hmm It was green so maybe it was a Lucilia? Looked flattish, but I was busy trying to get rid of it rather than look at it :p
It didn't see any larvae, and I only saw this one fly
Sorry, I didn't take a picture. I put him in a (separate) container with water, but the green is gone - so too late to take a picture now.
Guess I'll just throw him away :( Unless anyone thinks otherwise I'm going to assume it was a bruise/wound that got infected, and no reason to worry about...
I'm back into quails :) and need some help...
I culled 11 males (coturnix jumbo) today (11 weeks old) and one of those I skinned had a green slime between the skin and breast meat, but I couldn't see any green or issues when opening it up (i.e the intestines seemed fine) - he did seem to have...
The idea about knocking them unconscious sounds good - if it's done correct then it should be humane.
Probably a good idea for noobs to do anyway, imagine realizing that your sharp scissor wasn't sharp enough - or your technique was wrong - and that your first attempt didn't succeed in killing...
I'm currently not in my home country (Norway), but the main rule (when not a butcher) is to use CO2.
However, for small foul (might be all animals below 3 or is it 5 kg?) the law allows cervical dislocation AFTER they have been knocked unconscious (there are other allowed techniques as well)...
Thanks for the feedback guys, but noone knows the answer to the question?
Not knocking them out is not an option for me (if I go with quails again) since it is required by law in my home country.
So I just dispatched my few quails and though I was prepared from the research & videoes I had done;
1) Knock them unconscious
2) Behead them w/sharp scissors
The problem is that for the first step I expected them to instantly roll their eyes, but they didn't. Are they supposed to, or does it...
Thanks - seems like that is the only egg I'll get though - haven't gotten any since...
Sorry about the bad hatch rate. Guess you will not know for sure why unless you either splurge on a high-quality incubator or try hatching from your own breeding stock, but shipping can be very challenging...
Luckily a stable humidity isn't necessary :)
One of my now almost 8 weeks old started crowing the day before yesterday (plus chasing/pecking at two others that I assume are males), and today I got my first egg :wee
A perfectly formed egg, and also in size (11g vs 12g om average for the ones I...
From what I've read it could also lead to over-breading the females + stress them so much that they stop laying eggs.
It does depends on the roos though, and a lot of space should help somewhat.
No, I haven't incubated again (yet).
Not sure how reliable the water test is (besides from drowning chicks if they have pipped). Just for fun I water tested my eggs before my egg autopsy, and all floated (some higher than others) - both nonfertilized and DIS close to hatch... I would also...
Did you see any damage on those eggs? (from hitting the lid)
I guess you candled before lockdown so you know there were fertilized?
How long did you leave the last eggs after the first hatches? If the temp.diff was high, then you could expect some late hatchers (although that didn't really...
Congrats on the 7 :wee
Although a lower hatch rate than I would have though. Did you do an egg autopsy?
Sounds strange that a whole row didn't make it, which row was this? (i.e was it the warmest row, the coldest row or just a random one) Mine seemed to be hatching from all over the bator...
Shot in the dark here, but late in the stage the chicks in the egg generate some heat themselves. Could it be that the warm one is further ahead in development (or that the cold one has died?)?
So you have larger temperature variations now than before lock-down? Did you put down a matt - if so, do you have a picture of it?
From my limited understanding wrong temperature isn't as bad this late (but of course far from ideal). I had massive temperature differences during lock-down, but...
Yes, I removed the egg turner (probably a risk of injury if not).
Normal advice is to remove turner, put a shelf liner to prevent damage to the feet (if the "floor" has big holes), and place the eggs on their side on the "floor" (the grid-floor above the water reservoirs).
Do make sure your...
I have a HHD-24S which was quite the challenge...
More about it in this thread;
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/which-incubator-to-use-in-the-uk.1445690/