Hatching chicks

Once I was required to start working from home due to the Covid-19, I thought to myself, might as well do something fun. Something to pass the time and also that my family and my students could enjoy and follow along. I decided to hatch a few chicks. Since it was so early in the laying season, and the majority of our flock is older, I tested fertility before setting some eggs. When I was using the eggs anyway I checked for the bullseye mark on the yolk. I found that we had about 50% fertility, give or take. Knowing that fertility was a bit low and that we have a rather low end incubator I decided to set 20 eggs hoping for 6 or so.

The eggs I most wanted to hatch were the white Polish eggs to see what Dipsy or Po's chicks would look like! Dipsy and Po are Tolbunt (like calico) Polish chickens and they have great personalities. 

Unfortunately the incubator, a Little Giant still air model malfunctioned! Some of the foam next to the heating element began to melt! We had never even used this incubator. We loaned it once but they only did one hatch  and returned it in good shape.

This was a scary and unexpected situation! I quickly arranged to purchase and bring home a different incubator, choosing to go with a completely different make and model. I was very thankful to happen upon the Nurture Right 360, that was on sale for $119.00. This incubator looked much easier to use. We got the Nurture Right 360 home and transferred the 20 eggs. 

Something caused me to feel strongly that I should add 2 more eggs. Whether it be just from seeing the two empty spaces in the new incubator or worry that with the Little Giant incubator overheating it could further lower our egg fertility/hatchability percent. So I added two more eggs, one white Polish egg and one blue Easter Egger egg.

One more great thing about the new incubator, it could fit right in the brooder cage to keep safe from curious cats! Though they did get in to check it out when I opened to add water. 

Then the real waiting began, 21 days to hatch a chicken egg seems so long even though it's short. We candled the eggs at 10 days and found many had not started to develop at all, they were just eggs. Gave it a little longer but at 14 days it was clear that most of the eggs were clear. There were some eggs, the green and the blue, which I couldn't see into well enough to know so I left those ones. One white egg we could see into and knew there was a chick deeloping!

Just an egg.

Not just an egg!

Finally 20 days had passed and we had just a few eggs left in the incubator. Only one of which we knew to have a chick in it. Late in the night between day 20 and day 21 I awoke to a loud peeping within the house and yes checking with a flashlight in the dark the one white egg had hatched!

This one chick soon perked up and became quite bored and lonely as day 21 began and went on. Humans and cats of the house entertained the lone chick as much as possible but little chick became bored/lonely whenever nobody was paying attention to its plight, all alone and stuck in an incubator. 

Finally late in the afternoon of day 21 another chick started to emerge, this time from a blue egg.

At last Chick 1 has a friend, chick 2!

We waited a few more days with chicks on one side of the brooder and incubator on the other but no more chicks hatched. Later upon examining the remaining eggs...they were just eggs, nothing more. I know we had somewhat low fertility but I have to assume the faulty incubator caused the eggs never to develop. If they were overheated in those couple hours they were in the first incubator they must have been caused to be infertile/unhatchable. Thank goodness I added those two extra eggs, a white egg and a blue egg! Two adorable little chicks came from those last two eggs. 

Maple season 2020 a slow start

I had grand plans to be boiling down maple sap during winter break from the school but there's no sap to boil down! Or not enough anyway. The weather looked hopeful a couple weeks back and I started tapping trees but the weather has not been right most days. We've had some warm ups but not enough and the temperatures have plunged right back down to well below freezing again. I have 9 taps in the trees but only gathered about 8 gallons of sap so far and that was all from 2 decent days. the other days the sap hasn't been running at all and everything is frozen. I hope it will just be a late season not a short season, we will see. So much depends on the weather with various homesteading things.

 KitKat helps me to get the maple trees tapped.

Some of the maple trees we tap are in the fenced farmyard, the chickens and ducks are interested. 

 The chickens line up to watch from afar as they don't want to walk on the snow.

 The ducks don't mind the snow and get up close for the best view of the interesting proceedings. 

The maple trees have been tapped for a couple weeks now but only a bucket and a half to show for it, maybe 8 gallons of sap so far. We won't start boiling until we have several more buckets filled and sap flowing regularly. 

Maple syrup and candy will have to wait. 

The birds enjoy soaked feed, even in winter.

Having kept chickens for quite awhile now I'm convinced of the benefits to be had by soaking their feed. Soaking chicken feed in winter can be more challenging so I would tend to give the feed dry in winter. One time a couple years back Hayley said to me: why aren't you giving them wet feed, they really like it. This led me to consider if wet feed could be given even in the colder months. Now I give wet feed as long as it's not too far below freezing or if the day starts below freezing but the temperatures are expected to rise above freezing later in the day.  The chickens and ducks eat quite a lot of the wet feed right away when it's given. Then if some does freeze up it will defrost again as the temperatures rise. If a day starts at 0 F and doesn't look to get over 32F by noontime then I'll usually do mostly dry feed. Just a smaller amount of wet for the birds to have right away.

