UpCycle IT – R2I INDEX:
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Blog #4 - Mother Natures Version (AKA "The Competition")
In appreciation of Spring and all of the Easter Chicks being sold locally here, I thought I would discuss a little on one of the reasons I am doing the R2I project.
Out here in the rural area of Colorado every Spring we have what is called "Chick Days". This is a time where all of the stores like Murdochs, Tractor Supply Store and all the various COOPs /farm stores have bins of baby Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Turkeys and even Rabbits for sale.
Bins and bins and bins of baby animals! Quite the chaotic yet joyful shopping trip when taking young children through the area!
These chicks all come from commercial suppliers that use giant commercial incubators. If you are interested in the science of incubation look for one of the future posts, there are have been quite a few studies on this and it is actually quite interesting in a FarmGeek sort of way.
We have had Chickens now for several years and it is an interesting and rewarding hobby. It is not a commercial operation for us since the cost of feed and gas to get the feed outweigh the savings in eggs we get. But after you have had REAL farm eggs it is very hard to go back to buying commercial/store bought eggs. There is a BIG difference in flavor. I swear you can actually taste the added chemicals in the eggs from their "special" diets.
Previously due to our location we only had hens, most people do not appreciate the crowing of Roosters or their more aggressive side in chasing down small children/adults. With our relocation out of the city we ended up with some roosters. It wasn't planned since we had purchased all "hens" from Murdochs, but when dealing with mass quantities there is always some error and we ended up with a couple of boys. We decided to keep them since they are helpful for alerting the flock to predators.
As such, we were expecting some of our plentiful eggs to be sat upon this year by one of our many hens, yet Mother Nature decided it just wasn't going to happen. Kind of funny since previously we had hens that insisted on going broody even though there was no Rooster in the flock and obviously the eggs were not going to do anything but get nasty.
Here is an example of 2 of our nesting boxes. Eggs yes, broody hen, no. They are all outside eating and playing in the dirt.
Since my wife has such an eclectic interest in fowl, the idea of having an incubator to be able to hatch out birds in a more controlled manner was very much of interest to her. Especially as last year when we moved in we were finding quail eggs all over the property. Add in the fact our ducks and chickens seem to be very prolific layers but not so good at being broody and hatching anything, then the next step was to introduce an incubator to our little farm.
Here are our ducks out in the front yard, leaving their little eggs all alone and bereft of support. In fact, when I went over to get those eggs a Crow had came in and stole them this morning! Always important to gather the eggs right away since the early bird gets the eggs!
There are plenty of commercial hobby incubators out there but they just didn't seem to feel right. Especially when a little research showed that this seemed to be a perfect project for Element 14 interested members. With the UpCycle It Design Challenge announced and the fact we were already looking at making an incubator it was a great opportunity to combine the two and take the UpCycle elements and apply them. After all I am a huge supporter of UpCycling, it just makes sense!
Remember I mentioned wife with eclectic interests?
Last year my wife was researching various birds that can be kept on farms and the benefits of doing so. She came across Guinea Fowl and once she heard they hunt down snakes decided we needed some! They are kind of like the Guard Dogs of fowl. But they are a little difficult to find, since overall they are a wild bird and domestication is kind of dicey on if they just decide to take off and move on to some other better pastures per their little bird brains. :-)
There are much cuter as babies.
These may look a little different to most people since they are special light colored Guinea instead of the more traditional darker feathered fowl.
We even setup their own enclosure/house since they need to be "trained" a lot longer then chickens and ducks to try and keep them on the property. Although as soon as we actually gave them free run of the farm they pretty much roost on the outside of the enclosure refusing to go back inside. We will see if that changes once the weather turns cold and shelter is needed again.
One day I noticed one of the Guinea hens hanging around inside the house and when I looked inside there was a little nest area made up of all of their feathers. Since they seem similar to the ducks and have absolutely no interest in sitting on eggs I was a little surprised. For all I know we may have all male Guinea since it is hard to tell the difference and I have not seen anything obvious as Guinea eggs. :-)
Another day our kids reported that someone had been laying eggs in the Guinea house and they counted 24 eggs in there! I am assuming that they are chicken eggs since the chickens have decided to lay outside of their house before and actually keep doing it in the same place until I remove the option.
We have 8 nesting boxes available for our hens inside the Chicken Casa, but as you can see they have favorites and regardless of openings elsewhere they can be a little obstinate. That little white chicken will actually lay an egg right next to the other chicken forcing her to share the box instead of going to one of the other 6 open boxes.
Every once in awhile I will poke my head up through the door of the Guinea House and see what might be happening in there and Surprise!
Now that I am working on an artificial incubator Mother Nature has decided to provide us a broody hen to show us how it is done naturally. :-)
All those little white and speckled feathers are Guinea feathers, not chicken.
Luckily we have a side door that opens right by her so we can get to that area if needed. She is VERY broody.
Here she is just giving me the blinky eye look. Generally a non broody hen gets a little bothered by attention and will eventually hop out of the nest area if you are not careful.
For example, this little girl had decided I was giving her a little too much attention when she was trying to lay an egg and is starting to get up and head out. I quickly back away and she settled back down.
My wife had told me when she does her checks that the hen will growl at her if she gets too close so here is my wife putting her hand near the hen.
I had noticed an egg peeking out underneath our hen so I applied the old scratch the neck behind the head trick to lessen the growling and likelihood of being pecked.
Not sure how well that egg may do since it is on the outskirts of the warmth area but we will see.
Remember that one hen that was getting a little upset at me? Well here she is announcing to the world her Egg Song. That other loud piercing sound is one the Guinea Fowl alerting on me since i had been over in their house. That is just one of them, when all of them get going it is quite a jangle of noise!
Here is that Guard Guinea seeing if I have taken the hint and am leaving the area. Behind is one of our ducks watching the scene.
It will be interesting to see how everything turns out with Mother Natures Natural Incubator, I am a little worried for some of the eggs since it took so long for the broody hen to start sitting.
Yet again, another benefit of our R2I since we can control that variable right away.
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