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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?

    Quote: So back to the original question... How crowded can the incubator get before the chicks that have hatched put the ones still trying to hatch in danger?
  3. 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...
  4. 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...
  5. jkg

    Starting with chicks vs. 6 month pullets - pros and cons

    We've done both. Our first group of chickens were inherited from friends moving that couldn't take the chickens. They were older (the chickens, not the friends... well, they were too, but not relevant), but were used to being around people and being handled by kids so were still pretty...
  6. 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?
  7. 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.
  8. jkg

    first day temp bounce?

    Quote: That's why I was puzzled. The temp went down initially like you would expect, but then kept building. Over the previous week of testing, it would return to 99.5 every time I opened the lid, added water, monkeyed with thermometers, etc. I was comfortable it was ready as it had proved...
  9. 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...
  10. 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...
  11. 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...
  12. 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...
  13. 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...
  14. 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)...
  15. 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...
  16. jkg

    Things you've learned while building your coop...

    two more: build it appropriate to your climate. don't take all the advice you read here at pure face value as a good design in Minnesota may not work well in Hawaii. think about daily chores when designing... ease of reaching heavy food and water buckets, how to deal with chicken crap...
  17. jkg

    Things you've learned while building your coop...

    If possible, have all roosts at same level in the coop to reduce fighting over the "alpha" roost.
  18. jkg

    Youngsters in nest boxes

    by the way... my plan is to redo the perches so there are two equal height perches separated by enough space for eveyone to all get along (unless some of the bigs roost on both perches and still bully the littles off any perch at all).
  19. jkg

    Youngsters in nest boxes

    Not sure if I'm making this better or worse. The last two nights when I've gone out after dark to check on things, I've noticed the older chickens were up to their old tricks and were pecking the youngsters off the perches until the youngsters would huddle under the nest boxes to go to sleep...
  20. 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...
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