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

[jbenson]

What do you use a sterilizer/sanitizer for your incubator?

I have been cleaning the bottom with a one-step cleaner used for brewing beer to get the egg bits etc off, then bleach water to.sanitize. And for good measure, I usually set the base under our plant light to dry. I have cleaned the top with bleach water on a clean cloth. But I think I have contamination in my fan. I might spray that with Lysol this time after my bleach cleaning to get all the nooks and crannies.

 

[MrsBrooke]

Our hatch is complete.

Nine eggs set.
Eight eggs hatched, one quit around lockdown (89% hatch rate).
One breech, one "rescue" with a twisted leg that resolved itself. Both happy and healthy. ♡

Not bad for our "Set and Pray" method.

This was fun! We *must* do it again soon!

MrsB

 

[MrsBrooke]

PS - No one told me they DANCE before they POOP. *dies*

MrsB

 

[LemonMeringue]

My husband bought us a fan kit for our Little Giant. So I have to get used to a whole new deal here. I know the humidity is low, but that should be good on temp, right? It goes up a bit too if it's warmer in the house. So the highest thermometer might say 100. I'm sure someone here knows way more about how to run this set up than me.

 

[MrsBrooke]

Confucius once said, "He who has two watches never knows the right time."

I wonder if it's the same for incubator thermometers and temps?

MrsB

 

[hennible]

PS - No one told me they DANCE before they POOP. *dies*

MrsB

I know it's so cute! Wiggle wiggle plop!

 

[Cynthia12]

PS - No one told me they DANCE before they POOP. *dies*

MrsB

I guess you could call it a dance. Have you had one scream out yet when they poo? It surprises them .. or maybe it's uncomfortable to have something coming out of them instead of in them! I don't worry so much now when I hear that in the first couple of days..I know what's up.....down.

 

[Roan]

@Happy Chooks Hosted the Easter hatch last year. I worked on the Daily Digest.

It was a lot of fun!

Ah I see. I'm sure it will be awesome! You are beast at at hosting HAL's!

Ron is the Daily Digest Guru (as stated in his avatar title)!

He helps people who can't keep up with reading all the posts by doing a "news brief" each day. How is able to do it, I don't know, but he does an excellent job!

Oh!!! So that's what the daily digest is!!! So many times I meant to ask but thought it was like a short collection of miscellaneous stories and such, sort of like a Reader's Digest for chickens and didn't really have the time to commit to another thread. Doh! Now, I wish I had! That's a wonderful idea!!!

Confucius once said, "He who has two watches never knows the right time."

I wonder if it's the same for incubator thermometers and temps?

MrsB

I know, right? lol

 

[Roan]

Oh! I keep forgetting to post the results!

2014 New Day's Hatch – A – Long
Set 25
Blood Ring 1
Infertile/Poor Storage 17
Hatched 7
Spraddled Leg 1
Surviving 6
Hatch Rate 28.00%
Survival Rate 85.71%

I'm sure that the 17 Infertile/Poor Storage eggs were more Poor Storage than Infertile. Now that I know that regardless of the storage procedure, eggs over 14 days old will begin to lose their fertility, I'll restrict my setting to 7 days worth of eggs, whether that's a total of 3 eggs or 70! Wait, my incubator won't hold 70 eggs...Hmm the solution seems obvious, time for a second incubator...Just in case.

Does that count as chicken math?

<Sigh> Alas, it does not matter. I only have a possible 39 hens. Wait, the incubator can hold up to 40 total standard sized chicken eggs. But who's to say what is standard? Also, 40 is the max and one should never push the incubator to the max. And, the egg cartons I have only hold 12 or 25 eggs for the flats. So I could potentially get 39 eggs in a single day (unlikely but possible) so, that would be 39 * 7 = 273 eggs possible! 25 + 12 = 37 eggs per incubator. 273 / 37 = 8 (7.38) incubators!!!

Hmm, I need a bigger incubation station!!!

 

[coopsbyty]

Ugh I know i am to late for my hatch totals to count but I will post them in just a moment. My new year started out crappy... Literally with a broken sewer line. Luckily I have a ton of little fuzzy cuties to keep me smiling.