- Dec 27, 2017
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My Wife and I are avid AnimalLovers with a special love and focus for Birds and Dogs. We have lots of hobbies, but Birds are #1.
So we have had a few Chooks (Chooks are an Australian Nick name for Chickens) at a time. Usually about 4 Chooks over the years. We never had too many because we don't really eat the eggs very much. We just like having them as pets. We used to always buy them as 1 or 2-day old hatchlings. We would raise them indoors in a children's play pen until about 10 weeks old, then we kick them outside. Meanies!
We never kept roosters so that we would not bother the neighbours. But the neighbour who this would have bothered has now gone and we now have a Rooster named "Cheif". He's a Good boy. He really looks after the Girls quite well.
So our Two Girls are Named Liquorice and "Little Red" (We used to have a "Big Red") Little Red was one of those Chooks that if you let her, will brood for months without eating and/or drinking. you have to bring food and water to her, or else she will get very, very sick and look like she will die. She wanted to be a Mummy Sooooo much.
Anyway, we got a Rooster (Cheif) and we didn't any research about when they would mate, and if they did how old would chief need to be before he would not be firing blanks.
To cut a long story a little shorter Chief got little Red Fertilised and she hatched 3 eggs. We don't know what happened to the first, we suspect a crow may have gotten in there or something. there wasn't much left of it. The second clearly had a fetus, but it was dead and already had some maggots.
Take a step back. I go out to check on her one day, and she was not there (Highly un usual for her) But at this stage I'm thinking she has just given up for a while and has gone off to look for food and water. Then I heard some chirping. I look around the corner and there is little red, with this one little hatchling. We named her "Hope" because little red had hoped for a baby for many years.
Liquorice had been seen mating with chief. But liquorice has never been as much of a brooder as little red was. So when we saw liquorice brooding we figured we should keep an eye out for her, incase she doesntBrood properly.
so she laid an egg, she stayed for only about half a day. I was worried the eggs would get too cold, so I took 6 of them for incubation.
of the 6 Egg's 4 of them have fired up. the other two had an air sack, a yoke, and a very faint partial Blood ring. the other 4 appear to be at approximately Day 6-7 of development. I "Set" them on the 21st exactly 7 days ago. So does this mean they took 24 hours to get going?
Oh BTW, I see movement, lots of really fat looking blood vessels. I good sized air sac (Taking approx 20% of volume)
The problem is that my incubator is homemade from a Sony Playstation Cardboard box. The thermostat is one of those or very similar to the STC-1000 from eBay. I have it set to hover +/-1 degree C from 38c. However, I may have been measuring the temperature from the wrong spot. I have had the thermocouple (Sensor) on the ground at the base of the eggs (Oh yes, the heating element is a 40w Reptile heat mat.) I now realise the Probe should have been suspended in the middle to read the air temperature.
I have measured the surface of the eggs and am getting readings as low as 34C. So I am now thinking my IR Thermometer is highly inaccurate. Because if the eggs were truly only 34C they would either not kick off at all or development would halt quite early on, before now. But they are not, for all intensive purposes they seem to be in good health. Humidity I am controlling by feel, but don't worry, I am an amateur meteorologist, and over the 20 or so years I've been chasing thunderstorms I have become quite good at reading Moisture levels by feel.
I would really love some advice about where to from here with my Eggs and DIY Incubator. I am absolutely TERRIFIED of Deformed Hatchlings arriving. I am 6'2" Tall, I weigh 95KG (A little heavy) I'm covered in bad tattoos. I have half my teeth missing. In other words, any stranger would probably be a little wary of me, but the truth is, I can not kill a suffering hatchling, I can not kill a rooster. I love animals so much that I see a tiny little soul in each and every one of them. I was always that way. I'm 43 years old-ish. But at about the age of 25, I started going through many dramatic cognitive changes. One of them was a deep love for animals. That attitude or behaviour grew and grew to the point where I can not harm ANY animals at all. It causes me great distress and anxiety. I have to look away when certain things are played on the news. Know what I mean.
So my point is I really must do everything I can to avoid any harm coming to these eggs. I am frustratingly finding myself connecting with or bonding with somehow those undeveloped embryos. Is this normal? Are my feelings and instincts going too far and too carried away? lol. Me chuckles. I really don't know how to reel this back in now.
My wife now has a better stomach for these things now. I just can't even handle the thought of harm to animals.
So a couple of questions may help:
Would Embryos still develop at just 34 to 35 degrees C, if yes, what will happen? Other than them just being late? Will they be born with their stomachs on the outside? Only one leg, one eye or one wing? A Hole in the heart? Only one Kidney? Things like that. Anything that could cause the bird pain or cause it to need euthanising?
