Tuesday 28 February 2012

Incubator Issues

Last night I did a quick candle of the eggs in my incubator.  It looks like most of the Polish and Polish X Frizzle eggs are growing.  Some of the others, the shells are too dark for me to see through very well, yet.  Mind you it's only day four.

Since I have put the eggs in, I have been having trouble with humidity.  I just can't seem to keep it up.  The Brinsea Octagon 40 has four slots in the bottom, and you are supposed to fill two of them up with water and keep topping them up until lock down.  I had the vent closed 2/3rd of the way.  And still the humidity would not go up.  It was staying at 25 - 30%.  I tried closing the vent all the way.  No Change.  I also noticed that the temperature went down one degree to 99.5 (was about 100.5).

So last night I did my candle, and topped up all four of the water slots with very warm water.  Put the lid back on and crossed my fingers.  After a few hours, before I went to bed, I checked my incubator and noticed that the temperature varied.  I have 3 different thermometers in my incubator.  I thought this was because I had the lid off and it was still catching up in temperature.  The humidity was reading 60% with all 4 slots filled with very warm water and the vent closed all the way.

This morning I got up and checked my incubator. and was surprised to see that the temperature was still reading low, so I turned it up slightly.  One (the Spot Check) has the probe sitting in between the eggs about centre of the egg.  One is sitting on top of the eggs, and the other is stuck on the lid about half way up the lid.  All three thermometers are now giving me entirely different readings.  The lowest (in the eggs) is reading 97.8, the middle one is 98.3 and the highest is 99.0 degrees.  It's been a few hours now, and still no change to the temperature, so I just turned it up a little more.  Also the humidity is back down to 40%.  

Oh, did I mention that the turner is clicking?  I noticed it last fall when I did a test hatch but thought it might be because it was new and working out kinks.  But it is still clicking and worse now.  It clicks ever 5 - 20 seconds.  I've tried to re- adjust the incubator on the turner, WD40ing it.  It sounds the same when the incubator has eggs in it or empty.  I contacted the company and my clicking issue has been sent to the top guys, and I haven't heard back from them.  The clicking is quite loud, so that we can hear it upstairs in our bedroom with the door shut.

I feel rather sick about the whole thing, because I have wanted a good incubator for so long and it was a big deal for me to get this one.  And I really had to talk my husband into it, saying that Brinsea were top notch incubators.  I haven't mentioned to my husband the temperature issue that has risen yet.  He was all for sending it back last year when it arrived without the digital control, and again the other day when we got it going, and it was clicking again.

Ohhhhh what shall I do?  This is only the second time I have used this incubator.  

Monday 27 February 2012

Glorious Guinea Fowl

If you've ever been in Usk in the summer, perhaps you've heard my guineas, or seen them as they sneak through the grass in my yard hunting for bugs.

I got guinea fowl a few summers ago, by getting some eggs shipped to me from a very nice lady all the way in Saskatchewan.  My neighbour had an incubator, and so we popped the beautiful little eggs into it.  Twenty eight days later, the cutest little chicks chicks hatched, and I took them home down the road in a little box.

Taking them out of the box to put under the heat light, I was so excited!  Their little legs and feet were the brightest of oranges.  Baby Guinea Fowl are called Keets.  I fed them chick starter.


Baby Guinea Fowl aren't the friendliest of chicks.  I think they are a little wild, and are more flighty then chicken chicks.  They don't seem to enjoy being cuddled as much, and peep very loudly when you catch them.  I have heard if you handle them often from day one, every day that they can become friendlier.  They are also pretty good at flying as well, from a young age.  I had one escape from the brooder in the basement once, and it took me a long time to find it.  Finally I heard it peep, and found it on top of a stack of egg cartons, on top of the fridge.  Wow.

Their first set of feathers that come in, aren't spotty, but have a brownish color with fine stripes in it.  I imagine, this is because in the wild in Africa, everything wants to eat a guinea fowl.  At 8 weeks old they are starting to get spotty.

This one isn't really spotty, but more of a pretty blue purple colour.  She's just getting in her big girl feathers.  There are different colours of Guinea's but I mostly have Pearl Guinea Fowl, which are the most common. 


