Lessons from my third hatch

I'm now into my third month of incubating bantam chicken eggs, and I just started my fourth attempt. I've already written about my first hatch. My second and third attempts didn't go as planned. Here's what happened and the hard-earned lessons I've picked up along the way.

The Second Attempt: All Eggs Infertile

Out of four eggs, none were fertile - which shocked me, given that my roosters outnumber hens two to one. Was it poor mating, improper egg storage, or just bad luck? I'm still not sure, but it was a frustrating setback. These eggs were place under a table in the hall at Malaysian room temperature, by the way. Ceiling fan was running for 8+ hours everyday.

The Third Attempt: A Brief Victory

This time, I set seven eggs. Only one hatched - a tiny triumph - but the chick died after a week due to my mistakes. Three other eggs showed early development but stalled around day 14.

Here's what I learned:

1. Location Matters
   Placing the incubator in the hallway seemed ideal for family viewing but turned out to be a disaster. The ceiling fan (running 8+ hours daily) created drafts, causing temperature swings inside the incubator. The only egg that hatched was the one farthest from the fan - probably not a coincidence.

2. Hatch Timeline
   The chick pipped on day 19 and hatched by day 20.

3. A Chick's Struggle
   
   

   

   
   The chick had trouble standing and showed signs of wry neck (stargazing). After 48 hours, I moved it to a plastic container tilted at an angle to help it stand upright. Amazingly, within a day, it was running around on its own. Also, I fed it some cow's milk just in case it had some nutrient deficiencies.
   
   

   

   
   

4. A Fatal Mistake: Cow's Milk Isn't for Chicks
   I fed it cow's milk as it seems to be not pecking on the cracked corn. But by day six, the chick was weak and scratching itself, most likely from dehydration. It died the next day. Lesson learned: chicks need proper feed, not dairy substitutes.

5. Better Nutrition for the Flock
   Since the chick had developmental issues, I suspect my hens and roosters might need higher-quality feed to produce healthier eggs.

6. Preparing for Future Hatches
   Next time, I'll have chick starter feed, proper feeders, and a secure brooder box ready - especially since my house is surrounded by curious cats.

7. Knowing When to Stop
   On day 24, after candling showed no progress in the remaining eggs, I turned off the incubator.

8. DIY Cold Storage Success
   As an experiment, I stored eggs in a homemade polystyrene cold storage box (with temperature ranging between 22°C - 24°C) for seven days before incubation. Frozen ice in a plastic bottle was replaced every 8 hours to maintain the cool temperature. The hatched chick came from one of these eggs. So it seems to work!

Final Thoughts
Each hatch teaches me something new, even when things go wrong. With better prep - stable incubation conditions, proper feed, and smarter storage - I'm hopeful attempt #4 will be the breakthrough. Wish me luck.

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My First Egg Incubator Attempt - Lessons Learned

This is an update on my first try with a new egg incubator - and honestly, it didn't go as well as I'd hoped.

Out of the three eggs I placed in the incubator:

Why I Bought An Egg Incubator

I keep bantam chickens in my backyard. I have been keeping them for something like 24 years now.

Recently, I just bought myself an incubator (Note: a Lazada Malaysia affiliate link ). It wasn't an easy decision - I've always preferred letting my hens hatch eggs the natural way. There's something deeply satisfying about watching a broody hen patiently tend to her clutch, the way nature intended. But after losing three hens in the past six months and seeing a steady decline in hatching success, I finally hit panic mode. The uneven rooster-to-hen ratio (around 2:1) didn't help either.

Gone are the days when a single hatch would give me four or five healthy chicks per hen. That was 15 or 20 years ago. These days, I'm lucky if I get two chicks out of five or six eggs. At first, I wondered if something was wrong with my flock - were my hens getting older? Was there a hidden disease? But the more I thought about it, the more I kept coming back to one glaring change: the heat.

Extreme high temperatures have become much more frequent here, and I can't help but blame that for my hatching woes. Eggs are sensitive; too much heat can kill developing embryos or prevent fertilization altogether. My hens still go broody, but the results just aren't the same.

So, I caved and bought an incubator. It feels like admitting defeat in a way - like I'm stepping in where nature should handle things. But if climate extremes are the new normal, maybe a little backup isn't such a bad idea.

Ah Ngiew's Daughter?

It's very uncommon to find stray cats with long fur in my neighbourhood. In fact, I've never seen one before. Not just here, but in my entire life. So you can imagine my surprise when, on the morning of 28th March 2025, a tiny, long-furred kitten appeared on my front porch as if by magic. My first thought? Could this be Ah Ngiew's offspring?