Thanks, people. Great to be here
So we have had a few Chooks (Chooks are an Australian Nick name for Chickens) at a time. Usually about 4 Chooks over the years. We never had too many because we don't really eat the eggs very much. We just like having them as pets. We used to always buy them as 1 or 2-day old hatchlings. We would raise them indoors in a children's play pen until about 10 weeks old, then we kick them outside. Meanies!
We never kept roosters so that we would not bother the neighbours. But the neighbour who this would have bothered has now gone and we now have a Rooster named "Cheif". He's a Good boy. He really looks after the Girls quite well.
So our Two Girls are Named Liquorice and "Little Red" (We used to have a "Big Red") Little Red was one of those Chooks that if you let her, will brood for months without eating and/or drinking. you have to bring food and water to her, or else she will get very, very sick and look like she will die. She wanted to be a Mummy Sooooo much.
Anyway, we got a Rooster (Cheif) and we didn't any research about when they would mate, and if they did how old would chief need to be before he would not be firing blanks.
To cut a long story a little shorter Chief got little Red Fertilised and she hatched 3 eggs. We don't know what happened to the first, we suspect a crow may have gotten in there or something. there wasn't much left of it. The second clearly had a fetus, but it was dead and already had some maggots.
Take a step back. I go out to check on her one day, and she was not there (Highly un usual for her) But at this stage I'm thinking she has just given up for a while and has gone off to look for food and water. Then I heard some chirping. I look around the corner and there is little red, with this one little hatchling. We named her "Hope" because little red had hoped for a baby for many years.
Liquorice had been seen mating with chief. But liquorice has never been as much of a brooder as little red was. So when we saw liquorice brooding we figured we should keep an eye out for her, incase she doesntBrood properly.
so she laid an egg, she stayed for only about half a day. I was worried the eggs would get too cold, so I took 6 of them for incubation.
of the 6 Egg's 4 of them have fired up. the other two had an air sack, a yoke, and a very faint partial Blood ring. the other 4 appear to be at approximately Day 6-7 of development. I "Set" them on the 21st exactly 7 days ago. So does this mean they took 24 hours to get going?
Oh BTW, I see movement, lots of really fat looking blood vessels. I good sized air sac (Taking approx 20% of volume)
The problem is that my incubator is homemade from a Sony Playstation Cardboard box. The thermostat is one of those or very similar to the STC-1000 from eBay. I have it set to hover +/-1 degree C from 38c. However, I may have been measuring the temperature from the wrong spot. I have had the thermocouple (Sensor) on the ground at the base of the eggs (Oh yes, the heating element is a 40w Reptile heat mat.) I now realise the Probe should have been suspended in the middle to read the air temperature.
I have measured the surface of the eggs and am getting readings as low as 34C. So I am now thinking my IR Thermometer is highly inaccurate. Because if the eggs were truly only 34C they would either not kick off at all or development would halt quite early on, before now. But they are not, for all intensive purposes they seem to be in good health. Humidity I am controlling by feel, but don't worry, I am an amateur meteorologist, and over the 20 or so years I've been chasing thunderstorms I have become quite good at reading Moisture levels by feel.
I would really love some advice about where to from here with my Eggs and DIY Incubator. I am absolutely TERRIFIED of Deformed Hatchlings arriving. I am 6'2" Tall, I weigh 95KG (A little heavy) I'm covered in bad tattoos. I have half my teeth missing. In other words, any stranger would probably be a little wary of me, but the truth is, I can not kill a suffering hatchling, I can not kill a rooster. I love animals so much that I see a tiny little soul in each and every one of them. I was always that way. I'm 43 years old-ish. But at about the age of 25, I started going through many dramatic cognitive changes. One of them was a deep love for animals. That attitude or behaviour grew and grew to the point where I can not harm ANY animals at all. It causes me great distress and anxiety. I have to look away when certain things are played on the news. Know what I mean.
So my point is I really must do everything I can to avoid any harm coming to these eggs. I am frustratingly finding myself connecting with or bonding with somehow those undeveloped embryos. Is this normal? Are my feelings and instincts going too far and too carried away? lol. Me chuckles. I really don't know how to reel this back in now.
My wife now has a better stomach for these things now. I just can't even handle the thought of harm to animals.
So a couple of questions may help:
Would Embryos still develop at just 34 to 35 degrees C, if yes, what will happen? Other than them just being late? Will they be born with their stomachs on the outside? Only one leg, one eye or one wing? A Hole in the heart? Only one Kidney? Things like that. Anything that could cause the bird pain or cause it to need euthanising?
Thanks, people. Great to be here
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