Today, we had an accident with incandescent bulbs in the incubator. I fear that this setup is not good, and this could happen again. Perhaps we might want to switch the heating element to something modern, safe and energy efficient.

I've tried asking Google Bard for some recommendations, and it has come up with:

• ceramic heater
• heat tape
• brooder lamps
• PTC heaters
• heating mat

I am considering to get a few PTC heater samples from an online B2B marketplace. Right now, we have a single incubator, and there's plans to get/build a few more.

We have to account for:

• region: I'm from the southern parts of the Western Ghats (Karnataka-Kerala border), so obviously, there will be no snow, but yes, rain might be a big headache, as these incubators are stored in a room near to an open air coop
• power cuts: they're not that frequent, but still bad news. And the place I live in is almost like a hill-station
• material: We are planning to DIY our next incubators, and thinking of using wood instead of polystyrene. But we also don't want to sacrifice maintenance for sustainability

Attempted Cross post

I've been passing by this house once every few weeks on a walk, but the chickens have always been near their coop in the back. One of them finally came up to say hello!

What do you think, hen or roo?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/554009

[ A white chicken in soft, hazy light, sitting on a wood perch, on a dark background ]

We are bringing her inside at night because we had her first, and then we got some more chickens that are lore than twice her age, and she can't compete against the other three.

So she jumped up on me and then my switch. She's a sweet heart.

Fair Warning: Kong was a meat bird and this story reflects that.

This was Kong da Roo getting his wattles rubbed. He was quite the little hustler and would often meet me at the steps to the front porch hoping for snacks and love.

Out of my first batch of ten chickens, four were Cornish X and they were the friendliest of the bunch. It was probably my fault since I felt bad that these guys wouldn't have as long of lives as the other six.

He was free ranged and stomped around the yard like King Kong, while chasing bugs and his ladies. He couldn't have cared less about veggie scraps but he loved crickets from the local bait shop. He was also my first rooster and even gave me a few morning crows before it was his time.

I wish I could have kept him longer but he ended up hurting his leg jumping off the coop ramp. After that he went the way of most Cornish Crosses and kept getting fatter until he couldn't walk at all.

Him and his three ladies made for an excellent first meat bird experience and will be remembered for a long time.

Also, in case your curious, he made for a good barbecue dinner for the family. Not necessarily better than what you get from the store, but it was still nice to know that he lived a longer and fuller life than any store bought bird.

I've basically turned my coop into Fort knox, but I figured that my ladies would be safe enough running around the backyard during the day and full light. Apparently I was wrong. One of my girls got snatched by a coyote right in front of my face after it scaled 7 ft privacy fence. Is anybody else having problems with coyotes during the day or is it just me

i dont want to put her real name bc she had an internet presence and i want to keep my lemmy account anonymous, but man i miss my chickies. they were so funny and cute

They're a little bigger than this now and I just recently migrated them into their coop/my modified shed 😅 They're some kind of leghorn mix, I think. The brown ones are...a mystery haha.

This is one of my old neighbor's chickens. She is probably one of the prettiest I have ever seen. I forgot her breed, anyone know?