Pearl Guinea Fowl.  They have the prettiest feathers all spotted.  People use their feathers for tying fishing fly, feather jewellery and crafts.  This one is quite young.  Her helmet on her head is still growing, and the downy strips have disappeared.


I have found Guinea Fowl to be quite hardy birds once they get past the small chick size.  They seem to handle winter well, and be quite resistant to the more common poultry diseases.  These one are out on a cool winters day enjoying the sun. 

Who would have ever thought that a bird could have such pretty eyelashes?

Guinea Fowl are pretty hard to tell apart when they are young.  Even as adults it can be very difficult.  One of the ways you can tell the female from the male is by listening.  The female makes a loud sound when she calls that sounds kind of like she is saying "Buck-wheat!  Buck-wheat!"  If you look closely when they are older, you will see that the females have smaller wattles and helmet.

The male has larger, brighter wattles and a larger helmet.

I don't know if it is normal or not, but I noticed one thing last year.  Mine seemed to pair up.  I had two males and two females.  And they each seemed to stay with their mate.  Well, they would also hang around in a group, but it seemed that if they did split up, it was in pairs.

One of my hens went broody.  She just sort of disappeared, and I would see the male walking around all by his lonesome.  But he seemed to be hanging around my Black Currant patch.  One day, when I noticed her in the yard, I watched her, and seen her disappear into the patch.  I followed her and seen her hidden in the middle of the patch. 

When she next came out, I went and looked and sure enough there was a nice big clutch of eggs.  She had both chicken and guinea fowl eggs she was sitting on.  I removed the chicken eggs and tossed them, not knowing how old they were.

Guinea fowl are seasonal layers.  They lay in the spring and summer months.  Their eggs are a smallish egg, with a round bottom and a pointy top.  They have very thick hard shells.  I have heard them called Saddle Eggs, because they are good to take camping or horse back riding, because of their toughness.

The male seemed very lonely when she was sitting.  He would try and hang around with the other pair of guinea fowl, but the other male guinea fowl, kept chasing him off.  Then he would fly up onto the chicken house and call, and call, oh so lonely without his lady love.

I felt rather sorry for them.  He in his loneliness, and she in her broodiness.  She sat there, day after day, for almost a month.  Rain or Shine, she sat there, only occasionally coming out for a quick bite to eat or drink of water.  I peaked in once when it was raining, to see her hunched over her precious brood of eggs, keeping them dry and warm.  I wasn't sure what to do for her, because I didn't want to disturb her.  If I got to close she would run off the nest, so I just left her and crossed my fingers, occasionally checking to make sure she was ok.

Finally the day came when she emerged.  and behind her were 5 little keets, all peeping.  We were so happy, and so was the papa.  You can see the babies hidden in the grass.

Well, one thing about guinea keets is, they don't handle dampness well.  We live in an area that has lots of rain, and I worried for these little guys.  So I caught the babies as they struggled through the grass, putting them in a bucket.  Of coarse, Mama was very concerned.  Guinea Keets peep very loudly, so I took the bucket and put it in a little covered pen.  The babies, continued to peep, and of course Mama followed the sound of her darlings into the pen.  I reached in, gently tipped the bucket over and shut the gate.  It was actually easier then I thought it would be.  The Daddy hung around outside of the pen, watching his love and their babies.

I left them in the pen for about 6 weeks until their feathers came in, and they could handle the dampness of the grass, then let them out.   To be honest, I wasn't sure how the daddy would react to his babies.  But it turned out he was a great Dad.  They took to him, and he to them.  

Mama and baby.

The beautiful family.

It was really neat seeing them go as a family group, the babies following both parents.


I incubated some of my own guinea fowl as well last summer.  They incubate similar to chickens, but you need higher humidity, and it takes them 26 -28 days to incubate.  For the first 25 days, they need to be at 65% humidity, and for the last 3 days up it until 80%.

And they're so darn cute!

When they were old enough, I let them outside to free range with the rest of them.  It didn't take long for the youngsters to leave the company of chickens and go to mingle with the rest of the guinea fowl.  It's a good idea to keep young guinea fowl or new adult guinea fowl locked up for several weeks until they know were to return in the night.

You can see a few different ages of guinea fowls going, but from the hens brood and the ones I incubated.  All getting along.

