Brooder Disaster

[@markroberts6322]

Thanks for showing the good AND bad of raising live animals. We've all been there at some point in time, no matter what species we keep.

[@sandragaffney6015]

Hi Jaren. If birds are going to die then from cold is better as they go to sleep. This is, however, an awful outcome. I do like your attitude of seeing this as a learning curve. We do not always have control over the weather. The temperatures recently were above 100 degrees F for over 5 weeks, my giant and colossal eggs resulted in one successful hatch out of 15. I then had to find my only chick a buddy of the same age. Maybe schedule your bulb changes when you replace your smoke alarm batteries. 😉

[@UrbanAviary]

Thanks Sandra! And good advice! Hope you and your birds are doing well!

[@fnhaley]

I learned my lesson during incubation. On the 13th day i woke up at 6 and saw the temperature went down to 82 degree and the light was out. I quickly put a new light bulb in and later that day installed a 2nd light for safety. Luckily the eggs survived and 28 hatched out of 35.

[@charliebeki]

Thanks for sharing this dude, I know it is hard but things happen good or bad, I will be using a double lamp for extra comfort. Hoping this never happens.

[@Azam_Pakistan]

I would put three 25 watt bulbs in place of one 60 watt bulb so if one burns out I'll have two other to the rescue.

[@AlohaQuails]

Got to be careful of things like this, There is a reason for the phrase Dont keep all your eggs in one basket. Im lucky im in Hawaii i lost some the same way, Light went out overnight lost 3 birds. Im moving over to ceramic bulbs now which dont emit light and are meant to last longer and be more reliable.

[@amandadube156]

how do the price of ceramic bulbs measure up?

[@ihavetofishable]

This was a concern of mine when I first started so I doubled the size of my brooder and put one bulb at each end, so if one blew, they had somewhere to go. This is Murphy's law and you ALWAYS have to stay 2 steps ahead of Murphy.

[@UrbanAviary]

Well put sir

[@briankimball5617]

i use a similar brooder for my pheasents, but i made mine a little longer and have a heat lamp at each end just incase of a issue with a bad bulb

[@matapegheata7257]

Sucks, bro, luckily this is just a exception/rare occurrence.

[@ppulambe8311]

I've never trusted the bulb method. I use a small space heater on top of an open air bird cage. I place the heater on top facing downward. I set it to low heat. It constantly blows warm air and the birds can regulate themselves by going to the other side of the cage. I am able to take the birds directly from hatching and place them in the cage under the heater. They're dry and fluffy in a matter of minutes.

[@markwilliams6375]

Always have 2 different lights, in each brooder, for the first 6 weeks down south, and up to 8 weeks of head for all type birds up north, as I am in warm, sunny cheap to live Mobile Alabama.

[@amfarmsllc5624]

Can you show more of your set up on the wall? Getting into quail. Thank you

[@BiggDaddie008]

I know how you feel. I had an issue last week with my first hatch. I just wanted to thank you about the information that you gave me on the incubator at this time I'm unable to afford . So I decided to try the DIY incubator one more time so on the 20th my first chick hatched and I had 20 in total out of 48 eggs but I made a mistake and opened it up to early because one of the chicks were stuck I probably would have had a better hatch rate if I didn't open it up too early but the little guy keep crying because he was stuck. So fifteen survived 5 had splayed leg and died i tried to used the band-aid on there legs but it didn't work. I felt so bad and i was going to give up until i saw your last video Brooder Disaster. Once again thanks for all your help.

[@UrbanAviary]

+BiggDaddie008 You bet, I'm glad I could help! Yeah they are better off getting out on their own. I've had to help a few out myself though. What temp is your incubator at and what humidity? That many splayed legs might be a genetic issue, possibly heavy inbreeding.

[@BiggDaddie008]

my temp was 99.5 - 100.4 the first 14 day humidity was 55-60 then i increased it to 80-85

[@UrbanAviary]

Sounds like you're doing everything right with incubation. What's your hen to rooster ratio?

[@BiggDaddie008]

i had to bring them in for the winter because the water was freezing. i had 1 rooster to 4 hens. Now i have 1 cage has 1 rooster to 5 hens and the other cage has 1 male to 6 hens

[@UrbanAviary]

Those are all good ratios. How old are your birds?

[@DowieFarm]

bummer dude. I'll be using 2 lights. thanks for the lesson.

[@UrbanAviary]

2 is one and one is none!

[@DowieFarm]

Urban Aviary I threw a switch last year that I didn't realize I had my light hooked up to. Did the same thing. My mistake was just stupidity.

[@UrbanAviary]

Happens to the best of us man.

[@MisterMitchMM]

Awwwwww. Bummer. Moving forward.

[@UrbanAviary]

You got it man.

[@sirocco454]

That sucks...but thanks for being real about it

[@jacksaviancommunity8958]

If you buy a larder rack you can set it in the brooder and set a large hot water bottle on top the chicks will sit under it like a mother Quail.

[@mickeyromeo378]

well just keep on keepen on

[@LilSixy]

Do i need a heating bulb if i keep the chicks indoor in my room? And until what age can i remove the heat lamp and what tempraturs can the chicks tolerate overall?

[@UrbanAviary]

Indoors I would have heat on them for at least a week. So long as the house is at a decent temperature.

[@AC3dAvE]

I've been there and many of my chicks died due to cold. Younger chicks need more care.

[@Segorean]

To avoid this happening again in the future you could use two smaller bulbs instead of one big one, that way if one fails the other will still do a decent job until you catch it.

[@UrbanAviary]

+Aura Todoran not a bad idea, redundancies are a smart thing

[@ganksteris4924]

No wai thei dai😢😢😖😭😖😭

[@flugschulerfluglehrer]

Two light bulbs at half the Watt rating.

[@nytigress5098]

awwe.. I'm soo sorry =0(

[@michaelestes3994]

Shoot! That is such a let down.

[@Monika-zu7wt]

I hold the chicks in the house for so long until they grow feathers. Is a bit of a mess they smell, but it is only 3-4 weeks :)

[@connororella1968]

hey my quail are 10 pushing 11 weeks any idea why they aren't laying eggs?

[@UrbanAviary]

+Connor Orella What protein content percentage are they getting and how many hours of light are they getting?

[@christopherstaples6758]

double up on bulbs as a fail safe

[@karltrepka1627]

What about the ceramic heat lamp ...ppl use them for reptiles......building my incubator soon so thought maybe use them for brooder too......bit more cost but maybe more durable?........anyone use these?

[@UrbanAviary]

Used one for the first time on my chickens this year. It worked well but didn't seem to give off as much heat as the conventional bulbs

[@RoseCityReptilesTX]

sorry about the loss. wish you were closer, my reptiles would love some quail.

[@UrbanAviary]

+Joey Johnston You have Monitors? Or snakes?

[@RoseCityReptilesTX]

I have Monitors. That's actually why I got into quail was to be able to enrich my monitors diet with quail eggs and now I am incubating them for even more variety in their diet. I enjoy them as well.

[@UrbanAviary]

+Joey Johnston That's cool, I originally got into Quail for a feed source for my hawk when I was an active falconer in my teenage years. I'm sure a monitor would handle live birds as well, I didn't even think of the eggs but that's a big part of their diet in the wild from what I understand.