Three Chicks Working on Getting Out
Here they are at last ! I’ve been turning these little guys everyday now for about 3 weeks, and I almost thought they were all lost. See, I put the eggs in the incubator late at night, and so on the 21st day when there was no activity, I was worried. There was also a problem with the thermometer I was using. It was reading 104 F for a day, so I turned the heat way down. Turns out the thermometer was broken. When I relized the thermometer was reading wrong, I got my eggs back up to 101 F. This really had me worried, as chicks over 103 F might as well be hard boiled, and chicks below 99 F would tend to stall in development.
On day 22 they started poking holes in there shells, and now the holes have grown to the point where I can see a beak ! I hope to start moving these guys from the Incubator to their new home. So far seven eggs have the mark of chicks trying to break free.
Chicks New Home
Here is the chicks new home. The base is made from recycled plywood, and the portion holding up the light is constructed out of left over trim. The base has a layer of unsused newsprint( no ink on the paper), covered with pine shavings. Since taking this picture, I’ve made several improvements:
1.) Added a heat lamp, since the Fluorescent lights shown didn’t give off much heat. I calibrated the height of the lamp to keep the chicks 100 F. If they get cold, they will huddle under the light, which is my que to lower the light a bit. If they get too warm, well there’s plenty of room to get away from the heat lamp.
2.) Placed some rocks into the water feeder. Newborn chicks are attracted to water so much so that they could drown themselves. The rocks will prevent them from getting access to too much water.
3.) Filled the metal food container with medicated chick feed. It will help protect the chicks in there early days.
4.) Covered the pine shavings with another layer of unused newsprint. This will keep the curious chicks from attempting to eat the pine shavings. It will be removed after the chicks are a few days old.
