EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

[Fire Ant Farm]

GOOD MORNING, ONE AND ALL! I HOPE EVERYONE SLEPT GREAT, AND HAS AN AMAZING DAY!

Thanks, MC!

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[BullChick]

Cute, not exactly a Banti wanna be Hi! How are you,?

Pretty good! How are you?

 

[BantyChooks]

Abi, tell Duckling I'm not coming off the sun porch until those spiders are locked up.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You know Si; he's the uncle on Duck Dynasty

Never saw it.

Good morning CC and Chaos!

Do either of you have a story for my You might be a red neck if... thread?

How about, 'You might be a redneck if you were born in Alaska, moved to Washington and finally to the Ozark foothills in SW MO and singlehandedly built a farm'.

I'm sure I'll come up with something. All I have to do is look around me.

Jeff Foxwothy was my brother's favorite comedian.
I'm more of a Rodney Dangerfield, Lewis Black, Jon Stewart, Ali Wong kind of fan.

Oh, I read the labels like crazy - if it's not good, then I don't bother and would just go get meat. Top three ingredients are meat. The ones I'm trying are between 40% and 45% crude protein. It's not cheap, but I'm not going through it all that fast, and I'm not sure other options are much cheaper (except that mackerel idea). I also do eggs as well when I have them (they are not laying much right now, no extras). I'm going to try the mackerel as you suggest, or maybe canned salmon - this is actually primarily for my layers, though, wondering how much and how frequent so the eggs aren't fishy... I don't want to do it too much because, as you said, there are cat-specific additives that are probably wasted on the chickens.
Oh, she is SUPER cute!!!!!!

I think I love you...

I like that!!!!!

- Ant Farm

canned salmon is 25+ cents per ounce, mackerel is 10.
For chickens and trapping coons, that's the way to go.
If I remember correctly, a friend that has a locavore farm had consulted with a poultry nutritionist who told her she could go up to 5% fishmeal in the feed before there is an issue. You may want to test that number.

That's why I stick with the rubber feed pans, usually Fortex. I'll stomp a hole in the ice, or flip it over & stomp on the bottom to break the ice out, then I can add more. I don't fill it, 'cause it'd just be wasted; I just check it more often.

Those are perfect. Indestructible. I used to put a birdbath heater in them which worked well but as you said, you can just beat the hell out of them to get the ice out.

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It works!!!!!

Congrats. Are you using proportional or on/off output control to the heat element?

Yup. I'm using LG rubber feed pans and another brand that I can't read coz it's too grimy....

Not sure how I managed to break the one... Got a crack right down the side. Rest of them are still going strong. Me, I hurl them against hard surfaces and then jump up and down on them... Many a lesser bucket has smashed just from dropping it on the snow!

I bought 2 of the Farm Innovators 3 gallon heated water founts. They worked but that's all the good I can say about them. They are the most poorly designed piece of poultry equipment I've ever owned.
I had one hanging in a tree all winter and it kept the water thawed so it did its job.
If the power goes out, the water tray will freeze and when power comes back on, the water inside will thaw but not warm enough to thaw the water pan so it is still solid ice.
I've filled my boots with water (at zero degrees) more times than I was able to fill it and get it hung successfully.
The reservoir portion is extremely thin and flimsy plastic. It screws on to the heated base like most founts but the tabs are too short and narrow so that if there's much weight, it just pulls off the base soaking you. So even though it is a 3 gallon, don't dare put more than 2 gallons in it and expect to turn it over without it coming apart.
It is supposed to hang but the handle was poorly designed and didn't hang level so the water would all pour out. In order to get it to hang properly, I had to drill a hole in the handle and install a hook in it.
I got them out to use on a couple coops a couple weeks ago when this deep freeze was moving in. I brought the first one into the kitchen and cleaned it thoroughly, I put 2 gallons of water in it and was carrying it out when the top shattered into a dozen pieces filling the hallway with water.
I went to get the second one and tapped the top with my finger to test it and my finger went right through.
Junk.

I went on a rant to them and apparently they partially redesigned it.

Well, he was feeling well enough to fight with my blue Ameraucana. I was worried about both of them. I wish there was a nice way to introduce cocks. I split them after a while putting them on opposite sides of the roost and quickly shut off the light. Hopefully they won't hurt each other too much. My Am. is much bigger, but the Penedescas is a determined fella.

I have one hen with a bit of black, and my HRIR cock has a touch of black on his wattles and the very back of his comb. We were so damp at fifty five at five am with misty drizzle, 32 by six, shifting to icy rain followed by below zero temps by dark. I don't know how to deal with moisture and cold like that. That causes bone deep cold as my shivering horse and goat testified Saturday night.

Introducing while free ranging works pretty good. However, I think it works better when they both already have their established harem. Then they usually stick with their flock and don't interact.
Adding a bird to an established flock is always a problem regardless of sex.

I shared that on the old thread mentioning I came up with it to help when I was teaching.

It was clever. Eventually it becomes second nature and one doesn't have to think about it any more.

