Colorado

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Does chick food not have grit in it? Oh my...so much to learn. It sure looks grittish.

Chick food does not have grit but in and of itself it is fine. You only need grit when adding in treats.

 

[wsmith]

Chick food does not have grit but in and of itself it is fine. You only need grit when adding in treats.

True.

What I do is take shovel scoop of ant hill debris, which at my place is mostly medium-fine sand, and put it in the run areas. I put a little bit in with the chicks when they get about 3-4 weeks old. as well. During the spring and summer you get ants too, which are yummy treats!

 

[Mtn Margie]

True.

What I do is take shovel scoop of ant hill debris, which at my place is mostly medium-fine sand, and put it in the run areas. I put a little bit in with the chicks when they get about 3-4 weeks old. as well. During the spring and summer you get ants too, which are yummy treats!

x2 That is exactly what I do! Naturally organic crushed granite!

 

[Mtn Margie]

So in order for Wendell's adventure to pay off, he now has chick grit for sale. Natural, organic and if you bag it yourself, he might give you a deal.

 

[wsmith]

So in order for Wendell's adventure to pay off, he now has chick grit for sale. Natural, organic and if you bag it yourself, he might give you a deal.

Just don't put your bare hands in it during the summer............

 

[Dnetschke]

Do you guys buy your grit? I bought some yesterday and it seemed pretty pricey 6 something for a small bag that's grit for chicks. I

$3.50 for a 5lb. bag @ my feed store.

 

[coloradogal]

Chicken Artificial Insemination


My tailless hens often have a lower fertility than ones with tails. Anyone have to resort to AI ?

 

[Pozees]

Chick I think Mayah may have something there, it does sound like humidity is varying across the surface of the incubator. I know the temp varies by as much as a degree in mine, Bob has this laser thermometer (mechanics, what can I say? It gets more use as a cat toy than anything else these days, but hey, it was a handy way to check!) that is instant read of the temp you point the laser light at, and the front where the fan is was just about a full degree warmer than the back. I didn't think to check the variation in humidity but have to believe it varies as well. Did you set all the mutts in one particular area and the purebreds in another? What you might do to try and raise the humidity more local to the purebred eggs is put in a small rubbermaid/tupperware container (4-8 oz size) with a moist washcloth inside it, near the purebred eggs if they are in fact all in one area. The frustrating part is having to repeatedly open the lid while they are in the process of hatching.

70% is high, 80% is really high, so I agree you don't really want to increase the humidity in the whole hatcher. I guess the other thing you could do is move the purebred eggs to the same area the mutts hatched in.

This is one learning curve that gets really frustrating. Near the top of the list of reasons I'm working on a broody flock. I know once you have a dozen or so hatches under your belt you will have the system down for your location and equipment, but between here and there is a lot of Aaaaarghhhh!!!!!

 

[cluckcluckgirl]

All ads must be in the Buy Sell Trade forum, please. Thanks.

edited by staff

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Chick I think Mayah may have something there, it does sound like humidity is varying across the surface of the incubator. I know the temp varies by as much as a degree in mine, Bob has this laser thermometer (mechanics, what can I say? It gets more use as a cat toy than anything else these days, but hey, it was a handy way to check!) that is instant read of the temp you point the laser light at, and the front where the fan is was just about a full degree warmer than the back. I didn't think to check the variation in humidity but have to believe it varies as well. Did you set all the mutts in one particular area and the purebreds in another? What you might do to try and raise the humidity more local to the purebred eggs is put in a small rubbermaid/tupperware container (4-8 oz size) with a moist washcloth inside it, near the purebred eggs if they are in fact all in one area. The frustrating part is having to repeatedly open the lid while they are in the process of hatching.

70% is high, 80% is really high, so I agree you don't really want to increase the humidity in the whole hatcher. I guess the other thing you could do is move the purebred eggs to the same area the mutts hatched in.

This is one learning curve that gets really frustrating. Near the top of the list of reasons I'm working on a broody flock. I know once you have a dozen or so hatches under your belt you will have the system down for your location and equipment, but between here and there is a lot of Aaaaarghhhh!!!!!

I had all the mixes on the right, most very close to or over a well. The RIR were all on the left. And the hydrometer was on the left too. It was hard to figure out where to put the thermometer/hydrometer with the turner in.

That was the only place it easily fit and I didn't think there would be different 'pockets' for readings.