She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[chicapee]

I usually only incubate white/light cream eggs, so candling has been easy. But I've got some darker, speckled eggs in my incubator now and I couldn't find the air cells or see much of anything. So I grabbed a cut down egg carton with a hole cut out in the bottom, that was sitting right next to the incubator and it worked awesome. So just throwing an easy candling idea out there.

Got it! Thank you. I needed a visual to get the full idea. I'm planning on trying this 100%. I pull up weeds around the yard and give them to the chickens, should I just leave the dried up stuff that they don't finish in there?My run floor is super bare!

I would leave it in there, while it is green it has alot of nitrogen when it goes brown it is carbon. The carbon helps neutralize and compost the poop, getting rid of the smell. Compost smells good as long as there is enough carbon.
They love to scratch in it too.

 

[scflock]

That's why I asked if you were opening them up. You have no idea why/when they died, right? Malposition, disfigured, upside down, inside out... I would have had to open those, but that's just me. I didn't open any of my last hatch. Well, I opened the air cell end to make sure they were dead, but I didn't dig into the membrane.

From what I saw in the candling, all died after day 18. I eggtopsied the last batch, and all non hatchers were fully developed, but DIS. I would have found the same thing this time, and didn't want to find one still alive in an egg because I would still have to cull it anyway. I'd rather just let the eggs cool off.
Blue to the core...

 

[scflock]

 

[lazy gardener]

I've actually been meaning to ask how everyone cleans out their runs. I rake all the poop out daily and then hose it down once or twice a week. Are you saying to leave all the poop in there?

I've NEVAH cleaned a run. Some folks take a tiller to them if they get compacted. Mine is a bit compacted around the new coop. That's because the new coop was built on heavy clay subsoil that never got raked/de-rocked enough, or had enough time last fall to get seeded to grass (We didn't get the coop finished until late November). So 1/2 of the run is nasty clay subsoil, that is getting reconditioned by adding all the compostables I can get my hands on. (the other half is weed/grass quite lush and healthy looking) We have a bagger on the lawn tractor, and that stuff is gold IMO. It goes where ever most needed. (on potatoes, in green house, in chicken run or chicken coop.)

I leave everything in the runs, but haven't thought about turning the coop litter into it. That would be a great idea, becuse the chickens already have it composted in the coop. It would work great in the bare runs and pens. I love that idea. It's so simple, but I never thought of it

If your litter is composted in the coop, be sure to leave a good base. Are your coops bare ground? Bee Kissed uses DL in bare ground coop, and NEVER takes any litter out unless she is harvesting it for the garden. She never has flies or odor in the coop. But, she free ranges exclusively, so doesn't have bare ground run issues to fix.

I use that Koop Clean straw (it's just straw treated with pdz) in the coop, so I would dump that into the run and just leave it in the run? No more cleaning the run out everyday?

Yes. That stuff would be gold in the run. PDZ is Zeolite. It binds nitrogen (thus no ammonia smell in the coop) and slowly releases it. I've never used it, but IMO, think it would be fun to try in a heavy nitrogen based compost situation. The more organics you can get in your run, the healthier your run will be (unless you already have a healthy crop of grass/weeds). I'd be happy to have a 6" layer. If I had a 6" base in my run, the next thing I'd do would be to collect an army of earth worms and introduce them at night or in rainy weather. (so they can get some good soil penetration before the chickens find them in the morning.)

You're too young... RB

I got it... Reminds me of the dyslexic agnostic. He never did figure out if there really was a Dog.

I usually only incubate white/light cream eggs, so candling has been easy. But I've got some darker, speckled eggs in my incubator now and I couldn't find the air cells or see much of anything. So I grabbed a cut down egg carton with a hole cut out in the bottom, that was sitting right next to the incubator and it worked awesome. So just throwing an easy candling idea out there.

Got it! Thank you. I needed a visual to get the full idea. I'm planning on trying this 100%. I pull up weeds around the yard and give them to the chickens, should I just leave the dried up stuff that they don't finish in there?My run floor is super bare!

Yep. Get that bare gound covered!!!