For future reference it you grab the hose about four feet from the end with your left hand and arch it up and over at least just above your head with the other hand about fine feet down the hose while you count to ten ( more is a waste, and less may not work) then move the left hand to the right and repeat to the end it will drain enough not to freeze.

I've become quite the expert at draining hoses when it drops to freezing. It takes all day to thaw a hose at 35.

Can anybody tell me what kind of chick this is? They are all black with black beaks some have yellow dots on thier head some have a little yellow on the belly, and they have black and yellow feet.

It's a chicken. Sorry for being flippant but there are dozens of breeds/varieties that look like that at that age.
Can you narrow it down for us?

Thanks. It's really not that hard. Even taking the less trodden road which my brother and I did it's not hard.

Lots of ways to build one but I'm beginning to embrace the Arduino.
I have plans to use them for automatic doors, coop lighting, heated auto water, as well as incubators.

My brother in law helped my brother and I put our bator together, his dad has an old fridge that doesn't work any more, he and my brother are now plotting how to turn it into a bator

I've created monsters.

I have one recommendation for a refrigerator or any similar sized incubator is to design it sufficiently to get the heat to the bottom. Whether that be heat element placement, fans, ducting or whatever. Otherwise anything too tall will have thermal stratification. Top racks will be warmer than bottom racks.

It seems to be. I need to get a meat thermometer to make sure though. It goes between 101 and 98 it holds somewhere between the two.

My all time favorite thermometer is this Thermoworks one which is accurate to ±0.9°F with adjustable calibration.
http://www.thermoworks.com/RT301WA
A Brinsea spot check is extremely accurate but I prefer the Thermoworks one because the Brinsea, while accurate, if it falls outside a narrow range it just reads L or H for low or high. So you don't know how low or how high.

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Sie =שיא =peak

As in, a high point?

...
or maybe go a little smaller with a mini fridge, also have one of them with a glass door, nice bud light football one that the glass door lights up, I do not like bud, really don't like anything 'light' and ain't much for football, looks like it would make a nice bator

...

Bud has been my choice since returning from Germany. No Lutz Bier here.
Are you a Stroh's guy?

I haven't watched a down of football this year. Was a fan till the Rams left.

The chickens were wonderful! the owners.....

Are those the people with black Penedesencas?

All of my experience with frostbite has been with the cocks and their big combs after months of below zero and double digit negative windchill, usually just the tips and heal with no ill effect come late spring. Worst I've seen, not mine, wattles dipped in their water than froze, awful pics. I keep open waterers, don't know why I haven't experienced this. Last winter I had red sussex cockerels get swollen wattles from frostbite, not black but not good, the giants didn't though, watching them I realized the giants wattles were smaller, the sussex hung down and they dragged them across the ice when they were eating free ranging.
We've had warm then cold, below zero with -20 windchill back up to warm 30s, now cold again right this second we are at 4.
I keep coops with pop doors open, all with large runs, one 8x16 ply wood good ventilation, a 4x8 good ventilation and a sort of hoop coop dog kennel roof tarp and three sides tarp, one open completely wall, all of them, three giant pullets of course doing great, two NN pullets with no feathers on their necks doing great, and the NN small bowtie cockerel also no frostbite.
IMHO open up the coop if the outside air is humid, don't worry about the cold, the humidity is the bad guy.

X2
If it's already humid, closing up the coop just makes it worse.
Unless heated, by 5AM it will be just as cold inside as out whether it is closed up or not.

 

[daxigait]

Pretty good! How are you?

I am like Chaos, work and cold chores.
I am looking forward to a long weekend. I hope I get to ride.

 

[daxigait]

Never saw it.

How about, 'You might be a redneck if you were born in Alaska, moved to Washington and finally to the Ozark foothills in SW MO and singlehandedly built a farm'.

I'm sure I'll come up with something. All I have to do is look around me. 

Jeff Foxwothy was my brother's favorite comedian.
I'm more of a Rodney Dangerfield, Lewis Black, Jon Stewart, Ali Wong kind of fan.

canned salmon is 25+ cents per ounce, mackerel is 10.
For chickens and trapping coons, that's the way to go.
If I remember correctly, a friend that has a locavore farm had consulted with a poultry nutritionist who told her she could go up to 5% fishmeal in the feed before there is an issue. You may want to test that number.

Those are perfect. Indestructible. I used to put a birdbath heater in them which worked well but as you said, you can just beat the hell out of them to get the ice out.

Quote:
Congrats. Are you using proportional or on/off output control to the heat element?

