My Hatching Journey: the Adventures of a Complete Newbie

[BantyChooks]

I became interested in incubating several months ago, after starting to get some fertile eggs from my newest roosters. While asking around on BYC I found the "Incubating w/ friends" thread. After reading the incredible pile of information on there and asking some questions, I decided to sit back and wait for spring. Yeah, right, famous last words, eh? My first batch is going in the incubator soon, if I can locate all the supplies I need. I thought I had them all but then my hygroset (pictured below) malfunctioned.



Incubator modification—it's so simple, but makes adjusting temperatures way easier. Just hot glue a Lego onto the adjuster.


Incubator pictures:



My plans are to get a good cross going with my EE/Sultan eggs. I am curious as to what they look like, and if I can get them to retain the more attractive aspects of the Sultan with the coloured eggs and slightly better common sense of the EE.

Update: 1st gen cross of EE x Sultan below. I am very pleased.



Pictured below are some of the eggs I am going to set.


Helpful thread links:

Hatching 101
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

Educational Incubation and Hatching
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/educational-incubation-hatching-w-sally-sunshine-hosts-bantychooks-and-more.1137467/

Coolerbator
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/homemade-easy-cooler-incubator
and
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/building-the-binbator.72074/

Assisted Hatching
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching


Feel free to join in with your own hatches, add advice, or learn a few things. All are welcome.

 

[FridayYet]

Awesome! I can't wait to start So random question maybe you or another member can answer... a friend of mine & I are having a "debate" she has ameraucana hens and her rooster is a BCM she thinks that if the eggs are fertile they'll be blue with brown specks. Doesn't the hens breed determine the color/appearance of the eggs? I would think the roosters breed has nothing to do with it... but maybe I'm wrong??? Any idea?

The eggs from the Ameraucana will be blue whether fertilized or not (If they are blue now) and any pullet offspring should lay green eggs.

If the blue is really saturated from the mom and the Roo hatched from a really dark egg, the offspring will be Olive Eggers.

If the mom is really an EE, and only has one copy of the blue gene, half of the offspring will lay green and half will lay brown.

 

[BullChick]

 

[BantyChooks]

Aww, it's grown-up balut! Cute little babies!

They're all grown up now! Very old balut

The black and white one in the centre is one of the littles I hatched. Rest were acquired as lings---the two other Anconas I kept aren't in this image.

 

[BantyChooks]

Well, at long last, it's finally time to start thinking about hatching. I've busied myself with incubator upgrades in the remaining time left to wait.

Holes for tubing similar to what I had on my last 'bator. This will reduce the number of times it gets opened in lockdown. In theory, anyway.

Edge of the bottom tray. It pulls out nicely as detailed in later images. I will be making a flap to cover it when not in use as I already have enough ventilation. I used a hack saw to cut it to size.

I put some small drain holes in the lowest part of the lid. That way water can't get in there and slosh around for weeks, like it did with the last hatch.

Tray on the inside. I think I'll put HWC and shelf liner on top of it.

Tray half slid out.

Incubator with egg turner in it. I hot glued a cup to the side for regulating humidity during incubation.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:

Quote:

A few TIPS & TRICKS!
Below image is a Simple waterer/suctioner out of aquarium tubing placed through side of incubator and into water wells. Use a Kids medicine syringe to add/suck water without opening or disturbing eggs.


In the image below are the different sized cups I use the first 18 days of incubation INSTEAD of using the wells in the bottom of the incubator. I had a hard time getting humidity correct, so I started using different size containers and caps for water holding, I could easily remove & replace as necessary. It WORKS WELL and I can keep them clean and sanitized better and not disturb my eggs! I will remove these cups on day 18 so the chicks don’t drown in them
and use the lower wells at lockdown at day 18.


2" funnel & we shoved it into a small piece of 1/4" tubing, a cleat on the inside of the unit (a wide-crown staple or cable staple would work also) to hold the tubing in place.
This way you can add water to the middle of the bator without missing the water troughs and without opening the unit. see below
(Thanks tlpounds)

​

 

[BantyChooks]

Camo birdie is Jace, all chick pictures are of her. Grey one is Reynbow, brown is HennyPenny II. The black one, which I don't own anymore, is Majic.

 

[BantyChooks]

My motto is the less handling the better, and I have clean hands when I do.

I just love seeing the little heartbeats at four days, the little wigglers at 7 days, and the sloshy swimmers at 14 days. After that, they get harder to see. Recommendations are not to handle the eggs excessively in the first few days while blood vessels are extremely delicate, and not between 11 and 14 days while they go through some critical development. So I generally try to restrict my candling to day 7 and day 18. I rarely succeed.

The other great reason not to candle is the possibility of breaking an egg increases dramatically while handling it. I've never had a good egg break on its own in the incubator.

I hope I see them wiggle. That would be too cool.

 

[WalnutHill]

I have. I made 1/4" hardware cloth tubes that fit the Little Giant turner rails so that I could incubate oversize turkey eggs (one was 152g). The eggs laid end to end along the rail, and I used zip ties to secure the wire to the plastic rail. The huge egg was twins, and they developed side by side, with plenty of room. They made it to 21 days, when one quit, and the other followed soon after.

I've considered creating some for the GQF that will fit in the existing metal trays. I'd run them front to rear so they will roll over a 90 degree arc instead of tipping over a 90 degree arc.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Okay I told Friday I would post about yesterday's fishing adventure.

Part one.

So my buddy shows up and we drive to the lake. We get there and the whole lake had been snowed plowed.
Now I've been fishing this lake for 33 years and it's never been snowed plowed. Now have I ever seen an entire lake snow plowed before. (Is a fairly big lake)
We decide were gonna truck on over to the far side being we had the snowmobile and all. We get over there drill our holes, set up the shack, and start fishing. A bald eagle flies right over our heads ( Pretty cool but not too uncommon here). We start fishing and I go to check on you guys here and realize I don't have my phone. I end up jumping on the snowmobile and heading back to see if i left it in the truck.
The machine starts to act up and dies on the way back from the truck (oh crap).
I do notice if I reach down and pump the primer it'll keep running. So I get back call my wife with Frank's phone and she says that I left it on the window above the kitchen sink(that's where I put it if i am trying to get a text out cuz I can't text for crap at my house....big metal roof acts like a tin foil hat). Now I'm worried about getting stranded on a lake at night with a dead snowmobile and I'm not really dressed for it...:/.
So now we're fishing and all of a sudden out of now where two freaking airplanes land on the ice right next to us. Scare the bejesus out of us. I didn't have my phone to get pics..
Now I know why the lake was plowed.

Intermission:

We catch fish...I got a couple of pike one was about 26" Frank kept a good meals worth off Bluegill. Had fun.


Part 2.

so now we decided to head back before it's too dark knowing the snow machine is acting up. We start heading back.
And the only way I can keep it running is to hold the throttle with my left hand ( is on the right handle bar) and reach down with my right hand and pump the primer (obviously I have a fuel issue). It's almost out of control as it is too ride like that. So now Frank is on the back, the machine is bucking like a freaking bronco (Frank's a big guy) every time it bucks he's practically choking me trying not to fall off the back. All this time I'm trying to steer left handed with the right handle bar. Somehow with all this going on I managed to get the machine back to the truck. (Oh yeah Frank fell off half way back I made him walk cuz I wasnt stopping for nothing). You would think this would be the end of story.
NOT...trying to load the machine onto the trailer I flooded it and fouled the plug. Luckily my quick thinking I stole the plug out of my ice auger and even though it was totally the wrong plug I got it started and loaded and we went home...Yay !!!!
Allot to go through for a meal of fish...........Phil