Incubators Anonymous

[duluthralphie]

 

[BillJ]

I"m sorry to hear of your loss Jessimom.

I have six eggs in my homemade incubator just now, day 3. Previously after one of my few hatches, largest of which was 4 eggs, I moved the chicks to a brooder on my kitchen table. I live alone in a mobile home. With the wall ripped down between the kitchen and living room the growing chicks would watch me watch TV every night. I had taken two plastic bins, cut off a side, pop riveted the two together for a wide clear bin, cut holes for a perches, had a warming light and heating pad, and an arched wire mesh top. Ah, the memory of that first crow from a cockerel one morning. They wouldn't be moved outside until they got too big for the brooder. Now with 6 coming that brooder will get overcrowded quickly. The brooder now takes less than half a card table. I'm leaning toward building a brooder that takes most of the card table. Problem with that might be that I won't be able to move the brooder to a sunny window during the day. It's said that early sunshine exposure has a great deal to do with healthy development. When they're a good size, and fully feathered of course, I can move them to the coop, a portion of which is separated. A hatch this late in the spring will mean it will be warm for them early. Weather is calling for 90°'s later this week.

Again, sorry to hear about the loss.

BillJ

 

[duluthralphie]

I"m sorry to hear of your loss Jessimom.

I have six eggs in my homemade incubator just now, day 3. Previously after one of my few hatches, largest of which was 4 eggs, I moved the chicks to a brooder on my kitchen table. I live alone in a mobile home. With the wall ripped down between the kitchen and living room the growing chicks would watch me watch TV every night. I had taken two plastic bins, cut off a side, pop riveted the two together for a wide clear bin, cut holes for a perches, had a warming light and heating pad, and an arched wire mesh top. Ah, the memory of that first crow from a cockerel one morning. They wouldn't be moved outside until they got too big for the brooder. Now with 6 coming that brooder will get overcrowded quickly. The brooder now takes less than half a card table. I'm leaning toward building a brooder that takes most of the card table. Problem with that might be that I won't be able to move the brooder to a sunny window during the day. It's said that early sunshine exposure has a great deal to do with healthy development. When they're a good size, and fully feathered of course, I can move them to the coop, a portion of which is separated. A hatch this late in the spring will mean it will be warm for them early. Weather is calling for 90°'s later this week.

Again, sorry to hear about the loss.

BillJ

I can understand all of this!

I have about 2 dozen chicks in the house right now. This will be my last year with house chicks. I have become a licensed State NPIP hatchery. They will not allow me to hatch in the house or brood in the house after this year. I am going to miss the house chicks.

They are afraid of diseases crossing the species barrier and my family getting salmonella from the chicks. While I will miss them, the WWD will be happy to not have the hatching dust in the house.

Also on a side note I am finding less Pasty butt by keeping my chicks cooler.

 

[ThatFarmerChick]

@duluthralphie I never have pasty butt on the chicks, chooks, ducklings, or keets that we have hatched. Only chicks that we have had shipped to us. Do you know what causes pasty butt. Because now I am not sure.

 

[duluthralphie]

@duluthralphie I never have pasty butt on the chicks, chooks, ducklings, or keets that we have hatched. Only chicks that we have had shipped to us. Do you know what causes pasty butt. Because now I am not sure.

I think it is the chick being too warm. If you go to MHP mother hen brooder thread they discuss it a lot. Since I have went to it, I have not had a pasty butt.

 

[Jessimom]

I am still thinking about this...Please do not think I am being critical. That is not the case, I am trying to figure out why they died. What we need to do is figure out why they died so it never happens again.

10 day old chicks or even new babies, should not die of cold in southern California in one night. How cold did it get? They were not even outside they were on a porch.

While the concrete floor could absorb heat from them. I assume there was bedding that should have mitigated that.

Did you have a light over the heat source. I always use a ready lamp, one of those you get at Barnes and Nobles that clamp onto a book as you read it over the heat source. It is not enough light to keep them awake but enough to keep them near the heat source.

I find the deaths confusing, we ship day old chicks up here in the north in below freezing temps and they live. Granted they are 15 to a box and it is a tight area, but the boxes have holes and it is pretty darn cold in those trucks.

By New babies how old are you talking 24 hours or less?

Sorry if this is not very orderly written, I am trying to think about the "why" as I type.

Thank you! I do not feel you were being critical at all. The chicks that died were born last Saturday - Monday (4/16 to 4/18).

I had 10 that were born the week before in a really big plastic tote, with puppy pee pads underneath them. My new hatched chicks get to spend some time all alone for a few days in an incubator that I've turned to a brooder. They get food and water in that, then after 2 or 3 days, I move them in with the older chicks. I'll do this for 4 or 5 hatches. I would keep these chicks out on the back porch, which has been insulated, heat and A/C etc and turned into a regular room at the back of the house. We are finishing the floor in that room and chicks had to move. They got moved to my bedroom and bathroom. The bathroom is the hospital room. I have 2 curled toed chicks in there. The big tote was in my bedroom.

Monday I moved 23 of the new chicks and the 10 older chicks out to the new shelf in the coop that had been built the day before. I left 7 of the known boys in my room. the new shelf is in an existing coop and is set above the pen my 4 week old chicks are in. It's similar to the ones we did for my older chickens on the other side of the coop (shown in the below photo). Only 8 of the older chicks survived.

They went from a small heat plate in a closed in Rubbermaid tote on pee pads, to a plywood with linoleum floor and a large heat plate on wood chips. I know that the heat plate was not low enough for the babies. There is no light in the pen, just their heat plates.

What we found was the water had leaked and the chicks were over in the wet wood chips rather in the dry ones on the other side of the heat plate.

This is what we build on one side of the coop, we did something the same thing on the other side.




Here is the last batch I moved out there, they are living on the top shelf of the above shown pen..


There was no blood on the chicks, but some were piled up like they tried to stay warm, but others were spread out. Some were wet. Most were dry. The live chicks were under the heat plate, these were quite a ways away. It dropped to the mid 40's that night but it isn't as cold as that in the coop. I do not think they should have died. There was enough of them to keep warm. 3 different breeds, from 3 different places.

I have the 8 surviving along with the 5 later hatches that didn't go outside, back in my bedroom with the boys for now.

Thanks again!

 

[Jessimom]

Happy birthday @Auroradream26

 

[OneMountainAcres]

[COLOR=FF0000]Happy birthday [@=https://www.backyardchickens.com/u/212762/Auroradream26]@Auroradream26[/@][/COLOR]

Thank you!

 

[BertandMary]

Lockdown with 10 Black Copper Maran and 10 Blue Ameraucana eggs. It should have been 11 Maran but one got dropped against another. We were able to repair one but the dropped one split in two revealing a live chick a couple if days from hatch. Probably should have attempted something bit culling my mistake made sense.

 

[shawn54]

Jessimom
I think that the lack of light may have something to do with the problem if the chicks are away from heat pad when it gets dark or move away in the dark they may not be able to see well enough to find their way back to heat I'm sorry to hear of your loss and hope you figure out problem. I brooded in my basement for years then moved to a out building only to have a heat lamp cause a fire in the building not sure if a intruding animal or human error caused the lamp to get dislodged but it did and $7000 + in damages later I brood in plywood box away from any other buildings. I keep a well secured heat lamp in it and have seen temps in single digits with no trouble. A small light over the heat source may be all that is needed to draw them to the heat if they move away. Hope this helps.

Shawn