I bought 2 of the Farm Innovators 3 gallon heated water founts. They worked but that's all the good I can say about them. They are the most poorly designed piece of poultry equipment I've ever owned.
I had one hanging in a tree all winter and it kept the water thawed so it did its job.
If the power goes out, the water tray will freeze and when power comes back on, the water inside will thaw but not warm enough to thaw the water pan so it is still solid ice.
I've filled my boots with water (at zero degrees) more times than I was able to fill it and get it hung successfully.
The reservoir portion is extremely thin and flimsy plastic. It screws on to the heated base like most founts but the tabs are too short and narrow so that if there's much weight, it just pulls off the base soaking you. So even though it is a 3 gallon, don't dare put more than 2 gallons in it and expect to turn it over without it coming apart.
It is supposed to hang but the handle was poorly designed and didn't hang level so the water would all pour out. In order to get it to hang properly, I had to drill a hole in the handle and install a hook in it.
I got them out to use on a couple coops a couple weeks ago when this deep freeze was moving in. I brought the first one into the kitchen and cleaned it thoroughly, I put 2 gallons of water in it and was carrying it out when the top shattered into a dozen pieces filling the hallway with water.
I went to get the second one and tapped the top with my finger to test it and my finger went right through.
Junk.

I went on a rant to them and apparently they partially redesigned it.

Introducing while free ranging works pretty good. However, I think it works better when they both already have their established harem. Then they usually stick with their flock and don't interact.
Adding a bird to an established flock is always a problem regardless of sex.

It was clever. Eventually it becomes second nature and one doesn't have to think about it any more.

I've become quite the expert at draining hoses when it drops to freezing. It takes all day to thaw a hose at 35.

It's a chicken. Sorry for being flippant but there are dozens of breeds/varieties that look like that at that age.
Can you narrow it down for us?

Lots of ways to build one but I'm beginning to embrace the Arduino.
I have plans to use them for automatic doors, coop lighting, heated auto water, as well as incubators.

I have one recommendation for a refrigerator or any similar sized incubator is to design it sufficiently to get the heat to the bottom. Whether that be heat element placement, fans, ducting or whatever. Otherwise anything too tall will have thermal stratification. Top racks will be warmer than bottom racks.

My all time favorite thermometer is this Thermoworks one which is accurate to ±0.9°F with adjustable calibration.
http://www.thermoworks.com/RT301WA
A Brinsea spot check is extremely accurate but I prefer the Thermoworks one because the Brinsea, while accurate, if it falls outside a narrow range it just reads L or H for low or high. So you don't know how low or how high.

Quote:
As in, a high point?

Bud has been my choice since returning from Germany. No Lutz Bier here.
Are you a Stroh's guy?

I haven't watched a down of football this year. Was a fan till the Rams left.

Are those the people with black Penedesencas?

X2
If it's already humid, closing up the coop just makes it worse.
Unless heated, by 5AM it will be just as cold inside as out whether it is closed up or not.

I agree on those waterers. I have been doused numerous times even when I was trying to be careful.

 

[chicken hawk 33]

hey all.how is everyone

 

[BantyChooks]

hey all.how is everyone

Hi CH. Doing well, you?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

For the double one you could put in a partition and hatch on one side and incubate on the other. Glass doors mean you could watch it all easily.

I put windows in the doors of both the incubator and hatcher. The one in the incubator doesn't help much cause all the action is in the hatcher.

I haven't had the chance to eat rabbits yet. How do they taste?

Everything tastes like chicken.

Rabbit is good.

...

Well, I am in the championship game in both of my fantasy football leagues. I would really like win my local one for a change. I have taken second three times in my local league. I can't seem to win the last game.

...

That's cool. Good luck.
I used to play a game at work. A bookie would distribute sheets with all the pro games and an equal # of college games The games all had the latest odds lines. You could play anywhere from 2 games up to 12. If you won all 12, I think the payout was 1,000 for each 1 wagered. I won 11 of Saturday and Sunday's games. It rested on the Monday night game. Monday's game ended up being a push. Bye bye big money.

I just hope the two cockerels don't kill each other today. The new Penedescas and my blue Ameraucana don't like each other at all. They will be separate in the spring, but I need them to coexist for a while.

I hope so too. Do they have space to escape or hide outside? Do they come off the roost before the door opens?

 

[daxigait]

I put windows in the doors of both the incubator and hatcher. The one in the incubator doesn't help much cause all the action is in the hatcher.

Everything tastes like chicken.

Rabbit is good.

That's cool. Good luck.
I used to play a game at work. A bookie would distribute sheets with all the pro games and an equal # of college games  The games all had the latest odds lines. You could play anywhere from 2 games up to 12. If you won all 12, I think the payout was 1,000 for each 1 wagered. I won 11 of Saturday and Sunday's games. It rested on the Monday night game. Monday's game ended up being a push. Bye bye big money.

I hope so too. Do they have space to escape or hide outside? Do they come off the roost before the door opens?

They do come off before, but there are places to go. Last night they just kept coming back to each other after separating. Like I said I forced a time out last night. I had hoped they would stop arguing while I was there to stop it if it got bad. I don't know why anyone would want to watch cocks fight it is not cool.
They have been near each other for three days through the cage. Once it opens there is lots of space. Until then there are several ways to hide even in the coop. Unfortunately, I am not sure if either would be inclined to hide. If all goes well though, they will be ok in the spring when they each have a group and free range. I don't plan on any new cockerels except in my HRIR group if I raise a good one in the spring, but they are in a separate coop.