I wound up at 55%. I think Amy is safe until I start incubating the cuckoo marans in the January. Those are my 95% eggs.
I really need to figure out how to get better rates. These BCM are in high demand around here, so if I'm tying the incubator up for 3 weeks at a time, I need to get more than 10 or 11 chicks. If this hatch doesn't do any better, I may read the link that Ruby posted again. That one was suggesting incubating at 55%. I just can't imagine that would work with those dark eggs, but I had read it on the Brinsea site before. I may have to try it.
I just don't get it, because the chicks that did hatch are so healthy. None of the post hatch deaths like I had last time. It's not a rooster issue, because the eggs were fertile. Could be health issues with the chicks. I just don't know. I've read that BCM can be tough to hatch, but surely it's not like this all of the time

If you're doing BCM, why are you doing CM? My understanding is that the CM don't have any near the dark egg color that the BCM do. If you're incubating your own eggs, you have nothing to loose but time by experimenting with your humidity. Now, if your chicks are dying during lock down, I'm wondering if the egg is too wet... or the chicks are too big and malpositioned (good enough reason for an eggtopsy right there). My first hatch this spring had quite a few DIS. (final hatch was 19/28 I think.) I did open up a few and decided that they were either too wet or possibly malpositioned. I didn't do a complete eggtopsy on all of them, b/c I didn't want to look at all that death. BUT, with the next hatch, I left them on their sides UNTIL lock down. Then, because I didn't like the size of the air cells, I put them in egg cartons for the hatch. That ended up being the best hatch ever!

From what I saw in the candling, all died after day 18. I eggtopsied the last batch, and all non hatchers were fully developed, but DIS. I would have found the same thing this time, and didn't want to find one still alive in an egg because I would still have to cull it anyway. I'd rather just let the eggs cool off.
Blue to the core...

Just for grins and giggles, and to humor me, try putting your next hatch in egg cartons (if that's even possible with your Brinsea.

 

[WalnutHill]

I've actually been meaning to ask how everyone cleans out their runs. I rake all the poop out daily and then hose it down once or twice a week. Are you saying to leave all the poop in there?

I don't clean my runs. I use pelletized gypsum when the chickens pack the soil when it's wet, and once it's crumbly again they till it about 6" making their dust baths.

When I clean the wood pellets or shavings from the brooders, I dump it in the hen yard and they till that in too. I also throw garden thinnings and weeds in there, they eat most of it and what little is left breaks down.

All this leaves the dirt in the run higher than the surrounding soil, which is great at helping to keep the run dry.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I was the girl that went on stage to dance with him. I was also on the BBC news for about 20 years sitting on some random guys shoulders. The news crew used the concert as part of their intro. I guess I got more than 15 mins of fame. Ha.

You're Courtney Cox?

You stole my thunder again!!

That is exactly what I was going to say!! (W/o the hearts.)

 

[scflock]

I've NEVAH cleaned a run.  Some folks take a tiller to them if they get compacted.  Mine is a bit compacted around the new coop.  That's because the new coop was built on heavy clay subsoil that never got raked/de-rocked enough, or had enough time last fall to get seeded to grass (We didn't get the coop finished until late November).  So 1/2 of the run is nasty clay subsoil, that is getting reconditioned by adding all the compostables I can get my hands on.  (the other half is weed/grass quite lush and healthy looking)   We have a bagger on the lawn tractor, and that stuff is gold IMO.  It goes where ever most needed.  (on potatoes, in green house, in chicken run or chicken coop.)

If your litter is composted in the coop, be sure to leave a good base.  Are your coops bare ground?  Bee Kissed uses DL in bare ground coop, and NEVER takes any litter out unless she is harvesting it for the garden.  She never has flies or odor in the coop.  But, she free ranges exclusively, so doesn't have bare ground run issues to fix.

Yes.  That stuff would be gold in the run.  PDZ is Zeolite.  It binds nitrogen (thus no ammonia smell in the coop) and slowly releases it.  I've never used it, but IMO, think it would be fun to try in a heavy nitrogen based compost situation.  The more organics you can get in your run, the healthier your run will be (unless you already have a healthy crop of grass/weeds).  I'd be happy to have a 6" layer.  If I had a 6" base in my run, the next thing I'd do would be to collect an army of earth worms and introduce them at night or in rainy weather.  (so they can get some good soil penetration before the chickens find them in the morning.)

