Our Journey into chicks

[Bukrub66]

We came home with another chick today. Found a lady with day old Olive eggers. Dang thing is a bully so I had to partition off the brooder. LOL. I'll put them back together when my little one is stronger.

What should I have the temp of the brooder at? I had a 250w heat lamp but that had the temp at 102f, I replaced it with a 60 watt, but that dropped it to 90. I have a 72 watt in now and it been lowered some. Temp is 92 and climbing and the chicks are finally quiet.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

We came home with another chick today. Found a lady with day old Olive eggers. Dang thing is a bully so I had to partition off the brooder. LOL. I'll put them back together when my little one is stronger.

What should I have the temp of the brooder at? I had a 250w heat lamp but that had the temp at 102f, I replaced it with a 60 watt, but that dropped it to 90. I have a 72 watt in now and it been lowered some. Temp is 92 and climbing and the chicks are finally quiet.

What I read and went by was 90-95 for the first week and then drop the temp 5 degrees every week until you are at normal room temp.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

If your brooder is big enough that the 'circle of light" doesn't cover the whole thing they can move in and out of the light as needed to get warm or cool off.

 

[Aphrael]

Yep, you should shoot for about 95 degrees the first week. But as AmyLynn said, it is best not to try to heat the entire brooder to that temp. Just have one area that is heated and the rest just room temp. They can go in and warm up and then go explore in the regular temps, just like they would with a mama hen. They only snuggle under her when they get chilly, then they are off exploring their world again.

 

[Bukrub66]

This morning my chick is finally eating and drinking. It's walking around good without stumbling. I removed the divider and let the 2 chicks duke it out a bit. They have seemed to arrived at a mutual understanding and seem to be fine now pecking at each other some bit not near the picking that was happening yesterday.

The 75 watt bulb is holding the temp at 97f under the light and 83 at the other end. So I think we are good there. The rest of the eggs are still in the incubator, but I'm certain they are not going to hatch. Still undecided if I'm gonna autopsy them.

Gonna start some quail egg this week and try dry incubating this time.

Thanks so much for everyone's help and support. I will be moving my chicken story over to the Swedish Flower thread. Been a pleasure speaking with y'all.

 

[Aphrael]

This morning my chick is finally eating and drinking. It's walking around good without stumbling. I removed the divider and let the 2 chicks duke it out a bit. They have seemed to arrived at a mutual understanding and seem to be fine now pecking at each other some bit not near the picking that was happening yesterday.

The 75 watt bulb is holding the temp at 97f under the light and 83 at the other end. So I think we are good there. The rest of the eggs are still in the incubator, but I'm certain they are not going to hatch. Still undecided if I'm gonna autopsy them.

Gonna start some quail egg this week and try dry incubating this time.

Thanks so much for everyone's help and support. I will be moving my chicken story over to the Swedish Flower thread. Been a pleasure speaking with y'all.

Glad they've worked things out between them.

Those temps sound great. They should be some happy little campers.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

This morning my chick is finally eating and drinking. It's walking around good without stumbling. I removed the divider and let the 2 chicks duke it out a bit. They have seemed to arrived at a mutual understanding and seem to be fine now pecking at each other some bit not near the picking that was happening yesterday.

The 75 watt bulb is holding the temp at 97f under the light and 83 at the other end. So I think we are good there. The rest of the eggs are still in the incubator, but I'm certain they are not going to hatch. Still undecided if I'm gonna autopsy them.

Gonna start some quail egg this week and try dry incubating this time.

Thanks so much for everyone's help and support. I will be moving my chicken story over to the Swedish Flower thread. Been a pleasure speaking with y'all.

I did not "eggtopsy" my eggs after my first hatch, I have since regretted that decision and wish I had. If for no other reason than to make sure that I was not tossing a still live chick.

 

[Aphrael]

I did not "eggtopsy" my eggs after my first hatch, I have since regretted that decision and wish I had. If for no other reason than to make sure that I was not tossing a still live chick.

I always eggtopsy mine, for a couple of reasons. I want to try to learn as much as I can about what went wrong, so I know if I might be able to change anything to make it better next time. And, like you, I cannot stand the thought of throwing them out without knowing with absolute certainty that there is not anything alive in there. I've read too many horror stories of people throwing out eggs they were sure must be dead and there had been a live chick inside. That would just break my heart.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I always eggtopsy mine, for a couple of reasons. I want to try to learn as much as I can about what went wrong, so I know if I might be able to change anything to make it better next time. And, like you, I cannot stand the thought of throwing them out without knowing with absolute certainty that there is not anything alive in there. I've read too many horror stories of people throwing out eggs they were sure must be dead and there had been a live chick inside. That would just break my heart.

I've since thought "What if they weren't gone?" It was day 25 or 26 I believe when I gave up. I was so disappointed and had heard 'anything that hatched that late will most likely die' and after having only two hatch and one so weak it did die (they hatched on the 24&25 days) I didn't think I could handle it. The thermometer ended up being 6 degrees off. It was cooler than it was reading, so that's why the bad hatch. But I still could kick myself cause now I wonder.... I will be doing eggtopsies from now on, just to ease my mind.

 

[Aphrael]

I've since thought "What if they weren't gone?" It was day 25 or 26 I believe when I gave up. I was so disappointed and had heard 'anything that hatched that late will most likely die' and after having only two hatch and one so weak it did die (they hatched on the 24&25 days) I didn't think I could handle it. The thermometer ended up being 6 degrees off. It was cooler than it was reading, so that's why the bad hatch. But I still could kick myself cause now I wonder.... I will be doing eggtopsies from now on, just to ease my mind.

Yikes! 6 degrees? That's a lot. Was it the thermometer that came in the 'bator? I've read a lot of people saying those are often completely unreliable. You'd think that incubator manufacturers would have a bit more interest in making sure they were at least somewhat accurate. I mean, why even bother including a thermometer on them at all, if they just put in ones that can mess up people's hatches so badly? It fairly boggles the mind.