Arizona Chickens

[maryhysong]

I understand you there. I'm having trouble keeping my humidity up high enough, too. It wouldn't budge above 40% for a little while, so although it was on the low end, I thought it was ok. Then today, I noticed it was down around 36% all morning, so I doubled up and filled the second channel. It went up to 39%, but no more. I have the vent nearly completely closed right now hoping it bumps it up, but it hasn't. For the instructions sounding so simple, it definitely isn't! I'm glad these aren't any expensive eggs. Heck, I'm just glad I didn't have to pay for them. I may have to find a better humidity and temperature sensor. The AccuRite model I have may not work in the long run.

My house is sitting around 70*F all day, so would that be part of it? We don't keep our house any warmer than that during the winter.

Are you talking for hatching? I keep mine at 20-30% for the first 18 days, will let it run to 35% if it does so easily and if the eggs can handle that much. Then bump to 50-60% when they start peeping and pipping. This works for me; last year I had even some duck hatches that were 100%

Right now with no water in the bator it is 10%. I heat with a wood stove, so will start setting a big pot of water on the stove at night to get the room humidity up.

 

[dlayne]

I understand you there. I'm having trouble keeping my humidity up high enough, too. It wouldn't budge above 40% for a little while, so although it was on the low end, I thought it was ok. Then today, I noticed it was down around 36% all morning, so I doubled up and filled the second channel. It went up to 39%, but no more. I have the vent nearly completely closed right now hoping it bumps it up, but it hasn't. For the instructions sounding so simple, it definitely isn't! I'm glad these aren't any expensive eggs. Heck, I'm just glad I didn't have to pay for them. I may have to find a better humidity and temperature sensor. The AccuRite model I have may not work in the long run.

My house is sitting around 70*F all day, so would that be part of it? We don't keep our house any warmer than that during the winter.

Have you candled your eggs to see what the air cells are like yet? I have two incubators going one with shipped, one with local eggs and for some reason I am having to keep the shipped eggs at higher humidity because their air cells are almost to big while the local eggs almost seem to small! I was trying to keep them both between 25-35% Both incubators are brinsea octogons but one is the eco and the other the digital one.. not sure if that would make this big a difference.. I filled one water thing on both of them

Of course I only candled on day 7 and 14 so didn't notice how much different till yesterday! (but I think they are both still fine) Also, be careful closing the vent.. I read that they need the oxygen more during the later days of incubation. The last time I hatched I had to put a humidifier in the room to get it high enough in the incubator with the vent open. I am still new though so that is why I say I just read that.. have not experienced that for myself. Hatching is so stressful!

but Fun!!

but stressful!

I think I am addicted...

I love these cute smiley faces!!!

 

[Demosthine]

Are you talking for hatching? I keep mine at 20-30% for the first 18 days, will let it run to 35% if it does so easily and if the eggs can handle that much. Then bump to 50-60% when they start peeping and pipping. This works for me; last year I had even some duck hatches that were 100%

Right now with no water in the bator it is 10%. I heat with a wood stove, so will start setting a big pot of water on the stove at night to get the room humidity up.

Really? Wow, because the instruction manual specifies 40%-50% humidity during incubation for poultry eggs, and then 65%+ for hatching. Some of the other references were 45%-50% during incubation. I'll try to just keep it stable where it's at and go from there. The last two days, I guess I have to put some paper towels in the bottom of the incubator, with the end sitting down in the bottom of the water channel? That should bump the humidity up, right? If the instructions are correct on that one. We have forced-air heating, so it's a dry air here, too, but our house is way to big to be able to put a pot up like that to raise the humidity.

I would absolutely love to have the proper house to build a rocket mass heater, but I thoroughly miss the wood burning stove my parents had in their old house. They had a really old, cast iron upright that would get so dang hot, it would heat half the house. There's just no comparison to the old-world charms that we are missing out on these days. And everywhere I look, I see firewood being hauled off to the local landfill because it's "yard waste." Heck, I have a friend back East that lost power today and said it's getting cold inside. Guess what could easily solve your little problem there, hun? Yup. A wood stove or fireplace. Even at our absolute worst weather here, we never get cold enough for me to be truly concerned, though. Then again, I'm trimming my neighbor's mesquite tree every few days because my animals love to eat it. There is darn near nothing left by the end of the day, which is fine by me considering that tree grows faster than a weed!

