Peeps and Pips

I have many, many peeps and three pips. Have 42 eggs in the bator and 52 more on the way.

MY NAME IS SHEILA WILLIAMS AND I AM ADDICTED TO HATCHING EGGS. It all started with some fluffy little chicks at Orscheln's and while researching information on how to care for them I came across a website on how to build you own incubator and the rest is history.

I have joined chickens anonymous (Dave's Garden), but all the people there are always showing pictures of chickens and talking about breeds I don't have yet. They call themselves a help group but are really just enablers.

Sheila

HA!! You and CMoxon remind me of that Startrek episode with the Tribbles multiplying exponentially..lol

Pictures of the peeps:) how I miss my babies and my goats....

D

i meant peeps from the shells. no babies yet. I will try to get pics up when they are here.

Yes my husband is nearing a heartattack. He keeps wanting to sell some and I keep wanting to hold on to them to pick the best for the breeding program we are starting. I think the chickens on the kitchen counter are starting to get to him, LOL. I d

Sheila

Oh Sheila, I know eggzactly what you mean. Let's just buy some land somewhere between Iowa and Missouri and have some of every breed and about 50 Sportsman bators going 24/7. Chicken heaven...

Can't wait to see your pics... :-)

So when are you moving here. I have 80 acres I live on and 500 acres at the farm. Mind you some is occupied by cattle (about 500 head), but I THINK we could convince Daddy that chickens are much more profitable and easier on your legs when they sit on your lap.

I want a sportsman sooooooo bad, but have resisted because instead of hatching 40 -50 every 3 weeks, I would be hatching 400 - 500 every three week. With that many chicks I would be heading for divorce court.

Maybe our husbands could live together and come visit on the weekends. Sound like a plan????

Sheila

Couldn't you make it Eastern MO so I could visit more?

Wow! Awesome! I only have 8.5 acres so not enough room for chicken heaven. Sounds like a great plan - and keeping Kelly out of my hair during the week so that things could actually get done....what a plan!

Then we could have a whole bunch of sportsmans going at all times, and be a primary distributorship of rare chickens.

oooh, boy. Start looking for adjacent acreages. But please help with the new breed? Sounds wonderful!

Grow you could be our Kentucky Connection and with all of the money we will be rolling in we could have you flown in by private jet at your leisure.

In fact we could have all of the DGers be state representatives and on payroll, so the private jet would be a business deduction.

Oh BTW, Hatchery for sale in Missouri about 40 minutes from here. Someone please tie me down to the house. I want it, I want it, I WANT IT ALLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!

Sell it to Claire and then .....

If you could of heard the noise i was makeing reading this it was like a grunting giggly excited sound like we made in school when you knew the answer but the teacher wouldn't call on you!!
I"M IN did i say that and yes all the men could visit on weekends and it would be just us girls and we could be on known world wide hatching all breeds. Theres that noise again

ROTF! I know that noise Harmony. I made it when I heard about the hatchery for sale.

I should start a roll call list for all that are moving here. Or state agents for the hatchery.

I'm more of a squirmer, but ditto...

Panther Creek Hatchery reporting 5 pips now, but no chickies. Will update after lunch and nap.

Sheila

I,m new here have you shared how you built your incubator if you haven,t will you share?

I was always the one who got in trouble for blurting out the answer and forgetting to put my hand up first.

Sheila, you buy the hatchery and hire me...?

I think Harmony is getting the fever.

I will give you a quick run down and if you want more I will go into detail when the kiddos are asleep.

Supplies:

Large styrofoam box or cooler (got my from vet clinic who gets meds shipped in them)
8 x 10 glass from picture frame (can be bigger and smaller)
Light socket from hardware store with exposed wires
Dimmer Switch like you use on lights for the house.
Appliance cord or old extension cord with male end and exposed wires on female end.
Small Desk fan
Temperature and humidity gauge (found a Walmart for $8.00)
Alumnium Roasting pan or old cake pan
Welded Wire
60 Watt light bulb


Cut hole in top center for light socket so that the light bulb will be inside and the wires outside. Wire the exposed wires to the dimmer switch per dimmer switch instructions also at this time wire appliance cord to dimmer switch. I put the viewing window in the side, so cut hole in the side slightly smaller than the window and leave a small lip for the window to rest on. Tape the window to the side (I used packing tape and it is holding up well). Next cut a small hole in the bottom side to run the fan cord out from. Retape the hole with packing tapeafter getting the cord through. I cut aproximately 2 holes per side top and bottom for air vents. They are a little bigger than a pencil.

Place the aluminum pan in the bottom. cut hardware cloth to fit the complete bottom and place over the pan. Fill the pan with water, place desk fan on welded wire and turn on. Turn on dimmer switch and let run for 24 hours. Adjust the dimmer switch up or down until you get the right temp (between 99.5 and 100.5 for forced air). Check the humidity. To lower cut more air holes and to raise put packing tape over a few holes and check again.

When close to hatch I cover a few more holes with packing tape until the humidity is where I want it.

This cost me approximately $15 to make and this is the 6 successful hatch I have had with it.

Sheila

I would have already bought it if i thought i could poop the money. I have tried for days and now have given up. LOL But that would be a plan.

Sheila

Six pips now...... still no chicks!

Woo hoo! What kind are they?

7 pips.................... I have several of our barnyard mixes, buff orpingtons, and white crested black polish, black polish, buff laced polish. 42 in all.

Sheila

The sticky gives a good blow by blow of home-made incubator hatching. They are even better as hatchers to keep the incubator sanitary.

If you google "stryrofoam home made incubator how to build"--or some combination of those words there are several good sites on building them

hooray Sheila!@!!

I have a fluffy! I have a Fluffy! While I was napping ahem (clears throat) demonstrating the napping technique to the others, one hatched. It was one of our barnyard specials. It's black and I am not for sure what it is.

Eight more pips.

Sheila

HOOHAAA. Chicken Dance commencing.

Yaaay! A black fluffy! Congrats!!

Go Sheila Go Sheila It's a Hatchling It's a Hatchling

Where did I put my pom-poms....?

In the shuttle. As a surrogate Mommy?

10 pips still only one chick

LOL, good point Grownut. I'm so muddled I don't even remember these simple things.

Must be the impending boredom of trademarks class for 2 hours. Ugh...

Well my first pip was this morning and it's not out yet either...

Raising hand high shaking wildly.. Pick Me! PickMEEE! I'll go live there! LOL I'm a hard worker too!!

Weeeelll, don't let it impend too heavily....Just infer everything to mean chickens, trademarked, patented chickens. Give me a little background and I'll imagine you a totally unrealistic scenario to go with!

Well right now we are talking about "trade dress" and whether it is the packaging of the product, or the design of the product, or both. For example, crown royal whiskey - most people know the bottle. Some ppl buy it for the bottle, some for the drink. So is the 'trade dress' of crown royal (i.e. the bottle in the purple bag) the product, or is it just the packaging for the product. It's a grey area.

If it were the product we'd be eating feathers instead of chicken. The trade dress is a tangible or intangible side-effect of purchase and only becomes a product when sold separately instead of just paid for 'cuz ya' can't not pay for it.

Buy a live chicken, clean it, you get all the leavings good and bad. Buy a store chicken, you pay for all of the process, in spite of having a vested interest in only a portion. Seller won't let you separate them, so it's a function of seller before product.

It's eeezy when yer not responsible...

Ooooh, very nice! Are you a fly on the wall in here?

Tolja Hunny. I do words and dissections of words.... I feel flippant, oh so flippant. I feel flippant and witty and Briiiiite.