100 F and 60-70 for hatch, before lockdown the dry method (usually around 30 percent humidity) I have a cheaper reptile thermometer/hygrometer in the incubator with the eggs to check against the incubator's thermometer. I could probably spring for a better one but I wasn't having this issue...
I've been having an issue where my chicks make it to day 21 but instead of internally pipping seem to die. Upon eggtopsy if I peel the membrane a ginger ale colored fluid comes out, but otherwise the chicks are at near full yolk absorption, mostly tiny veining on the membrane, not malpositioned...
A peregrine got in my run today, but I heard them calling and ran outside. The run is covered so he couldn't swoop but he had one of my chickens. She's a polish, and it looks like he was confused by her crest feathers and only mostly managed to pluck her. She actually looks to have superficial...
Late morning, my rooster died. There were multiple piles of feathers around the yard, the little guy put up a fight and led the predator away from the coop. Bites were mostly to the tail and back of the rooster. Whatever it was pulled out bunches of tailfeathers at once. Poor roo got stuck in...
One of my dominiques is in the middle of a rough molt right now. Her sister is starting too. She has only little pinfeather nubs all down her butt and belly and has large naked patches. She was shivering a little today but is still active. Will she be ok with no feathers at night or should I...
I figured as much. I doubt he will stop mating her so frequently, so she's back in the cage until the chicks are big enough she won't kill them, then I will stick her in a separate enclosure with them. Hopefully they will get along with little fuss...I'm thinking maybe I should remove another...
Update: I separated her into the broody breaker cage within sight of her flock and she has gotten better. Sometimes she still limps but she's not doing the hobble. I let her back with the flock today....and the big rooster immediately flattened her without her squatting. She didn't re-injure...
I have a 3.9 lb hen and and 8.2 lb roo. He tends to mate her the most because he can squish her, the other 5-7 lb hens aren't as cooperative. Can he give her a sprain? I checked her feet and there were no lesions, they were not swollen. Eyes weren't weird from Marek's and no one else has shown...
My 2 wellies are the loudest chickens in my flock. One of them egg songs like a fire siren for literally 15 minutes, which seems like an hour mentally, when she lays her egg. She will also go in the coop and egg song for other chickens, even after she has laid her egg for the day. When my flock...
Any signs showing of what gender these chicks are yet? Most of them have bright red above the ridge of their noses. Is that an indicator they are cockerels? The four red nosed ones also have smaller head poofs, so I'm thinking I have 4 boys and 2 girls. :/
The last pic is the suspected boys...
They were all under my large fowl Welsummer the whole time since day one. I noticed sometimes her eggs were visible a bit in the front near her shoulders, maybe she didn't get it quite right. She rejected 2 eggs that were in lockdown in the incubator (one hatched). I think the pipped eggs I put...
Well, looks like my Wellie got up the morning of Day 22 to tend to her chicks and killed the last 3 eggs. 2 had big pips with beaks sticking out. I got there at 9 and one beak was still pink so I put them in the bator but it slowly turned blue over the day. The third had an internal pip but no...
Day 19 for my welsummer and I hear PEEPING!! I am so excited!! She is sitting on 7 and they all developed on Day 18! She got up on her own this morning for me to let her out, so I did. (i've had to carry her outside to go or she wouldn't) I taped a big cardboard box to the end of the dog crate...
I have a 9 month old first time broody on Day 17 right now. All are alive and developing at this point!! I let her be broody for a week before putting the eggs under her. She was serious: plucked out her belly feather and only got up once every 2 days, so I figured she was likely to be broody...
I'm pretty new to this, but I would just monitor. If you look up hand turned eggs, they often only have development on one side as you turn them, and look different than incubator eggs. If they're only Day 6, it is pretty early on, the embryo development won't be big enough to be all over the...