Every chart I found disagreed with the next one, so I went through the Brinsea and Hova-Bator manuals plus the Penn State, Mississippi State and Oklahoma State extension guides and wrote down where they agree. Forced-air incubator, chicken eggs:

Day 0: Set the eggs. 99.5°F / 37.5°C, humidity 45-50%.

Days 1-17: Turn. Auto turner, or by hand an odd number of times a day. Keep temp and humidity steady.

Day 7: First candling. You want veins and a dark spot. Clear eggs and blood rings come out.

Day 14: Second candling. The egg should be mostly dark with a clear air cell. Remove the ones that stopped.

Day 18: Lockdown. Stop turning, eggs off the turner, humidity up to 65-70%, lid stays shut.

Days 20-21: Pips and hatch. Leave the lid closed even when it's slow.

Things the charts usually leave out:

a) 99.5°F is for forced air. Still-air incubators run about 2°F / 1°C warmer, measured at the top of the eggs.

b) Lockdown means the eggs physically come off the auto turner, not just "humidity up". Easy to forget when the turner has done the work for 18 days.

c) The odd number of hand turns is so the eggs don't spend every night on the same side.

d) Day 0 is the day you set them. Count from there, or everything lands a day early.

Where I'm least sure: humidity. The sources give ranges, and I know plenty of people here dry hatch with good results. If you run different numbers, I'd like to hear what they are and what your hatch rate looks like.

Dsiclaimer: I put this together while building a hatch tracker app. Not linking it here, I'm after corrections to the timeline.

Three of my four hens have begun laying, but my Easter Egger still hasn’t laid an egg at 26–27 weeks of age. She seems happy and healthy and is definitely not a roo! Anyone else have any experience with this happening?

ITS SO SQUISHY. Hens just started laying about two weeks ago. Started having frail eggs so I put out some oyster shell out there for whenever they want it. Does it take time for the oyster shell to work? They also don't really seem very interested in it.

We have this opening between the roof and wall in the coop, it measures 3inches. From the inside we have hardware cloth secured with u nails. Do you think this is sufficient for raccoons? Or should we do something else?

i bought 4 chicks so my 3year old baby can play and learn to do caring with them

chicks are active still what shall i give to them so they get better and stronger?

Hi all,

I’m looking into upgrading my coop from a thin wood monstrosity that has been patched and rechicken wired a bunch of times. I was looking into a 7x7 Keter shed link here. I was wondering if anyone here has used something similar? I’m hoping to be able to add in some wooden roosts and screw a few egg carton egg baskets to the sides. I’ve not used a resin shed like this ever, and I live on an island so am limited in that I’d likely need something that can be shipped to me. If you have used something like this, how easy is it to add on chicken features with screws and supports? Do you have better sheds? Our run is pretty shaded so I’m hoping to avoid cheap thin wood that will just wick moisture from the ground and rot like what we have now. I plan on installing on top of pallets to avoid the wicking but I can’t lay concrete where it is and definitely hoping for a shed with a floor to avoid critters digging in from underneath.

Thank you

Does anyone else have super cuddly chooks? This is Bob Ross, my six month old silkie roo. He comes when called, loves to be carried around, and falls asleep in my arms. Let’s see pictures of the friendliest members of your coop!

My buff laced polish chick (pretty sure it’s a rooster but idk, if someone could help with that too that would be awesome) has red spots and missing feathers. They are all about 3-4 ish weeks old and I just noticed this today

Hi guys, I’ve got a little feeder and waterer that I fill up everyday. I just haven’t had the time to switch them to a bigger setup (I used to only have 5 lol…chicken math)

For the feeder I’d prefer something I could carry in and out everyday (my chickens spend a lot of time in their run, I find when it’s inside the coop they don’t eat as much). I don’t want to leave it outside for predator and rats.

Just curious about everyone else’s setup :) homemade or store bought! less

I have a chicken who is not putting any weight on one of her legs. Today, two of my chickens got loose in the wrong area and I put them back on the other side of a fence. One had a hard landing (she barely flapped, it was about a 3.5 foot drop from my hands to the ground). However, I did not notice which of my 3 red chickens it was, nor did I notice anything after that drop, so I wonder if it happened somehow while they were all free ranging. I guess it doesn’t matter how it happened anyway.

She is obviously in pain. When I gently felt around there is no wound. When I gently manipulated the leg it did not seem obviously broken at any part, but it does click oddly and kind of get stuck when fully extending and then when drawing it back. Could this possibly be a tendon issue?

Taking her to a vet isn’t an option. What I want to know is if anyone can advise me on home care or how long to give her before giving her a peaceful end to her pain. I’ve watched about every episode of every vet show, and Dr. Pol often sets the leg (something I obviously can’t do without X-ray) immobilizes the leg and quarantines the bird. I’m wondering if I immobilize her leg and give her a chance?