The Uncanny Resemblance

Ah Ngiew, my male cat who disappeared six months ago, had distinct features, most notably, the extremely fine fur behind his neck, softer than the rest of his coat (a trait even his younger siblings didn't share). But this little kitten? The same.

Even the way she meows reminds me of Ah Ngiew's mother - those little audible breaks in her voice, the same hesitant, raspy tone.

I've always suspected that Ah Ngiew might have been with his own kittens when he vanished. After all, he'd always had a soft spot for his siblings when they were just days old, as can be seen in this video. He never returned last October, likely held captive - along with his mate and kittens - in a nearby house. Sometimes, I still hear seasonal male cat mating calls that sound just like his voice. This usually happens around 9 o'clock in the morning. To me, it's a sign: I still hope he'll come back to his real home one day. We all miss him, especially his bushy tail.

This kitten's age is about 6 month old, by the way, which ties in with the duration of Ah Ngiew's disappearance.

How Did This Kitten End Up Here?

The bigger question is: Why this kitten? Why my house?

Long-furred strays are rare here, so it's unlikely she was just wandering. Was she dumped? Perhaps because she's female, or because her colours aren't 'exotic' enough for someone's liking?

Or, was it fate that left her here?

What Now?

For now, this little mystery has curled up on my porch, and she's already claimed the place as her own. I bring her inside every night to keep her safe after a few tense confrontations with neighborhood cats in those first two days. Whether she stays forever or finds another home, she's already woven herself into our lives, reminding me of the strange, unseen connections between cats and the people who love them.

Has anything like this ever happened to you? A cat that seemed to appear out of nowhere, carrying a story you may never fully know?

We named her Ah Ngeow, by the way.

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Grub Dual-boot Installation - Windows 7/Linux Mint 22.1

I have been putting this off for way too long. But last month, I finally gathered enough courage to take the plunge: I installed Linux Mint 21.2 on my trusty (and slightly ancient) refurbished Lenovo M70e desktop.

Rebooting after the installation felt like waiting for the results of a high-stakes exam. Would it work? Would my computer explode into a cloud of smoke? Thankfully, none of the above happened. Everything went smoothly - no hiccups, no drama. I stuck to the default settings suggested by the installer for a dual-boot setup, and Linux Mint played nice with my existing Windows 7 installation.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. With Linux Mint 22.1 released earlier this year, I thought, "Why not? Let's upgrade!" Spoiler alert: things didn't go as smoothly as they did with version 21.2.

My 22" Phillips LCD Monitor Settings

My Dell 19" monitor has served me well. Unfortunately after 14 years, delamination is happening and I can see 'bubbles' around the sides of the monitor.

So out I went in search for a new monitor and I finally decided on the budget friendly Phillips 22" LCD monitor. Thanks to Lazada Malaysia (Note: a Lazada Malaysia affiliate link) for the discounts (with Laz coins), I paid Rm225.90 for it. This is the best price that I could find online at that time.

I have been using this 22" Phillips monitor for about a month and a half now, and overall, I am not disappointed. Let's be real. One of the most economical monitors I could find on the market, it delivers solid performance. I can get Full HD at 1920x1080 resolution on Linux Mint (version 21.2) and on Windows XP, all on my 14 year old PC via VGA connection. However, everything looks a little too small in Full HD on Windows XP. So I settled for 1440x900 resolution instead.

My Settings

Out of the box though, this monitor was *not* kind to my eyes. In fact, the initial experience was so uncomfortable that it took a whopping 12 hours for the eye strain and irritation to finally subside. Twelve hours!! I was starting to wonder if I needed to invest in a pair of blue-light-blocking goggles just to survive!

Thankfully, after some strategic tweaking and adjustments, I managed to find settings that transformed this eye-straining beast into a much more comfortable viewing companion.

Where Are You Ngiew?

It has been three long months since my beloved male cat, Ngiew, went missing on October 18, 2024, a month just shy of his second birthday. Ngiew is a gray Domestic Longhair cat with a bushy tail and stripes on his limbs. The longest he's ever been away before was about a week. So initially I didn't worry too much. He often spent time at the empty house across the street, hanging out with a female cat. It is always comforting to hear his cries from across the street when he is not at home.

But this time, there's no sign of him. I'm not sure if he's been taken in by someone, wandered off with other cats, or if his adventurous genes (his dad - and later his younger brother too - is also a neighbourhood wanderer) led him further than ever before.