6th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2015 Hatch-A-Long

[jbenson]

Taking the rails off and setting the eggs set to hatch in the now open space works great if you are stagger hatching. After the chicks hatch, add the rails back and set more egges....and so on....for many months.

Clean the incubator every so often though.

I did staggered hatches most of last spring this way - removed half the turning rails. But in order to keep the newly hatched chicks from climbing all over the still incubating eggs and getting stuck in the turner (which they do - but i have been lucky to catch them before they get hurt), I fashioned a barrier/ hatch side liner out of a part of a cardboard box (mostly I used parts of 12 pack soda boxes). It went up high enough that the chicks couldn't go galavanting around the rest of the 'bator once they were hatched. I put my half pint mason jar with water and a sponge folded up in it on the hatching side of the 'bator. It does limit the number of chicks you can hatch at a time, but with my banties, I think I was able to do 12-15 at a time on my hatching side. I was able to pick up the entire cardboard "hatch liner" after the hatch was through and toss it in the garbage so clean up was a breeze and I was a lot less likely to have any kind of residual bacteria. I think I sterilzed the 'bator once mid hatch season last year since it was starting to get a lot of small egg shell bits and chick fluff built up on the hatch side, but I had very good hatch rates using this method. I am looking to get a second incubator next year to do continuous hatching once a week if this year's hatches sell well and if I get my NPIP.

 

[Amberjem]

 

[Roan]

I actually have this full video bookmarked somewhere! It's incredible to know what is going on inside that little orb from the beginning!

 

[hockeydad6791]

I cut the top points in half and leave the bottom alone. The eggs are tilted back a bit when set.

I'm going to try the carton hatch. What do you mean by tilting them back a bit? As in the large side of the air cell more up?

 

[ronott1]

I'm going to try the carton hatch. What do you mean by tilting them back a bit? As in the large side of the air cell more up?

The big end up and tilted so that the big part of the air cell is up.

 

[Roan]

I'm going to try the carton hatch. What do you mean by tilting them back a bit? As in the large side of the air cell more up?

I believe he's referring to tilting them from side to side in the carton for turning.

 

[bantambury]

e OMGOSH i WASNT THE ONE WHO BROKE FIRST TO CANDLE THE EGGS BUT OMG i REALLY WANT TO NOW!

AHAHAHAHA LAUGHING SO HARD BC I ENDED UP CANDLING AT DAY 3 OF MY CHRISTMAS EGGS!

I found this for you. http://www.meshbagdirect.com/meshbags I think I got the 100 for $5. http://www.wassermanbag.com/seafood-packaging.html The plain unlabeled ones are better. I have to pull the shrimp label off of mine before I use them.

that's a great deal!

Tried candling the snake eggs under the broody rattlesnake. The momma was unhappy and bit me. Headed to the e.r.

that's when you should resist the temptation to candle...LOL praying for you! hope youll be ok!

This is my roo Blackbeard. He is a cross of my d'Uccle mille fleur roo (Fog) and one of my most favorite hens who is part cochin, but mostly mutt. She's just beautiful and crossing her with Fog made some of the cutest chicks and some very beautiful grown birds. Nevermind that he's missing his tail feathers here. One of the big matriarchs of my flock decided plucking his tail was how she would force him into his place in the pecking order. Prior to that, he had a magnificent black with irridecent blue/green hue tail that was very upright, much like your roo. These are some of his sisters (the ones I kept) These are their parents: Fog width: 350px; height: 233px"> [/URL]

WOW OMG SO GORGEOUS!

 

[Amberjem]

I have been putting a piece of Styrofoam on either end to tilt the egg carton then every other day I move the eggs in the egg carton and tilt them either toward the X or O whatever is opposite of how it is tilted in the egg carton currently

 

[Roan]

Incidentally, since I'm carton 'bating this time, It takes less than 10 seconds to turn all of my eggs and since they're not rolling all over the place, I don't have to worry about them banging into each other and tryting to clump together! I'm loving the carton 'bating method!

 

[jbenson]

WOW OMG SO GORGEOUS!

Right!?!? I love them. I wish I hadn't sold any. There were 2 more pullets from this combo that I sold to a local gal. I need to email her to see if she can send me photos just out of curiousity to see what they look like nearly full grown. I plan to cross these two again at some point this breeding season. Probably when the weather turns cold while I'm still hatching d'Uccles. Baby Fats is an excellent nest warmer. She's not full on broody, but she helps keep the eggs from freezing, which is totally a problem with the d'Uccles cause they don't usually sit on the nest very long and I don't heat the coop.