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I don't have experience with the breeds that have already been brought up, but the sweetest chicken we've ever had was a barred rock. Our current friendliest chicken is a giagantic rhode island red who is very food motivated. She jumps for treats and while the other chickens scatter to forage...

What didn't you like about the sand? I've had to move some birds inside, and the pine shavings we're using now aren't great. I was thinking of putting them on sand so I can scoop poop.

Most lay 4-7 pm. Every now and then I'll find one at 3:30, or one later around 8.

I woke to a mess of babies this morning. 11 more hatched, including this little turtle that was running around with her shell on her butt. I had to help her out. But it's not day 17 until this evening. And the only two that didn't hatch were fully formed, externally pipped, and had absorbed...

Well, hm. I guess it's still too hot in there. I have two thermometers in there, but both on the ends since I can only read them if they're outside the turner. After lockdown, I put another one in the middle since the turner was out, and it read higher. I guess I'll bring the whole thing down a...

I think I must be counting days wrong. I set my eggs on a Tuesday evening, and counted that as Day 0. I put them in lockdown two Tuesdays later, day 14. But I've just had two hatch this morning, Thursday, which should only be day 16. Should I count the day I set them as Day 1? I mean, this isn't...

Actually, it was the quail calculator thread, I mistyped in the OP: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-confusing-quail-calculator.429645/ Specifically from post #8: "Yes, white genes can be lethal. There is a "light down lethal" and they are English Whites but in 3 weeks they die or...

Actually, I use the Homestead Harvest layer quail feed for my adults and it's been fine. I did read all the threads about it and will probably move to H&H once we use up the Homestead Harvest we have. I have an Amazon card that gives me 5% back, which takes some of the sting out of ordering H&H...

Feed update: actually it's a gamebird starter, but only 25%. I just ordered the H&H gamebird crumble. That's 28%. I'll put all my chicks on that as soon as it comes.

I have chick starter - 25% protein. It's the highest I can get around here. But it took me a day to get that. I'll admit, I had them on the quail layer feed (28% protein, but 3.5% calcium) for the first day, but assisted hatch wasn't out at that point. I had to get oyster shell for my chickens...

She's been like this from the beginning. I figured she'd get stronger as she got older, and she is in the sense that she stands up on her feet now instead of sitting back on her hocks. But she's just as shaky on her feet today (2.5 weeks) as she was at one week old. We had another, much weaker...

It's entirely possible she's just a sickly chick. It looks almost like a mild but potentially worsening neurological thing to me, so I wondered.

Okay, my incubator has no channels, just one big open bottom. So I'll have to empty that out and try to find a jar that will either fit under the hatch tray or be tall enough that new hatches can't get in.

I just moved my second batch into lockdown. And I checked the lid about a dozen times, it's on. The incubator came back up to temp quickly. But the humidity has gone up to the mid 70's now that I've put some water in it. Is that too high? It was in the mid 30's up until now, with no water in the...

I read in the chicken calculator thread something about there being a lethal variant of the white gene? I have two English white hens with the black dot on their head. One of my roos is tibetan, one is golden maybe? Or some sort of tan? I know the golden can also be lethal. I had a chick hatch...

How many 4 week olds do you have? Do you think he'd be safe with them in the grow out while the ladies chill in the original pen? When I had to pull a hen out single to recover from injuries, she was okay for a few days but really started to go nuts on me after like 5 days. I ultimately had to...

I dropped the temperature calibration on the incubator and both thermometers I have agree that it's 99.5. I have no way to calibrate any better than that. They both have hygrometers that read 35%. I was mostly referring to the fact that I'm going to be more careful about seating the lid properly...

Well, I have 20 more eggs. I've got the incubator warming up again. Maybe I can do better this time.

I put a paper towel down in the incubator at lockdown, so they hatched onto that. I'll see if I can get some shelf liner for the next attempt if that's better. The first two got up and ran around fine. The third did okay, but needed a shoe to straighten toes, it still sits on its hocks a lot...

@Kiki, thanks! I think I did read that other thread about the feeder getting clogged. It definitely doesn't fall through as well in my feeders, but I give them a little shake every now and then and it's been okay, but if I could switch to something that would actually fall through, that would be...