NY chicken lover!!!!

[Pyxis]

Does anyone have a Brinsea 20 incubator? How do you keep the humidity up? I have to refill my water trough every day because of the way the incubator is turned. All the water just spills out of the troughs and drains out the drain holes thanks to the angle of the turn.

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Morning all! Nice crisp morning. The cheeps were in a hurry to get out this morning. The heavy duty black rubber bowl seems to be working out good in the big coop. The cookie tin heater keeps it just warm enough that the water doesnt freeze. I think we will stick to using it for the winter. It stays clean as it is elevated. It will go back outside in the spring.

Brella--give the chick some time. Keep an eye on it and make sure it is eating and drinking and not being picked on. You did a good job getting it out without hurting it. Now its up to the chick.

Pyxis--I have one but not on a turner. My humidity stays up and I hand turn the eggs. Have had great hatches that way. I just turned mine twice a day when I was working that day and three times if I was home. Marked the eggs with an x and o so I would remember which side to turn it to.

Rancher--his real name is Fred Kittle. Nice guy. Gorgeous birds.

Off to the pharm today. Have a good day everyone!

 

[Cooped Up Chick]

Hello everyone, been a very long time since I've done more than read a few posts and man I had a LOT to go through. Needless to say I mostly skimmed.

I am very interested in the Poulin Feed topic though. Are you all using a specific formula? I'd love to talk about it some!

Marquisella - did you sell those black silky hens? Just pondering...

Glad to see some sunshine today! Makes the cold easier to live with

My poor roos also got frostbitten combs, so they will be joining the ranks of others this year. Any thoughts on if it was the brutal temps we've had, or is it a ventilation issue? (None of my girls have it that I have noticed.)

 

[Lynzi777]

Morning All!
It's a brisk -8 out there this morning! I went out to water everyone and make sure they all had food and could not believe how cold it was. Thank God there is no wind though! It gets so windy up here making it really miserable in these temps but I have to say I don't mind doing all the morning chores when it's this cold with no wind. I just remind myself it could be worse! I dumped a bunch of shavings and hay in the duck coop. it was looking pretty gross in there and I'm sure their feet are freezing. Silkies got more hay, Orps have enough, rabbits are covered and have made little burrows in their cages under the hay. Love it. Everyone's keeping warm!

 

[marquisella]

I have one of those little 4 shelf greenhouses, itching to pull it out again. Hubby and I were discussing getting grow lights, since we start our own seeds. But reaching to the window for light makes them too leggy and they usually break in the wind as soon as transplanted. Got plenty of leftover seeds, so going to put the seed money to growing supplies instead. Anyone have recommendations? We do have some fluorescent light fixtures in the garage that will be replaced, can we use those with the HO T5 or T8 bulbs? I seen CM has grow lights on sale, with a 20% sale next Friday, but want to keep costs down.

You can use plain flourescent lights. Keep them about 4 inches above plant tops. If you have to use window light, turn the plants around every day so they grow straight.

You can also put up a small fan to blow on them. That strengthens the stems so they don't fall over. Heres a tip to prevent dampening off...put sand as the top layer of your pots, the sand keeps the area when the plant stem enters the potting soil dryer.

And/or if you see the plants getting that fuzzy mold, put about 2 tablespoons of chlorox in a quart of water in spray bottle, & spray the plants. Amazingly enough, the chlorox kills the mold, but not the plant. I discovered this myself years ago when my plants got that fuzz, and I figured either the chlorox would cure it and if not, the plants were going to die anyhow. Surprizingly, those plants I sprayed grew better than the non-sprayed plants

...just some of my master gardener knowledge that I remember.

 

[marquisella]

Hello everyone, been a very long time since I've done more than read a few posts and man I had a LOT to go through. Needless to say I mostly skimmed.

I am very interested in the Poulin Feed topic though. Are you all using a specific formula? I'd love to talk about it some!

Marquisella - did you sell those black silky hens? Just pondering...

Glad to see some sunshine today! Makes the cold easier to live with

My poor roos also got frostbitten combs, so they will be joining the ranks of others this year. Any thoughts on if it was the brutal temps we've had, or is it a ventilation issue? (None of my girls have it that I have noticed.)

Yes, they are gone.

 

[rancher hicks]

Bree - only time will tell on the chick. My BR chicks is still here even though it hatched with the yolk sack by itself.

I have to figure on how to do the cookie tin heater for my rubber tubs but they're not in the coop. In the run. I break ice out every morning and lug 8 gallons of water in the wagon.

I really want to hatch and may just so I have traders for hay. I know I'm going to do it I don't know why I don' t just get on with it.

No sign of the Hawk this am so I left the doors open. I did see two turtle doves in the same tree the squirrel was in so that may be a good sign. I really need to get a pair of binoculars. And a good pellet gun.

I've not see any tracks of any kind lately. Rabbits or squirrels. Where the heck is Stonyhill when you need him. I'm sure he's got something to offer as to what's what.

He's probably built himself one of those "Sweat Lodges" out of snow and ice. Sitting there with the skin of some dead animal wrapped around his waist and with a jar of moon shine.

I borrowed the Nature movie on Raptors and it was pretty cool.

 

[rancher hicks]

Morning All!
It's a brisk -8 out there this morning! I went out to water everyone and make sure they all had food and could not believe how cold it was. Thank God there is no wind though! It gets so windy up here making it really miserable in these temps but I have to say I don't mind doing all the morning chores when it's this cold with no wind. I just remind myself it could be worse! I dumped a bunch of shavings and hay in the duck coop. it was looking pretty gross in there and I'm sure their feet are freezing. Silkies got more hay, Orps have enough, rabbits are covered and have made little burrows in their cages under the hay. Love it. Everyone's keeping warm!

CM has them on sale today. Not Nobles though. Still don't know what the deal is with them. Jeff at CM says they can't get the Nobles. Says there's some kind of problem. Anyone know?

 

[horsekeeper]

Does anyone have a Brinsea 20 incubator? How do you keep the humidity up? I have to refill my water trough every day because of the way the incubator is turned. All the water just spills out of the troughs and drains out the drain holes thanks to the angle of the turn.

I have the same incubator, but did not have that problem. Only filled the channels half full. To get humidity up I use those little cheap kitchen sponges that are about the size of an index card and cut them to size. Put them under the egg rack on the side and use a tablespoon to put water on them, or an eye dropper. Add a tablespoon and wait to see what the humidity is, then repeat until it is where you want it. The temp rebounds so quickly with the Brinsea that I didn't worry about taking the cover off to drip the water on the sponge.

Between Marquisella and the incubating articles on BYC I had great hatches last year with my own eggs. Mixed results with shipped and locally purchased eggs. I got the humidity up to 35% and then let it fall to 20% and stay there a day, then brought it back up to 35% each time until lockdown when I really soaked all the sponges to get it up in the 70s range. You need to let the humidity fall to let the air space increase or the chick will be too big to get out of the shell.

Did your Brinsea instructions recommend letting the eggs cool a little each day? Mine did. Just like when a hen gets off the stretch her legs and poop.

One of my persistent little cochin bantams just hatched two chicks in the house and she was off the nest for as much as an hour at a time.

 

[Xovan]

I go into lockdown this morning and am really worried about the air cell being to small. I read every thing I could find and kept the humidity between 40 and 50% the whole time. Next time we try I will keep it much lower. Here are a couple of pics from last night's final candle. All were alive and kicking.

Let me know what you think please.