We are on our first incubation right now, only have had it for three days. SO FAR I absolutely LOVE it. I have had zero problems with it holding humidity. I can keep it wherever I want by filling up the well and adjusting the vents. No problems there. AND it comes with a surface area increasing sponge thingy to put in the well during hatch. I haven't hatched in it yet, that's still about 18 days away (and I will report how it goes). But there is only one hatching tray on the bottom, so I set-staggered my shelves, each one hatching at a different time, so I only have to put one shelf's worth of eggs in the hatcher at any given time.
If your worried about the humidity it has an adaptor you can plug in the automatic humidity control box (I didn't buy one).
So far all the gizmos and electronics on it are super cool. You can adjust the turning, temperature by .2 degrees, and it even has a cooling off feature!
So far it's awesome.
I will definitely report more as time goes on and I get more experience with it.
We made a proposition our farm partner/ property owner, that if she purchased an incubator for all of us to use, that we would process as many meat birds for her as she wanted, and well, she took us up on the offer! I am in love and this thing rocks! No really, if I put a rock in it, it would probably hatch it. No temp or humidity fluctuations and it has all kinds of neat features like auto cooling. The only, and I do mean only, bad thing about this incubator is that the water tray is TOO small for it! I know we live in the desert and so probably go through more water than is probably normal, but I have to fill it TWICE a day sometimes, and getting the humidity up past 55% is a real chore. Fortunately it hatches babies at 40-50% and I never have a problem with them shrink wrapping (getting too dry). Overall a success!!!
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Well I finally did it! Got a "real" LGD pup. He's a Pyrenees, Maremma, Anatolian, Akbash, Ovcharka cross. (That's a mouthful!) 11 weeks old, and he's wonderful! Very normal puppy like in some ways, but I can tell he's going to be a good guardian already. I think he has really bonded to me, he follows me around everywhere, and gets really happy to see me. He sits outside the milking parlor while I am milking and just watches everything. He is doing really well here even though it's only been two days. He sleeps in the baby barn at night with the baby goats (with a gate between them) and has already claimed the baby barn as "his territory". Yesterday some people came up to buy rabbits and as soon as he saw them he started barking! What a good boy! That's what I want; I don't want just anyone to be able to walk in with the goats (so they don't get stolen!) He goes in the baby goat yard with me and also the big goat yard, and he is good, but I still have to convince MY goats that he isn't going to eat them. LOL! He did try and mouth the baby goats a little bit and I've just been giving him a firm "no". He is picking it up quickly. I did have to give him a little bop on the nose and a loud NO when he put his whole mouth around one of the baby goats legs. I know he is just playing though. But I won't leave him alone with them until I know he knows not to chew or chase them. The baby goats still have to get used to him too, they aren't too sure what he is, lol. He also dug out of the baby goat yard when I walked away because he wanted to be back in the baby barn, lol. I may eventually have to get hotwire to teach him to stay inside the goat yards. Every day I am moving him all around to all the different areas so he gets used to them and recognizes them as his territories. He also gets to see my two other big dogs and is just fine with them. He also met the turkeys and the rabbits today and wasn't quite sure about them but with my showing them to him and reassuring him he was fine after just a couple minutes. He's here to stay!!! Here is what I did today: All a.m. farm chores, feeding watering cleaning, taking care of horses etc. I never knew just how much work is involved on a farm! Not only hard work, but it takes a lot of TIME, every day I have a list of stuff that needs to be done, (who would have known there would be so much!) and each day I work until dark checking off the list, and there is always more to do the next day! So then, after normal morning chores here is what we did; Built goat grain feeder (still have to get a pic of it). Grained and Vitamin E'd all the girls. Finished sealing the goat barn roof. Finished spreading all the straw & fixed barrier. Got my homemade nestbox out of storage and put it in with the Easter Eggers, filled it with hay. Took the EE's nestbox and gave it to the White Ameraucanas filled it with hay. Got an old cabinet from under the house, cleaned it off and screwed a lip on the front and created a nice new nestbox setup for the Ameraucanas. (Got to get pics) Filled with hay. Moved nestboxes up into the rabbits that are bred and filled them with hay. Yay baby bunnies! Cleaned out doe pen and created a GIANT compost pile, watered and turned