NY chicken lover!!!!

[Sachasmom]

Can anyone recommend a good hygrometer? I've gone thru I dunno how many from Walmart and I didn't have one for this hatch. So far I have 7 Silkies out, I had to unstuck two more and there is a third thats cemented too. Does this mean my humidity is too low for the entire hatch, just for the lockdown period? No one put water in it for the four days I was gone before lockdown either, boo. I don't really have a room I can stick it in a run a humidifier or anything, its in the basement at the moment (On my changing table that I need if I ever get a room here cleaned out for the baby!)

I added water when I opened it to get the stuck chicks too, it was almost dry and I filled like all the wells two days ago! (Its a genesis incubator) I need an imcubator with automatic humidity, lol


And what is up with the SNOW???? I have so much to do outside it isn't even funny!

 

[marquisella]

Anyone in Central, NY have Lavendar Silkies? I'm looking for a trio.
I have a call into Doug from Canastota, don't know if he has lavendars or not though. But saw his ad for Silkies.

 

[marquisella]

Usually sticky chicks are due to too much humidity during the incubation before lockdown. The main reason for upping the humidity for the last couple of days is to soften the shell so its easier for the chick to break out. I use the dry hatching method and it works well for me. I only put water into my incubator once a week and let it go dry between times.
Then, I don't put my eggs into the hatcher until almost day 20. I use a Hovabator Genesis to hatch in, and just fill up the wells, shut it up, and don't open, if I can help it until the hatch is finished. If for some reason I have to open it before all the eggs have hatched, I try to make sure there are no pipped eggs or obvious cracks, and if there are, I mist all the eggs so the humidity goes back up quickly. If I see that one of the eggs isn't progressing, then its almost sure that openin g the hatcher while it was pipping, has sealed the chick sI take it out & free it. Which again, in turn, might stick other chicks that have cracked their shells, so its a never endind cycle....
I use the $11 grey hygrometers/thermometers from Walmart and they work fine for me.It took me a while before I realized I had to put the whole unit into the incubator in order to know what the humidity was, not just the probe....duh.

 

[featherz]

I'm trying a dry incubation this time too - mine's been running around 30%, then I'll up it at lockdown. So far the air cells look good, but we shall see.

Going to take pictures before they mess it up, but managed to move all my 'next generation' chicks out of the nasty dusty barn into the cleaned and refurbished coop that was emptied yesterday (sniff, I miss my chickens). New chicks are a bit cramped since I still have an isolation cage stuffed in there for the little ones, but hopefully can take that out soon. Not letting them outside yet but now they have decent natural light. There's too many chickens in the 7x8 coop (19), but I'll send a few away (some of the roos) when they get big enough to get crowded.

It's great to see their tiny little chicken brains process sunlight after staying in the barn, not to mention seeing all my big chickens crowding around my feet as I walked the newbies into the coop.

 

[Sachasmom]

I just keep killing those cheapy ones from Walmart, I think I have gone thru four of them? :O

They're not really "sticky", just cemented in the shells, like shrink wrapped? I had taken them out of the turner, added water, then had to add more water again and I think they started hatching later that day? I need to get some tubing or something so I can add more water w/o opening it up. I didn't have much luck with dry hatches at all here.

I was going to order Lavs silkie chicks later this month, I was going to get eggs, but I figured I didn't *really* need to kill $100 worth of eggs, or at least not until I can figure out what I keep doing wrong! Here I thought the Genesis would solve all my problems! Maybe I should move it upstairs?

 

[trilyn]

Doug got in touch with me today! I'm going to get 3 silkies from him - a white, black and partridge! If he has extra when I go to get them then maybe I'll get one more but for now I'll start with the three. I'm soooooooo excited!  He said he didn't mind holding 3 for me. I'm waiting on more details as to when some would be available for pick up. I told him I was looking for June but if they're young enough to keep in the brooder I can get them the end of May. 

Thank you Trish!!! 

 

You're so welcome! Have fun with the new babies...great colors! I'm goingback out there myself for more ducklings..lol!!

 

[Sachasmom]

I don't think Doug has Lav Silkies (If Doug is the breeder I see at all the auctions/shows, I always forget his name!) I need some Black black Silkies hens myself! (Or what I call plain old regular black, no lav genes and no "leaky" birds, lol) I got some blacks out of BBS lines, looks like a couple blacks hatched in this batch but I need something I can actually work with NOW, sigh. I should have been looking earlier but I was busy with the new baby...

 

[Sachasmom]

duplicate post

 

[featherz]

that reminds me, I have to go check on my eggs.

Here's the new digs for the chicks... as you can see, it's a bit crowded with that cage in there, but it's three month olds combined with 6+ week olds and they aren't playing nice yet. Once I get rid of the cage and the extra roos, should be better in there. Tomorrow I'll give the bigger ones some outside time in the run.

(the brown paper is on top of the cage to prevent the little ones from getting pooped on. I straightened it out a bit better after the pic.

 

[Aria]

Thanks. I sent Doug an email. Hopefully he will answer. Are you getting Chicks? Aria