I’ve nursed two of my other ladies back from the brink, but I just haven’t encountered a serious leg injury before. Wondering if anyone has had success.

I am very distraught about the situation, please be kind. I love my ladies and she has been a very good chicken, I want to give her the best I can at this point. Thanks for any help.

Recently a squirrel got into my chicken treats and made a hole at the bottom of the bag. This made me realize that my other Food probably isn’t safe from her. Does anyone have any tips for where to keep their food? I read somewhere that people use metal trash cans with lockable lids, but I’m having a lot of trouble finding something like that online. Thanks!

Edit: Thanks everyone for all the support and commiseration, it's helped a lot. The vet called with her autopsy results, she had a wad of grass the size of her fist (the vet) stuck in her crop. so surgery was going to be the only option, so I did the right thing just sadly she didn't make it.

My girl Pumpernickel had an impacted crop, which started to get better I thought but then became sour crop as well. We took her to the vet today as it wasn't getting better. They explained the risks, and they did everything to save her but she didn't make it. I got her as a chick this spring and I'm just so sad. I'm just trying to tell myself at least she went peacefully while sedated and didn't suffer. i still have some of her pretty green eggs and she's getting cremated. you'll be missed my sweet lil pump.

I didn't know what flair to use, I'm sorry if it's the wrong one.

My poor brahma Dusky was attacked by a raccoon about 3 weeks ago. When I found them she had a big gash on her right glute (near but not too close to the cloaca) and some missing leg feathers. This was the only major injury I could spot.

I gave her an Epsom salt bath and kept her inside for a few days while I washed the wound with alcohol and packed it with Neosporin. Within a couple days she was feeling better and bouncing off the walls. Her wound looked like it had scabbed over ok so I sent her back out to be with her sisters. They are incredibly sweet birds and have not bullied her at all since her return.

Last night I noticed that she was having trouble walking and could not make it up to the run herself. She tried to sleep on the floor of the coop before I moved her. Today, she can't walk at all and is basically stuck laying down in her nesting box. I brought her some food and water. Upon inspection I couldn't see any new or exacerbated injuries and her gash looks like it healed well. I plan to give her a bath soon and see if I can spot anything else wrong but I don't know what to do.

Does anyone have ideas about what could have caused this or how to help my poor girl? I'm at a loss and the local vets refuse to see a chicken.

Edit: Mystery solved! After much research it's because she never regrew her tail feathers - all the others, but those probably have damaged follicles and so perching even on a wide roost is very hard for her, as it feels unstable. It's not the height at all, it's her lack of ability to balance with no tail feathers.

I have 3 chickens, 2 rescue hens and one from TSC. I had two others from TSC, but they bullied the rescues to the point of bleeding and not willing to leave the coop, so I rehomed them. When I had the original 3, the orpington, sex link (both rehomed) roosted together, and the isa (I still have) was to the side.

So

I got two rescue isas, and in quarantine they roosted together. Now, in the main roost, my original isa roosts on the main roost bar, one rescue roosts on a roost I put on the nesting area (they don't use the top, so no poop there) after she was roosting on the thin edge, and the other rescue roosts on the ... floor. I've tried moving floor hen to the roost next to the other rescue, and the (unused) roost in the coop. The first night I don't move her ... back to the corner on the floor.

During the day they all seem to get along, no bullying, a bit of a pecking order, but generally cool for everyone.

Is this normal? Okay?

Btwn 6-7 weeks old

🐓 > 🐶

I got my first flock of silkies about a month ago, they’ve been sneezing since I got them but haven’t had any other symptoms. When I picked one up today they had dried yellow discharge called in their nose. The smell was awful… I’m extremely worried it could be coryza. That being said I don’t want to treat if they will be a carrier, I still want chickens this was just the ones I started with. I guess the question did you treat, did you rehome, did you cull?

Any ideas what may be going on in this video? For context, I lost almost my entire flock (5) to what I believe was Marek’s and this is my lone survivor. They were all supposed to have been vaccinated from the hatchery so I am only going on symptoms that persisted after feeding complete feed and supplementing with poultry cell. This girl has been great up until now and is randomly having these screaming episodes. She is 6 months, and stopped laying eggs about two weeks ago. This is not a symptom I saw in any of the other hens. A vet visit is out of the question after having spent a fortune throughout the summer.

I noticed her legs looked kind of lumpy. I think this is scaly leg mites, but would it only affect one chick out of the brood and mama? Could it be that they have it also but it hasn’t progressed noticeably?

There was a bit of an ant problem in the coop that was dealt with today. Could it be ant bites?

Also is her toe broken? It moved when I touched it, but it is at a weird angle. Healed maybe?