it. Moved and arranged all the farm totes, to create a tote for: chickens, cats, dogs, fish, blankets, towels, goats, and birthing kit. Got extension cord, power strip, and heat lamps and bulbs for baby goat barn. And since I got so much done today I get to go horseback riding tomorrow morning for the holiday and then spend tomorrow cleaning the house. =) Yesterday morning I did normal farm chores which for me is 1 hr taking care of horses and then about 30 minutes feeding and watering the rest of the farm. I then spent the next 3 hours patching holes in my metal barn roof and then coating it with an elastomeric roof sealant. I then got the inside ready for the baby goaties. I also caulked the roof to the goat barn. I then did laundry, made dinner, cleaned the house etc... by the end of the day I was exhausted! Today I did the same morning am chores and then raked out the goat barn & pen and created a compost pile. Then refreshed the goat barn with new straw. My goaties are due to have their babies any time now so I want to make sure everything is all ready for them. I also cleaned out ALL the poultry pens and scrubbed all the feeders and waterers. Lastly I tried to lay out my mangled car canopy so I can cut off the broken ends and try to self tap it back together so the rabbits have more shade. I think I am as tired today as I was yesterday! Tomorrow I still need to finish caulking the goat barn. Finish sealing the metal barn. Finish spreading straw and reattach the straw barrier on the door. Then my big job= CLEAN THE HOUSE. Lol, everything is so messy right now and I just want to go to sleep. LoL. ... but I can't wait for baby goties!!! The bad news: It's been raining like crazy! We're quite a bit over for our averages for this time of year! (Little did I know a year later I would be PRAYING for rain!) The Good News... My girls are 16 weeks pregnant now... Were at 112 days!!! That means only 38 days left!!! (Or 5 weeks)... One more week before their CDt and BoSe shots! It's sooooooo hard waiting!!!! Will get pics asap! 1/17/2013: WOW what a crazy morning! We had hurricane like winds last night and it was just insane. It completely trashed the yard, demolished my rabbitry cover, blew everything all around and even picked up my quail cages and flung them about 60 feet away!!! Thank goodness my quail were ok! They sure had a crazy roller-coaster of a ride last night! Oh AND the rabbitry cover blew over by a wild bees nest so when I went to go try and retrieve it I got attacked by bees! EEEk! They were in my hair, I had to swat them out a bunch, and then walk calmly away. They stopped following me after about 20 or 30 feet. I had to wait a while and then come back and sneak in from the other side and pull the canopy away from that area. And it's SUPER hot out today! The hottest day in like a month! Oiy! I'm hot, tired, and sunburned now... took me about 4 hours to do morning chores and clean everything up! LoL that's what happens when you live in San Diego... sunburns in the winter! Just to make it clearer; last Christmas eve I was shopping at a nursery in shorts, t shirt, and flip flops... and yes I was wearing sunscreen... this is Christmas mind you, middle of "winter". That's the only bad thing... it's just a little too warm here for me, I'd like at least a LITTLE season changes. =) Just wanted to update here: Sooo tired... we had so much going on this last month that I am just pooped, farm, moving, school; I've been so busy and stressed that I thought I was getting sick for almost a week straight. Took lots of supplements and I do feel better. Today is the first day I've been able to sit and rest for a while. (Not that there isn't anything to do, lol). Still have to send biotracking out, and still waiting to hear back from the interview I had yesterday. Going to take more advil and relax on the couch a while!!! Merry Christmas! Everyone!! I will have to get on here and post some pictures of our updates and farm improvements! It took forever, (and I feel like we are way behind!), but we finally finished moving, are all into our new place and are working on getting our animals all into their permanent pens with shelters/ barns/ and enclosures done! So far we have finished the goat shed (except for paint). Finished the feed shed (except for paint) Finished the hay shed (except for paint) And finished the milking parlor (except for paint) Also finished the rabbitry, but still have to finish the fence. And now working on the turkey coop and pen. Will get pics as soon as it stops raining! Happy Christmas Eve everyone! |
AuthorsIn 2009, we moved to a rural rental on the outskirts of San Diego to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and to get away from the chemicals in our food and in our life. Little did we know that just a few years later we would be real farmers; growing fruits, vegetables and herbs, as well as many different kinds of chickens, ducks, turkey, bunnies, guineas, quail, goats and more! We left the suburbs for "Green Acres" and haven't looked back since! Categories
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