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  1. jkg

    Overnight temps - when to move outside?

    How warm does it need to be overnight vs how old are the chicks before they can stay outside overnight? We have 18 almost 4 week old birds that are still living in one of our showers converted into a brooder. I'd love to get them outside ASAP. The overnight lows here are pretty mild.... low...
  2. jkg

    How crowded can incubator be during hatch?

    How crowded can the incubator/hatcher be during hatching? If I leave the chicks inside for a day or so to dry them off and keep the humidity up, at some point they are crawling all over each other and struggling to find room. Is that ok? At what point will the crowded condition cause them to...
  3. jkg

    First Try - 18 of 21 hatched

    I'm feeling pretty good about this... I built an incubator based on threads here (old plastic cooler, light bulb, water heater thermostat, pc fan). I bought 21 eggs locally, and, as of this morning, 18 successful hatches! One of the three that didn't hatch I accidentally cracked while...
  4. jkg

    condensation dripping on eggs

    homemade incubator... first run. I just hit day 18 and jumped the humidity to around 75%. Condensation forms on the ceiling of the incubator (cooler) and drips on the eggs. It's not like its pouring rain, but does hit a few of the eggs now and then. Is this a problem?
  5. jkg

    cracked an egg?

    I accidentally cracked an egg... hustling too fast trying to turn them and got sloppy. Is it worth keeping in the incubator? It's on day 9... There is definitely development going on inside (or was). The crack is a small dent with a couple cracks running away from the dent.
  6. jkg

    first day temp bounce?

    I built an incubator and tested it out over the last week. After a day or so of adjustment, I got it to the point the temp as measured inside a water wiggle never left the range of around 99.4-99.7 over the course of about 5-6 days. Earlier today I picked up the fertilized eggs and put them...
  7. jkg

    alternative to water wiggly?

    What are some good ideas if I can't find a water wiggly? I've tried a couple different versions of zip lock baggies filled with water, but I keep having leakage problems... that or they end up taking up quite a bit of room. I'd much prefer a water wiggly, but I've searched three stores and...
  8. jkg

    Marking chicks?

    What is the best way or what are the options of ways to mark chicks for various reasons? Maybe I want to mark chicks I think are roosters vs hens or maybe breed x over breed y... or maybe I want to mark one that one of my kids gave a name to already. In any case, how can I do it? Paint on...
  9. jkg

    Rooster and neighbors?

    What have been the most common reaction most people have experienced from their city neighbors when adding a rooster? Our neighborhood, like many or most city areas, bans roosters (middle or upper middle class, Ward and June Cleaver kind of neighborhood). I know somebody nearby owns a rooster...
  10. jkg

    Eating eggs or malformed?

    We added a new group of hens to our previous group. We are finding an egg almost every time broken up in the nest box. How do you tell if one of them is breaking the eggs intentionally to eat the contents vs if one of them is laying eggs with weak or malformed shells that are breaking...
  11. jkg

    Oldest first egg

    What's the oldest you have seen your chickens produce their first egg? Our first group of birds (red sex links) started laying around 5-6 months of age. We added another group of birds (deleware, Cochin, ee) that are now 7-8 months old and not one has started laying yet. The deleware (youngest)...
  12. jkg

    Gross and Evil or Efficient?

    Every now and again I do rotisserie chicken on the grill, and every time, we bag up the carcass with the idea of making soup only to throw the bag away later after forgetting to use it. Last week I instead through the carcass (fully cooked of course) in the chicken run for them to pick at the...
  13. jkg

    Youngsters in nest boxes

    I recently moved our youngsters - around 10 wks old- into the coop. The young ones head inside for the night first and go to the top perch, but as soon as the older birds come in for the night, they chase the littles off the perch. The littles are scared to get on even the lower perch then as...
  14. jkg

    Youngsters in nest boxes

    I recently moved our youngsters - around 10 wks old- into the coop. The young ones head inside for the night first and go to the top perch, but as soon as the older birds come in for the night, they chase the littles off the perch. The littles are scared to get on even the lower perch then as...
  15. jkg

    What kind of wire for floor?

    I live in a warm climate, so I built our coop with a wire floor. My intention was to both better ventilate the coop for the hit summers as well as let the poop fall through to the ground. I used I think 1/2" square mesh, which I now realize is too small for the poop to fall through, so I want to...
  16. jkg

    Blind date with neighbors rooster?

    We have a few hens and live in a very Mike and Carole Brady neighborhood. A neighbor down the street has a rooster but no hens (illegal, but none of the neighbors seem to care). Over a few beers, we were joking about getting his dude and my babes together. Is this just asking for problems? Can...
  17. jkg

    Proper food when adding chicks to older flock

    I'm just about to move our 8 wk old chicks out to the coop (have to get them out of the house). For the first few days, I'll keep them separated, but the I'll have a mix of 8-9 week olds and laying chickens. Once together, I can't control who eats grower and who gets layer feed. What's the...
  18. jkg

    5 wk olde and food waste

    I have five red star chicks right around 5 weeks old. I'm feeding them starter mash from one of the galvanized mason jar feeders. They manage to empty the mason jar within a couple hours of refilling it. The frustrating part is how much of it ends up on the floor. All five birds will stand...
  19. jkg

    how to find breeders

    I keep seeing direct and indirect references here that chicks from breeders are better than from hatcheries - prettier, maybe better behaved, stronger, etc. Regardless whether that's true or not, how do you find a breeder? Is there a list here somewhere I missed?
  20. jkg

    How does 50/50 go to 10+/1?

    So hens and roos hatch at a 50/50 ratio, but I always hear roos don't do well unless it is at least 10 hens per roo. How does that happen in nature? I know chickens don't really exist in nature, at least I didn't see the episode of National Geographic with the great flocks of chickens...
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