- Mar 20, 2011
- 20
- 0
- 22
I am not a stupid person, or a careless one, but we all screw up sometimes. I am still a little rocked by what happened last weekend. I am ashamed, but figure if I can spare any peeps or peoples, it is worth any grief I may take for telling this story.
I lost an entire hatch save one chick to what I think was some bug that got into my incubator. Next hatch began with 5 healthy, robust babies and by the end of the day I had 8.
My broodery is on the porch with my aquaponics tank, and I clip lights to the metal cage around the tank and point them over my boxes. I have an endless supply of cardboard boxes, and I like the hygiene of having a totally fresh box every time I clean the bird area. One of my lights kept sliding down, but it fell against the metal cage and still pointed at the box enough to provide heat, so no biggee.
Well, my 8 peeps got strong enough to move to the porch, so I fixed up their box, went out and looked around for the best spot to insulate them. Right there between the boxes with the bigger birds and the fish tank looked perfect.
The big birds are too big for boxes now, not quite ready to go to the coop, so they went into a big cage I have for another week or so. I slid them back where their boxes were, hovered and fussed over everyone until temps were stable and peeping was minimal, and I went to bed.
That saved our life. When the lamp fell in the night, there was now a box in front of the metal cage. My sweet little babies died of smoke inhalation, but nothing else burned. If they had all still been in cardboard, my entire porch would have gone up like a torch, and I could have lost everything and I mean everything.
I have 3 new peeps this morning, my next hatch is starting. A part of me feels like I ought to give them away, I am not up to all these tiny little corpses... But then I hear them, "Peep, peep!" I can't quit. I just have to get better at it, and I cannot ever be that blase' about the lights again.
I lost an entire hatch save one chick to what I think was some bug that got into my incubator. Next hatch began with 5 healthy, robust babies and by the end of the day I had 8.
My broodery is on the porch with my aquaponics tank, and I clip lights to the metal cage around the tank and point them over my boxes. I have an endless supply of cardboard boxes, and I like the hygiene of having a totally fresh box every time I clean the bird area. One of my lights kept sliding down, but it fell against the metal cage and still pointed at the box enough to provide heat, so no biggee.
Well, my 8 peeps got strong enough to move to the porch, so I fixed up their box, went out and looked around for the best spot to insulate them. Right there between the boxes with the bigger birds and the fish tank looked perfect.
The big birds are too big for boxes now, not quite ready to go to the coop, so they went into a big cage I have for another week or so. I slid them back where their boxes were, hovered and fussed over everyone until temps were stable and peeping was minimal, and I went to bed.
That saved our life. When the lamp fell in the night, there was now a box in front of the metal cage. My sweet little babies died of smoke inhalation, but nothing else burned. If they had all still been in cardboard, my entire porch would have gone up like a torch, and I could have lost everything and I mean everything.
I have 3 new peeps this morning, my next hatch is starting. A part of me feels like I ought to give them away, I am not up to all these tiny little corpses... But then I hear them, "Peep, peep!" I can't quit. I just have to get better at it, and I cannot ever be that blase' about the lights again.
