Our Farm's Silent Spring: No Baby Birds & Here's Why 

I can't remember where (monthly farm meeting maybe ?) but I believe Morgan said he was replacing it indeed.

@@ladyteruki Also, do not put in dirty nasty eggs.

@@cherieshook8655 It's not like washing them would be good for the developing embryos. I'm just starting myself, only 2 months in, but from what I've read, a bit of dirt and such doesn't hurt them at all. Washing them can remove protective layers. So just brush the worst bits off and call it a day.

@@jason67823 it is common sense, you do not want poo in the incubator. I did not say wash them. You can use a Mr clean dry sponge to get off stuck on hay or whatnot, but if they have poo on them, they need to be washed, then eaten. It will pollute the incubator.

Just before incubating season, it's always a good idea to to check your equipment out thoroughly. tear it as completely as you can without damaging it, then make sure it's all greased up and cleaned properly, and replace any parts which are showing wear. Those Brinsea incubators are usually pretty good as long as you keep them well maintained. That's something important with any farm tool though. If you make sure that your equipment is well maintained it will last a good long time. Brinsea are among the best incubators in the biz, and everybody form zoos to big corporate hatcheries, to hobbyists who are only hatching out maybe a dozen eggs a year, if that, find them to be very reliable if properly maintained. Any incubator can fail if not maintained well though, and sometimes you just get a lemon no matter how good the company is. I always have a spare incubator around for emergencies. I also have my incubators on an uninterruptable power supply, and have gasoline generator just in case the electricity goes down for a long time. I haven't had to use it yet, but better safe than sorry. I also got the alarm system which Brinsea makes for its equipment. That has saved my... well... not bacon, but definitely my eggs on several occasions when the humidity or temperature went below norms. They will also sound if there's a mechanical failure in the machine, which is a comfortable piece of mind insurance/assurance, especially when you have some particularly special eggs in the machine.

That is a beautiful room. Are the incubator machines still under warranty? Was there an electrical surge problem? Perhaps a surge arrestor would be a good idea for the future.

Idk we had a silkie we tried to mother baby chick's and she like pecked them to death.

They incubate at different temps

Silkies are super broodies! I think you could put an old tire under a silkie and it would try to set it for 21 days. The only worry I'd have would be how many duck eggs she could set. Goose eggs would almost certainly be too big for a silkie to set, since silkies are a bantam breed, and goose eggs are pretty huge compared to chicken eggs. The big issue would be if she could properly heat them all the way through, though there are also problems with putting duck and goose eggs under a chicken due to the rate at which they need to get rid of water. Waterfowl need to loose water more slowly since they have to go a full week longer before hatching. I've also seen cases where broody hens will give up on waterfowl eggs half way into the fourth week. I think they assume that the babies should have hatched by then, and just abandon them. You need to keep an eagle eye on the broody in that last week so that you can get the eggs into an incubator at the first sign that she might have abandoned the nest. One other thing that can be a problem with chickens is that they often don't cover the eggs when they get off the nest for food and water. Waterfowl always cover the eggs when they get off, and that keeps them just a bit warmer for just a bit longer. That also effects the amount of water the egg retains, as well as keeps the developing babies from getting too cold.

axsxscds

That is really helpful, thank you!

110 in AZ today, and Vermont is still locked in winter. Amazing.😉

Is this an old video?

@@im_cursed_huh9926 no, it just takes place over maybe 2 months

Yes considering spring was two months ago. It's definitely old. Also I live in Nova Scotia Canada. We have almost identical weather patterns. And I usually get the same storms just a day or two sooner. It's currently 26c and gorgeous out lol. So snow definitely isn't on the ground for Morgan

For real it’s hot here and green

Absolutely ❤🥰

He wanted to apply a forestry technique (STUN) to an orchard with grazers. People have been telling him to help out those trees for years. He has done some things, but there's a lot to do on a farm!

