Dreaming of Spring...

[bobbi-j]

Of course you need more chickens! One of the third grade teachers in the school where I work hatches out a couple dozen eggs every year in a styrofoam incubator. She usually has pretty good luck with it.

 

[aart]

There is an incubator at school, I have a student that wants to hatch eggs, so I am setting them tomorrow. I plugged it in tonight, it is just a styrofoam incubator, but the kindergarten teacher last year had great success with it, so what the heck.

Currently I am getting 6-7 eggs a day... for two people, like I need more chickens!

Mrs K

HAHAHA!! Now we know why you didn't go to the feed store!

 

[aart]

9 live chicks taken out of the incubator this morning for 15 total in brooder....SO cute and fuzzy, as they cheep and peep and figure out how to eat, drink and find the warm place!



Then the not so cute side, 1 dead chick in bator(open abdomen) and a bad pip(small end/side) that probably will not make it out alive....I *could* (and might) 'help' it, but that usually doesn't end well(but I did chip away a small portion around beak- the rest is up to it).
8 other eggs that won't likely hatch that I will break open to see if they were fertile at all (shells too dark to candle), or when they stopped growing, or why they didn't hatch. Yeah, not fun.
Then there's cleaning the incubator. Do you know how much gunk happens when chicks hatch....and how *bad* it smells at 100F and 80%? A retchingly not fun at all.
Just venting the hard parts to those who will understand.

 

[Folly's place]

Cute babies, aart, and sorry about the rest of it. Mary

 

[bobbi-j]

Congrats on the hatch, Aart! Sometimes I open the unhatched eggs, and sometimes I don't. I haven't actually hatche'd out chicks in the incubator for several years. Lost one chick last night to piling, I think. Need to have DH move the light down tonight (I won't be home to do it myself) as it's supposed to get to the mid-20's. Having to make adjustments is just one more point I can bring up when I extoll the virtues of the MHP brooder.

 

[aart]

Congrats on the hatch, Aart! Sometimes I open the unhatched eggs, and sometimes I don't. I haven't actually hatche'd out chicks in the incubator for several years. Lost one chick last night to piling, I think. Need to have DH move the light down tonight (I won't be home to do it myself) as it's supposed to get to the mid-20's. Having to make adjustments is just one more point I can bring up when I extoll the virtues of the MHP brooder.

Actually, sorry, but you do want to be able to make adjustments with a MHP, they will grow and the ambient temps might have you wanting to adjust heat level and height.

Do yourself a big favor and go flat (instead of curved) with the rack/pad and add adjustable legs,
harder to build (maybe) but makes it much easier to adjust when in use.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/pseudo-brooder-heater-plate

Remember they need contact with the pad, just like with a Brinsea/Premiere plate heater.

 

[bobbi-j]

Actually, sorry, but you do want to be able to make adjustments with a MHP, they will grow and the ambient temps might have you wanting to adjust heat level and height.

Do yourself a big favor and go flat (instead of curved) with the rack/pad and add adjustable legs,
harder to build (maybe) but makes it much easier to adjust when in use.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/pseudo-brooder-heater-plate

Remember they need contact with the pad, just like with a Brinsea/Premiere plate heater.

Thanks, Aart - I figured I'd need to make adjustments as they grow, but didn't realize I needed to when the ambient temperature changes. Does that mean I need to adjust in the morning and at night with the temp changes of the day and night? The link you posted is the one that got me thinking about it in the first place.

 

[aart]

Quote: No, not day and night...more like if you have them outside and it's been fairly mild then a serious cold snap moves, then in you might want to turn it up a notch.
Still use their behavior as indicator for what the temp need to be, just like with a lamp.......and ignore that silly 5 degrees a week 'rule of thumb'.
I start turning the heat down pretty aggressively after a week....but I've always brooded inside so I turn down the room temp as well as the pad temp.
Am going to move them to the coop after a week with MHP this time<crossesfingers>

 

[bobbi-j]

I have never gone by any certain temperature rules. I do have a thermometer in the brooder to give me an idea of how warm it is in the brooder, but use their behavior as a guide to where the lights should be. In my opinion, the "rules" are merely guidelines.

 

[aart]

I have never gone by any certain temperature rules. I do have a thermometer in the brooder to give me an idea of how warm it is in the brooder, but use their behavior as a guide to where the lights should be. In my opinion, the "rules" are merely guidelines.

Yeah, I figured you knew that...pardon my blathering