There is something about watching guinea fowl free ranging in the yard.  They always seem to be on the go.  Sometimes watching the guinea fowl go, they remind me of ladies of olden days with long skirts lifted as they daintily step across the lawn, with their little legs and feet peeping out from under the polka dotted feathers.  They are really entertaining to watch.  Sometimes they are sneaking along, looking for unsuspecting bugs, then the next minute they are running as only the guinea's can or taking off in flight. 

Guinea Fowl are excellent foragers, and free range very well once they know were home is.  They are great at eating all sorts of bugs, like ants and ticks.  They also seem to enjoy the odd berry, grain and crusts of bread, given the chance.  Other then that, my guineas basically eat whatever I feed my chickens, including Layer.  In the winter, they get layer and scratch and seem to do well on this diet.

Although, I've kept guinea fowl in the past with the chickens, I find that in the winter, it is better to keep the guinea fowl in a separate chicken house, as the male guinea's can be aggressive with the chickens, and sometimes horde food.  In the summer, I let the Guinea fowl free range with the chickens, and the chickens quickly learn to stay out of the way of the guinea fowl.

Guinea Fowl make excellent guard birds.  They are not aggressive to people or other animals, and keep a sharp eye out on the sky and on the yard.  If anything comes around they sure let you know.  They will all start screeching at once, very, very loud.  For this reason, perhaps if you live in an area with close neighbours, guinea fowl might not be a good idea.

Last summer several times they alerted us of hawks over head, or attacking chickens.  In one attack we were surprised to see the guinea fowl running around in circles and right up to the hawk who was eating my favourite rooster.  Boy, was I surprised at their nerve!  I'm not sure it they are very brave or very stupid.  I like to think that perhaps they were just keeping a close eye on the danger.

Another time, we were woken at five in the morning to a racket, and looked out the window to see the guinea fowl taking off at a run, screeching all the way.  There was a bear in the yard, and they were letting us know.  One thing we noticed, is that guinea fowl squawk all the time, but if they are squawking, and running, take notice.  Even the chickens have learned to heed the call of the guinea fowl, and will run for cover.

Sometimes though, the guinea fowl just like to make noise for the sheer sake of it.  I notice that just about every evening, they like to fly up onto the chicken house roof and sit there and call.  I enjoy the call of the guinea fowl most times.  I think it gives an exotic feel to the evening, and if you close your eyes you can imagine yourself in far away lands.

There are times when I question the intelligence of these birds.  A couple times now, in the winter, when I let the birds out to go down the trial, or onto the porch of the chicken house, I have had them fly up into tree's.  One thing they do not like to do is land in snow.  These birds are so stubborn about it, they will sit in the tree, or on a pole, until they are week with hunger, and if you are lucky enough to hit them with a snow ball and knock them out of the tree you can get them back.  My husband threatens to shoot and eat them next time.

Guinea Fowl up on a pole.

Have you ever seen anything so sad?

Guinea Fowl are also supposed to be very good eating, tasting like a cross between chicken and turkey, I have heard.  We've yet to eat them, as any offspring that we haven't kept has quickly found homes.  Hopefully this year, with our flock built from 4 to 8 (I sold a bunch last summer), we will get to taste some.  I also plan on keeping the feathers of any that we do eat.

Yes, guinea fowl, the strange and unusual bird in my yard.  They are a bird that you either love or hate.  I find myself loving them.















A Day In The Life Of A Chicken Keeper


I actually wrote this last year.  My family convinced me to send it into Hobby Farms Chicken Magazine and I forgot about it.  Several months later, I heard back from The Chicken Magazine!  They liked my story and said they wanted to print a slightly shorter version in the letter section of their magazine.  You can imagine my surprise.  It was run in the Summer 2011 issue.

Well, I thought I would share with you my original version.




A Day In The Life Of A Chicken Keeper


So, my chickens are just plain naughty right now.

The night that I moved them into their new home, the Two Hamburgs decided to sleep directly under the heat lamp on top of the brooder box and just about burnt down the new house the first night in it.  


All settling in for their first night in the new chicken house.

