First Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatchathon- Join us! Set Day: Easter

[Wisher1000]

Do you have a sore back from all that scratching in the dirt? Are your drumsticks tight from lack of stretching? Could your neck use a good pop? Has flying become all but impossible due to poor range of motion?

Try Poultry Yoga! ​

All it takes is a few minutes of your time and is even more fun in groups! Try it today!
Oh, and make sure your keeper takes pictures because today is the

Last Day
to enter the
First Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatch's Poultry Yoga Contest.
Get your entries in by midnight! Post them here and PM them to Wisher1000.​

 

[Arielle]

A pile of chicks.
NH, lakenvelder, BCM, golden campine and................silver campine.

Deb

OK about the Wally World thermos. I've been using the green ones since my idol ChooksChick helped me stop having such bad hatches. Did I mention I are getting the prize for worse hatch at Easter? LOL Anyway I have a stockpille of them. I noticed though that they don't last long. I could put 5 of them in one bator and get 5 different reading. This poor fish. I think they've stopped making them to work. Wonder how many get boiled or freeze. I loved these things, but none have worked right and I still grab them up when I shop. So I grabbed one like I used when my husband was alive and helping me set things up and got a few to hatch. Yesterday and today I have 9 out of ??????hatched and then I can home tonight and the humidity read 67, but there were pips and just hatched chicks, so I didn't get too concerned. I finally grabbed out the ones that were dry and I found pipped eggs and dead chicks, sticky chicks (one I may have killed trying to moisten and move the membrane from around it's face and it bled bad) and 2 more glued to the shells. I think I have 8 DIS with pips, one must have hit a vein and didn't get any further and a couple that pipped and it looks like yolk dripped out, so 11 that tried and died. Hoping they aren't all done, but if these guys were sticky I bet the rest are. All but one of the ones out seem healthy, the one has what looks like a bad foot, but the whole xhixk is wet, so maybe it's because it just hatched. No FBCMs, SPPRS, Silver Pheonix or Lav AMs out.

Still I have at least 9 out and 6 are sitting here next to me driving me nuts. A few of my Lav Egg projects hatched including a bantam. I'm hoping I can get those going too. Only one blue AM out. This is still better than what's been going on again, but I've noticed that if the humidity is between 57 and 63, they pop right out of the shell.

I may have a different one, the only thing green on it is a rubber ring that holds the suction cup on and a green section between 78 and 82 bordered by yellow to show where the temp should be for fish. The tube is clear, the paper scale is white with black tick marks, and there is a red plug that holds the steel beads in the bottom. So where do you buy a GOOD one. I now have about $50 (collectively) in cheap ones and I still don't know if I know what my temp is!

I use these same fish tank kinds; I don't use boiling water or freezing temp on these, rather a cup of warm water to synchonize the readings. I have used a human thermometer, the weird non-mercury types to verify. THis doesn't calibrate to boiling point, as I think the too high temps might ruin the thermos for the fish tank.

 

[debs_flock]

I use these same fish tank kinds; I don't use boiling water or freezing temp on these, rather a cup of warm water to synchonize the readings. I have used a human thermometer, the weird non-mercury types to verify. THis doesn't calibrate to boiling point, as I think the too high temps might ruin the thermos for the fish tank.

I also use an instant read thermometer from the grocery store in the cooking aisle. It looks like the kind for meat, but has a plastic head so it's not for use in the oven. You just turn it on, drop it into the vent hole on the incubator and the tip ends up even with the middle of the egg. They are less than $10.

I also spot check temps with my laser temperature gun. They cost around $35 are are very accurate. You just pull the trigger and point the laser where you want to read. If you have chicks in, they are funny and will chase the pin point of light (so do my frogs that I have the gun for, they think it's prey).

Then I use the cheap strip that comes with the incubator, a memory remote probe temp/hygro I bought from incubator warehouse, a memory remote probe temp/hygro I bought from walmart, a couple of floaty aquarium therm and my two new genesis 1588 both have readouts on the top.

Geesh, I have a plethora of temp/hygro devices!

Deb

 

[Wisher1000]

A pile of chicks.

