Lavender patterned Isabel duckwing barred - lavender brown cuckoo barred - project and genetic dis

[ChicKat]

You guys are so talented! I don't know how you can hold a thin slippery phone with no handles taking pictures with one hand while holding on to a chick trying to get away in the other hand. I can't do it. I need two hands for my phone. One to hold it, and the other to touch the camera button to take the picture.

You are right, i couldn't do it either

 

[campingshaws]

Just takes practice. I'm lucky enough to have had a cell phone around half of my life, so I don't find them slippery at all. but I never had a smart phone til we asked our current employer for a cell phone allowance (we were over minutes and data for several months in a row due to work). The chair of the board (at that time) got it approved for us to all have smart phones so if a tree fell on a building we could call, take a picture, and send an email instantaneously. It's been invaluable to me during this fundraiser because I can check email for t-shirt updates while I'm in the lobby of a potential donor, or I can text a question to DH while I'm taking a selfie and "checking in" at one of our supporting businesses.

But I understand the aversion, and the lack of supporting areas. Our carrier works where we live, but not where we travel. Our assistant has forwarded the landline to her cell so she can answer the "office" phone from anywhere, useful when she's on the grounds or driving for a grocery pickup and "on the clock."

 

[ChicKat]

I wonder at what point one abandons keeping current technologically. -- I remember back in the days of having to double click a mouse, (lots of you, it may be before your time) -- and they did studies and discovered that elderly people couldn't get it quite right. I was trying to get my father to use the mouse -- and he told me "I'm a propeller pilot" He flew the Navy's equivalent of a B-24 in WWII. He just didn't want to learn new technology, particularly...... I wonder if I'm
at that same
Point

Not quite there yet, but pretty close I think.

 

[campingshaws]

I wonder at what point one abandons keeping current technologically. -- I remember back in the days of having to double click a mouse, (lots of you, it may be before your time) -- and they did studies and discovered that elderly people couldn't get it quite right.  I was trying to get my father to use the mouse -- and he told me "I'm a propeller pilot"  He flew the Navy's equivalent of a B-24 in WWII.  He just didn't want to learn new technology, particularly......  I wonder if I'm 
at that same 
Point 

Not quite there yet, but pretty close I think.

DH's godfather is in his mid-60s, retired, and very low-key. Acreage in the country, no microwave, small tube tv. But he's in the cutting edge of tech a volunteers at coffee shop helping folks of all ages with their settings and upgrades. So I guess it depends on where your interests lie.

 

[ChicKat]

DH's godfather is in his mid-60s, retired, and very low-key. Acreage in the country, no microwave, small tube tv. But he's in the cutting edge of tech a volunteers at coffee shop helping folks of all ages with their settings and upgrades. So I guess it depends on where your interests lie.

There should be more of that -- (people in coffee shops - or maybe senior centers helping others with their computer access -- although in this case too I bet you are referencing phones) A friend of mine who's 84 would have seemed a good candidate for a cell phone -- on the limited type of buy a card plan -- due to budget restrictions. The sight, hearing and finger dexterity -- became really frustrating obstacles. (it would ring, but he couldn't hear the ring..etc.)---
I have to laugh though - my fingers are so big and stubby that I can't do much with my little cell phone - and really prefer that full sized computer keyboard.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

You guys are so talented! I don't know how you can hold a thin slippery phone with no handles taking pictures with one hand while holding on to a chick trying to get away in the other hand. I can't do it. I need two hands for my phone. One to hold it, and the other to touch the camera button to take the picture.

I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to take several to get one good one. For instance, these are from Sunday's weights&photos day:









- Ant Farm

 

[campingshaws]

Love it! It was pretty smooth today. Camera open, phone down. Get the band ready, grab a chick. Band on, position chick, pick up phone and click.

Maybe I'm just a chick whisperer.