I can laugh about it now when I see them with the lovely holes burnt into the feathers on their once pretty backs.  The feathers are now charred and singed almost to the skin.  I can just picture those 2 best buds relaxing under the nice warm light, nodding off... "Hey, Gerta, this sure feels nice and warm, huh?" Gerta, with her eye closed "Yeah, Bessie, It just puts me right to sleep.  Warmest I've been since we were chicks..."  "Yes, Bessie, Nice and toasty... speaking of toast... Do you smell something burning?"  


Yes, I can picture them sitting there side by side as usual, fluffing up their curling and smothering feathers, and giving them a shake or two, before the heat of the burning becomes to much to bare.  I don't know why those girls didn't burn down the house...  I mean, I like crispy skin, but preferably on my dinner plate, not living birds.  Phew, close call.

Bessie, with the girls in the spring.  Her back still showing her close call several months after her close call.

The Fonze rooster (my polish), has been scrapping it out through the fence with Dinner Pot Pete (Easter Egger roo), and cracked his beak some.  


Dinner Pot Pete

My big Brahma Buddy, has it figured out if he waits by the nest boxes he can grab any of age hen that comes out of the boxes.

Buddy, looking proud.


Well, now, that I've got all the chickens, both my old chickens and new into one house, the old ones decided it would be good to teach those young chickens a thing or two.  The main thing they have shown them in the last couple days is how to eat eggs.  


I'm so, so upset about this!!!! I suspect that the "I just laid an egg!" cackle, is interpreted as a dinner bell to the other chickens.  


Yesterday I thought, "So, you like eating eggs do you?" and I devised up a couple lovely 'special' eggs full of the yuckiest stuff I could think of.  I mixed up a concoction of Vicks Vapo Rub(lots), hot mustard (lots) and tons of cayenne.  After blowing out a couple eggs, I injected the yucky stuff with a syringe.  Then I put these 2 gourmet eggs into the nest box.  


Well, I don't know what kind of freak chickens I have, but when I went to check for eggs this morning, one of these surprise eggs is completely gone!!!!   Talk about devilled eggs.  It must have burnt their sinuses off!  Unbelievable! 

Anyways, I raised the heat lamp and surrounded it with wire, so fixed that problem for now, until I decide what exactly I want to build.  The Fonze is in segregation until the wounds on his face is healed.  Dinner Pot Pete is due for the pot any day now.  And, as for the egg eating, I'm not exactly sure what to do.  I've been going out to collect eggs often.  I don't want to cull the whole flock, so ... We'll see.

The Fonze


Well, there lays my adventure for the last couple days of chicken keeping.  It's very enjoyable despite it all!  Definitely gives me things to think about.

The End


Well, I just have to say, that my trick with the nasty tasting eggs did work in the end.  While they ate the first one, they only broke the second one and left it laying there. 

Fired up the Incubator!

Last fall, I ordered a new incubator.  A lovely Brinsea Octagon 40 with a turner.  I did a test hatch with some Easter Egger eggs and found it worked better then my Hovabator.  Eight out of the Twelve eggs hatched.  In the past I was getting about half of the eggs hatch in the Hovabator. 

It's been a long winter, waiting to use my incubator again.  I keep my hens and roosters in different coops during the winter, so that come spring, I can pair up birds and start collecting eggs after only a few days.  This has worked well for me.

So, I paired up some roo's and hens into their breeding pens, and let the loving begin.  A few days later I started collecting eggs.  

I fired up the incubator on February 23rd.  

Incubation for chicken eggs takes about 21 days, at 99 - 103 F degrees.  Sometimes, I find that small banty eggs will hatch a little sooner, then the big ones.

Into the incubator I popped 
6 Easter Egger Eggs
6 Blue Laced Red Wyandotte
11 Phyllis Diller Eggs (Frizzle X Polish)
10 Barred Cochin Eggs
1 Cochin X Blue Laced Red Wyandotte Egg (She quit laying when I paired her up with the Roo)
9 Polish Eggs
4 Silkie Eggs
4 Silkie X Eggs

Which brings me to 50 beautiful eggs.


March 19th the eggs should hatch.  Last night I candled some Polish eggs, because they have white shells and are easy to see.  After only 4 days, I could see development, in most of the eggs!  I tried a few darker shelled eggs like the Easter Egger and Cochin Eggs, but am unable to see anything through those shells yet.  I'm not sure how many of them will be fertile though, because I may have started collecting a little soon.  Also my Blue Laced Red Wyandotte rooster, has frost bitten feet, and is very clumsy at mating, so I don't know just how successful he is, but I couldn't resist putting some eggs in anyways.

