California - Northern

[HighStreetCoop]

Faverolles are my favorite large breed. Your chick makes me wish I had some.

-Kathy

That is an AWFULLY cute chick.

 

[ronott1]

I had a Black Copper Marans cockerel, you guys may remember...he was crowing at 8 weeks. Like you said, not very good at it, but still crowing!

I will make a thread in the meat birds section soon, about my cockerels and when we should process them.

I have the Hydrofarm Digital Thermostat for Heat Mats. It's made for heat mats because it has a plug that you plug the heat mat into to keep the temp of it stable, but it still works like a regular thermometer when there's no heat mat plugged in. It has over 500 reviews and is at 4.5 stars. Will this work fine for telling the temp?
http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTP...&sr=8-1&keywords=hydrofarm+digital+thermostat

I spent time looking at the specs for this thermometer and did not find a sensitivity value. My guess is that it is not sensitive enough for incubation.

Here is the tldr on thermomters and why an incubating one is different.

2 expensive things need to be on an incubation thermometer. One is the sensivity and one is how often it checks to tell you. You need a thermometer that will tell you 99.5 then when it goes up .1 degrees. Even when calibrated most thermometers are not sensitive enough to tell these changes.

On top of that it does not think it needs to tell you as soon as it notices a change it might only post a difference at a full degree or worse a full c degree.

In fact most thermometers are +/- 3 degrees so might only change every 3 degrees. For almost all things 3 degrees are close enough. But not incubating.

The parts to do those things are pricy and a cheap thermometer won't have then very sensitive.

But your eggs id guess the issue is temperature fluctuation. My little serema just.had a 1 out of 10 hatch she is just too small to hold.stable.temps the weather swings were too much for her.

This is one of the best, most concise explanation of thermometers I have seen yet! I have gotten some gripes when I posted that it made little sense to spend a lot of money on hatching eggs and not spend money on a real incubation thermometer like the Brinsea Spot check.

@BCollie

Redding is very similar to a desert with huge fluctuations of temperatures from day to night. Even in Woodland we were going from a low of 60 to a high of 105 this fall. Styrofoam incubators cannot adjust quickly enough under those conditions.

Give all of this information on thermometers, we can actually come up with conclusions based on the hatching history at your place.

1. The less than 21 day hatches in the summer says the average temperature of the incubator was a bit high--likely 100.5 ish.
2. The longer than 21 days for the last hatch says that the average temperature was too low, 98 to 99ish. The too low temperature is why the chicks were sticky and got stuck. It also makes them sluggish and not to healthy at hatch.

Incubator location is very important. The place it is kept needs to be

1. away from windows
2. Temps in the room need to stay in the 60 to 80 temperature range and the temps should not vary more than 10 degrees during the day
3. No heater or air condition drafts should touch the incubator
4. It should be a quiet place, for example not on the kitchen table on a dresser
5. There should be an air exchange in the room to make sure there is not dead or stale air.

Ways to help:

Add some clean rocks to the incubator if it is not filled to capacity with eggs
Use a space heater in a small room that has a thermostat to keep the temperature stable

I have my incubators in a walk in closet. I have a little electric heater that has a thermostat. I open the door to the room and pull it shut and open several times once a day to allow for more air exchange.

I hope this helps with the next hatch!

 

[chickee]

Thanks for the heads up, I will keep an eye on them!! So far so good but I know how it goes with chicks. They're mixed ages, the oldest are the ones I hatched - 10 days old - and the Faverolles and Lavender Orps from Jeff look to be only a few days old. The Chocolate Orps look to be about a week old. But so far they're all getting along fine!! Hopefully it'll stay that way! Last I checked they were all cuddled under the heat lamp. May need to lower it a bit as it's getting cooler in the garage now that it's getting colder outside.

Faverolles are great birds. I had a hatchery Faverolle cockerel named Lucky. When I got him I kept wondering why he wasn't going to the feeder and eating and drinking. I kept dipping his beak in the water every few hours and putting him in front of the food. Eventually he caught on. It wasn't until later that I realized he was almost completely blind! He grew up and went to live with my grandson and ended up saving his flock from a raccoon attack, but he was mortally wounded in the process and later died. Despite his disability he learned to cope and ended up being a hero.

 

[casportpony]

I agree, best to buy something that's made for incubating. I bet that a proper thermometer will save money in the long run... Just think of eggs that don't hatch as money one's throwing away and it will probably pay for itself. Same thing for a good candler, IMO.

-Kathy

 

[ronott1]

Faverolles are great birds. I had a hatchery Faverolle cockerel named Lucky. When I got him I kept wondering why he wasn't going to the feeder and eating and drinking. I kept dipping his beak in the water every few hours and putting him in front of the food. Eventually he caught on. It wasn't until later that I realized he was almost completely blind! He grew up and went to live with my grandson and ended up saving his flock from a raccoon attack, but he was mortally wounded in the process and later died. Despite his disability he learned to cope and ended up being a hero.

That is a great story!

I have rehomed some boys that went on to be heroes too. It is sad but also makes me proud of them.

 

[chickee]

The chicken house is almost ready for the chickens. We will be working on the room dividers today. There is an urgency to get them out of the old house before the tree falls on it.

 

[HighStreetCoop]

The chicken house is almost ready for the chickens. We will be working on the room dividers today. There is an urgency to get them out of the old house before the tree falls on it.

Wow! That's going to be a great coop.

 

[casportpony]

The chicken house is almost ready for the chickens. We will be working on the room dividers today. There is an urgency to get them out of the old house before the tree falls on it.

Wow, that's nice! -Kathy

 

[HighStreetCoop]

I hope they make it!

If I'm luck they will, and if I'm *very* lucky, Jeff will have to come down to Oakland next week for a conference and he might be able to bring me a couple more blues (why is it always the ones you want most that have issues?).

 

[BCollie]

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Kryptonite of anyone with estrogen...haha that's so funny, and so true! Even those with testosterone have to admit they're pretty dang cute though, my stepdad saw the chick and I said, "Isn't this chick freaking adorable?!" and he said, "That's one cute chick!!"

I can't wait to feed King Tucker his second meal today, he's still on pinkies but should be moving up fairly soon. I'm going to do a bulk order online when he moves up to fuzzies. Cheaper in the long run.

Ok, I'm a little freaked out. Littlest bird died a couple hours after they arrived. This morning another one can't stand or right itself if knocked over. A third is sluggish (one of my three remaining blues!). Does this sound like coccidiosis? Something is clearly wrong and of course today I had to go to work so I can't do anything until after work.

Fingers crossed for your chickies!

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Thank you!!

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Heh, go get some!

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Dang right it is!!

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Thanks so much, I will bookmark this page. I will also pay more attention to the temps in my house...wonder if I can fit the incubator in my little closet.

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Wow!! I wish I was allowed to have roos here, they seem so great.

I agree, best to buy something that's made for incubating. I bet that a proper thermometer will save money in the long run... Just think of eggs that don't hatch as money one's throwing away and it will probably pay for itself. Same thing for a good candler, IMO.

-Kathy

I'm short on money right now but will have to buy one before I incubate again. It will probably be a while, don't have any incubation plans right now.

Thanks everyone for the help!!