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

[blackgoat]

There is another me out there? LOL! I just got the message and sent a reply back. Thank you so much for this!!!

There is a @ValleyChick, and I'm sure they are very confused right now.

lol!

 

[misfitmorgan]

My guess is that the room with the incubator does not stay at a steady temperature during the day. The room needs to be about 70 or so 24\7. If not, most incubators will not keep up with temperatures.

What you are describing is most often caused by too low average temperatures during incubation. Humidity does not need to be controled as tightly as humidity. Temperatures need to be a degree above 99.5 and a degree below. Humidity can be off by 20%, which is huge in comparison.

The things to work on are:

Flock health
Temperature
Turning
Humidity
ventilation.

If the eggs are not from your flock you cannot control flock health. The other things need to be addressed in order of importance.

1 The eggs are not mine...so def cant do lol
2 i have to check what temp i have it set to when i get home
3 the eggs are in an auto turner, they turn every 2 hrs ( have visually checked this atleast 12 times and i can hear it turning, small incubator is next to my bed) The turner turn then about 45 degrees left and then right.
4 humidity has varied from 15% to 36% since day 1 50-60% during hatch
5 ventilation might be lacking there are 6 roughly half inch vent holes in the bator it is a small 48 egg bator.

Thank you Ron
hopefully it isnt to late for the other 30 some egg in there.

 

[ronott1]

1 The eggs are not mine...so def cant do lol
2 i have to check what temp i have it set to when i get home
3 the eggs are in an auto turner, they turn every 2 hrs ( have visually checked this atleast 12 times and i can hear it turning, small incubator is next to my bed) The turner turn then about 45 degrees left and then right.
4 humidity has varied from 15% to 36% since day 1 50-60% during hatch
5 ventilation might be lacking there are 6 roughly half inch vent holes in the bator it is a small 48 egg bator.

Thank you Ron
hopefully it isnt to late for the other 30 some egg in there.

What incubator do you have?

My guess is that the temp drops at night and the incubator cannot keep up.

 

[FuzzyHens]

What incubator do you have?

My guess is that the temp drops at night and the incubator cannot keep up.

I think this is what went wrong with my last hatch as my husband likes to turn to the temp down to 60 in the house at night. I haven't broken it to him that we are leaving the thermostat at 70 for this next hatch.

I may get relegated to spring/summer only hatches...

@misfitmorgan I hope you figure it out quickly so that your the current batch ends up ok!!

 

[chicken pickin]

I think this is what went wrong with my last hatch as my husband likes to turn to the temp down to 60 in the house at night. I haven't broken it to him that we are leaving the thermostat at 70 for this next hatch.

I may get relegated to spring/summer only hatches...

@misfitmorgan I hope you figure it out quickly so that your the current batch ends up ok!!

70 *ach, ach* I choke in that warmth. Lol not really, but I control the temp in my house and it is not allowed over 66 in the main part of the house 64 in the bedrooms. I cant handle it if it is warmer.

 

[1zooman12]

For what it is worth, I passed up on the opportunity to get involved in the Hatch-A-Long as this is my first year in the BYC blog with all you wonderfully nutty chicken addicts and I'm still busy lining up my goals and breeding program(s) for the oncoming spring season. I have several goals; maybe too many, but what the heck one only lives once. And don't you just love the mantra, CCPU! Whoever is responsible for originating that ought to get a medal or at least an ovation for the great effort and impact I'm betting will develop and get to be used by many of us. When one starts out in a forum of this sort jt is reassuring to discover that one's self is not the only person on the planet to be awed by that elegant bird we call the chicken. Listen good people, I have an admission to make. Not too long ago I went to visit a lady, Kim Consol, at her farm and was treated to a grand tour of her birdery as well as seeing the rest of her very interesting menagerie. She took great joy in showing her children. Have you ever seen or even heard of Dexter cattle? I had never seen them. To make a long story short she graciously sold me a trio of her prized Delawares. I think that I could detect a bit of angst as she parted with her babies. Despite her size, one of the pullets managed to breach the fence shielding our pool and landed in the thing. It cost the poor elegant pullet her life. I am still heartsick about that. I'm the type of animal nut (including the chicken) who hand rears his babies who often become quite spoiled. For example, just a few days ago one of my red star pullets came to my chair, jumped into my lap and relaxed. So let's say we chatted for about 15 minutes. The sweet little thing flew down to ground and when I looked in my lap there was a beautiful large sized light brown egg! I was awe struck by that act. I never heard of that happening much less having witnessed it. This old zoologist eats, sleeps and generally lives for his animals as a top priority. Did the one positive event offset the negative one? Definitely not; it just doesn't work that way. I'll always rue the one event and relish the positive one. So I decided that since I cannot be home all the time each day, I should take serious measures to build a coop for the free ranging birds and keep it in a fenced run of good dimension even resorting to clipping wings if it seems necessary. I pledged to myself and to those wonderful birds that no such event should ever happen again; I owe them that in a world that is essentially Darwinian in scope. That is all…
Neal, the Zooman
P.S. How does one do an ovation?

 

[ronott1]

70 *ach, ach* I choke in that warmth. Lol not really, but I control the temp in my house and it is not allowed over 66 in the main part of the house 64 in the bedrooms. I cant handle it if it is warmer.

66 will work too. It needs to stay close to that temperature all the time during incubation. The incubator should not be near a window or under a vent either.

 

[Peep_Show]

1zooman12 -
At the very bottom of each poster's invidual posting box is a string of boxes consisting of a symbol for thumbs up, and then Multi, Quote and Reply. If you click on the thumbs-up symbol you give an ovation and a pop-up screen will appear if you want to leave a few words.

Wonderful story about your obviously VERY content hen! So sorry to hear about your Delaware hen, but accidents do happen. And when you know better, you do better.

Dexter cattle are fabulous. Have you seen the calves? About the size of a large cocker spaniel. My cousin-in-law's family raises them.

Welcome to the thread!

 

[FuzzyHens]

70 *ach, ach* I choke in that warmth. Lol not really, but I control the temp in my house and it is not allowed over 66 in the main part of the house 64 in the bedrooms. I cant handle it if it is warmer.

66 will work too. It needs to stay close to that temperature all the time during incubation. The incubator should not be near a window or under a vent either.

I could probably convince him to compromise at 65. For me personally, I'd love 70 or higher. But I've gotten used to using lots of blankets during winter in New England. So most incubators can keep up with 65? I have a Brinsea Mini and I noticed during lockdown that the temp dropped to 98.x over night when the house temp went to 60.

 

[Aliciahess]

@1zooman12 that's an awesome egg story!!