Commander Grownut, Ma'am. Midwest ground control reporting in. Excellent start despite some confusion with timing. Please explain to ground control the meaning of the M and F markings. Are there further markings we should be aware of? Investigation of CF underway. Possible sighting in Alaska, unconfirmed.
Midwest Ground Control suggests leaning toward astronaut parlance rather than military parlance for this mission to encourage additional participants!
Please prepare for docking with feeding module in the next 24 hours to ensure new hatchees have available nutrition. Feeding module is also stocked with water. You are set to dock with feeding module at your convenience.
Midwest ground control reports no space-time anomalies or wormholes to be worried about, and suggests clear piloting from hereon out.
MGC also would like to inquire about new astronaut diapers. How are they working out for you? :-) (giggle)
Ground control over.
CF dropping eggs in Kentucky (egg sexing)
"M" denotes male according to spooky egg sexing by needle technique. "F" is female. Craft is carrying 11"F" modules and 2 "M" including recent decantment.
Cmdr Grow can't keep her parlances straight!! Otherwise signing out to work on all my day 19-20 chores!!
Commander Grownut - excellent explanation. Thank you. MGC has obviously not had coffee otherwise she would have been able to figure out M and F. She had Millie and Frizzle in mind. Duh....
Have you flipped new life form to check leg-stick-out method to confirm M designation?
Good luck with chores. Keep us updated on pips, zips, and hatches!
Midwest Ground Control.
one leg out! Lifeform from F-marked module consistently puts one leg out!
evidence of both Cmdr's lack of photographic skill and female potential of lifeform.
Excellent evidence, Commander Grownut! Suggest using "macro" setting on camera!
Midwest ground control covets swirly pattern multicolor pillow (?) in background.
Very cute life form. :-)
Life form is perky, if somewhat blurry. (Cmdr IS practicing with new camera). note gray bib in addition to emerging head spot, also cute little yellow and gray feet!
Awwww, applause erupting in Midwest ground control office. Very cute perky life form!
Good work Commander Grow cute chick on board.
New life form. Pipped module "M"11 has emerged!! Conspicuous yellow wingtip markings suggest possible gender linked down pattern. Will post pictures on completion of DeGoopification Maneuvers.(DGM)
Excellent news Commander Grownut. Looking forward to pictures. Midwest Ground Control had a very sticky goopy problem on the last EE chick and had to conduct serious DGM on it, essentially amounting to a warm bath. Worked well though, and life form is now very cute and fluffy.
Interesting to note how M life forms are emerging first. Is this a pattern, I wonder?
Find button on camera with picture of small flower on it (or similar - see link below). Engage button. This is Macro button. Hold down picture-taking button part way while camera focuses on life form. Ensure life form within greenish color square on screen. Complete pressing picture taking button after camera has beeped to say that it has focused.
http://digitalphotographyblogs.com/2006/02/08/macro-shots-what-is-that-flower-icon/
Still working on the camera. Found no flower button. Green square unreliable until I figure out how I got the dang thing!
Wish to clarify -module F8 was the first to produce alien life, followed by M11. Poorly taken pic of M11 life form included. Note darker coloring with clear yellow at ear and wingtip. Module F12 has commenced pipping. These aliens obviously can't count to 21!! This is day 19!!!
Grow your chicks appear to still be wet it's important not to remove them from the bater till they are completely dry. Chilling them could make them sick we can wait on your pics you just make sure your chicks are okay would hate for you to lose one trying to show us pics.
Request camera make and model please. Midwest ground control will check into it.
Chilled chicks are not so good. Chicks can stay in bator or go under warm brooder light right away...at least that's what I do. I have the cosy-lamp brooder. They dry off faster under the lamp than in the bator for me, so I move them immediately and it takes less than 10 seconds to go from bator to brooder. I started with them in the bator but they dragged their goo around with them and messed up other eggs at different stages and I was worried about bacteria, so I like to get them out. They sit in donuts made of polar fleece fabric while drying. :-)
Thanks, guys. this one was rolling around wildly crashing into everyone else, in danger of damaging everyone. He was disentangled, reheated,(pic snapped), and placed back in 'bator without shell. Yolk was totally absorbed, but rear not closed so I couldn't put him with big 'sis'
I might have to try something with the polar fleece. The ones that detach (from shell detritus) easily are fine. But the wallowers can't be safely left.