Yesterday we moved the indoor growout pen chicks into an outdoor growout pen. It was 82 degrees today and we let them out of the coop into the pen for the first time. Of course tonight at lockup time, they had no idea they were supposed to go indoors, so I individually picked up all 48 chicks and put them in the pop door. Okay, I'll admit, I picked up four at a time and tossed them in. They were at that dopey, sleeping stage in a big pile on the floor of their attached run. Hopefully it will only take them a day or two to figure it out and they'll go in on their own. It could get old fast otherwise.

When I took this picture, they had just come outside for the first time. They found a sunny spot in the run and were taking their first dust baths.

Here you go Wisher, for you.
NH, lakenvelder, BCM, golden campine and................silver campine.
Want!
Deb

How precious! Want! I see a little roo there in the middle and several pullets that need a new home. Where did they come from? Did you say you hatched them? When are you planning to ship them to me? I think I might could come get them if you meet me half way, like in Santa Fe? LOL! They are beautiful, yes even at that age, and I am so jealous! Want! Want! Want! Want! Want!

 

[debs_flock]

Quote: They are, although they were slightly less prescious as I was picking them all up to put them in the coop at 8pm. They'll be even less so tonight! I have a grow out pen with a dozen golden campines. The first night I caught them all, the second night I only had to put in 4 and the one marans that lives with them. The third night it was just the marans, now they all go in by themselves.

I have a pen of serama, that I had to put in all eight for several nights. Two of them finally figured it out. The other six get put in by hand every night for several weeks now. I'm starting to think when they miniaturized the chicken, they seriously miniaturized the brain.

Or maybe they are just smart enough to like the service and know I will save them from having to walk up the ramp!

Deb

 

[Jessshan8]

I may have a different one, the only thing green on it is a rubber ring that holds the suction cup on and a green section between 78 and 82 bordered by yellow to show where the temp should be for fish. The tube is clear, the paper scale is white with black tick marks, and there is a red plug that holds the steel beads in the bottom. So where do you buy a GOOD one. I now have about $50 (collectively) in cheap ones and I still don't know if I know what my temp is!

Her is how to test your thermometer to see if it is off or how far it is off. Then you can tell what your temps actually are. So if your thermometer reads 2 deg high then subtract 2 deg from the temp reading and vice versa if it is reading low.

Ice Point Method


​

►Fill an insulated cup with crushed ice and water.

►The cup must have enough crushed ice to provide an environment of 32°F, so you may need to pack more ice into the cup during the process.

► When the mixture of the water has stabilized in about four or five minutes, insert the thermometer to be calibrated to the appropriate immersion depth.

►Be sure to hold the stem of the instrument away from the bottom and sides of the container (preferably one inch) to avoid error.
► If your thermometer is not accurate within +/- 2°F of 32°F., adjust the thermometer accordingly. The ice point method permits calibration to within 0.1°F.​

 

[Wisher1000]

Deb - There seems to be an entire aspect of my comments about your Silver Campines that you ignored.......

Jesse - I'll have to check on that, sounds like a great idea. I will have to check to see if any of mine go down to 32.

I was up at 6:00 this morning seeing to the chickens and dogs. Then I started on the large bed in the backyard and had the largest weeds out by 7:30. I stopped for breakfast (fresh fried eggs, bacon, biscuits) with the boys, and to do some house cleaning (yuck!) I still have some hoeing to do (I hate bermuda grass) and I want to move some marigolds that came up from last years plants. I have some tomatoes and peppers to put out, THEN, I'm going to try to put up a dividing wall in the coop (third attempt.) Gotta' love farm life!

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

My real and final test is how well the chicks pop out of their shells!! If they hatch after 21 days, the eggs are too cool; before 21 days good enough. This is chickens, not turkeys.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Here's turken trying to do a corner stretch, without a corner.

 

[wolftracks]

I may have a different one, the only thing green on it is a rubber ring that holds the suction cup on and a green section between 78 and 82 bordered by yellow to show where the temp should be for fish. The tube is clear, the paper scale is white with black tick marks, and there is a red plug that holds the steel beads in the bottom. So where do you buy a GOOD one. I now have about $50 (collectively) in cheap ones and I still don't know if I know what my temp is!

That's the right one.