I'm talking about soaked feed not fermented feed. While I ferment some of their grains in summer, (letting the food soak for 3 days stirring a few times a day) I don't want to deal with that in winter. Also our house is not always very warm so the fermenting process may not even begin.

Here is what I do to soak the poultry feed. First thing in the morning I fill a large bucket with warm water, usually some nutritional yeast powder (needed for the ducks and fine for the chickens) and a couple big cans of layer pellets. I will sometimes add in a scoop of scratch or mixed grains or oats as well. I stir it all up and leave this while I get other animals chores done and water container filled to bring out, since the hose doesn't work in winter. It doesn't take long for the feed to soak up all the warm water. Once ready I bring the soaked feed out to the birds putting a few good scoops into each of several bowls we have spread around their area. Then I open up the coop, chickens and ducks race to their food bowls and enjoy their warm, soaked breakfast.

Our birds do very well on soaked feed, it's more easily digested and they seem to enjoy it a lot more than dried pellets. This is a small thing which doesn't take very long to do each morning.

On a related note we start our birds out from the beginning with soaked feed. For baby chicks some wet chick starter in a small bowl in their brooder is always enjoyed and seems to help any chicks that might be struggling.

Chickens and ducks of all ages enjoy and do well on soaked feed here so the little extra time it takes to prepare is well worth it.

If there is one downside to this method of feeding it might be that some flock members are not very tidy eaters (Dipsy the Frizzle!!) thus leading their sister (Po) to get a little angry :-D.

PO SAYS: STOP THAT MESS MAKING NOW DIPSY!

Review- Harris Farms 6.25 gallon plastic poultry drinker when used with heated metal base

Our winters are harsh some years the temperature gets well below 0 F so we need to use heated water sources for the chickens and ducks. In the past we have used galvanised metal poultry drinkers with the heated metal base in winter. Having become frustrated with how fast the galvanised drinkers rust, typically 1 year, I decided to try the Harris Farms plastic drinker which claims that even though it's plastic it can be used with your existing metal heated base. (This applies only to the model pictured below not all of their plastic drinkers are safe to use with a heated base.) Oh and why do the metal drinkers rust for us? A company rep. responded when I asked that very question and said it's likely due to well water, the drinkers will rust faster with well water that "city water". That seems like a problem they should address since most farms are on well water I would guess! So anyway we have been using the plastic drinker since fall.

I can say that this drinker does work with the heated metal base that we have used for several years (with a metal drinker). It has not melted or caused any issues at all. There is a point at which this drinker will freeze up though, where the metal drinkers did not. The plastic does not conduct the heat as well as metal so when we get below 20 degrees F there is sometimes freezing on the rim and within the drinker. When the temps fall below 10F the drinker will freeze more and below 0 F if the temperature stays that low for many hours the drinker  can completely freeze up. One work around there is to add hot water to help it along.

This morning when I started the birds day it was -2 F and this is what the plastic drinker looked like.

A layer of heavy frost around the rim of the drinking area. But the water was not fully frozen.

The water inside the drinker appears to be frozen.

 When poking through the ice with a stick I find that the ice is only frozen to about 1/2 inch or so. 

I added some warm water to top it up and this helped the frozen water to defrost. 

Issues - The water can freeze at times,  the inside of the drinker does get algae fairly quickly and the drinking area is hard to keep clean. The lip is very wide which means just scrubbing then dumping the drinking area can result is a lot of water pouring out from the tank.  One more issue that we did not have with a metal drinker is that heavier freezing occurs when the drinker is filled to the top on below 20 F days/nights. Keeping it half full so the water level is closer to the heater at the bottom helps keep down the freezing. When I have the drinker full to the top it will freeze several inches down and the quick fix of poking a hole in the ice with a stick will not work at all! 

Benefits- The plus side is that this is working to keep the water unfrozen most of the time and it won't rust. Algae washes away easily from the plastic and the drinking area can be cleaned, though the entire drinker needs to be emptied to do so. The metal heating base has not in any way melted or damaged the plastic drinker. 

Comparison:

Galvanised metal drinker- 

Pro's- the water never froze when used with a heated base. Easy to keep clean. No algae problems.

Con's- the drinker rusts after about a year when using our well water.  The drinker will also rust quickly if apple cider vinegar is added to the water as a treatment or preventative. Rust is not safe for birds so a new drinker at around $40 needs to be purchased each year.

Harris Farms plastic drinker (the model meant for use with a heated base, not all are)-

Pro's- Will never rust, can keep water unfrozen at most temps as long as it's not fully filled. Should be a one time purchase at around $40. Can be used with heated base.

Con's- Algae growth even in winter, harder to clean, can't use the full 6.25 gallons capacity or more freezing will occur, limited to about half that capacity. 

Other water sources we use, we do use rubber dishes for additional water for the ducks the con is the freeze up quickly, the pro is that you can knock the ice out of them. These are great for ducks but they do use the heated drinker with the chickens as well. 

I'd say the plastic drinker wins when the question of value for cost is considered though it is more work. Next winter I hope to try an Aluminum drinker that shouldn't rust like the galvanised does. Stainless steel would be even better but I haven't seen one for sale yet.