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Yes, that is the safest scenario with a mixed vaccinated/unvaccinated flock. The risk calculation changes slightly if you have a mature flock of vaccinated birds with confirmed Marek’s, because any unvaccinated chicks you added in would be getting a very high viral load as soon as they were...

Good for the keeper who’s not picking up bodies every morning, not so good for the keepers who free range or otherwise aren’t practicing much biosecurity in a badly impacted area and have unvaccinated birds.

For what it’s worth, I just started vaccinating my home-incubated chicks myself as I recently had a few cases of suspected Marek’s in my flock. My understanding is that all of the available vaccines use live virus (a few different strains), so shedding can definitely be expected. However, the...

I should add: the pullet is 22-23 weeks old. I had a rooster die mysteriously a couple of months ago — didn't look into it too closely; he had seemed perfectly healthy and was just dead and cold on the ground in the run one morning. A great horned owl found its way into the run several weeks...

Well, I’m freaked out as all hell. I have ONE pullet completely unable to walk or stand. For a couple of days she looked a bit limp and hunched, and I was in denial about it. The following day she was on her side with the other birds attacking her, bleeding. I've now had her separated for three...

I usually let bad eggs go way too long — I hate to throw anything out until 2 weeks in! But I can tell you from experience that even the "iffy" eggs hardly ever turn around... if I think something looks even slightly off, 9 times out of 10 that egg won't make it to lockdown or show any sign of...

I think these tales are just tales. That said, I just had a small hatch of Bielefelders with a very tragic end... :hmm of the 6 that made it to lockdown, 3 were malpositioned inside the egg and couldn't pip properly. I didn't assist in time and they all died, sadly. The 3 that were positioned...

I generally will assist a struggling chick but I'm not sure I'd ever do it for quail. The margin of error on an egg/chick that tiny is SO small! I'd be willing to put a safety hole in the air cell — anything more than that I'd worry would be much more likely to do harm than good.

Oh, I should caveat the dry hatching thing for elevation — if you live more than a few thousand feet above sea level it's better to keep higher humidity throughout the hatch. But otherwise most people have very good results erring on the side of lower humidity until lockdown.

I'm a big fan of dry hatching with cheap incubators and have had some of my best hatches at 16-35% humidity until lockdown! Frustrating that you have air cells all over the place but personally I'd still lower humidity, since more of your eggs are likely to benefit from that. I'd wager there's...

I use a high-powered flashlight and a candler interchangeably, just whichever I can find first. You don't need a candler, although they're cheap and work just fine as flashlights after you're done incubating so they're not necessarily a waste of money. The curved surface of the light source is...

My last shipment of Ayam Cemani eggs came wrapped in tissues in a carton a bit like that, but they'd nestled the carton in packing paper. No breakages, but to be honest I think they got lucky! They didn't include any extras and I would have given them a negative review if I hadn't received the...

Glad your duckling is making progress!

I use Govees from Amazon, which run about $15 apiece: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B097HF322L/ They connect via bluetooth to an app on my phone, so as long as I'm at home it's very easy to keep an eye on them without touching the incubator. I'm currently hatching with a commercial grade...

Welcome! Don't be too discouraged if you don't have a good first hatch. A first try with only 6 eggs that may not be fertile, hand-turned in a cheapie incubator is a gamble for sure! Of course, you might be surprised by how well it goes. Some eggs really, really want to hatch. :D Wishing you luck!

If you're 36 hours in, it probably won't hurt to assist if that's something you're comfortable doing. I personally like to assist more than most people here, but I don't like to recommend it because it does introduce a lot of risks and it does feel awful to inadvertently do harm. If you decide...

I have a lot of chicks that take a full 24 hours (or close to it) to zip. Often they are very vocal and active when they make the external pip, then go quiet and take a long rest before finishing the job. It can be nerve-wracking to wait, but if they have successfully pipped externally they have...

You almost certainly did not kill them by opening the incubator! ...but it sounds like the temperature may have been a little low throughout (thus the slow hatch) which may have caused fewer of the chicks to develop properly. Chicks do take rest breaks, so a quiet chick is not necessarily a...

Set 9x Ayam Cemani + 8x Jersey Giant yesterday. And today I've added 12x Serama! I've been stamping each breed/batch with its own number to help keep track, since I've got a LOT going on in this incubator! Here's a pic with the Serama eggs (#5) and a few of the Jersey Giants (#4). Planning to...

With a puppy, you are always training. When you go outside, you are training good potty behavior. When you play, you are training a gentle bite and good manners with toys. When you put the dog to bed, you are training kennel tolerance and/or furniture rules. When you go for walks, you are...