Simulated Natural Nest Incubation~Experiment #1 So it begins....

[spaceylocust]

WOW!! This is so exciting with so many people with "young 'uns" on the way. Thanks for all the pics and prayers for everyone and their chickies.

 

[Beekissed]

thats basically what i do, keep developing my birds to keep the good traits& breed true ,keep a few to continue with ,sell the rest to others

when my first chic hatched humidity jumped from 45% to 71%

first chic out





can just see external pip on top of middle egg on right


cheers Pete

Now THAT'S an incubator!!

And that was what I was hoping to hear about the humidity at hatch...I'm going to bargain on that and not add humidity to that nest for the whole hatch if I can get by with it. So far air cells seem right on track and good movement in most of the eggs. I might have seen a blood ring starting in one but it could have just been a really evident blood vessel...I'm hoping.

Saturday will be my first official candling wherein I will be eliminating the obvious infertile eggs. Then I'll wait until I candle at Day 14 to remove any others that don't seem to be developing.

 

[aussie pete]

dont be in a rush with blood rings , Bee, the ring is usually very thin &must go rite around or like u say can be just a large prominent blood vessel

 

[Beekissed]

dont be in a rush with blood rings , Bee, the ring is usually very thin &must go rite around or like u say can be just a large prominent blood vessel

I won't, Pete....I'm going to try to get as many eggs to the finish line as possible, so if there is any doubt in there at all about a viable chick, I'm leaving it alone. The clears are still very obvious clears with air cells that have not budged, so they will be easy to cull.

I am so loving how clear it is to see the air cells in this nest....last time I couldn't really see them well until towards the very end, but these are very clear, very noticeably expanding. I'm so excited about having a normal hatch that I can barely contain myself...it was so hard trying to see something that was not there and having folks keep telling me my lights just weren't bright enough!

 

[aussie pete]

from what u have said it appears the eggs in those earlier attempts while may have been fertile, but never started probably from too cold temps before u started incubating.
these seem to be on the rite track

now u have seen how candle ling is, with viable eggs .
u can help others who have just started to incubate & don't know what they r seeing or not seeing ,
as u do with all the other experiences u pass on so well on BYC

cheers Pete

 

[lazy gardener]

Pete, can you take a moment to tell me about your hatching humidity? Do you just wait for that first chick to hatch and let the humidity naturally take care of it'self? I find that when I boost my humidity, the thermostat seems to go wonky and I have to keep cutting it back. Last night, I boosted it to 45% in anticipation of hatch, and had to cut the thermostat back. If I can leave it at 45%, at least I won't be facing 3 days of temp hassles, perhaps only having to closely monitor after they start hatching. This time, the bio load is much higher in the incubator. 26 compared to 5 the last time.

 

[ocap]

Here's an interesting read, Linda: http://www.usask.ca/wcvm/herdmed/applied-ethology/Bottle-raised males can be very dangerous.pdf

Flock management is serious stuff if one wants to delve into it and really study their birds and interact with them more on their level. I believe that is why I've never had bullying, feather picking, integration problems, manfighter roosters, pecking order issues, etc.

One can study behaviors and either deal with them or cull them from the flock and the genetics....but every rooster is going to have a surge of hormones eventually as he becomes sexually mature and this is to be expected. If we kill every rooster feeling his oats, then soon all we will be breeding is roosters with low testosterone levels.....and that won't last for long, for obvious reasons.

I wonder how people would react if someone suggested killing every dog that~ while he was eating~ growled or lunged at a human who came near, without even trying to train the dog about this issue. Sure,if you truly put in some training time with a rooster and it doesn't yield good results, go ahead and trim his neck...and rightly so...but kill every rooster who is indulging in normal rooster behavior and is confused enough to turn it on a human? Not a good idea.

very good information in that article, it supplemented my knowledge of oxen.

 

[Cowpoke]

saving that one Bee for reference. Thanx! This 2nd roo that I kept tried attacking hubby the other day. He's never done that with me. ???? I have noticed though that he has started mating the hens close to me but not like right under me. If it's within 5-6' from me I have started running at him to make him stop and by the time I get there he's done.

Just wondering WHAT hubby does differently than I do? This has just started within the past month I guess. He's been tending to them so I don't know IF he has left his stick and not doing that or what. But he HAS started using it again he said. I've taken back over since he had his surgery last week though and been watching the old roo to see what he's up to. He's wanting to hang around me when I am out there but still hasn't tried anything. Hubby is passive so I'm figuring that's what's going on that the roo has picked up on that and started trying to be his boss. ARG I got him running from me but he did start to flap a wing at me the other day when I ran him off and when he did I ran at him again and he left dodge. lol

I took care of the roos spurs a few weeks back but he has knocked one of them on something and blood was all over his foot last night when I was in the roosting area trying to hammer those oyster shells. I dashed water on it to wash it off so the girls wouldn't smell the blood and peck at it or anything. I have those wire grazing frames in there so I am wondering if he hit the edge with it or something to get it to bleeding.

Hello Rose, he most likely is getting them bleeding due to breeding the hens. And it will keep bleeding and yes the hens will peck them and make it worse. What I do is seclude him from the flock. use corn starch baby powder and/or a good a good ointment. I use the corn starch baby powder and Blue coat. However the blue coat kinda gets some hens attention and pecking. It may take a week or two for the bleeding to stop reoccuring !

 

[Tomtommom]

So many babies brewing!

My top hen is a hatchery BA. She's a good girl.. knows her place.. but DANG are they noisy

She announces every egg laid.

It was her hatch mate that was a troublesome little thing even at 12 weeks.. Heck, he had a pink comb by 1 1/2 weeks old. Hormone explosion.

She took over when he was gone, grew herself some spurs and everything.. I still catch her trying to crow every once in a while. I'm sure her fellah would have mellowed out in time, but I simply had no use for him.. You either find a home or eat 'em, all other options are silly (side of the road ditching, bringing them to the pound, just killing them etc.).

I'm probably entirely wrong on this subject, but there have been times I wish it was acceptable to eat dogs.... Not sure if I could, but I have wished it.... when I was out there trying to keep our two dogs from killing eachother and just thinking how much easier life would be with just one.

We all have our thoughts. Lessons learned from Fried green tomatoes: Cook your problem.

 

[Beekissed]

So many babies brewing!

My top hen is a hatchery BA. She's a good girl.. knows her place.. but DANG are they noisy

She announces every egg laid.

It was her hatch mate that was a troublesome little thing even at 12 weeks.. Heck, he had a pink comb by 1 1/2 weeks old. Hormone explosion.

She took over when he was gone, grew herself some spurs and everything.. I still catch her trying to crow every once in a while. I'm sure her fellah would have mellowed out in time, but I simply had no use for him.. You either find a home or eat 'em, all other options are silly (side of the road ditching, bringing them to the pound, just killing them etc.).

I'm probably entirely wrong on this subject, but there have been times I wish it was acceptable to eat dogs.... Not sure if I could, but I have wished it.... when I was out there trying to keep our two dogs from killing eachother and just thinking how much easier life would be with just one.

We all have our thoughts. Lessons learned from Fried green tomatoes: Cook your problem.

The secret's in the sauce!!! Loved that movie!

I too think that the excess dogs in this country could be utilized for food, if for nothing more than pet food. In other countries they are a delicacy and I'm betting there are no overloaded, no kill shelters in those areas.

If I were starving I'd have no compunction at all about butchering out Jake for a meal. Meat is meat when one is starving.