Understand I have the Cheesy-bator 5000. Big open square with wire screen under foot. The eggs (Alien Life Form Encapsulation Modules) are propped/stabilized against the perimeter big end up at an angle kinda like on this é(accent aigu)
M11 life form leg test
i don't leave my babies in. long as they r up and about waddleing, i take them out and right to the brooder on top the cabinate. hold them under the heat lamp and fluff for 1-2 min and they r let loose in the brooder under heat lamps. if i don't i loose them in the back of the hatcher and i can't reach them. if that happens i have to take all eggs and tray out let all the heat and humidity out and let my 4 year old climb in to rescue them. i think it is to dangerous to risk the hatch doing it that way so i cheat and take em out early but never have had any probs with it.
thanks, Silkie. That's kinda how I'd been doing it but my hatch rate isn't perfect so....
well I'm in knots. One pipped one in there who pipped this morning. Quiet. Still day 19. Don't know if I want 3 days of this.
I had one pipped for 3 days in this last hatch, before it came out. Patience was something I had to learn. :-)
ur welcome, long as u can keep em warm they will do fine moveing them sooner. i got 3 babies in brooder and a buff brahma just hatched a little bit ago and is in hatcher. i got lots more pips but they r takeing forever this time,lol. almost to the end of day 20. no worries urs r early yet and a day behind mine. we get to be momma's together so can't be anymore funner than that!!!
if ur worried about the am pipped one check it. hold it to ur ear see if u hear it pecking or makeing a clicking or singing sound, if not candle it really quick see if u can see movement. if mine don't progress in so long i make sure the pip is a wee bit bigger so i know they have air but keep the whole little no bigger than size of a pencil errasor and let it go on it's own again see if that helps till it starts progressing on it's own again. it keeps them from internal pipping and running out of air which alot of times happens.
Excuse the interruption i was going to say in the statement i made about not removeing the chicks that it was okay to take them out wet and move them to a brooder but i had a slight emergency and forgot to add that. I had a hawk buzzing my pens again today and he got a hold of one of my tangerine juvenile birds he only hurt his wing. I cleaned it and put on some iodine and he looked so pitiful i knew it hurt and there was nothing i could do. I didn't move him because sometimes they like being with the others and it keeps up their spirits. Bout time to get out the shotgun and give that hawk a good scare.
Oh my goodness Harmony, that's simply awful. And I know how much you love those tangerine elephants, OOPS, I mean birds! I am amazed that only the wing was hurt. You must have been beside yourself with worry - I know I would be. What do you use to cover your pens? I am worried about hawks. I see them often. I wonder if they will go for standard size hens or just bantams. I let Red Rosie free range but I worry about her sometimes and wonder if it's OK to let her range while I am at work. But even if I am home, I don't keep an eye on her every minute of the day.
Gosh, I hope your bird is OK. Tangerine dove I presume?
Yes my tangerine dove his injury is slight and he will recover but i've got to do somethin about that hawk he cant get to my birds but he will hang on the side and scare them and one will fly into his claws as they stick threw the wire. At least thats what my husband tells me how he does it.
Hawks here in GA. we have 2 main ones that are really bad a Coopers hawk which doesn't soar it lives its entire life in the woods and they can fly threw the thickest trees they look like fighter planes.(this is whats after my birds)
Then we have the big red tail hawks these patrol the air all day and nothing can stop them i use to have yard chickens and they would hit them full force and knock the feathers out of them. One old girl was a big fat barred rock and she got hit twice but they have so many feathers its hard for him to grasp and hold on so the chickens always got away. A small bird doesn't have a chance i had out some of my bantams a few years back nature called and i ran. I came out the back door just in time to see a hawk takeing off with one of my hens in his grasp. I have not let out one single bird since so if you have hawks i would supervise your chickens yard visits.
I have red tails. Lots of them. And bald eagles too. I hate to say this - maybe everyone will think I am terrible, but I am going to let my standard size chickens free range when they are too old to keep laying eggs. I don't want to eat them, so I think I will let them be free in the goat pen. They will live a happy life pecking around and wandering, and they will be closed up at night for roosting, but in the daytime, they will free range and if a hawk comes, so be it. My bantams, my prime layers and breeders will be more confined. I just can't have enough housing for all of them, especially since I don't plan to cull old birds. The goat pasture goes into the brush so they will have areas to hide and hang out if they want to.
Is that terrible? What do you think?
not sure about the one but a red tail hawk is a protected species it it illegal to harm them any were in the u.s. without prior permission from u.s. fw. it is a federally protected bird. if u r caught killing one it is a 10 thousand dollar fine and possible jail time. u need to fence in from above to protect ur birds. not trying to sound rude but just wanted u to know so u don't get into trouble.
