Recent content by CritterFarmer

I never could find a water wiggler for my incubator so I would just take the highest reading and the lowest reading and average them for an idea of what the egg temps should be. Averaging your temps I'd guess that any eggs you'd place in there should be around 100. I got a tip from a BYCer...

The one chick that hatched is quite energetic now. Not completely dry, but pretty close. As it stumbles around the incubator it's turning the other eggs over that are hatching. Any harm in this?

My first time incubating, AND in a homemade incubator..... AND THEY'RE HATCHING!!! 13 eggs in total were set..... so far I have one that hatched last night and looks to be very healthy and happy and there are 3 more pipped right now, with one zipped about 1/4 of the way around and several other...

What is the upper limit of where humidity levels can be for the last 3 days before hatch?

Mine are due the 18th!!!! First time trying this.... fingers crossed!

Wild guess... but I'm thinking it could be because the forestry/lumber industry has been quite slow lately so there's not as much shaving being produced. If thats the case, might be awhile before you see shavings and/or expect an increase in price.

I've also got 2 roo's with my hens that were raised together as chicks. One is definately "top boss". They generally get along fine, with a little chasing every now and again but no bloodshed or full-on attacks.

Ok, that's pretty much what I figured but I thought I'd better check!

Alright... a bit of an update I guess.... I built a homemade incubator a few weeks back and set 13 eggs. April 18th is the expected hatch date. I candled a few on the 10th and could see a dark body moving around in there so they're developing! Right now they're just sitting on a wire grate...

Our chickens currently get a fenced-in area (100' x 100') for their outdoor area, however after about a year it's been pretty tore up. It is going to be expanded in a few months to about 4x it's current size. We are also fencing in a slightly smaller area (100' x 50') which we can rotate them to...

It depends on where you are and what regulations/guidelines are in place for organic certification as to what is and is not allowed.

Depends on a few things too... like the breed (some are naturally more aggressive) and the number of hens. A few males and many females (about 6-8 per rooster) usually works out OK. But many males and few females will be a nightmare for all. There will be some fighting, but as long as there...

Awwww..... so sorry Unfortunately with birds high metabolism rates when things go wrong, they tend to go wrong in a hurry, and unfortunately in many cases once symtoms show it's often too late to do much about it. Not that you shouldn't try, but I don't want you to feel frustrated that your...

We had a similar problem a few years ago when we decided to go the non-medicated route. None of the feed stores around here offered non-medicated chick starter, however we were told we could use duck starter. Duck starter is always (at least around here) completely non-medicated as waterfowl...

Thanks And again the controversy over salt Still, I've seen references to chickens given salt free-choice however in practice it seems no-one does it! A few examples: Storey's Guide to Rasing Poultry http://www.geocities.com/solarcereal/Biophilia5b.html http://www.lionsgrip.com/intro.html...