Blog for a chook lovers

I promised this information to Alana, who followed the birth of our first chick.

As I often do, I have a go at things myself rather than pay for something. This time I was having a go at an incubator for some fertile chicken eggs that we had. Our chooks would not go broody so I had to find an alternative.

This is our incubator. It is a styrofoam box that we picked up at Youngs Vegi Shed. They are free, normally behind the counter there somewhere.

The first thing we did was fix a light, through a small hole in the top of the box. The light that we used was given to us from someone who purchased then at a garage sale.

**Ignore the seed raising mix at the back. Trying another experiment. 
We use a blue light with a wattage of 25Watts. You can use the traditional light (incandescent) or the fluro type globe. The wattage is the same. 25 or 24 watts. Any stronger and it will get too hot and kill the embryo (found out the hard way). You will find that this stays about 35-45 degrees, depending on the outside temperature. During the day it warms up, and cools as the day ends. I had a dimmer switch to put on, but must have wired it wrong and it blew up. So if you have a sparky at hand, see if they will wire it up for you.. I know a couple but was too stupid to ask for help.

I still have the switch, as I like to change the globe to candle the eggs.

The way that I control the temperature is this little door at the front.

It has two purposes. Control the temp and also as a viewing area. This allows me to monitor the eggs and open the door/lid to control the temp.
I made this out of an old takeaway container.
I cut the bottom off it and slid it into the hole that I cut in the box. I then used silicone to fill the gap around the sides, just to ensure that it is sealed properly.

In the cooler months I have not had to use the door, but as it had warmed up the past couple of days I have found that I just remove the door completely and it stays around 35-37 degrees. There will be some that say that it is too cool for the eggs, but it is much better than being at 45-50 degrees. The chicks will survive a drop in temp, but not an increase. This is where a dimmer switch would come in handy. You will get to know when to take the lid off and when to leave it on.

If you have a room somewhere that stays a constant temp (very hard to find) then this will save you the hassle of checking the temp all the time there is a fluctuation in the outside temp. We kept ours in the garage.

So inside you will the the eggs sitting on a wire tray that has been folded into a wave pattern. This just helps when rotating the eggs 2-3 times a day.. it just keeps them stable and keeps the temp even around the egg. I have a thermometer close to the eggs so that I can keep an eye on it. What you can't see is a water dish. It is important to have some humidity during the growing process. This prevents too much moisture drawing from the egg. I have read that you should increase that the humidity should be increased close to the hatch day.. 90% aprox. To do this you need to increase the surface area of the water. I just used a wider dish or Tupperware container. 

In about 21 days you should see a little crack in the egg, and in 24 hrs you will have a chick.

We have lost a lot due to high temperatures, If you can get a dimmer switch, and a room that has a constant temp, more so than a garage then you should have come success. 

This is what you should end up with. 

A Chick that is happy to sleep on your hand.

Birthdays and Bike rides.

September is birthday month for Hanisi and I. For those that don't know, Hanisi and I share the same birth date. and until this year, if our birthday fell on a Saturday we shared it with the AFL Grand Final.

It was a great day, we had a picnic down at Punchbowl.

The day of out birthday was a nice day and as I was waiting for my ride to church, we sat out the front and soaked up the sun.

The kids stayed home as they have been a little sick and we didn't want to share the bugs.

The birthday and the bike ride were two separate events, but to save time I have included a couple of picks.

Can you see the excitement on our faces? I don't know why we were looking like this, as we were happy to go for a ride. Must have been a bit bright that day.

Hanisi is getting really good at riding her bike. She can make it up the hill outside our place and loves the ride down the hill.

The kids love to see the train. We hear it everyday, however only get to see it on occasions. So it was a treat to see it while riding our bike.

Rounding the final bend to head home. This time next year Hanisi will be needing a bigger bike. Good on ya Hanisi for loving the out doors.

First Baby Chick

After school on Friday I had to go the Youngs Veggie Shed to get some apples and while I was there, I thought, "I'd better get another styrofoam box in case this chick decides to hatch over the weekend." So I did. I also stopped in and got some chick crumbs for food.

I had my doubts, as previously mentioned the others were unsuccessful due to bacteria, and the incubator had reached some high temperatures at times. I woke at 4:30am to the crow of our rooster that didn't get locked up in his box overnight, so I checked the eggs and nothing.

