California - Northern

[ronott1]

I have a deal with a co-worker. I bought and will be brooding chicks for him and in exchange he is supposed to be building me a coop. He is a good carpenter but a little flakey with the details. He has had chickens for several years but I am nervous about him getting it done on time. Would like to be able to move babies outside at thee weeks since 25 of them + whatever the hatch brings will be more than a little stinky in the bedroom where the brooders will be set up.

So we have a former sheep house that I am going to re-purpose as an outdoor brooder in the event that he doesn't get it done. I am a little excited but have very few handy skills so I will probably ask you guys what you think I should do along the way. Hope that is OK with you all

I hope it works out for you! Make sure the sheep house does not have any mold in it.

Great looking chicks everyone i should have a few more in a day or 2

Have any one gone to walmart latley they have a good size styro icechest for sale i might pick one yp and try to fit an automatic egg turner in it

There are threads on BYC that discuss making you own incubator. Have fun and keep us posted!

I am antsy to get home and check on my current hatch. It is also time to candle Blue Australorps, Dorkings and Delawares. It is going to be a busy evening.

 

[Ali707]

Here Is the link to the Brinsea Ova Scope

http://www.brinsea.com/products/egglume.html

Is this the one that you use? So far it would have been awesome if I had figured out all of these things to buy at one time. I did buy the Eco Glow 50 because the 20 just seemed small, and that was several weeks ago, then I decided I needed the Spot Check last week, now it looks like I need the Ova Scope too! Might have saved myself some shipping costs if I had done it all together.

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Yes I use that one--Avatar picture is a good example of what you can see with one, along with my candling videos.

Make sure you get the high intensity one.

 

[Ali707]

Yes I use that one--Avatar picture is a good example of what you can see with one, along with my candling videos.

Make sure you get the high intensity one.

Of course!!! More Power!!!

 

[chickee]

Aww.... Little cuties. More boys or one of each this time? They sure have stout legs. It looks like your gorgeous girls gave me one egg that is developing.

Too bad there wasn't at least one more but it was a longshot after the rooster moved out. Maybe the Marans pullet egg will hatch and make her a friend since the other five were clear.

My Ovascope comes Friday. Yippee!

Thank you thank you thank you Candy. I love my beautiful Black Laced girls. They are awesome and doing great.

Howdy to the Group. Sorry for lurking and only rarely poking my head up. It's a great group for help and encouragement and I have lots to learn.My brain is pretty fried after I've done my email for all the dogs Groups and clubs. One day I'll remember to stop volunteering for stuff. Whew!

Looking like one of each sex based on the shape of the heads. Darker one looks like a rooster.

Keeping my fingers crossed that your Marans egg hatches

If not there are lots of people with chicks so your BLRW can have a friend

The 2 splash laced red rooster chicks that you are taking are SO friendly! This is what happens when you try to take their picture!

 

[ZoiChick]

Looking like one of each sex based on the shape of the heads. Darker one looks like a rooster. Keeping my fingers crossed that your Marans egg hatches If not there are lots of people with chicks so your BLRW can have a friend The 2 splash laced red rooster chicks that you are taking are SO friendly! This is what happens when you try to take their picture! [/quote] Reminds me of the dogs. Alway right there seeing what's up so it's impossible to get a photo.

 

[Feathersprings]

Yes I use that one--Avatar picture is a good example of what you can see with one, along with my candling videos.

Make sure you get the high intensity one.

I may need one of these!!!

 

[debs_flock]

I thought I would share that my quail eggs went in to lock down last night. Here is what they looked like when I thought I was all done. It doesn't look at all like that now.



I am really glad I did this test hatch with the free quail eggs. Here is what I have learned so far:

1.) The room I thought was fairly stable temperature wise is not really that stable. The temps for this hatch fluctuated up and down with the room temps so they went from about 99.5 to 100.5 and when I finally got my spot check that thing said 100.8, so that was getting pretty high. I just got my spot check two days ago. This happened EVERY DAY, and temps varied sometimes by as much as a degree and a half from over night to the next afternoon, so I don't know how well if at all these guys are going to hatch. I hear nothing from them. Of course..... I console myself thinking that a chicken butt can't be that stable all the time either right? A small fluctuation is not going to hurt them. Don't sweat it.

