FoodKiller's chicken journal!

[FoodKillah]

Well, i think i am a very good egg turner after all. Its day 20 today and i just figured out that the date i had to stop turning the eggs passed already. Allready? Day 20? I mean i thought i turned on the incubator on few days ago.

I will not turn the eggs again, i will also TRY to get the humidity levels up, but i am as sure as the eggs are that they will not hatch whatever i do. It doesnt matter tho i will try again after 2 weeks when i return from a little family trip to my wifes mother we are going on 18 and return at 25 of February.

I think sometimes we dont realize how fast time goes by. The winter is almost over and it rarely rains around here but i still feel i have to build that new coop fast like its September

Today i was eating with my wife and daughter and after a very silent moment, i say "what the heck is snorting? did you hear that?" The bobwhite quail was snorting while roosting in his cage. That guy is eating 5 more than when i first bought him and he is so fat. In the morning i took him with the cage outside between the weeds. Again, the rooster was trying to get to his feed and the quail was "defending" himself by trying to attack the rooster behind the cage. The rooster didnt mind the quails failed attacks and still wanted the feed. Isnt all that a stupid cycle?

It was funny.

My sister visited us earlier today and brought over her shih tzu. Cute dog, she rushed to the yard where my little flock free ranged and the rooster made his first big attack, lol. The dog flew out of the yard and inside the house. My rooster is the king

 

[FoodKillah]

I can hear the bird! Its singing!

This is insane a bird is singing inside that egg!!!!!!! No cracks yet, but plenty of movement!

Its day 21 and i was making calls to those eggs and talked to them and knocked the shells here and there.

Now one of the eggs is trying to bust outta there!

What am i going to do now lol, dam i must hurry to make a brooder

craaaaaazzzzzyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

 

[FoodKillah]

Photos

1)This is how the... flintstone incubator looks like from above, you see through the glass of a window i collected from the trash lol.

2)This is a view away from the cardboard box used as incubator. The digital thermostat is not in the picture, its near by in its own box.

3)A view from above, ol dirty window removed. The jar and the sponge are used for humidity (was not enough). The plastic that surrounds the eggs has a metal wire attached that went out of the box so i moved the eggs by pulling or pushing the wire (that was before i placed the sponge and the glass that holds the sponge)

4)The "brooder box" is a pampers box with paper for ground and an egg holder for water. I will use a plastic bottle cup for the food of my single chick lol. The cyrcled wire will hold the other 2 eggs inside and the lamp will be above them running at 100fn to give them a couple of days a second chance to hatch, hopefully the chick will not jump over it and get burned.

 

[cabincrazyone]

Exciting! I hope the little one makes it! Maybe others, too.

 

[lovinlife]

How exciting! Keep us posted!

 

[FoodKillah]

Since my last update, i transferred the incubator from the small cardboard box to the big, the one i will use as a brooder.

I also placed a 40w lamp that is always turned on, besides the 60w one that is connected to the thermostat.

The egg had a small hole for hours, then i went to sleep and woke up and still the same

the beak out of the egg through the hole that has cracked the shell and has tear up the membrane. After i searched the forum and i found out i should NOT HELP the chick, i decided i HAD TO help it fast. Well.... i took some more pieces of shell off the egg and surpisingly i didnt hurt the membrane too much, which i think it looks kinda dry if you ask me, i dont know how it should look tho.

I saw some part of the little bird through the eggs hole. I hope it makes it.

Right now, its in the incubator with a 1/2 - 1 inch shell removed but membrane is on, which has a 1/4-1/2 inch hole that the beak points out from. I see no veins on the membrane, neither i can see through it, only through the hole that it has.

Things i did wrong during the incubation:
1) the lamp was too close to the eggs, no more than 3 inches, i was adviced to move it away but i didnt (could not do it in that small box i was using)
2) the humidity especially the first 15 days was minimal, lower than 20% for sure, the digital counter couldnt count it. After day 15 i raised it at 20-25% maybe 30% sometimes.
3) the temperature was 105 fn (39.8c) for 18 days and i changed it to the proper 100fn (37.8) after day 18
4) in the beggining i was turning the eggs from the outside without opening the incubator but after day 15 i was opening it 2-4 times a day to turn the eggs with my bare, unclean, dirty, cold hands.
5)i threw water on the eggs after day 20 at the point the got water cloaked in there and i had to whipe out the water of the bottom of the incubator
6)i removed small parts of the shell slowly and i did cut the membrane a little bit maybe 1/8inch but no blood came out

I am not saying that the advices i was told are not to be followed, i messed up my incubation because i was not so responsible and i will propably keep being myself lol, however things dont work that way, i had 3 eggs, only 1 is alive, and who knows for how long. Not that the other 2 are dead, but propably.

Next time i will really be more careful with the responsibilities of the progress and also with safety measures, that incubators i build are really dangerous and you risk your life messing around them. I even used some used old duct tape to some wires on one of the lamps.

 

[Baymule]

How exciting!!! I hope it makes it!!

 

[cabincrazyone]

I wish a hatching expert could give you some advice. I'm afraid that drying membrane will be fatal. I sure hope not.

 

[FoodKillah]

That chick wants to live. Its out of the egg for the last hmm 10 hours maybe. Its singing all day haha.

I woke up and saw that it had hatch, but it was still wet and could not stand so i figure out it hatched about that time, i put some water in a bottles cap with 5 little rocks in it so it does not drown, i think it drank since then, i have fill up the cap 3 times but consider the fan and 2 lamps that propably dry some of that water i doubt the chick drank 3 caps of water. Also some vein was stick on its belly and there was a wound too, that vein thing was following the chick like a tail, i pulled a little bit that nasty vein but the wound seem to get worse and bleed, so i stopped. Sometime during the day i checked and that vein was cut off, then i checked the wound and was way better than before.

Right now its standing and can walk and look up and ehm what else, it searches the ground and pecks here and there but not as a hen would do, its very funny, it acts silly, i loved when it lost its balance and almost fell backwards but with a fast move it came right back like saying "daaaam did you see that, i almost fell off my feet"

It would really need some company but i am still grateful its alive. 23 days ago it was still inside the egg and the egg was inside the hen, now after 23 days, there it is full of life singing. Now i really wish it will give me a chance to grow it and stay alive.

The bad part is i will be gone for 1 week and the chick will be all on its own, in the brooder. I will try to train my sister how to provide water and food for it, but she is not a chicken person and i am not sure if the bird will have what it needs. Same applies to the rest of my animals, she must take care of the quail, the rabbit and the chickens. lol.

This is a picture of what i saw when it first hatched. i removed the green waterer and placed the 2 eggs at the other side of the "brooder" so the chick has more space to roam

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Oh that is wonderful news! I am so happy for you that at least one hatched!! And you were thinking you had killed them all...lol

Your journal has gotten so exciting!