NY chicken lover!!!!

[Pyxis]

I'm having a terrible time maintaining a constant humidity (acc. to my thermometer/hygrometer)!! Temp is great but I can have the humidity at 55 at 4 PM when I leave school. When I get back in at 8 AM, the humidity has gone down to the teens. The school turns down the heat overnight. Is that the issue? I'm using a hovabator 1588 genesis. Has a fan. If I actually fill the channels, it is too much moisture so I put in what I need to maintain 40-60% Am I worrying too much? Is the last 4 or 5 days the most critical for humidity. I have heard so many different responses as to the "correct" humidity, I don't know what to believe. At lockdown, is 70-80% good to maintain? I will try a sponge to see if that makes a difference in controlling the humidity. I have had some chicks in the past that were fully developed but never pipped or made it out. Why? My hatch rate can range from 86% down to 50% and I'm never quite sure why. I try to do the same things each time! Frustrated!
K.....

That should be fine - when the incubator runs dry before you fill it up again it's called a "dry hatch." That's how I do it. I let it run dry and then fill it up again. The last three days are the most critical and that's when you really need to worry about keeping the humidity up. Otherwise just monitor the air cells and adjust as needed. How are the eggs doing? Any signs of life yet?

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

Hi,

I just had a message and it all disappeared, starting over with much shorter message.

Hi, we live in Cazenovia. We got started in the crazy chicken adventure when my daughter who was turning 10 last year wanted to hatch some out. So, we got the Mini Brinsea while she researched what she wanted. She decided on Lavender Orpingtons. So, we ordered 7 eggs from e-bay,. Short story... 3 hatched despite our many mistakes. We ended up with only one hen, named Collette and two roosters Rocky and Ricky. We just recently sold Rocky and then my son who is 8 was honored when his teacher offered him her 3 baby chicks from the classroom, and well how could we say no. So, now Collette and Ricky who are the BEST chickens ever are waiting to hatch some of their own. We have 4 eggs in the incubator due May3rd, and some we are constantly rotating out of the basement waiting for Collette to go broody again. This is our first time hatching our own eggs trying both ways. Seeing we are so new to all this we are not sure what our hatch rate will be, but boy is it exciting! Here they are the pictures were taken yesterday, except for the baby chicks, and I don't have any of Lily yet.


Rocky and Luke Collette Come on babies, please be hens



When we got the babies we had no idea what they were. We ended up getting two silkies, Buttercup and Lily and one mystery Bantam named Chirpy.I think she is a EE, and yes we call them all girls till proven otherwise by there crowing. Boy are they silly, and fun to watch. Now I have to rethink the chicken logistics.


Chirpy Buttercup

Welcome to the site. (I live in DeRuyter) There are lots of great people here that can offer any kind of advice you can ever need, and if they don't know the answers they will be able point you in the right direction. There are lot to choose from, but all will be happy to chime in. You have a very lovely flock! We are the same way with our babies. They are girls until proven otherwise.

 

[wny egger]

Wow, this is a long thread! We are just starting our chicken-keeping journey. We live near Jamestown, NY and don't have any chickens yet - live on 1 acre and will be ordering chicks this spring! There are four of us (my husband Dennis, me (Leah), and our two boys, ages 6 and 8. And a Golden Retriever!

welcome ..we live in Lakewood..near the mall..i have 4 hens from last yr and I just got 18 new babys this spring ..what kind of birds are you guys planning on getting ..I see your avatar and I think I've seen your hubby around town ..lol...well welcome and if you guys need any help just ask ..someone always has an answer..

 

[why do birds]

Leahlefler

congrats! There is so much awesome information on here. It's wonderful!

Rancher, we'll get more

once we move. All kinds are fine with us. We'd be

if we ever got an egg! hahahaha. We don't have to worry as much about confinement, we have 37 acres and can fence off any amount for them. They will be happy. We can get them some kind of animal for protection, guinea fowl? guardian dog? Whatever we get we want to have fenced in and in heated area in winter so water doesn't freeze. We are discussing infrastructure at this time. Otherwise, the birds could be in the heated garage (radiant heat) once we build, until we get more appropriate housing.

 

[leahlefler]

Too funny, wny egger! We are not far from the mall - just above SWCS by the radio station. We are planning on getting 2 buff orpington chicks and 2 barred rock chicks from Meyer Hatchery (they allow a minimum order of 3 chicks).. starting small as we have never done this before! My kids go to SWES.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

First chick has hatched!!!! Little Speckled Sussex! Two more pips! This first little one has a bit of sticky shell membrane...not sure why, the humidity should be pretty decent. I closed the vent more and upped the water level a bit and am keeping an eye. The humidity shot up after it was born, but slowly descended again to about 60%. It was 50% for this chick's hatch.

In the meantime, I'm spending my afternoon refereeing children and trying to get my sons' white baseball pants white again. Why do they make baseball pants white? What schmuck thought it would be a good idea to make white baseball pants for children?

 

[WillowWispFarm]

Welcome Leahlfler! I'm also a new chicken owner, In a way I wish i kept my flock small, i started with 6 and now i'm up to 16 haha. I have 4 different kinda, red sex links, golden comets, tetra tints and buff cochin bantams i think. Everyone here has helped me out a lot along the way, and I decided if one of my bantams is a boy i'm keeping it and going to try to hatch me own chicks.
I also got a different brooder set up today so hopefully I wont have anymore chicks in my bed lol. Other then that just cleanings stalls, got my room cleaned. After stalls going to hang out with a friend, been pretty busy today.

 

[Pyxis]

Welcome newcomers! You'll find that this thread is full of awesome people who are always willing to help out. If you can, try to make it to our annual chickenstock on May 17th. It has its own thread and a lot of us will be there. There will be a raffle and lots of people will be selling things, including more chickens!

 

[Cass]

Welcome to all the new friends on the thread. Ask away....someone will know an answer or two.

I went to Tractor Supply today. Eeek. They have 9 khaki Campbell ducks for ONE DOLLAR each, if you take all 9. I ALMOST bought them. Then my sanity returned and I left them in the store. I LOOOOOVE ducks, but what the heck would I do with 9 more? Ducklings to boot, so I would need to set up the brooder and light and ...oh, you know the drill. I can't do it. I just can't. Can I?

 

[Pyxis]

Welcome to all the new friends on the thread.   Ask away....someone will know an answer or two.

I went to Tractor Supply today.  Eeek.  They have 9 khaki Campbell ducks for ONE DOLLAR each, if you take all 9.   I ALMOST bought them.  Then my sanity returned and I left them in the store.  I LOOOOOVE ducks, but what the heck would I do with 9 more?  Ducklings to boot, so I would need to set up the brooder and light and ...oh, you know the drill.  I can't do it.  I just can't.  Can I?

You're stronger than I am. Now that I have a second hoop coop, I keep reminding myself that I could easily put a second breed in there and keep them separate from my welsh harlequins so that everyone still stays pure...