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I've been away from BYC for a long time - but over this Christmas break I decided to build a new incubator. This is my first try with a water heater thermostat - super simple - got it kicking on & off but it seems the range in temp is huge - it will kick off at 100* but kicks on at around...

I locked them down this morning - my incubator is home made and I use a variable voltage charger as the 12 volt power source to the thermostat. Well 8am this morning I decided to clock down the computer fan & locked the incubator down. I dropped the voltage on the charger from 12 volts to 6...

I set 30 something eggs - mostly as ballast for the 5 black copper maran eggs I wanted to hatch. around day 10 I candled & tossed about a dozen. I left town for 6 days where the eggs didn't get turned (ouch) Candled again at lock down & tossed the other failures - 18 eggs locked down. 6...

31 eggs set today. I may add another tomorrow (late) if I get another dark egg from the Maran. I'm using my old home made incubator - I'm thinking of building a new one. Wish me luck!

Coon. I went out to shut the girls in for the night - 8:45 still light out I heard the girls were upset at something & when I got there the darn coon was standing in the pen!! He saw me & bang - he was off like a shot! Didn't get any of the girls but they sure were upset! I cant wait...

Got back from vacation this afternoon - ran straight to the auction & bought a new flock of birds (fox ate my last group last fall). there are 13 - 1 year old hens - large black & white (barred rocks??) They are crazy calm - during the auction with the sun & noise they let me pet & hold them -...

Hi there all you hens & roosters - I've been out of the chicken hobby for about a year after the fox ate the flock. I'm usually VERY busy in the fall & winter & didn't want to get back into it until I could dedicate some time to them. I've been getting the coop ready again (been using it as a...

Hi all - I've been out for a while - lots of living going on. Anyway - I've hatched lots of chicks in the home built incubator but this is the first broody we've actually had. So it took us a while to realize she was broody - maybe a week went buy before we decided it was real. I stuffed 5...

So I started with this. and added a little this And ended up with these!! This one has a black stripe!

Hi all - its been a while since I set any eggs - my hens from this past year are all laying now and I have 3 roosters left for my 8 hens - all raised together. The top rooster (Rooster Cogburn) is a frizzle! The hens are buff orpingtons - who knows what will come out! I have 11 eggs...

On Thursday I get a call from my Daughter. "Dad - we caught a dog in the yard & we're gonna keep it" WHAT? "Yup - there was this little puppy & it attached one of my hens. We scared it off & of course the hen had given up all hope & was just laying there" OK - I say "well - we took the hen...

This will probably be my last hatch this year. It is technically my 5th - but its really been a long 4th. I set them in a staggered hatch - 1 week apart. These poor guys have been in lock down for ever! Of the dozen that were shipped 6 are in lock down. The others were clear or quitters. Last...

I've got my 4th batch in lockdown finally. Unfortunately its a staggered hatch - but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I've got 28 or so due to hatch on Friday or Saturday. In the past 3 batches I had humidity and airflow issues. The air turned over too often and dried out the eggs...

You guys know I built my own incubator late last year / early this year. My first hatch I set 56 eggs - 12 chicks survived the hatch - I was disappointed - but learned to refine the humidity mechanism's so I could bring the H up for lock down. My second hatch was 12 of my own mix eggs - silkie...

So I hatched a batch of black australorps - I had 12 6 pullets & 6 cockrels. They were just now 4/5 months old & I started letting them free range yesterday. I came home from work today & they were all dead - I only found 3 bodies but i found lots of feather piles. Its like a pack of dogs...

My daughter has asked for a brown frizzle hen for her birthday. I'm willing to pay, or trade for one if you have any. Thanks in advance.

I ordered 10 FBC maran eggs from ebay. 14 arrived & 1 was cracked. I waxed it & set it with the other 13. on day 8 I candled and tossed 1 obvious scrambled egg. But I suspected 3 others were non starters. Today I candled again & had to pull 5 eggs out The one I waxed was clear - along with...

I've got 14 black australorps that I hatched 5 weeks ago. I thought I knew that the boys will get a spur on their ankle and the girls don't. But it seems that ALL of these birds have the spur. Is there another way to tell? about half of them have bright red combs. I know on most hens they...

OUt of the clear blue sky I received a call from a lady yesterday. Complete stranger, but she had heard I raise organic chickens / eggs. By the way - this is the second clear blue call like this - so I guess word is getting around. In any case she is a photographer who specializes in baby...

a lot of you know I built my onw bator. My first hatch was poor - about 40% 2/3 of them made it to the end then died. It was humidity. I couldn't get it above 40 - 45% during lock down. I changed the water system & tested & wow I can run at 80%. The thing is - the eggs went into lock down...