Washingtonians

[herbandteas]

Quote:
I thought I saw her on last night

 

[Chickielady]

Hi all! I am driving up to Ogress' fortress on the hill today..and will not be on until maybe tomorrow morning..have fun & enjoy the sun!!

 

[marndan]

My hubby has half the coop done and it looks really nice.. He was a bit nervous about getting chickens but he has totally become a fan of the girls

 

[broodytood]

Quote:
I thought I saw her on last night

I"M ALIVE! Just had a week long conference last week and was going all week long. Because I was going all week long my house got TRASHED! So we are trying to dig out and at the same time take advantage of the dry weather. Garden is way behind schedule! I need to get the spot for the coops leveled out with our tractor but my DH loaned it out so it will have to wait. Probably get it back when the rain returns!

Big chick brooder got new shavings yesterday and that made the teenagers VERY happy! They were almost giddy.
I see there has been a lot of new peeps coming to join the chatty fun and that's great! WELCOME everyone!!!
CR- the eggs are as follows...1 clear...1(gulp) cracked and not looking so hot...2 that are developing just dandy. Lockdown in a wk and a half. Can't wait!
So I noticed that I got a Greeter thingy under my name. Does that stay there indefinitely? Cool

Enjoy the sun

and dryness for those of you that are going to be blessed by it! For the rest of you, we do feel you pain and hope you get some soon!

 

[SadieSue]

Quote:
2x what CR said.

There are only 4 factors about eggs that can cause issues.
1) heat
2) humidity
3) air
4) deformity or other health issue with the chick.

So if you had the temp at 100 at all times, humidity at right place, incubator is not sealed tight to cause lack of oxygen then most likely it is just something that was wrong with the chick embryo.

If there was to much humidity the chick would have been soggy with dripping fluids.
If there was not enough humidity then the membrane would have shrunk around the embryo.

The temp is relative since the embryo's temp is more stable then the air so opening the bator should not cause problems there. unless the egg was allowed to get the inside temp down to dangerous levels. (I don't know what the dangerous temp would be I try never to get below 90F.)

As long as you have some sort of air exchange oxygen should not be a issue. In homemade bators this means a vent down low and a vent up high to create a air flow.

The rest is up to genetics and big guy and that's something we have no control of and just IS.

of your 4 questions the only thing I can think is maybe to high humidity... but you can see that when you open the eggs. you will get a "water" that pours out and amounts to more then the egg white.

I have a Brinsea 20 Octo and it works really well, but I am thinking that there were a few times the humidity got too high. The book said 65% or higher....a few times after readding water it was has high as high 80s. I would lift lid and "burp" out the humidity. I did this until it got into the 70s. Maybe this was even too much and I need to be more careful on how I am adding water and what the humidity should be left at. I am on the brinsea FB, I think I will go and post and ask.

Heat was a constant 99.5-99.7.

Thank you for the information. All of this is helpful.

Thank you for asking the questions, and thank you RW for the information. I think when I set my next hatch I'll use a hygrometer so I'll know what's going on with the humidity during lock down. I'm wondering if after the first few chicks hatched that there wasn't enough humidity for the remaining few eggs.
Still so much to learn - but I'm pretty happy with my first time results.

 

[hallerlake]

Ideal called this morning. I was on their waiting list for Cream Brabanters. If any one were interested, I would go ahead and order them. They could pick them up here. I think I'd put in for a dozen straight run.

 

[broodytood]

Quote:
I have a Brinsea 20 Octo and it works really well, but I am thinking that there were a few times the humidity got too high. The book said 65% or higher....a few times after readding water it was has high as high 80s. I would lift lid and "burp" out the humidity. I did this until it got into the 70s. Maybe this was even too much and I need to be more careful on how I am adding water and what the humidity should be left at. I am on the brinsea FB, I think I will go and post and ask.

Heat was a constant 99.5-99.7.

Thank you for the information. All of this is helpful.

Thank you for asking the questions, and thank you RW for the information. I think when I set my next hatch I'll use a hygrometer so I'll know what's going on with the humidity during lock down. I'm wondering if after the first few chicks hatched that there wasn't enough humidity for the remaining few eggs.
Still so much to learn - but I'm pretty happy with my first time results.

My humidity always seems to spike as the chicks start hatching and then normalizes some. Maybe that has something to do with my hatcher being homemade.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Broody I hadn't noticed yer greeter award until you pointed it out. Congrats. About the eggs no big deal one way or another. Speaking of the garden stuff if you are interested in some horse manure / alder sawdust that has been "cooking" for a few years let me know. I might be able to hook ya up. You would need to have a way to haul it and either bring your tractor or come out when I can load it.

 

[broodytood]

Quote:
An old irish lady once said that horse is the best. Let me talk to Jeff and see if we can work it out. Thanks!
Gotta git out plant some veggies!

 

[Stumpfarmer]

There is a size after which slugs cease to be nummy treats and become Objects of Concern and Trepidation: the 5" European Black Slug which was gorging on Ian and Sylvia's feed today was well past that point. It was flushed, along with the ounce or so of chickenfeed in its tum.

I'm hoping that Ian won't insist that the feed dish be exorsized before he will eat from it again.

On the other hand, one of the shorthorns came to investigate the smell of spilling grain in the Hamburg pen, and the Roches lined up between the cow and their food. It was one of the smaller cows, but still, her head was bigger than the three of them together. And me without a camera.