Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

He's so noisy!

Cheepy floofs!

Awww...

Get yourself some chicken nipples. Much better way to provide water for chickens than a water reservoir that they step in / poop in.

http://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Products%C2% ... B004NEIS1M

Done and done, I bought them months before I even got the incubator, lol.

I've got a 60lt barrel with nipples ready for when they are old enough to go outside and I want them to have already learned how to use it before then. I'll be transitioning the chicks onto the nipple feeders sometime in the next week no doubt.

cute little birdies

Azira, very cute, what are there names?

I don't think all of them have names yet but some of them are:

Titch & Tiny (they are the smallest Araucana)
Yin & Yang (one black and one lavender (grey) Araucana)
Kiwi (the lavender (grey) floof pictured above)
Coco (Light Sussex my daughters friend has named)
Mr Jerkian aka 'Eric' (the one and only Gold Laced Wyandotte)

And I think there are a couple of others but I can't remember off the top of my head. I just call them all cheepy floofs, lol.

Is it important to make sure the bottom of your hole for the IBCs is flat and level?

If so - how do you achieve that?

(Just dug a big hole for two IBC sump tanks and I'm now trying to wrap my head around putting tanks into the hole...

Too much digging today and my brain is on strike!)

I tried to get mine as flat and level as possible just so there wasn't any undue stress on the IBC bladder. If there were dips and holes I was worried that the weight of the water would weaken the bladder more. A very slight angle to one end of the IBC wouldn't be too much of a problem though I don't think, it may actually help with solids removal if that's where you were putting your SLO, but if the SLO was going in the middle then I'd aim for as level as possible.

To get it as level as I could I first just use the shovel to scrape it as flat as possible, checking it with a spirit level to get it as close as I could. Then I put down a thin layer of small gravel for drainage, and covered that with sand. You can use the spirit level to screed it as level as possible.


That's mine every day lately!

Thanks Azira!

Did you leave the metal pallet-type bases on the tanks or did you take those off and just leave the side cages for support?

I love the photos of your chicks! We hatched Araucanas last year too and we were really lucky and got 4 females out of 6 chicks.

The incubator is packed up until our baby's a bit older. I want to hatch Pekins next (SO FLUFFY!) but will have to wait until the Aquaponics is settled in.

I should show you the photos from the time our chooks hatched duck eggs! Very cute!

I took the bases off so the bladders are sitting directly on the ground. I cut the frame and used the base part for GB supports, however if I was using a whole IBC I'd probably have just sunk the whole thing, base and all.

Lol, Pekins are like a ball of feathers with a face. I've only ever seen photos but I'd imagine they look rather amusing running around. I'm already thinking about my next hatch, this time I was thinking a dozen Gold Laced Wyandotte and maybe some Marans, French Wheaton or Black Copper could be interesting. I still want to hatch more Silver Grey Dorking though, even if one of the three I have is a rooster I can't really use it to breed as they are from the same genetic line. I just hope I don't mess it up next time, I'm still kicking myself.

Chickens hatching ducks would have had to have been pretty darn cute to watch!

Oh ok. Just because you twisted my arm Azira...

That is so cute and hilarous!

Damn, now I want to hatch me some ducklings! lol