metabolism up and keep them warm. Your local feed store will have feed available for the winter.

Chickens will stick together. If you have a rooster, he will call to his hens to come and eat something special he might have found. 

Chickens

Chickens are one of the first animals people want to get when they are starting their homestead. They are  very easy to keep and raise. They eat very little if they are free ranging. They are great for bug control. In return they provide eggs, meat and feathers for fishing tackle. They are amusing to watch, a little violent in their breeding (for you first timers) and it is fun to hear the rooster crow and the girls talk. The rooster will call his girls over when he finds a tasty morsel. He will crow in the morning just to announce his domain. 

The girls gossip and chat to each other and will brag when they lay their eggs.

When the chicks are fully feathered and grown, you will see the "ear lobes" on the side of their head. The ones with the red ones will lay brown eggs, and the ones with the white will lay white eggs. After the first couple of eggs come, if you are observant, you will be able to tell which egg belongs to which hen as each egg is distinctive to that hen.

Each chicken will have their own personality. I have had a chicken that would always run to me and make her soft clucking sounds as if asking for a handout. She was always the first one to spot me coming out of the house.

    Interested in starting a small flock? In general, you can have 3 hens (no rooster or crowing involved) and easily get 14 eggs a week! That's 2 eggs a day! 

We have 15 hens and have eggs out the ears in the summer. What can you do with the eggs? You can have deviled eggs, quiche, custards,. You can pickle them, freeze them, add extras to cakes and other mixes. Have breakfast for supper at least once a week, and of course, sell them or give them to friends.

Advantages to chickens besides eggs: Chickens will eat ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, slugs, beetles, ants, maggots, grubs, caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles, and even mice. This year I have heard the bugs may be overwhelming because the winter was so mild.

  

  

My favorite chickens are the Americana chickens - not to be confused with Araucanas. Americanas sold by hatcheries are  also called the Easter Egg Fowl. Most of the so-called Americanas in the US are mixes that carry some of the original genes and lay variously colored eggs: blue, green, or pinkish. These birds are sometimes (and more honestly) sold as Easter Egg chickens. The American Poultry Association recognizes a bird called the Ameraucana, which lays colored eggs and has muffs and a beard, not ear tufts, and comes in standardized color varieties, with slate colored shanks.

Easter Egger come in white  and vary  in a wide assortment of colors and types, black, buff, cinnamon, brown, red and white– along with various combinations of these colors. Some may have top knots, some have whiskers, and others have bunches of feathers growing from each side of the head near the ear region. They are good layers, with eggs medium to large in size. The colors vary in shade from pale to deep blue, green, pink, plus a few olive drab and an occasional antique gold. The Easter Egger is a hardy, vigorous fowl, resistant to disease and easy to raise. They seem to do well in all types of climate. A calm chicken, they are very easily tamed to become pets.


I'm sure my flock is a combination of the Easter Eggers and Ameracaunas. I also have White and Brown leghorns in the mix. And I'm excited to say I ordered Auracana eggs and will hopefully hatch out chickens with the ear tufts and blue eggs!

  

Brown eggs, blue eggs, white eggs and even some pink eggs are some of the fun of raising your chickens.

Here is an excellent page of a chicken breed chart to help get you started on choosing the chicken for you! click here

                       

---