5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[ronott1]

OK so turn off the fan if there is one? Just turn it off on hatch day or on lock down day?

I just read something about them becoming sticky eggs if fan is on?

I would wait until I saw a pip to turn it off. It will increase drying out on slow hatching chicks. If they get stuck, all chicks will dry out no matter what the humidity is and without a fan. It takes longer to dry out without a fan.

Shrink Wrap is what they call it. The membrane dries out and sticks to the chick.

 

[Wunjo]

I would wait until I saw a pip to turn it off. It will increase drying out on slow hatching chicks. If they get stuck, all chicks will dry out no matter what the humidity is and without a fan. It takes longer to dry out without a fan.

Shrink Wrap is what they call it. The membrane dries out and sticks to the chick.

Thank you good sir. You probably just increased my hatch rate and saved some chicks with this.

 

[Aphrael]

Sorry I fell asleep last night.

So the story with the feed...I was going through 4 bags of 50# $14.99 layer feed per month. I ordered 25x50' aviary netting and hung it up inside our 3 stall horse corral coop roof on 3/4 sides, and the second one I put it along the front and out over the run to keep out the millions of sparrows and doves. Dh noticed the smaller birds were still getting in, which is the majority of the birds.

The previous owners left 2 dog houses and a dog igloo here, so I put their galvanized feeder inside one of the houses and went to check it yesterday and there was a ton of it left! The rate I was going with feed, I should have filled it up again yesterday but didn't need to, so I am happy about that.

Dh also noticed ground squirrels in the feed last week, and shot two of them with his new BB gun.

They are really cute, but there are just TOO many. So hopefully that will help with the feed bill, especially since I am about to start feeding all these little baby mouths which I am sure don't stay little for long!


I don't want to go to work today...but at least I get a 3 day weekend. It will be difficult to work knowing the babies should be hatching any day now.

It would be cool if my patients all cancel so I can leave early! Didn't see very many people the beginning of the week, and I am usually booked solid.

Have a great day, everybody!

So glad you're getting your feed thieves dealt with!

Question - I've been toying with the idea of using one of those Rubbermaid 7'x7' insulated plastic sheds for brooding, has anyone ever tried that?

I haven't, but it sounds like it would work great!

So .. I lifted the lid off the bator,, sniff sniff ,,aww just the smell of chickies growing...

So the foul egg was out,, and boy it stunk before i cracked it open, Well that made me start candling real close ,,every egg,, Found what I thought were 4 the inside just spun around. I cracked a second one open,, very small embryo..( did not move). Crack third and Oh crap<< It was alive >

> MAN>< so I put the other two back in the bator,, I will wait,, Live and learn folks,,,,Smell egg before cracking open first,, ,, because that third one did not stink,, the others all smell good.. I used my nose..kinda like a momma hen would due eh?

Oh no! That must have felt awful.

I'm always terrified when doing eggtopsies that I may have misjudged and it is still alive.

I figured it had to be either the chickens billing a lot out onto the floor, wild birds or rodents.
I go through about half that for an equal number of birds. I do have one building the birds are getting into so have to address that. I'm thinking about those curtains of beaded strings so they can't fly through but the chickens can still enter.

I love this idea! Very creative and I bet it will work well.

I would wait until I saw a pip to turn it off. It will increase drying out on slow hatching chicks. If they get stuck, all chicks will dry out no matter what the humidity is and without a fan. It takes longer to dry out without a fan.

Shrink Wrap is what they call it. The membrane dries out and sticks to the chick.

The advice about turning off fans once they start hatching is great to know. I wondered before if it might be better to have them off so as not to dry out the membranes so quickly. But I was afraid that it would mess up my temps if I turned them off.

 

[SilkieSensation]

I know the penecillan is great, can't say I know much about the Combi-Pen-48, but I can't agree enough about the Hydrogen Peroixde!  You really don't want to use that any longer.  Betadine is great.  Like Chicken said..won't destroy newly growing cells.     Great advice Chicken, just wanted to say amen to that HP! 

Blu-kote also works great. I use the blu-kote & then dab neosporin over top daily until it shows improvement & then go to blu-kote only until healed.

 

[Aphrael]

I don't have a paper clip option.... I would like to figure this out so I can know in the future atleast.

At the top of your reply window, where it shows your tools, there is a "More" with an arrow. Click on that and it will expand the toolbar to give you many more tool options.

ETA: I just noticed that it doesn't seem to show the paperclip on mine when I'm quoting a post. But it is there when doing a regular reply.

 

[ronott1]

At the top of your reply window, where it shows your tools, there is a "More" with an arrow. Click on that and it will expand the toolbar to give you many more tool options.

ETA: I just noticed that it doesn't seem to show the paperclip on mine when I'm quoting a post. But it is there when doing a regular reply.

Weirdness!

If you do not see the paperclip, try clicking the preview button. That helps sometimes.

 

[Myfourladies]

At the top of your reply window, where it shows your tools, there is a "More" with an arrow. Click on that and it will expand the toolbar to give you many more tool options.

ETA: I just noticed that it doesn't seem to show the paperclip on mine when I'm quoting a post. But it is there when doing a regular reply.

That works!! I have a paper clip now, but it says I don't have permission to add attachments. I am assuming it is either because I am not a paid member OR I am not the thread starter.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have been reading about keeping the temperatures between 97-100 once your later in the hatch. My temp. right now is around 102. It is a still air. I don't really want to mess with the knob because it is very touchy. Will the eggs be ok with a higher temp?

102 seems high especially if it isn't at the top or above the eggs in a still air. I would try to tweak it down a notch. I understand the touchy thing though. I've been there.

Okay, it occurred to me that a lot of my eggs are small, so I could probably fit more than 12 in a carton. Here's what I did. Can they actually hatch like this? Will the fan blowing right over them make the ones closest to it too cold?

It won't make them too cold because it is blowing 99 degree air.

I notice it looks like your fan has no protective cover? A chick may get any of it's various body parts in the fan and get seriously injured.

They can hatch like that with no problem in the cartons. I think they can at least. You may want some more advice as I am pretty new to hatching but not completely new.

They probably wont get beat up by the fan but I put my fans horizontal well above chick head height just to be safe. I think you could stick your finger into one of those fans and stop it depending on the power of the motor. For the next hatch I'm putting covers and filters on the fans since the dust is killing the fans. I have the fans drawing air across the eggs rather than blowing onto the eggs.

Thanks for pointing that out. I have a protective cover I put over the fan and light bulb at lockdown, but other people might not have thought about it.

Perhaps you could fashion a chicken wire or better yet a hardware cloth surround for the light bulb.

OK so turn off the fan if there is one? Just turn it off on hatch day or on lock down day?

I just read something about them becoming sticky eggs if fan is on?

On hatch day. You'll need consistent temp throughout the incy till then, that's the purpose of the fan.

 

[Aphrael]

That works!! I have a paper clip now, but it says I don't have permission to add attachments. I am assuming it is either because I am not a paid member OR I am not the thread starter.

Or maybe it requires you to have a certain number of post before you can post attachments, like with uploading pics?

I don't know.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That works!! I have a paper clip now, but it says I don't have permission to add attachments. I am assuming it is either because I am not a paid member OR I am not the thread starter.

Perhaps because you are newer. Why not go to the bottom of your profile, upload photos from your computer there, then when you reply to a thread there is an 'insert image' icon on the reply toolbar which will open a window to select your images from your profile.