The Temperature is holding nicely at 99.5 - 100.5 F degrees.  But, I am having trouble getting the humidity up.  It's sitting right around 30%, (Should be 50-55%) which is strange, because the humidity in my house reads 43%.  I would have thought given the warm conditions, added water, and evaporation, that the humidity would be higher in the incubator.  I even have the vent, all the way closed, to try and up it.  Tonight I am going to candle again and I will try adding water to another slot in the bottom of the incubator and see if that doesn't bring it up. 

Yes, tonight I will candle and have another little look and see if I can't tell better who is growing and who is not.  It will be easier with the light eggs, such as the Polish, silkie and X's.  I will get rid of a few if I can't see growth to make some room in the incubator.  What am I making room for, you ask?  Well, my neighbour is going to run me down some quail eggs she has going in her incubator!  I'm so excited!


Friday 17 February 2012

February 3rd, Sunset in the Neighbourhood.

A couple weeks ago we had the most gorgeous sunset.  It seems that we've had so many rainy day's in the last year that a nice sunset is something special.  But I think this one really was.  I even put dinner on hold, hopped on the quad and went out to take some quick pictures from around the neighbourhood.  Seeing how Sunsets don't last long, I had to hurry!

Near the train tracks looking across the field.

Standing on the tracks, looking towards Kitselas Mountain.

Down the road at the Trappers Cabin.  I have to take a picture of this cabin just about every time I go by it with my camera.  It's the oldest cabin in Usk, at about 100 years old, and it the last few years it's really went down hill.  I know it wont be around for much longer.  This is the first time I've photographed it at sunset.

There was a fog in the air, and it seemed to glow with pinkness.  You could almost feel it.



Of course, I had to go to the slough...


I don't know what it is about the cottonwoods...

Even the mountains in the distance had a pinkish tinge to them.


I just can't resist throwing this one of the Trappers Cabin in there.

Thanks for looking, I just thought I would share something I thought was special.

Coop Cleaning And Such

Well, I must be getting the spring itch.  This time of year seems the longest time of year for me.  It seems to drag on and on.  I look out the window and all I see is snow, snow and more snow.

It is going.... slowly.  I think we are down to only about 3 feet of the white stuff now. 

The other morning's view from the Cable Car while I was taking the kids to the bus.  Even though I complain of the snow, I am in love with the scenery here.

I've finally got my coop cleaned.  I've been wanting to do this since we had a cold snap in January which froze everything.  Then we got a huge dump of snow.  Then the snow got tracked back and forth into the coop, and at last my coop thawed.  Yes, it thawed all at once and became a muddy mess.  All that lovely frozen chicken poo created a lot of moisture all at once, too.  

But alas, the snow was so deep outside, and soft that it made packing the old litter out of the coop to the back of the property where we pile it impossible.  I mean, how can you pull a sled of that heavy stuff through 4 ft of soft snow?  

Well, finally for pretty much the first time this winter, the snow has gotten hard enough to walk on.  I love it when I can walk on the snow like that.  It makes things so much easier.  

After our lovely big dump of snow.  

So I loaded up my sled with heaps of litter from the coops and brought it to the back of the property.  This year was so much better then last year.  You see, there is a slight hill you have to go down to the back of the property where we pile it.  Just picture this.  Here's me last year, pulling my heavy load of poo to the little hill, then trying to run down the hill keeping ahead of the load of crap, only to have the crust on the snow give way, and my legs to break through and getting hit from behind with the load.  Not a pretty sight.  lol.  But even I had to laugh.  Any ways, this year it was frozen enough that I didn't break through, and the job got done smoothly.  I managed to get it all done in one day.  Both the larger hen house, and the rooster/guinea fowl coop got the cleaning. 

Since I don't want my Roo's mixed in with the Hens, I let the hens out first while I shovelled and hauled.  It was a nice sunny day, and some of the hens ventured down the shovelled path a little.  Others stood on the heap on the sled, refusing to budge even when I started hauling it away.  So a few girls got a little sleigh ride.