 

[circesfire]

Thank you all for your help. Have most of the stuff (vet wrap is a cure all, lol and I love the hot pink!) and the rest I will purchase. I got my chickens thinking I could keep my distance, but alas they are now very much pets. One is "trained" and will jump on my arm when I point to it :/ . Maybe it is because these were my first chicks. I am certainly loving owning chickens - my only regret is waiting 30 years to get my first chicks!

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
What killed my first attempted hatch this year was HIGH humidity. Too much water in the incubator. It got over 70% and stayed there for nearly two weeks. I couldn't get it down. The eggs that got the high humidity at the end of their incubation didn't hatch at all. Air sacs were very small (no big surprise). Even though the chicks had developed they did not even pip. The later-set eggs got the high humidity earlier in their incubation period. That's the batch that had a 40% hatch rate (not counting the eggs that did not make it to the hatcher, most of which were clear).

I've read that low humidity causes less problems than high humidity. There is a lot of variability in instruction books and online information. I saw one source that recommended 86%! (Don't believe them. That source was confusing wet bulb temp readings with relative humidity percentage. I pity anyone who tried to follow their instructions.)

40-50% in the incubator has worked ok for me in the past. I'd be happier with it around 40% but it's hard to keep it that fine-tuned. Maybe I should aim for 30-40%, given it seems to run high on me

I'm using a Hovabator for a hatcher. It has its own temp/humidity readout. I wanted to check that so I put a separate temp/humidity monitoring thingy in it that I got from Lowes. The incubator's humidity readout was 6 percent lower than the readout from the bottom of the hatcher, which is where the eggs are. So I'm trying to keep the hatcher humidity on the low end of the range, too. Aiming for 45-50% on the hatcher's own readout.

 

[kpgoldstar]

Thank you all for your help. Have most of the stuff (vet wrap is a cure all, lol and I love the hot pink!) and the rest I will purchase. I got my chickens thinking I could keep my distance, but alas they are now very much pets. One is "trained" and will jump on my arm when I point to it

. Maybe it is because these were my first chicks. I am certainly loving owning chickens - my only regret is waiting 30 years to get my first chicks!

Where would one get vet wrap? I only have 4 - I consider them pets/farm animals. Don't want an arsenal of a first aid kit, but at least the minimum unless they get cut in the yard digging through some old tomato cages or something. I want a small emergency kit. I would cull anyone attacked by a predator but for a small injury I am not prepared. I live where we don't have any sort of feed store, so a few essentials I could order online I would have a better piece of mind. What would be the minimal kit I should keep and where could I get all those items?

 

[circesfire]

Where would one get vet wrap? I only have 4 - I consider them pets/farm animals. Don't want an arsenal of a first aid kit, but at least the minimum unless they get cut in the yard digging through some old tomato cages or something. I want a small emergency kit. I would cull anyone attacked by a predator but for a small injury I am not prepared. I live where we don't have any sort of feed store, so a few essentials I could order online I would have a better piece of mind. What would be the minimal kit I should keep and where could I get all those items?

I only have 2 so far. I think if you stacked all the first aid supplies up it would be bigger than my 2 chickens. So far I have gotten most of my supplies from amazon. This includes Blu kote, corrid, vet wrap and some sav-a-chick packages. Going to make an order from a vet supply store but that is mostly for more in depth treatment. With my experience doing medical services at the bird rehabilitators some vet wrap, non stick gauze and disinfectant goes a long way for small injuries.

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote: Most feed stores carry vet wrap. If you don't have a local feed store and have to order it, it may not be worth the shipping. You can use the similar athletic wrap or bandage wrap products from just about any drug store.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote: Most feed stores carry vet wrap. If you don't have a local feed store and have to order it, it may not be worth the shipping. You can use the similar athletic wrap or bandage wrap products from just about any drug store.

Vet wrap is the same product as Coban (both made by 3-M); you can usually find Coban in any drug store if your feed store doesn't have vet wrap.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

For anyone interested in Moringa, I got some seeds from Meg a few years ago. The one little tree that sprouted met an early demise. I tried once more, but the toddlers got to it and so I've let the rest of the seeds sit. Until a month or so ago. I stuck a seed in a pot and put it by a sunny window, and whalaa! I have a little Moringa tree growing in my bedroom. It's even survived my two year old plucking all the leaves off of one branch.

This is a wild coincidence. Just last week I found the seeds Meg sent me ages ago and I planted them. No sprouting yet, but your plant shows that the seeds might still be viable.