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  • From: EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Hatching Round 3
  • Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:59:56 -0500

Sorry to hear about the setting hen mishap. Cat food and eggs...sounds like a possum to me. That always seems to happen to me, too. It never fails that something will scare a hen off the nest, and usually it happens right before the eggs hatch, so you have a weak hen and a lot of wasted time. That's one of the downsides to letting nature take it's course-it's 'course' is rarely my 'course', especially when it comes to chickens. We just have a lot of predators here.
This experience has made me want to set aside some money to buy another incubator. I can't justify it right now, but maybe in the Spring or Summer after things get better(I'm thinking positive) I'm definitely going to buy another one. At the time I sold mine, I had a rooster and was free-ranging hens...had two or three broody girls..had no worries...but then the predation began and I lost almost all my birds. It seems like it has been a never ending battle to keep up the numbers, and the moment I let down my guard and allow the birds some freedom, that's when the hawks/eagles/owls/possums/coons/dogs/coyotes/bobcats/mountain lions/snakes fill in the blank freakin predator, strikes.

46 + 28 = 74 It would be nice to have 74 birds...I'd like to have about 24 hens and put the rest in the freezer...
Yeah, this incubation business does cost electricity, both in incubation and in raising the birds, but it is as close to a sure thing as you can get with chickens.

Bev

Robert Walton wrote:
Total chicken count = 46


You sure have got your numbers up. I'm saving a few eggs to incubate.
I'm just saving the darkest eggs, so they should be from my Marans
hens. My good Marans hen was sitting on eggs in a little shed near the
house that has freezers in it. Something came in and was eating cat
food in the shed, I should have protected the hen, but forgot that
day. Next morning I found her outside. Whatever (probably possum or
skunk) got her off the nest and ate half the eggs. She went back on
the nest, but left it later in the day. Eggs probably got cold and
died.

Anyway, there was a tuft of feathers there, so I'm just glad my hen is
OK. Eggs were to hatch 1/5 or 6. I've got 7 young roosters that just
started breeding hens and intend to dispatch them soon. There is a
buff hen that is getting nesty maybe she'll go broody on me and do the
work, if not I'll do the incubator method. I'd like some roos for late
spring eating. There is a lot to be said for the incubator method.

Rob - Va
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