When it came time to do the Guinea Fowl/ Bachelor Pad, you can only imagine the excitement.  Some of the roosters went out and calmly stood, mean while, the guinea's literately flew out the door over my head, and landed out on the frozen snow and squawked their little heads off.  They protested so loudly, that a neighbour heard them down the road and was wondering if there was something big going down.  Then one decided that it would head across the yard.  Luckily, it didn't go to far, or go sit in a tree to prove a point.  

A guinea fowl, being silly sitting on a pole for a day before it headed to a tall tree to spend the night and another day.  This was earlier this winter, before the snow really came.  Notice how you can see the dog house in this picture, and the picture before, it has disappeared under all the snow?  How about the apple tree, and the mini coop by the wheel barrel? 

The hens were quite excited about it.  I opened the bale of Peat, and left it in the middle of the floor.  You should have seen those girls, kicking and scratching in that stuff.  You would think they hit the jackpot!  There were hens dust bathing in the pile with the peat particles floating through the air as they kicked up a storm.  They sure do a good job spreading it out.

Since last summer I have been putting peat in my chicken house.  I find it to be working quite well, as it keeps things pretty dry (Up until recently).  The hens love to scratch and bathe in it, and it keeps the smell down.  Last summer I figured that since we have heavy clay soil and have to add some peat to it, I thought that perhaps I should first use the peat in the chicken house, they can add their magic to it, I can let it compost for a year, then add it to my garden.  I'm thinking this is going to work pretty well.  This way I get double the use of the peat moss.  Not only that, but it is only half the price I was paying for a bale of shavings for the coop.

I can hardly wait for this heap to compost.  This is the first I've clean the hen house since last summer, and really it was pretty good until it got wet. 

I also got the top of the nest boxes, roosts and other places scrapped off.   I think they have a secret mission to poo on anything that they can stand on. 

I'll wait for later in the spring before I do any wall washing.  I just don't want to add the extra moisture to the coop.

We also finally butchered 5 roosters I've been wanting to get rid of for quite some time.  A few of them I was sad to see go, but, how many roosters can you keep?  Especially if they can't be used for breeding.  These ones weren't very big, so I didn't bother plucking them.  Instead I opted out for doing something I had heard someone else doing that worked well for them.  Since most of the meat is on the breast and thighs, I just pulled back the skin off the breast and thighs and removed these from the carcasses.  Usually I clean, and pluck all the birds, and sometimes it's more work then it's worth.  This actually worked very well.  I put the thighs, drum sticks and breasts in a bowl of water and let them rest for a few days, then cooked them the other day, and made some curry honey mustard chicken.  Tasty little Roos.

Also I cleaned out the breeding pens, and put a few chickens in them.  The Fonze (polish Roo) is in with a couple polish hens and Phyllis Diller, my Polish X Frizzle.  A couple Barred Cochins are in the top pen, with a very zealous Barred Roo.  Rotten Ronnie the silkie has a hen with him, and he's making up for lost time in the bachelor pad.  I don't think I will have to worry about fertility there.   And Frosty, my Frost bitten BLRW rooster has a few hens with him.  But to be honest, I don't think Frosty has gotten the hang of mating with his poor feet, which got frost bitten in a cold snap way back in November.  He's quite happy to have the ladies in with him, though.  Borris, the Easter Egger is getting quickies with his couple hens.  I don't have enough pens this time of year, so I take him out with the pair of hens, and let him spend an hour or so quality time with them.  

A barred Cochin Rooster.  How could you not love a fluffy butt?

Boris the EE and his hens.



So I've started collecting a few eggs for incubation.  I plan on hatching a few to take to sale this spring.  Speaking of that, I've also been working on helping to organize a Poultry Small Animal Sale in May.  I'm very excited about it.  This will be my first time helping to organize anything like this before.  So far it's going well.  I'm just crossing my fingers that we wont have a spring flood, and blow my plans. I guess time will tell.

Another thing I've been attempting is to sew some Chicken Saddles.  Chicken Saddles are a covering that you put on a chicken to protect her from Roosters claws and spurs.  Hen's can also wear them if they are getting picked on or have bear backs until their feathers grow back.  

The saddles are made out of denim on one side and a canvas on the other side.

The hens don't seem to mind wearing them.

Well, that's about all the excitement that I've been up to lately.