2.) I accidentally filled trough 2 about a week ago instead of trough 1 as the instructions advise. Trough 2 raised the humidity to 50% for a couple of days, trough 1 kept the humidity around 40%. ( I didn't also fill trough 1 at this time, just figured I would switch the two) Keep in mind, I am relying on the Genesis humidity gauge because I don't have anything else yet. I just take a large barrel syringe and squirt in water. If I want to really raise the humidity, I squirt it into two places. For lockdown, I squirt it through the vent hole in four directions. I have no idea which trough is which. Don't sweat it.

3.) I filled up every hole I could find last night with water and added a tupperware of water but you will notice I added that nice rubber no slip mat. Well, the humidity was only going up to 42% with that mat down and all the troughs filled. I thought it would go through the roof considering when I filled only trough 2 by accident a week ago it went up to 50%. Thinking that the mat was somehow affecting the humidity level, I took half of it out, and added a sponge as well as the tupperware of water. It is up to 62% today and it is raining outside! I can't seem to get it any higher. I lockdown at 55-60% humidity, when they start to hatch it will naturally rise to closer to 70%. Don't sweat it (too much).

4.) I learned that I will use distilled water or at a minimum filtered water as Ron suggests because the hard water here does yuck up the trays. I just use tap water in my Genesis, the crud all washes out. If you get hard water stains and they bother you, you can wash them with vinegar. Don't sweat it. Although I'll admit, my new incubator has a humidity pump, for that I'm using distilled water.

5.) I learned the owl clips that come with the tray rust when they get wet. I will probably not even bother with them in the future. I never used them, I use plain old paper clips. They are cheap and easy to come by. If they getting icky, throw them away and get a new one. I've always meant to use the color coated one, but I never got around to it. Don't sweat it.

6.) I learned that I don't trust myself to know what I am looking at I did candle the eggs before I closed them all in and the eggs on the right of this picture were ones that appeared to glow. So from everything I read the eggs that glow means they never developed. The others were all solid dark. My first mistake was not candling the first day I set the eggs so that I could see what the difference might be. But quail eggs are hard to see through. I left all the eggs in there, even the glowing ones! With coturnix eggs, I will hold a flashlight over the top, if any don't look dark I might pull them out. Generally, if you don't smell a rotten egg, it's fine to leave everything in there. You hear horror stories about exploding eggs, but really that is a rarity. It is going to stink long before it might explode. After a solid 1.5 years of having 3 Genesis running full time, I just last week got my first weepy egg. It had an odor, but it didn't explode. It left the house in a ziploc bag. Don't sweat it.

7.) I also took the eggs out of the tray and laid them flat on the half of the mat I left in there. They seemed to be too restricted in the tray. That is my paranoia. So I guess you could say I learned that second guessing myself is pretty normal....... for me. Tray? No tray? Tray? No Tray? I've tried both, I always prefer a tray. I find that once a lot of chicks have hatched and they start playing soccer, the hatch rate sinks like a rock. Those wet, icky chicks drag themselves over the unhatched eggs. I have a personal theory that the coating they leave behind sometimes suffocates the unhatched eggs. That is just my unsubstantiated opinion. Don't sweat it.

Out of the 37 eggs they sent me; 12 glowed brightly, 2 were iffy and 23 were dark. However, since taking them out of the turner last night, I have not witnessed any rocking or any noise.

This is comparable the worst mystery novel ever. Will they, won't they, will they, won't they, will they, won't they?????

I have learned that before I set my chicken eggs the second week of April, I will be getting a kitchen scale, a brighter flashlight, maybe a hygrometer. I will weigh and measure the air cell just so I can see the progress, and I will try to find a room that is more stable temperature wise.

I appreciate everyone's input on this thread. It makes my life a little less stressful.

If there is a common theme.................don't sweat it.................chicks are WAY more resilient than we give them credit for.

Good luck with your hatch...............and quail do start popping like popcorn. They don't rock a lot and you probably won't hear them like you do at times with chicks. They just start popping out.

And edited to add...................I just use a small LED flashlight from Walmart with the highest lumens I can find. My current one is 200 lumens. I taped some foam pipe insulation around the end so it cradles the egg and contains the light. It's so bright I could probably cande your eggs for you from my house if you held them up,

I like using a flashlight because you don't even have to pick up the egg, just touch the top while in the incubator. I only open the lid high enough to slip in my arm. For really dark marans eggs, I pull them out and use two flashlights, top and bottom. I can see through ANYTHING.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Look at these precious faces!! They're silver laced wyandottes

 

[ZoiChick]

Look at these precious faces!! They're silver laced wyandottes