We visited Mum for her birthday, and the Dr to fix my finger, and a quick visit to see Aunty Alice and Uncle Josh and their puppies. I realised that when we were out that I had forgotten to open the vent on the incubator. We do that around 10 or 11 to keep the temperature down. So naturally as soon as I got home I checked the eggs to see if the temperature was ok, and I saw to my great surprise...


Insert first Pic.

The day finally arrived, right on 21 days (gestation period for chooks).

I was so excited. I called for Mariah to come and take a look. Then she called the kids to come and have a look. It wasn't much to see for them, but we explained that there was a little chicken inside and it was trying to get out of the egg. Hanisi took it in, but Milly just wanted to pick up the eggs.

We had to go out for the rest of the afternoon, and then to Grandmas surprise birthday party. The party was great. It was good to be with the family and see how it has grown. I got to cuddle some babies that I had not cuddled yet, and see those that I had not seen in a while. But at the back of my mind was the egg.

We got home just after 8 and the first thing I did was... Check the egg.

this is what 6 hrs of work looks like. Doesn't look like much, look closer and you will see. Think of how hard we must hit an egg on a hard service to get it to crack, then you will realise that this is a lot of work for a little 21 day old thing.

As I was playing with the camera to see if there was any difference in the crack, I thought I heard something. I stopped beeping my camera  and I heard........

Coming from inside the egg. A good sign, I hope. It is hard not to help the little fella, but if I do it will cause more harm than good.

So we wait. 9:00 and I and back in. I dunno if I will stay up or just wait till morning. Sunday Mornings are always a rush, so I fear that I won't be able to enjoy it as much as I could if I were awake when it decides to pop out.

2:00am. I woke in anticipation that it might be out. No such luck. It had cracked a little bit. Didn't take a photo.

6:30am, The chick has been working through the early hours of the morning.

While I was watching another small piece of the egg came off,

When we came home from church we were expecting to see our new baby chick... Not so. But it had been working hard. 

The next few pics are what occurred over the next 2 hours.

Doing a back flip for a fancy entrance in to the world.

*that is its belly button not it's bum. *

Taking a well earned rest. 

I can't believe that we did it. Turning the egg three times a day, watching the temperature like a hawk. Loosing a few, but gaining experience the more we went on. We have him in a separate incubator now while we wait for the others to hatch in a few weeks time.

The kids were excited to see it hatch. No "Where did it come from" or "but why" questions. 

This is what Milly thought of the whole situation.  

ACTIVE MARIAH

"Active Launceston  is a community driven project aimed to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Launceston through increased participation in physical activity.

UTAS is leading the project. Funding has been provided by UTAS, the Federal Government Department of Health and Ageing, Sport and Recreation Tasmania (through the Community Recreation Grants program) and Launceston City Council."

Mariah has been involved with Active Launceston, I think, since the earl days. When we were living in the city she would go every opportunity that she could. Since we have moved out to Perth, her trips in to town have been limited, however there is a couple of, what I call, "strange people" (those that wake before the sun to workout) out here that Mariah loves to work out with. Although the Perth "strange people" group is great, Mariah often keeps and eye on what is happening with Active Launceston.

One day Mariah excitedly told me that Active Launceston is holding an expo and that is it aimed at families and that we should go.

So we did as we were told, as you do when your wife dons the boxing gloves, here is a reminder,

 It was a good display of what is available for those that are after a gym, health insurance, want to join a sporting club, or just try sumo wrestling. Yeah that is right, Sumo wrestling. No I didn't have a go.... there was no one I could pair up with.

Everyone else was busy.

Hanisi and Milly had found the Playgroup Tasmania display and were utilising the toys that they had on display.

  Luck for me Mariah had found someone to take her frustration out on for the day.

Notice the smile on Mariah's face! She loves inflicting pain.

This poor Judo demonstrator, who looked like she had taken the day off school to showcase her sport, underestimated what she was up against when Mariah stepped on the mat. 

Her instructor, the guy in the blue suit on the right, who was a black belt stepped in to save his student. The photo says it all. She dropped him to the floor. He then pointed to her and said to me, GET HER OUT OF HERE!

It was a great day. Hanisi and I tried lawn bowls, Mariah showed Hanisi how to do a hula hoop and Milly played golf.

Active Launceston start up again soon, and I am sure that Mariah will be attending some of their free fitness sessions.

What better way to end the blog than to include a pic of Milly falling asleep while eating an ice cream on the way home from the expo.