New Member saying Hi!

[Denim Deb]

My goats are just pets at this point in time, so I'm not help. Just curious, do you have any horses, and if so, what kind(s), how old, etc.

 

[horseymama2]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

Gettinaclue, we are in the same neck of the woods! Yes I do have chickens. We were trying to start a flock of lf Ameraucanas for my daughter's 4H project. I only have 2 pure bred pullets and 18 little roos. A very frustrating start!! I have been hatching eggs in an incubator since Jan. and keep getting only roos. I have sold a few, and predators got a few..... but seriously this is bizarre to have so many roos hatch. So I went out the other day and picked up 5 pullets of various breeding. I bought 2 speckeled sussex, 2 EE, and a golden comet. I also have a partridge cochin bantam pullet and an adult silkie pair with 4 little roo babies. Did I mention I have to many young roos? I hate to put pure bred roos in the freezer, but its better than giving them away. I will wait now until these are laying good to start hatching again.

Savingdogs, Thanks for the helpful goat info. My children and I are all "lactose intollerant", so dairy goats might be a very good thing for us. I am questioning the lactose issue because we don't seem to be having any issues with organic milk..... I think the real problem is something they are feeding the cows, but I have no way to prove that. I have some fencing already. I have an orchard with a 4 1/2 ft fence around it and the little barn in the attached paddock. The rest of our place is not fenced, but I could easily install a fence using existing trees for posts.

I grew up on a farm and we raised pigs, horses and chickens. The pigs were my brother's thing, not mine, I fed the ones in my barn, but I didn't think about them much beyond that. I like the babies though, they were very funny! If I can find a place to have a pig slaughtered that might be an easier way to diversify first, then goats last. My husband is a city boy, but he loves pork, I think that will be the path of least resistance. I have been slowly converting him, but if I go to fast he will have a fit.

I look forward chatting with you all going forward.

 

[horseymama2]

Hey Denim Deb,
I do have one horse, but I board him down the road. He has been at that barn since before we bought this place. I only have a little over one acre clear, and I am on a pretty steep hill, so I don't have room on our place now to keep a horse. My old man is now 20, he is an Arab/ Trakehner cross. We dabble at lower level dressage. I am not showing right now since college doesn't leave me much time to ride seriously.

 

[Denim Deb]

I'd love to see a pic of him. There's a pic of me someplace in here w/my Arab, Misty. It might be in my journal.

You're doing better w/the incubator than I am. I had 26 eggs in it, none hatched. Now it's so hot that my girls aren't laying that much. Or, they're not laying where they're supposed to. I got 5 eggs last week, and 6 the week B4. So far this week, I've had none. I've threatened them w/the stew pot, but they don't seem too worried.

 

[horseymama2]

Denim Deb,
I feel you pain with incubating! It sure has been a mixed bag. My first batch was bantam cochins I had temperature spikes and only one hatched. I have redesigned my incubator a couple of times. I have been buying and hatching shipped eggs. I had batches with eggs from two sources where nothing from one breeder would hatch, and most from the other. I have hatched eggs from my silkie hen (my only mature chicken) and barnyard mix eggs from/for my neighbor and had 100% hatch on our own eggs. I have purchased eggs from local breeders 3 or 4 times and had 40% hatch rates on those.That really frustrates me to no end!! They must have given me old eggs. So with all those small batches of purchased eggs, I have had multiple sets hatch out one or a few chicks here and there, with most of them being roos!! I have sold several roos a big poultry swap, but hatched out more to replace them. I lost several to a dog attack last week (my own dog) Lucky for us she only got roosters!! I know she will chase chickens if unsupervised, but my child didn't lock up the chicken run when she locked up the coop. I let the dog out alone because I thought the chickens were still locked up from the night before. I have also had 2 black snakes and have had a few chicks disappear without a trace shortly after being allowed to free range, I assume hawks have gotten them.

I don't have any pics of my horse in my computer.... I haven't taken any pics of him since I started back to college. I will have to take my camera to the barn. He is an old gray, so he looks white, and has big disney character eyes. I have a friend who takes pics of him and makes stationary to sell at her craft booth. She says his pics always sell out first.

 

[TanksHill]

Just a passing thought....

I think I remember reading an article once that talked about the temp effecting the sex of the egg..

And since you talked about temp issues with your incubator. I wonder if it could be related???

weird!!

g

 

[GOOGLE NIKOLA TESLA]

WOO!!! welcome!!

 

[horseymama2]

I wish it were that easy Tankhill!

The sex of an egg is determined prior to it being laid, the hen controls that like sperm do in human reproduction. In reptiles the sex of the egg is determined by the temperature. There are studies in a some wild bird species with more of one sex surviving temp changes better than the other, but the information I have read is conflicting. It would be nice if there was a consistent pattern where more roo's hatch in warmer weather, and more pullets in cool weather or something. I hatched my roos out during the cooler months, and now have no eggs to experiment with while its hotter. I wonder if it might have to do with freshness or surviving shipping, since most of my roos came from shipped/purchased eggs. My hatches with my own eggs or eggs from my neighbor hatched plenty of pullets (except the last batch of silkie chicks I hatched some in the bator and some under then hen and sold most of them as day olds. I lost two of the six I kept and I think the last 4 are roos, but it is to early to know for sure.) l Oh well, I am waiting for next year when I will be hatching my own eggs, I think I will start a detailed journal and see what statistics show, freshness vs temps and such.