The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Bulldogma]

don't give up yet. You never know. With an LG once youget the temp where you want it don't touch that little knob. Too touchy. Next time put the LG in a box. I built a wooden box but many just place it in a cardboard box.
I have never dry hatched. I always just water the well and try not to pay attention to what the hygrometer says. FYI eh you open the bator for any reason, like putting in eggs, adding water it can take an hour or 2 before the total internal temp of the bator stabilizes. That is why you need to leave the temp knob alone. It will rebound on it's own.

Good advice - I will look for a box and once I get the temps where they are supposed to be, I will leave the darn knob ALONE! LOL. I think I got worried after candling when it seemed to take so long for the temps to come back up - - I hypothesized that perhaps something had become amiss when I raised the lid, so I readjusted it. BAD move. Next time I'll just be more patient... Patience for things like this has never been a strong point of min. I'm great with kids and animals, but not patient with electronics and such. Silly me!

how long should I quarantine?

At least 10 days to 2 weeks, but some quarantine longer. I end quarantine after 14 days if the birds have looked healthy the entire time and shown no signs of respiratory issues or infestations. If one ever so much as sneezed, quarantine would be a bit longer! I have some in quarantine now - I'm keeping my eye on one that may or may not have sneezed today. They've already been inspected for health - no mites I could see but possibly scaly leg mites - all have had a precautionary slathering of NuStock on the legs and will have a few more slatherings before being allowed out of quarantine. Otherwise they appear very healthy, shiny and active. Took to the FF right away - no adjustment necessary. They gobble it down like it's the best stuff EVER! Of course they are Dark Cornish, so eating comes naturally to them - LOL!

This sounds like my post. I don't think the dry hatch has anything to do with our troubles. Last year I hatched nearly 100 % without adding any water. No sticky chicks or ones that were soaking wet.
this time my temps were so constant, I couldn't believe it until Evan my grandson adjusted it for me. It might have gone 8 hours (or less) at 90 degrees. In the beginning, he adjusted only it went high, no longer than an hour. I'm wondering if mine won't hatch tomorrow, late. Last incubation, my temps were a little higher and they actually hatched on day 20. So maybe this time since they were lower they will come tomorrow. I had candled on day 7 and day 16. They were growing. The blue and green I could only tell if there was an air sac and even that was hard to see. Lets just keep our fingers crossed. I use the milk cap too but I draw a line with a black marker down the white shaft of the original knob so I can see if it was moving or not. No crying, put the tears away. We'll just try again. Sue

I have no idea how long the temps were at 105 - I know it was not longer than 30 minutes or so, but...

For most of the incubation, the temps were 99-100... perfect! But then there were those darn spikes and the mess with trying to get the humidity just right. I think the biggest problem with this go-round was that I fretted about it too much! LOL! I fretted, and then I messed with stuff and I should have just left it all alone! That's what I'm going to do next time. I'm going to get the temps set ahead of time, and ignore the temps after that! I'll candle at 7 days and at 18 days and I won't worry as much about the humidity at lockdown. I'll put a sponge in directly under the vent and drip some water into it if it's crazy-dry, but leave it the heck alone otherwise.

Live and learn!

 

[delisha]

That is all you can do..practice

Your house is diffferent than everyones and it all depends on air cells and house humidity. You will find what works for you. After a while you will get 99-100% hatches in your lock down eggs.

If my eggs make it to lock down..they are going to hatch.

 

[delisha]

I would never introduce an adult bird into my flock with anything other than 4 weeks. I keep them separate for two weeks, than I put one of my birds in with them for the next two weeks.

I do this for several reasons.

My flock has its own resistance, so do the new flock. If the new birds had an outbreak of something like pox, they would never show signs. They could be just carriers the disease. Same with tons of other diseases. Most diseases do not rear its ugly head until another bird is exposed.

If my birds get the new birds ill, I just sacrificed one of my birds and would cull the whole new flock with it.

 

[Mumsy]

That is all you can do..practice

Your house is diffferent than everyones and it all depends on air cells and house humidity. You will find what works for you. After a while you will get 99-100% hatches in your lock down eggs.

If my eggs make it to lock down..they are going to hatch.

I wrote an article today about my incubator set up for Bulldogma and for that thing. Ten more days for me until lockdown.

I candled at day seven and have 100% viable embryos and the air cells look perfect. I'm doing a lot of things different for this set. It seems to be working. I keep my bator in the same card board box bottom it came in. I run my set up for two days straight with everything in it but the eggs until it registers correctly.
I am on page with you delisha. If my eggs make it to lock down..they are going to hatch. I won't give up. I WILL get it to work each and every time.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Does Azure Standard do poultry food? I just went there, and I only saw Human consumption things on their website. I struck out with Courntryside Organics, as there was no group in my area.

Yes...but I see they use canola oil which I also avoid (picky, picky...).

I think most of the folks I know using Azure are buying organic grains and mixing their own feed.

http://www.azurestandard.com/shop/product/10220/

http://www.azurestandard.com/shop/product/843/

 

[delisha]

When are you due to hatch Mumsy? We are probably close to hatching together. That will be fun! I will candle next Tuesday and than I will know how many will hatch. The hard part is over.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I would never introduce an adult bird into my flock with anything other than 4 weeks. I keep them separate for two weeks, than I put one of my birds in with them for the next two weeks.

I do this for several reasons.

My flock has its own resistance, so do the new flock. If the new birds had an outbreak of something like pox, they would never show signs. They could be just carriers the disease. Same with tons of other diseases. Most diseases do not rear its ugly head until another bird is exposed.

If my birds get the new birds ill, I just sacrificed one of my birds and would cull the whole new flock with it.

I'm glad you re-posted that method. It is such good common sense - and you're the only person I've heard that mentioned doing it by putting one of you birds in with the new birds instead of the other way around. I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I think that is brilliant.




(Should have thought of it myself

)

 

[Bulldogma]

I would never introduce an adult bird into my flock with anything other than 4 weeks. I keep them separate for two weeks, than I put one of my birds in with them for the next two weeks.

I do this for several reasons.

My flock has its own resistance, so do the new flock. If the new birds had an outbreak of something like pox, they would never show signs. They could be just carriers the disease. Same with tons of other diseases. Most diseases do not rear its ugly head until another bird is exposed.

If my birds get the new birds ill, I just sacrificed one of my birds and would cull the whole new flock with it.

I have to agree that this is the best way to do quarantine I've heard of! Only issue with the birds I have quarantined now is that putting one of my current flock members in with them would be a sacrifice by itself - my current flock members are about half the size of these new Dark Cornish monsters - LOL. If I put a Swedish Flower in with them, the new guys might think I was feeding them!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:

Hmmmm....I guess it DOES help if the chickens are somewhat close in size and aggression level.

 

[Mumsy]

When are you due to hatch Mumsy? We are probably close to hatching together. That will be fun! I will candle next Tuesday and than I will know how many will hatch. The hard part is over.

This set is due to hatch Feb 9th. I do my fourteen day candle on this coming Friday. It will be fun to hatch together! One of my favoritess things to do on BYC is finding hatching buddies.