Mabel's Legacy-BABY PICTURES!!!!

[cherylcohen]

Sorry no pics. Shall I candle again in a few days or just leave them be? I've been very gentile but if I do it again does it compromise he hatch?

 

[tnchickenut]

The only way it comprimises the hatch is you touching the eggs. I use two or three fingertips only to hold them and ALWAYS just freshly washed my hands. Yes, you can candle them again. Day 10 should be easier to see the development. You seen the pictures I posted on my thread... if they are still clear they won't develope. You can crack them open, if you like, and look for the bullseye... see if they just didn't develope or were unfertile. The bloodring one... now that is the one that most likely is a early death... but I'm hesitant to tell you that is definately is one since I can't see it. Does the ring go all the way around the egg kinda near the middle? That is a early death.

 

[cherylcohen]

Sorry can't remember blood ring position thanks I'll take photos next time

 

[bargain]

Quote:
I would wait on candling.....I've been told that the absence of a "bullseye" doesn't mean that they were never fertile, as the shipping, incubating etc, could change that.

I really candle the day of lock down because I am so concerned that my hands are not "surgery" ready as I call it, even a smidge of lotion, dirt, soap unwashed off can cause problems, so I just wait.....I've also found I'm a SLOWWWW candler, so I figure that all the time I have the eggs out of the incubator or I'm opening or shutting it, I compromise the eggs.....as they will be loosing warmth and humidity over an extended time.

I get better hatches now that I'm not candling as much but that's just the way I do it.

Re your desk.......

I picked up an old deep wooden bookshelf from our recycle center, removed 2 shelves and put wire on the back and it's a great brooder.

If you are handy with tools, a large wooden box is not hard to make and you could put wire on the bottom and then a wire top cover, make it deep so the chickies don't fly out and you can adjust the light..

I have a friend that uses a giant kennel (training pen for large dog - not transport kennel) but added temporary side walls and wire to the bottom. So if you have a kennel that might work as well. The hardest part was cutting the wood to fit the door, but you could use feed sacks for this rather than cutting a door.

I saw another post where a tent was used as a brooder....Never thought of that.

Well this is getting exciting!

 

[cherylcohen]

How deep since they will be in till they are 8 weeks

thx all. I don't the desk will be big enough. Sigh. 15 sq feet. If I'm lucky and get 8 is it 2 sq ft per 8 week old??

 

[cherylcohen]

AND oh dread this shows I know NOTHING. I'm sure my hands were clean as I'm a nut about that I'm not certain so they may have my oils or something is on them. Can we start over???

And I can't imagine doing this again as we have now 10 girls + chicks soon chicks many more we are supposed to have

 

[chicks4kids]

Are you planning on putting this IN your existing coop or just attaching it to it? If you're attaching it to it, you can transform it from brooder to older pen by adding roosts and a makeshift run for them coming out from that. The weather will be nice in 8 weeks and they'll be spending most of their time outside. Maybe their run can be side by side to the other girls run so they can become aquainted in a safe, non pecking manner

They will only be inside to sleep basically. I still think you can work with this.......unless you've already come up with another idea? This could become your temporary confinement coop.

 

[cherylcohen]

oh good so 15 sq feet may be ok when they are 8 weeks??? Of course it will come to pass only when we know how many are hatched. But I'm thinking about it in a very similar way. Our run is about 20' x 15' and is covered. We have a middle beam so I thought I can take say 25% or 30% of that run and put hardware cloth across. Then put the now desk or something else coming off of that side with the pop door into the new chick side run. Boy I don't think I explained that very well.

We had never built anything before we built this coop/run but we love doing projects together and I can imagine we'll make them their own little coop since we have 8 weeks. They will just share the run but with only a hardware wire wall in between them.

 

[chicks4kids]

Sounds right and by the looks of your set up (nice BTW) they'll be able to be close enough to get used to eachother... If you are planning on dividing inside of the coop and want to save a little bit of money you can divide them by chicken wire (inside the run)-especially if you plan on removing the temp. pen once your babies join the big girls. If it's going to be a permanent addition, you may want to consider how to incorporate a slanted roof on the brooder (if you think they'll be able to jump up on top), or possibly raising the brooder up to allow room underneath as well. Plus you won't have to bend over or down to clean, feed, or whatever. Just some suggestions.....

You know, everyone is going to have their opinion about space...I think what you've got there will be fine. They're still going to be little puff balls (softball size) at 4 weeks. So I def. think it'll work out just fine. You've done a wonderful job so far!!

 

[cherylcohen]

cool, thanks, well it will be a fun weekend project for us, I'll keep you posted.

Incubator update, came home this evening from work and it was at 99.1, yikes!! it's stable now at 99.5-7. It think the temp was low in the house...any chance that will affect things. It was 99.7 when I left in the am.