Jan./Feb. 2014 hatch a long

[jjaazzy]

Hi all! I am happy to announce that I am on day 18! Yeah! Finally.....! I got to do something besides pace back and forth and shine a flashlight on my eggs. Short recap... I have 3 silkies and only 1 hen.... gee lucky me... anyway got a incubator and placed my collected eggs, all 8 of them over a period of 10 days. Almost didn't put the oldest ones in cause I was worried they were too old, but figured hey nothing to loose, I can always discard them later if they turn out to be no good. Well thank goodness I included them in my incubating batch cause the 3 oldest were the only ones that developed. I guess the others were not fertile. So now I am on day 18 and I know I need to bump up the humidity. I have been playing with this incubator during the 18 days trying to bump up the humidity and I could never seem to get it to read over 58 percent. So today I filled the entire bottom with water and put in a separate digital device now its reading 80%. So should I take water out? I would assume that the 2nd display cause it was on the grate over the water closer to the water surface is reading higher and the other is reading lower cause it is reading from the top and it is a force air incubator...... So I don't know what to do now.......... what do you thing?

 

[Cynthia12]

Sunflower seeds are expensive where I live. I add alfalfa pellets to my fermented feed in the winter. I also use 3 way scratch because it doesn't have as much corn. Antthing to keep them warm in the winter. I only add about 15% so they don't get chubby. They would eat it all day long if I let them. They are terrible foragers. Way to spoiled to work for their food. They do love playing in the wheat straw and snacking as they play.

Ahh, corn is an excellent idea. I actually open cans of corn for my girls in the winter..we get cold here! They need a little extra chubby, if you can get them to gain weight in the winter. Mine are looking pretty good, knock on wood. They much be eating well enough. And, all of my layers are laying..knocking on wood again.

 

[Cynthia12]

I feed mine oatmeal with cayenne pepper, garlic, acv and vitamins in it and I get the turnip green or any of those root tops that they sell...you can use rabbit food too

Ooo, I haven't given mine any cooked oatmeal yet. They love it! We don't see turnip greens around here. Once in a while I'll see something different in the veggie isle that is more of a southern thing. I miss a lot of that .. still..came here from VA. Lived in Florida. I miss Hushpuppies!

 

[gimmie birdies]

if you look careful you can see the red dot of fertile- day 1 this is a light cream colored egg.

 

[Cynthia12]

I am on day 17/15 on my fridge eggs- and I just put in some of my hens eggs, and the rooster is up and running!!!!

So waiting to see how your fridge eggs work out. I've been wanting to try this. Have to go a ways to get eggs though. We don't have a store down this way that has fertile eggs. Need a FJ's out this way!

 

[gimmie birdies]

yeah- i put in another batch of my own eggs first time trying out my roo. other eggs are doing fine!!!

 

[Cynthia12]

Power went out this morning. I was still in bed, went to look at the clock, it wasn't on, just thought, oh, it came unplugged, went to look at another one in the same room, it was off, then it hit me, and I was up and running to my bators. Man, I had an egg that had pipped, could hear the chick, the whole top of the windows were fogged because when the temp loweres, the humidity goes up..it was up to 88. The temp was down to 78.

It came back on probably around 20 mins. after I got up. Whew..I think my babies that are hatching should be ok. They are due tomorrow. The little chick is still peeping.

 

[gimmie birdies]

good luck- power went out for me when I had chicks due in 2 days- it was a planned out- and supposed to be just 4 hrs- the eggs seemed pretty cold- since they were due in 2 days I took them to bed with me (2 eggs) they hatched 2 days later.

 

[Cynthia12]

yeah- i put in another batch of my own eggs first time trying out my roo. other eggs are doing fine!!!

This is what I do too. I check 24 hrs. on a few just to get an idea of what I may have going on. Then no more candling until day 5 or 7. I can see that dot.

I also have some Rhodebars that go into lock down today. The temp was down and humidity, but I think they should be fine. I don't the power was off too long. :/
I have some EE's and OE's that are only a week in there, but thinking they should be fine too. Will have to candle those tonight. I wonder why the power went out. It was cold in the house too. :/

 

[Cynthia12]

good luck- power went out for me when I had chicks due in 2 days- it was a planned out- and supposed to be just 4 hrs- the eggs seemed pretty cold- since they were due in 2 days I took them to bed with me (2 eggs) they hatched 2 days later.

You took them to bed with you..ha .. that's great.

Glad it worked out for you.