Mahonri's 2nd Annual BYC EASTER HATCH. Post pics of your chicks!

[Mahonri]

Quote:
Heavens... place them under the broody!!! I wish I had two or three broodies about right now.

 

[Mervin]

I've been seeing the Eco-Glow thing come up a lot lately and they look pretty cool. I really don't like heat lamps, but I don't think I could drop that much on a brooder. My question to all you hatch-a-holics is, "has anyone ever tried to work an electric blanket into a brooder?" I'd really like to find some type of resistive-type heat source on the cheap.

BTW...I mean nothing bad with the hatch-a-holic comment. I fear I'm becoming one too. There really should be support groups and meetings. This is actually my first hatch. I've already started designing a homemade cabinet incy and picking out my next set of shipped eggs. What's the next holiday?

 

[SarahIrl]

Well I am done, or at least, am pulling the plug on the remaining goose eggs. One last pip during th enight, but was dead-in-shell by the time I had got dressed this morning. On closer inspection, it was massively swollen, like it had retained water or something, fairly gross to be honest, and I did not take a pic of it. I don't want to see what is in the other eggs to be honest, but will open all at the air cell end tonight to check they are no longer live before throwing out. Today is day 33. Any ideas why they would be watery looking like that? It's head was nearly twice as big as it should be and like jelly, ugh

So: total for me: 8/10 ducks, 2.5/7 for geese (currently 3 but one looks very weak, don't expect much from that one)

 

[SarahIrl]

Quote:
Heavens... place them under the broody!!! I wish I had two or three broodies about right now.

So far this year, when I have set chicken eggs, within a week the correspondin gchicken breed has gone broody. Let's see if they can keep it up! Set 13 eggs Monday night... and added two more Tuesday noon.

 

[thebirdguy]

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Mervin, check out Flexwatt tape online, I just bought some more 11" from http://www.reptilebasics.com/flexwatt-heat-tape/11-flexwatt-heat-tape/ This is the cheapest I have found it. I wire it directly to a digital thermostat in my 2 homemade incubators and plan to for a brooder next week when this order arrives. It works great!

 

[SarahIrl]

Quote:
Mervin, check out Flexwatt tape online, I just bought some more 11" from http://www.reptilebasics.com/flexwatt-heat-tape/11-flexwatt-heat-tape/ This is the cheapest I have found it. I wire it directly to a digital thermostat in my 2 homemade incubators and plan to for a brooder next week when this order arrives. It works great!

That flexwatt taoe looks fantastic. I am converting my 6 foot x 6 foot shed into tiered brooders this weekend, so am looking for something similar, am going to plan before I have to build out of neccesity for a change! Also going to build a dedicated indoor brooder for the first 48 hours out of incubator, as it gets very cool here at night. Basically, I need an acre of ground and a few hundred euros for timber, but we won't get that....!

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
Heavens... place them under the broody!!! I wish I had two or three broodies about right now.

I agree- I have 23 eggs under broodies now, and if any other broodies were ripe, I'd have more of them under there- but I've learned not to rush first time mommies into it, as they can change their minds...

 

[Mervin]

@thebirdguy

Thanks, that might do. I also looked at the Under Tank Pads on that site. They're pretty much exactly what I had in mind.

Personally, I think I'd prefer to use a rheostat as opposed to a thermostat in a brooder. Although I'm not really sure why I feel that way.

 

[daisychick]

thebirdguy: I just checked out that stuff and it looks really neat. I bet you could make a type of set up similar to the eco-glow and make one your self. Is it easy to wire a thermostat??

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
Mervin, check out Flexwatt tape online, I just bought some more 11" from http://www.reptilebasics.com/flexwatt-heat-tape/11-flexwatt-heat-tape/ This is the cheapest I have found it. I wire it directly to a digital thermostat in my 2 homemade incubators and plan to for a brooder next week when this order arrives. It works great!

What kind of thermostat do you recommend? I'm guessing there are far more affordable models than what they offer.