Michigan

[NovaAman]

Ok... I gorfot to ask earlier... IF Mr Fluffers is mounting Miss Legs, she should be laying eggs right?

 

[theron]

Had one little chick hatch in the incubator today. It is a tiny Blue Laced Red Wyandotte Bantam. Hoping for another couple chicks to hatch especially some serama eggs.

 

[Olive Hill]

Nova -- Fluorescents don't give off heat. It'll just provide them with light. As for the pullet, not necessarily. Some roosters are just indiscriminately randy.

Theron -- Good luck with your hatch!

 

[theron]

never mind.... Candled the rest of them and none are dark at all. I guess we have one lonely chick. How do you raise a chick by itself? We have never had just one chick before.

ETA: Let me rephrase that. We have had single chicks hatch, but under a broody. We have not hatched a single chick in the incubator before.

 

[chicken grandma]

Do florescent lights have teflon on them to prevent shattering/scattering?

Our vet told me to make sure the lights I put in the coop have NO TEFLON on them at all to make them shatterproof.
Here is why. At our local zoo they lost a whole aviary of birds at once - lung hemorrage. It was the teflon in the lights in the aviary. They had been using those same lightbulbs all Winter but when it warmed up in the Spring and hit a certain warmer temperature - Bam - emough heat was generated to cause the teflon to give off fumes/gas and cause sudden death.

This happens pretty regularly to folks who put their pet birds near the kitchen and then use the teflon pans.

But I was surprised that some light bulbs have teflon. So I have been making sure to read the box really well, and I try to get lights that are specifically for use with animals. I guess the zoo workers got their lights at the hardware store.


Theron - maybe someone has a broody?

SJ - did your plastic hold up in our high winds! Congrats on getting so much done!

When did you all go from chick starter to flock raiser? My chicks are coming up on 6 weeks now.

 

[Opa]

Theron, I had a blue Andalusian that was the sole survivor from a hatch at this time of the year. Hope was afraid that it was too cold in the coop so the bird would up in the house for the entire winter. She chirped constantly unless we were in the room with her. Plus the dust she generated was horrendous. She did get handled alot and would calm right down. Spring came and we placed her with the rest of the flock. Every time we would go out to the coop she would come running, wanting to be picked up. I don't think she knew she was a chicken. It was a couple of months before she finally intergrated with the others. She was the only bird we ever named and was called "Blue the former house chicken". Naturally she had to be one of the two birds I lost to hawks last year.

 

[taprock]

theron - we had a single bantam salmon faverolle hatch. She never really seemed lonely. We put her in a box for a brooder and kept her in the living room so she got lots of attention. We gave her an old cd so she could see herself, a stuffed animal and she was fine. She did make it known when she wanted to be held. Like Opa's she really didn't know she was a chicken. When she was a month old we put her with 3 standard week old chicks and she was scared to death of them. It took a week before she would sleep next to them. We have a single button quail in a tank in the front room right now. I just feel bad for only chicks - but they do end up spoiled.

 

[DaughterOfEve]

my only lone chick dilema had me driving 50 miles to pick up another lone chick found through mutual friends. After they were together a week another lady called me declaring she had a lone chick in need of buddies and I drove 20 miles to get that one. I guess that made me the Lone Ranging chicken lady that spring. Good luck.

 

[Olive Hill]

Chicken Grandma -- Did your vet specifically say they had used fluorescent lights in the case he cited? Something just doesn't seem right about that. The lowest temperature they have found to be sufficient in releasing chemicals into the air such that it has killed birds is 325 degrees in a practical environment (the zoo is not the only place, broilers farms and individuals have lost birds, too). From the cases I've seen anyway, the 325 degrees was the lowest documented. I guess I've never measured the temp of a fluorescent bulb when it's been running but I have touched them after they've been on for weeks at a time and they're not that hot. I tend to be sensitive to heat and I can easily unscrew one barehanded. Generally this is a problem with incandescent, metal halide and heat lamp bulbs which get much, much hotter.

At any rate, I do believe the coated bulbs are pretty much always labeled as PTFE Coated, Teflon Coated, Shatter Resistant, etc. because for other uses it's actually a selling point -- for shop lights, etc people would like the shatter resistant feature. Of course, if you don't have the packaging ... it's anyone's guess as I guess the lightbulb itself wouldn't include that info. I do think the PTFE coating on bulbs is a fairly new thing though so if they were old shop lights... anybody know when they first started selling the coated bulbs?

 

[dianaross77]

Quote:
You can give it to Fred... she's lonely!

She's given me 4 eggs so far. It's only a matter of time before she goes broody. I'm hoping she does in the spring. I want to add chicks to my laying flock and would love it if she'll take care of them for me.