Recent content by Naturalness

I might have an idea of what could have caused poisoning: my feeding bowl was relatively close to the water bowl and some of the feed had accumulated underneath the water bowl that was resting on a plastic plate keeping the water with the feed. This would have been exacerbated by rain which we...

Thanks. While I can't immediately identify any source of potential poison at least it's something that can be fixed if found, and more importantly can't be transmitted... Is there anything else it could be and ways to reduce the suspects? I just really want to make sure I'm not harming other...

One of my young hens died at about 6 weeks age. She looked fine, alert, but strangely unflustered when I picked her up, normally being very shy, because I noticed something wrong with her. Her legs were useless, not totally paralyzed but not able to stand her up anymore. I isolated her and...

So I went and tried this kind of during winter. Temperatures in the house could drop to 10-12C over night and during the day often wouldn't rise much until we'd light the fire in the evenings. Incubator specifications said not lower than 17C ambient temp. So I found a plastic tub that fit...

In case anyone has similar problems I'll wrap this thread up with my conclusion: The incubator I had - a generic Chinese roller system incubator bought on Amazon - was somehow faulty. I haven't figured out what exactly it does badly, because temp and rh are good and it did turn the eggs but they...

To give a final update for this season: my last hatch was a relative success. In the same incubator, using the govee thermometer to monitor parameters, I did a dry incubation with Rh between 20 and 35 for the first 15 days then upped to 60. The temperature was relatively stable unless I added...

Update: using a borrowed incubator So I tried hatching a small batch of eggs in a different incubator - a small thing that has the eggs upright and that has worked successfully for my friend. I had to turn the eggs manually which I did by tipping the whole machine 45° from one side to the...

I'm pretty sure this incubator only goes in one direction. I mean maybe it's meant to go both ways but I've only ever seen it turn in one direction. Chinese quality... But would that explain the deplorable results, with most embryos dying around day 6/7? From what I can see the temperature is...

How did the rest of the batch go?

I'm still trying to research and trouble shoot the issue with this incubator... I bought a govee thermometer and am currently running the incubator without any eggs in it. It looks very stable and correct. I don't think temperature should be the problem, but I'll run it for a bit longer just in...

Those ate some great ideas. Thanks so much! At the moment temperature is still stable. Hopefully it lasts until October.

Two little chicks survived the incubation and they hatched healthily, no deformities or anything, no hatching problems, except a very impatient human. 2 out of 20, that's definitely not a great hatchrate but it's also not a complete fail which leaves me even more confused about what's going...

I went and took out the eggs that were clearly not growing anymore and opened them to see if there was any information to be gained. The interior of the eggs was mostly ok, that is, there was no terrible smell or discoloration except a bit of black in one egg. The embryos all had died around the...

I have a brooder indoors and with some straw and other measures the chicks should be fine as they can easily be kept draft free and dry and reasonably warm. It's funny but I literally don't have any cupboards or such enclosed spaces, but my idea is to try a large carboard box with extra...

So, I'm considering spending some money on a slightly more expensive incubator - a brinsea - but am uncertain due to the room temperature requirements. Here's the thing: we live off grid in the hills in a very minimalistic fashion. Our solar power is limited and natural temperature swings can...