@@Nphen For sure. I should have posted this on the video where he mentioned he was unsatisfied with the trees' progress from a week ago or whatever

Definitely should not put an egg that is as caked as that one was in the incubator. It not only endangers any embryo which might develop, but also endangers all the other ages too. Any dirt that falls off could clog up the works on the incubator as well. A small amount of dirt or straw on the egg probably won't hurt, although it's best if you can avoid dirty eggs altogether. We know what a lot of that stuff smeared on is, and it's not exactly the cleanliest of things around. Here's were I differ a bit with you. I have hatched washed eggs before, and had a good hatch. I don't recommend it, but in some cases you can get away with it if you clean very carefully with a DAMP cloth. It should not be dripping wet, and you will have to be very gentle. In a case where 90% of the egg is caked with mud and poo though, you might as well feed the egg to the pigs. That one is already so full of bacteria that it won't hatch, and could easily spread bacteria and fungus to all the other eggs in the incubator. All the other eggs he had probably would have been okay if the incubator hadn't broken down, if everything else about their care was correct (especially monitoring the air sack and making adjustments as necessary), and if they didn't get too cold. I noticed that a lot of this was shot when there was still snow on the ground, and unless there was heat in that hen house, the eggs might have developed ice crystals at some point which is deadly for the baby inside, even if it hasn't begun to develop yet. If they haven't started to develop, they can get cold, as long as they don't get so cold that they develop ice crystals. That can be a problem if the birds are dropping eggs on the ground without the insulation of a nest. He would be well advised to build nesting boxes for his birds. Chickens are fine with open nesting boxes which can be fairly high up, but waterfowl require something very different. For either of them I find that a cloth cover over the door with one corner cut out from the bottom running a short distance up will make them feel comfortable and encourage them to nest rather than dump eggs. When a duck or goose chooses a box, it is helpful if you leave fresh straw just outside of the box each day. When they are getting ready to go out to get food and water, they will pull some of the straw in to cover the eggs to keep them warm for the short time they are off the nest. When they come back in, they will work that straw into the nest. This is important, because over time Waterfowl nests tend to get packed, and body oil will just pack it even more. by making straw available, they will continue to build up the nest, which will allow the eggs to "breath". Otherwise, they may smother. There are a lot of little things like this which will improve the success you'll have. Again, if it's cold out, you could have a really bad hatch if the eggs end up getting ice crystals in them. If you're going to start when it's still cold out, it's a good idea to heat your hen house, and make sure the duck and goose nesting boxes are off the ground, preferably away from the walls. If you don't have a heated hen house, why not? And also, you might want to collect the eggs for eating and feeding the pigs until the weather warms up a bit.

This is what I was going to suggest. Thank you!

Poor mumma 🐔🦆🦆😂🤣

Oh groan!!! I just love a good pun or play on words. That one put a serious smile on my face which probably will last awhile.

you cant be touching their eggs and nest like this, she gave up when she smelled too much human.

@@snakey319 I check up on all of my broody birds, sometimes even on my berserk Guineafowl and none of the birds care or abandon the eggs. All domestic poultry's sense of smell is much weaker than even a human's. They can't "smell you" on their nest or on their hatchlings. It's an urban legend. Or countryside legend, but I never encountered anyone from outside cities who'd say it.

@@similis1134 It's more something ppl tell kids to get the kids to stay away from wildlife than anything else. Maybe if Morgan were kicking her off the nest, I could see that being the case (her abandoning the nest due to human interference). But with him waiting for her to leave the nest on her own? Not so much.

Because his incubator is having mechanical troubles. He points that out midway through the video. He's trying for a hybrid system. He wants his farm to be as natural as possible meaning the birds hatch and raise themselves but recognizes that a lot of his birds don't do so well on the 'raising' part. So that's just an ongoing experiment. In the mid video he shows you him using his incubator set up but the incubator itself seems to be having mechanical issues and the chicks aren't hatching ether.