I'd do it. Is a dog the one thing you don't have? We've lost chicks to hawks but never a full grown bird. I wouldn't want to be attracting attention to the juicier morsels, though. Be sure they are well protected before anyone goes out. My birds free range with the goats and will hide under or among them when even an airplane flies over.
Thats funny grow i remembered that when you said it mine would run if a plane flew over too.
Yes it's illegal to kill them i'm just going to scare it.
Harmony, how's your (little) tangerine baby?
SC -I'm awed to be mommy-ing in such elite company!!
So far I'm batting 2 for 2 on the egg sexing to leg-stick-out sexing comps!
i assumed that from what u wrote but many people don't know it is. i have been on other forums and people have said they planned to kill them and have gotten nailed cuz us fish and wildlife was reported to based on posts made and they watch many forums to nail people for it. i just wanted to make sure u all knew to watch what u were typeing and doing. never want anything to happen to any of my friends here.
kool!! me too! i'm curious to see how this all works out when u find out for sure when they r older. i know a lady here who uses a new pencil with a string and needle into the erasor to do it. she told me if pencil moves back and forth was boy and around was a girl. i go by hanging them upside down,lol and what wing feathers look like. we were just talking about this very same thing like just days ago.
Hes Okay just a little shook up hes about 4 months old so hes not tiny and that hawk better watch out he was just flyin through before but now he drew first blood and I'm P___D
I use to have a dummy (no not my DH) that i sat where my pens are and it worked may try that or just try something to make him fear comeing here.
try shiney or bright funky looking wind spiners. i heard they r suppost to help too. i saw on byc someone makes birds out of blank cd's and the shininess of them i think helps scare them away with those too. so sorry about ur bird, i hope he will be ok.
Like the blank CD idea.
Yeah the spooky sexing thing will be interesting. I know 2 is not enough for a decent statistical analysis,lol. But so far it appears right on. F produced fuzzy chick w/ fuzzy head spot who stuck 1 leg out. M produced bright chick with clear yellow chin/ear, bottom, and wing tips who stuck both out. Somebody out there is getting me all psyched for this to work just to confuse me with the rest of the hatch!:-)
I know this ain't the photo forum but i took this picture the other night and it's so cool.
I call it sleeping moon!
I put it on the photo forum but nobody left a comment so i decided to share it with my chicken friends :)
Click on it and look it's so cool!
preeeeeetyyyy... Can't see it here. I looked.
I'll try the shiney things silkie thanks
Great shot Harmony! Kind of looks like the moon on fire!
Grow - I have to try the needle trick. I don't even know how!
I do have a dog - a rescued greyhound. He's an indoor only dog. Well, he goes out to do his thing, but comes in immediately. He's only allowed out in a fenced-in area. They are trained, of course, to chase small furry things. He will chase a plastic bag. Can't go off leash. At the same time, scared witless of chickens, box elder bugs, and the goats. But if he started chasing a rabbit or a squirrel, he'd go straight in front of a speeding vehicle.
the ones i saw were hooked in the ground like garden stakes or hanging tied dangleing and the body was a cd then it was made with foam, i think? and made to look like crows, roosters and other animals. even if they didn't work wouldn't take much to make them and they were really cute ornaments for the yard too.
Modules F2 and F10 decanted fuzzy alien life forms during the night, markings very similar to F8 module.
Commander Grownut - good to hear about further life form encapsulation modules decanting their contents. Have leg tests been conducted on modules F2 and F10? Have you successfully docked with feeding and watering station module? Please give an updated report on condition of previously decanted life forms. How are the fluffiness and cuteness factors?
Over.
SC -sounds like a really cute, really fun project!
Further on the spooky sexing -Of the nest full DH found in the barn we chose not to use 4. 3 of these, when dangling needle 1/2" over that fatter end of the egg (and not too far off the end) the needle started going round and did nice big circles. "M". The 4th showed no signs of life. No motion in the needle at all. "D" for dud. Decided we would use these, crack them into a bowl first, and if still good, scramble. Mom begged for eggs and got these, promising to test them as we didn't know what they would be like at about 12 days (we figure) old. {{{spooky music}}} > > 3 had slightly swirly patterning in the yolk, one was perfectly plain and beautiful. Unfertilized. < < She had been told about the sexing experiment and was reading the eggs, said it was definitely the "D" egg which was plain.
Hmmmmmm. 2nd hand info to me, 3rd to y'all.....