  I got it... Reminds me of the dyslexic agnostic.  He never did figure out if there really was a Dog.

Yep.  Get that bare gound covered!!!

If you're doing BCM, why are you doing CM?  My understanding is that the CM don't have any near the dark egg color that the BCM do.  If you're incubating your own eggs, you have nothing to loose but time by experimenting with your humidity.  Now, if your chicks are dying during lock down, I'm wondering if the egg is too wet... or the chicks are too big and malpositioned (good enough reason for an eggtopsy right there).  My first hatch this spring had quite a few DIS.  (final hatch was 19/28 I think.)  I did open up a few and decided that they were either too wet or possibly malpositioned.  I didn't do a complete eggtopsy on all of them, b/c I didn't want to look at all that death.  BUT, with the next hatch, I left them on their sides UNTIL lock down.  Then, because I didn't like the size of the air cells, I put them in egg cartons for the hatch.  That ended up being the best hatch ever!

Just for grins and giggles, and to humor me, try putting your next hatch in egg cartons (if that's even possible with your Brinsea.

My coops all have solid floors. I clean them out once a year, and leave about 25% in the coop to seed the new.
My cuckoos are my biggest sellers, but that was before I got the BCM. Their eggs are nowhere near as dark, but they are great layers and I can sex them young. I can sell 6 week old pullets for $15, so I'm getting a decent price without feeding them too long, and I'm getting over 90% hatch rate out of those. The BCM will be big sellers, but not for much more money. SQ doesn't bring much more around here. I hope to be successfully hatching Ams by then as well, so next year I can focus my hatching on those 3 breeds.
An Octagon for for an additional incubator is not out of the question for next year, either.
I may try the cartons. I've thought about it before, because that would be easier than the rails. I would have to do some trimming, but they would fit

 

[scflock]

You stole my thunder again!!     That is exactly what I was going to say!!  (W/o the hearts.)

Get off my coat tails

 

[RubyNala97]

I wound up at 55%. I think Amy is safe until I start incubating the cuckoo marans in the January. Those are my 95% eggs.
I really need to figure out how to get better rates. These BCM are in high demand around here, so if I'm tying the incubator up for 3 weeks at a time, I need to get more than 10 or 11 chicks. If this hatch doesn't do any better, I may read the link that Ruby posted again. That one was suggesting incubating at 55%. I just can't imagine that would work with those dark eggs, but I had read it on the Brinsea site before. I may have to try it.
I just don't get it, because the chicks that did hatch are so healthy. None of the post hatch deaths like I had last time. It's not a rooster issue, because the eggs were fertile. Could be health issues with the chicks. I just don't know. I've read that BCM can be tough to hatch, but surely it's not like this all of the time

If I were you, I would be reading hardcore about hatching BCMs. I'm pretty tempted to start reading myself. Lol. If I come across anything worth reading, I'll send it your way. Take lots of notes on each hatch so you can start eliminating things you've already tried and look for areas where you can try something new. I'm sure that's all pretty obvious, but I love taking on a challenge and they seem pretty challenging, so far. And I know you think this is not "blue" but it would be really interesting to see the results if you sanded half the eggs and then compared the results from each half.

That's exactly what my pen floors looked like until I started adding the lawn clippings and leaves. I really like the idea of putting the coop litter in there. I can see where that would be very beneficial.
I throw in as much greenage as I can. That's why I'm glad we can grow greens in the winter down here. They will last until I get my spring garden planted

I would leave it in there, while it is green it has alot of nitrogen when it goes brown it is carbon. The carbon helps neutralize and compost the poop, getting rid of the smell. Compost smells good as long as there is enough carbon.
They love to scratch in it too.

I wish we would have talked about this sooner. I've dumped so much liter in the woods. Between the chick batches and the peachicks, I could have had the run filled a couple months ago! I think it will be better for winter too. As the ground freezes here and I was worried about frost bitten toes. I think it will help for them to be walking around on a barrier layer between the ground.

 

[sideWing]

It did have large talons