 

[ChicKat]

For anyone who may be perusing this -- I have a question. I have had chicks that have been 'glued' to the inside of the shell. Just one small part -- and it seems to prevent them from pivoting. One egg from my Easter Hatch along -- really was stuck -- and if that chick who was quite mad at the situation and squawking, hadn't done so, then it could have been pulled and set aside. -- As it was I acually dunked the egg in hot water making sure that the chick's beak was out -- and I wonder how it got glued. When the chick got out -- pieces of shell were sticking and it was sticky -- but definitely ready to hatch. I took it out of the incubator a while later -- and it just seemed matted. Actually gave that chick a hot bath to get the gunk out of the down (never have done that with a newly hatched chick before -- and then the big concern of drying off and keeping it warm -enough -- but today the chick is just fine.

I think previously I was running the incubator at too high humidity for our climate here...and there are variables like shell porosity and relative humidity in the air that I don't have control over. --

Looked like some of the eggs in this last hatch (only eggtopsied a couple) -- drowned when humidity was cranked up for lockdown - based on lots of liquid inside and not absorbing the yolksac - One was probably shrinkwrapped, but I had noticed a larger air cell in that egg than in any other egg at the candling before lock-down. So one egg would indicate too high humidity and one would indicate too low humidity -- but perhaps that egg was destined never to hatch starting at the time the chicken laid the egg.

This is my second hatch in the 'big incubator' -- cheap plastic one with auto-turner that holds 56 eggs -- and if you leave the packing material on -- they hold temperature really well - so seems to work fine. Are there hot-spots and cold-spots, and could proximity to the hole where water is added have an effect. Could it be that the fan isn't circulating the air - or could putting the styrofoam packing material on top - retain the heat but reduce the air flow. ?? I guess that they are not answerable questions scientifically with out a 'control' group --

Does anyone use one of these?

 

[ChicKat]

I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to take several to get one good one. For instance, these are from Sunday's weights&photos day:





- Ant Farm

Action shot. Keep telling them to 'hold still'!

Love it! It was pretty smooth today. Camera open, phone down. Get the band ready, grab a chick. Band on, position chick, pick up phone and click.

Maybe I'm just a chick whisperer.

You have the magic touch!

 

[ChicKat]

For anyone who may be perusing this -- I have a question. I have had chicks that have been 'glued' to the inside of the shell. Just one small part -- and it seems to prevent them from pivoting. One egg from my Easter Hatch along -- really was stuck -- and if that chick who was quite mad at the situation and squawking, hadn't done so, then it could have been pulled and set aside. -- As it was I acually dunked the egg in hot water making sure that the chick's beak was out -- and I wonder how it got glued. When the chick got out -- pieces of shell were sticking and it was sticky -- but definitely ready to hatch. I took it out of the incubator a while later -- and it just seemed matted. Actually gave that chick a hot bath to get the gunk out of the down (never have done that with a newly hatched chick before -- and then the big concern of drying off and keeping it warm -enough -- but today the chick is just fine.


Does anyone use one of these?

Just now I was reading some of the posts in Easter Hatch-a-long -- and it seems that a number of people had chicks that got sticky and stuck to the inside of the shell..... Someone else even had to give their newly-hatched chick a bath!

Expert opinion was that the humidity was run too high during incubation - and the eggs didn't lose enough moisture.

What's interesting is that I didn't add water during the incubation period and the humidity was reading 40-45% all the time.....Then lockdown 65%-70%.

For my hatch rates, the first hatch in this incubator was 65% and this hatch was 69% -- and I know you don't get 100% - except in your mind or if you have a very small number of eggs set - (for me anyway - I've had 100% of 6 to lockdown and 3 to lockdown) It also depends on how you calculate hatch rate -- do you calculate hatched eggs divided by lockdown eggs, or do you calculate hatched eggs divided by set eggs.

Increasing humidity is do-able -- but decreasing humidity -- you would have to decrease the humidity of the air and not add any water.

Next time -- maybe go into lockdown even later -- 2-3 days instead of 3-4 days. It must be different for everyone - because of their own unique conditions. Had read that early lockdown is good...Hmmm