Sooooooo... It's not spring... *cries*
Yes, well, as much as I don't like it, this is winter in Michigan.
Yesterday a storm dumped about a foot+ of snow on us. It's snowed from around 9:30 am yesterday and it's still going. (I remember bc I was in the middle of Band and I have a good view of the window. BTW, I am now a chair higher than before! 4th chair!! I was originally 6th.)
Anyway, we lost our electricity and had to pull out the generator which has turned out to be one of the best investments we've made. ;)
You all are probably wondering "WHAT ABOUT THE EGGS?!" The incubator went out with the electricity so they were without heat for around an hour but when my mom checked the temperature it was at 98'F which is pretty good. We are worried that it could have killed them, but it is hopefully a very small chance.
Well, this is going to hold up everything a bit. Tomorrow is day 18, the day we stop turning them. Then on day 21 I will try to film some of the hatching!! It's so close!!! I can't wait. Luckily I made the brooder earlier in the week!! I'll be posting some pictures and a video soon so stay tuned! You can subscribe for email alerts if that makes it any easier for you. Just look for it on the left side, right at the top, just below my into.
Just a suggestion mind you. Hehe.
Stay tuned for new posts!
See you all soon!!
Emma
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Monday, February 22, 2016
A Week for Chickens
Its day 14 of incubation!! 4 more days until we stop turning them and up the humidity! Then its 3 days until they hatch. Oh the excitement. I candled a few and they look good. Lots of movement.
Ok, so this week we are taking pretty much everything off except for like math, bible, and a book we are reading so we can focus COMPLETELY on working on the coop. We are going to read books, watch video's on You Tube, google stuff, and draw up some plans. Hopefully- maybe- we will start work on the coop. We've got a workshop/barn and my dad, after originally saying no, agreed to let us use a corner in the bottom/barn area. (The shop part is in the top.)
We're going to cut a hole in the wall that leads out to the grassy area that we had planned as using as a run. A run is where you can let the chickens out. I'll tell you all more as we get to that stage. But usually it is a fenced in area with chicken wire all around and above it, with a wooden frame. I'll put a pic at the bottom. At least this way the coop wont take away from my basketball area. (We had planned on putting the coop on this concrete square which is also where my basketball hoop is.) Man, I love basketball. I hope the chickens love it too because I will be right by them when I play.
That's about it for now. I will try to get another post in if we do anything major. Maybe put a pic of our designs up when we do them.
Random thought: I sometimes play my saxophone right by where we incubate them... Will it effect them any? I know that if you play Mozart while you are pregnant it can make the baby smarter (It did me! LOL), but will it do the same for chickens? Or would it, if I sounded better? I am on my 5th month after all.
See you all later!!
Emma
P.S. I'm working on a video on candling the eggs but I still need to edit it.
Ok, so this week we are taking pretty much everything off except for like math, bible, and a book we are reading so we can focus COMPLETELY on working on the coop. We are going to read books, watch video's on You Tube, google stuff, and draw up some plans. Hopefully- maybe- we will start work on the coop. We've got a workshop/barn and my dad, after originally saying no, agreed to let us use a corner in the bottom/barn area. (The shop part is in the top.)
We're going to cut a hole in the wall that leads out to the grassy area that we had planned as using as a run. A run is where you can let the chickens out. I'll tell you all more as we get to that stage. But usually it is a fenced in area with chicken wire all around and above it, with a wooden frame. I'll put a pic at the bottom. At least this way the coop wont take away from my basketball area. (We had planned on putting the coop on this concrete square which is also where my basketball hoop is.) Man, I love basketball. I hope the chickens love it too because I will be right by them when I play.
That's about it for now. I will try to get another post in if we do anything major. Maybe put a pic of our designs up when we do them.
Random thought: I sometimes play my saxophone right by where we incubate them... Will it effect them any? I know that if you play Mozart while you are pregnant it can make the baby smarter (It did me! LOL), but will it do the same for chickens? Or would it, if I sounded better? I am on my 5th month after all.
See you all later!!
Emma
P.S. I'm working on a video on candling the eggs but I still need to edit it.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
What you need to know: Starting off
1) One of the most important things you need, besides chickens, is space. Before we moved here we lived in a good sized home without much of a yard and were in a neighborhood, and were unable to even think of having chickens. But now, after moving here, we have around 6 acres and enough flat ish ground to build a coop and a run.
2) A coop. Coops are very important too. You can build them yourself, buy them off the internet, get kits, or transfer an old outbuilding into a coop. You will need to make sure you have a big enough coop to suit the needs off all your chickens. A coop that is too small could mean sickness for your chickens. Basically, try to make a bigger coop and your chickens will be better off, even if there is lots of room to spare. Anyway, maybe you will want to get more chickens in the future! I'll put a few pictures of coops at the end that I got off Google.
3) An incubator! Your eggs won't hatch without one! This is ours:
4) Eggs or chicks. VERY important. We have buff Orpington eggs. You can get chicks from places like Tractor Supply and even off the internet. Here is a pic of our eggs (and my cat):
You will need other stuff too but this will hold you for now. I will do a post later on about what you will need with chicks. I hope this was a good start!!
| I just love this one. It reminds me of a Hobbit Hole!! (I am a huge Hobbit/LOTR fan) |
Beginings
Greetings fellow chicken lovers! This is my first post so it may not be very good, so please forgive me. This is the first real blog I've done so like with the chickens, I am learning as I go. ;)
Our life with chickens so far:
A good friend in our homeschool group who also owns chickens was exceptionally kind and is letting us borrow her 20 year old homemade incubator and provided us with eggs. She raises Buff Orpington (No relation to Biff from the Back to the Future trilogy. Sorry!) chickens and provided us with 24 eggs. We started incubating them and tragity struck... The fan in the incubator stopped working and the temperature went up to 120 degrees!! Needless to say, the 24 eggs were cooked. We then returned the incubator and the eggs to our friend and about 4 days later it was returned, with 22 new eggs. Come to find out she had accidentally plugged it in wrong and the high heat caused some of the hot glue in it to melt and stick in the fan.
So now we are on day 9 with the new batch of eggs. Things are going well! The fan hasn't died, the heat stays on the right temperature (more on that later), and after candling (more on that later too) them all but one are alive as of now.
That is what has happened so far. I will do a post about what you need to do to start off next!!
Until then,
Emma
Our life with chickens so far:
A good friend in our homeschool group who also owns chickens was exceptionally kind and is letting us borrow her 20 year old homemade incubator and provided us with eggs. She raises Buff Orpington (No relation to Biff from the Back to the Future trilogy. Sorry!) chickens and provided us with 24 eggs. We started incubating them and tragity struck... The fan in the incubator stopped working and the temperature went up to 120 degrees!! Needless to say, the 24 eggs were cooked. We then returned the incubator and the eggs to our friend and about 4 days later it was returned, with 22 new eggs. Come to find out she had accidentally plugged it in wrong and the high heat caused some of the hot glue in it to melt and stick in the fan.
So now we are on day 9 with the new batch of eggs. Things are going well! The fan hasn't died, the heat stays on the right temperature (more on that later), and after candling (more on that later too) them all but one are alive as of now.
That is what has happened so far. I will do a post about what you need to do to start off next!!
Until then,
Emma
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