Cedar shavings? Those are TOXIC and should be avoided.
Also, am I hearing this correctly that you incubate duck eggs and chicken eggs together? This is not recommended, duck eggs need higher humidity and one species or the other will ultimately suffer by accommodating the other.
There are several issues with the incubation process, I really don't think it is a stock problem, so you can rest assured there.
You can add stones to the incubator to help keep the temperature steady when you open the incubator. Also you can cover the whole thing with a blanket to help insulate it from the outside air if your room temperature fluctuates more than 10 degrees, there's a major problem right there. How a batons are relatively reliable, but there are some prerequisites that need to be met.
I've heard that home made incubators are very reliable and cheap to make. I don't think you need to spend a lot of money to remedy your problem.
Also have a look at the thread titled "humidity in bator excellent info here everyone should read this" here on BBC in the incubation and hatching forum. The thread name says it for itself. It is only talking about land fowl eggs and not waterfowl, like I said, they need different requirements to hatch properly.
You should try very hard to set your eggs all at one time to help increase the accuracy of your incubator's thermostat.
Don't worry about your stock. That's clearly not the problem.
I hope I've helped hope I haven't forgotten anything. It's a bugger typing with this new fangled technology.
Okay wil do. But oddly that was my best batch when I hand turned then in the shavings. I can get pine. I wonder if yesterdays news would work. Its a cat litter made of recycled newspaper.
Not always. I don't want a lot of ducks. I set it for chicken eggs and put a few duck eggs in just to see it they will hatch. My ducks do great. I usually get one or two. out or 2-3 eggs.
I will try the stone thing. and the blanket. Our summers are 100+ Winter like today was 80 but can me 3- at night. stupid weather. Then the next day may be 40. -_-
No I will take anything I haven't tried yet.
Whats the take on washing and not washing eggs? I read where some do and some don't. It the egg is perfectly clean I leave it alone. And I try and only do the perfectly clean eggs.
Vitamin D especially Vitamin D3 is a very important part of a healthy diet for a hen especially one laying eggs for hatching. My next suggestion is to look up the best and richest sources of Vitamin D3.
Ingredients: Organic wheat, organic peas, organic canola meal, organic milo, limestone, organic barley, organic sun-dried alfalfa, Redmond Conditioner (clay), organic kelp meal, diatomaceous earth, moncalcium phosphate, Redmond Sea Salt, DL methionine, poultry vitamin & mineral premix, organic garlic granules, organic horseradish powder, organic star anise oil, organic juniper berry oil Guaranteed Analysis: Crude protein min 17%, crude fat min 3.1%, crude fiber max 6.8%, ash max 16.4%
The feed mentioned above by you is notably lacking in ceratine. Ceratine is only found in the cells of vertebras like fish, and cattle. Ceratine is a vital protein like substance required by both humans and hens but that is not included in an analysis of crude protein.
Crude protein is only the measurement of the element Nitrogen in a food and as such crude protein has little bearing on the real or overall nutritional value of a livestock feed or even a human food item for that matter.
I also fail to see any corn or American Maize in your chickens' ration, nor is there any soybean meal. Peas are a broad catch all phrase that can mean any legume and for the information of those on the forum not all legumes are created equal. For instance here is a little research on the suitability for chicken feed of the latest legume to catch the fancy of the health food (or maybe the unhealthy food movement)
Besides. Flax seeds are mostly fed to laying flocks to create higher priced boutique eggs for the up scale consumer who is typically worried about their omega 3 fatty acid levels or some such and not about whether the eggs that their hens lay will hatch into healthy chicks.
Do you feed granite grit free choice? If you do not the wee tiny flax seeds will likely pass right on through your hens and they will derive no benefit what's so ever from ever having ate them.
I uphold your right to feed anything you please to your hens and roosters. They belong to you and if you wish to feed green cheese from the Moon or hummingbird hearts from the planet Mars that is your right and privilege, but don't think for a minute that a chicken can long endure on such a diet.
I would be highly surprised if 50% of the eggs produced by a flock of hens long fed on the diet at the top of this page would ever hatch into vigorous and healthy chicks. I therefor must stand by my previous statements about the importance of proper nutrition in the breeding flock.
use the above calculator app from our friends down under to figure feed cost.
Notice that linseed meal has a pass through rate of 40% meaning that for every 50 pound bag of linseed meal you buy and feed your chickens that 20 pounds (or 40 pounds per 100) of it passes right on through the digestive track as waste, unchanged by the digestive process. This by the way is for Linseed Meal. No telling how much of the uncooked, unprocessed, and unexpelled raw linseeds pass right on through a chickens' gut, completely unaltered by the digestive process. The same however can not be said for your wallet. I have no idea how much raw linseeds pass through but dose anyone want to make a guess?
Other pass through rates for common feed stuffs.
Copra meal has a 70% pass through rate.
Soybean meal's pass through is 30%
Canola meal's pass through is 30%
Cottonseed meal's pass through is 35%
Peanut meal has a 35% pass through.
Fully processed and expelled sunflower meal (kernels) has a pass through rate of 20%
Besides the processed meals named above other agricultural by products sometimes found in feed run the gamete from pressed apple pulp to urea. And most if not all these feed additives are either actively toxic to, or else they are drastically lacking in the nutrients that a chicken needs.
Vitamin D especially Vitamin D3 is a very important part of a healthy diet for a hen especially one laying eggs for hatching. My next suggestion is to look up the best and richest sources of Vitamin D3.
