I know it's a bit tight for now, but our plan is to always sit between 8-10 laying hens, no roosters. I suspect I have 6 hens and 7 roosters among the chicks (plus three silkies shortly), and will be giving the roosters away once we know for sure.
The silkies will be quarantined for a month...
This is great advice, thanks!
My coop is 8x4, and the attached run is 8x16. They are only in the coop to sleep though. Out of the 13 straight run, we won’t be keeping roosters, so our flock will be shrinking in the coming weeks/months.
I can divide the run easily to let them interact with one...
We hatched 13 straight run barnyard mixes about 7-8 weeks ago.
My wife was hesitant at first but came around and wants silkies. We were planning to wait, but a friend of a friends older parent had a stroke, are downsizing and they can’t keep chickens anymore.
I now have three 8 month old...
Update: our neighbours two houses down just spotted it. Mealworms, patience, and my trusty butterfly net brought the chicken home.
I had written it off when I hadn’t gotten it back by the second night. But, it lasted three full nights alone in the bush, impressive!
Thanks gang! I couldn’t find it or hear it, but it will be dusk shortly. I’ll keep an eye / ear out for it until it’s too dark.
I took the loudest chicken I had tucked under my arm hoping it would draw the other one out, holding my kids neon green butterfly net in my other hand. Quite a sight!
Sending this from the woods outside my house. I have 13 x 6 week olds just adjusting to their coop. We let them out to sun in the run after their third day locked in. One jumped out the run door when my son was coming in.
Took off like a bullet. I have 12 accounted for, and one in the wind...
I'm no expert, I've only incubated once. But everything I have read suggests to stop turning them at day 18, so they can get in the right position to hatch.
Did you open up any of the eggs to see what happened inside? Could also be a temp or humidity issue...
I moved the inner ring eggs to the outer ring each time I candled so they all took a turn, I couldn’t see any difference at hatch between inside and outside rings.
How could I forget!?
Not much time for fun photos, we had a cold snap and power outage, so I was rigging up the generator, and heating pads to keep the babies going. They all did great!
Update: Super impressed with the 360! I’m a first time incubator, and I only had to make one minor temp adjustment out of the box and it was good to go.
Started with 21 eggs, six unfertilized, one early quitter, and one pipped much later, and struggled for 36 hours. I assisted, partially to...
Update: We had 13 smooth hatches out of 15! One was an early quitter, and one is still going. However, it’s been pipped for more than 30 hours so I’ll keep an eye on it but it might need an assist later today. I read a lot about assisting, and I don’t take it lightly, hopefully it hatches on its...
This is our first time ever owning chickens, or incubating. We are using the Nurture Right 360 and started with a mix of 21 eggs. 5 were unfertilized, and 1 potential early quitter, but I wasn't sure, so I left in.
Today is day 20, and I think I have my first pip! Excited to see what happens...
I would suggest taking a day and moving it around inside as you'll see some differences in temp, and the height is the biggest factor in mine! Mine holds the temp perfectly, and humidity seems easy to control so far.
What’s the height of your thermometers in the 360? Mine show 97.8 to 98.1 when flat in the bottom, but 99.4 to 99.8 when placed at the height of the top of the egg.
Edit: To add, my 360 is new, our first hatch, and the humidity sensor on it was accurate, but the temp was a little off. I run it...
It was an olive egg, and really hard to see inside, but didn’t look nearly as developed as the others. Maybe an early quitter? But maybe just hard to see.
Good luck, it goes fast!
Hopefully I’m back with positive updates in the next few days.
Edit: sus = suspicious, as my kids say.
Today is day 20 of our first ever hatch, and I’m a nervous wreck haha. 14 looked good going into lockdown and one was sus, but I left it just in case. Humidity is holding at 69. Just waiting to hear those internal pips!