Ingredients: Organic wheat, organic peas, organic canola meal, organic milo, limestone, organic barley, organic sun-dried alfalfa, Redmond Conditioner (clay), organic kelp meal, diatomaceous earth, moncalcium phosphate, Redmond Sea Salt, DL methionine, poultry vitamin & mineral premix, organic garlic granules, organic horseradish powder, organic star anise oil, organic juniper berry oil Guaranteed Analysis: Crude protein min 17%, crude fat min 3.1%, crude fiber max 6.8%, ash max 16.4%
The feed mentioned above by you is notably lacking in ceratine. Ceratine is only found in the cells of vertebras like fish, and cattle. Ceratine is a vital protein like substance required by both humans and hens but that is not included in an analysis of crude protein.
Crude protein is only the measurement of the element Nitrogen in a food and as such crude protein has little bearing on the real or overall nutritional value of a livestock feed or even a human food item for that matter.
I also fail to see any corn or American Maize in your chickens' ration, nor is there any soybean meal. Peas are a broad catch all phrase that can mean any legume and for the information of those on the forum not all legumes are created equal. For instance here is a little research on the suitability for chicken feed of the latest legume to catch the fancy of the health food (or maybe the unhealthy food movement)
Besides. Flax seeds are mostly fed to laying flocks to create higher priced boutique eggs for the up scale consumer who is typically worried about their omega 3 fatty acid levels or some such and not about whether the eggs that their hens lay will hatch into healthy chicks.
Do you feed granite grit free choice? If you do not the wee tiny flax seeds will likely pass right on through your hens and they will derive no benefit what's so ever from ever having ate them.
I uphold your right to feed anything you please to your hens and roosters. They belong to you and if you wish to feed green cheese from the Moon or hummingbird hearts from the planet Mars that is your right and privilege, but don't think for a minute that a chicken can long endure on such a diet.
I would be highly surprised if 50% of the eggs produced by a flock of hens long fed on the diet at the top of this page would ever hatch into vigorous and healthy chicks. I therefor must stand by my previous statements about the importance of proper nutrition in the breeding flock.
It has a vitamin premix in it.
The scratch has sunflower seeds and Corn.
in a natural state chickens don't eat Soy and there is too much soy in anyones diet. And I normally can't handly too many eggs. but I can eat mine all day without feeling ill.
Also in a natural state their protein source is insects. I personally would not ever feed my chickens meat. Fish they may stumble upon so I am fine with that. Their diet is 100% non GMO and organic)
We get a ton of sun even in winter vitamin D is not an issue plus the alfalfa adds to it.
The feed is mostly organic Alfalfa:
Nutritional value
Sprouted alfalfa seeds
Alfalfa is high in protein, calcium and other minerals, vitamins in the B group, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K.[104][105][106][107] The sun-dried hay of alfalfa has been found to be a source of vitamin D, containing 48 ng/g (1920 IU/kg) vitamin D2 and 0.63 ng/g (25 IU/kg) vitamin D3.[108] There is reference to vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 being found in the alfalfa shoot; this is awaiting verification.[109] Mushrooms are not allowed in Jain vegetarianism, making alfalfa the only known source Jains can use to make vitamin D2 supplements.
Creatine is found in many sources of protein especially cranberries. And is cattle have it in their bodies and do not eat meat. their body is converting it from something else in their diet.
I could try boosting things but people are hatching eggs just fine that feed their chickens less.
Their entire barn is full of sand and some in the pen. We also have granite/clay soil. I am sure they eat tiny rocks on occasion LOL
My girl friends use the same feed and their chickens brood and hatch fine. We go together on orders to save shipping costs. And looking at Purina labels I am disgusted.
Note I feed them scraps of fruits and veggies daily and garden weeds. Plus the meal worms on occasion, and I have tons on insects out in the pasture when they get turn out time.
use the above calculator app from our friends down under to figure feed cost.
Notice that linseed meal has a pass through rate of 40% meaning that for every 50 pound bag of linseed meal you buy and feed your chickens that 20 pounds (or 40 pounds per 100) of it passes right on through the digestive track as waste, unchanged by the digestive process. This by the way is for Linseed Meal. No telling how much of the uncooked, unprocessed, and unexpelled raw linseeds pass right on through a chickens' gut, completely unaltered by the digestive process. The same however can not be said for your wallet. I have no idea how much raw linseeds pass through but dose anyone want to make a guess?
Other pass through rates for common feed stuffs.
Copra meal has a 70% pass through rate.
Soybean meal's pass through is 30%
Canola meal's pass through is 30%
Cottonseed meal's pass through is 35%
Peanut meal has a 35% pass through.
Fully processed and expelled sunflower meal (kernels) has a pass through rate of 20%
Besides the processed meals named above other agricultural by products sometimes found in feed run the gamete from pressed apple pulp to urea. And most if not all these feed additives are either actively toxic to, or else they are drastically lacking in the nutrients that a chicken needs.
Yeah we all pass LOL I know its bad for people and horses, so the meal must be ground. But chickens are a tad different and with grit get some. I don;t feed them a lot of it. I am not a fan of most additives hence why I chose the feed I did. FLax when heated and wet gets slimy. Hence the passing. My mother used to cook it first.. boy hat was nasty goop. I put it by itself in a pan and toss some scratch over it. by choice they don't eat too much. I let them choose.
I read somewhere that Cedar Shavings can be toxic to chicks. I use Pine Shavings on my new chicks and not until a week or so after they are born. The first week I use paper towels in the brooder,
