Setting 41 on 6-15, 7-8, 7-31, and 8-23 feel free to join in at any time

[WVduckchick]

Take the rails out, remove the clears, and lay them down. i don't worry about them being totally flat. For some reason the ones that are elevated seem to have a better hatch rate

that's what I was planning. Thanks.

 

[NTBugtraq]

@scflock , you mentioned earlier that your larger eggs make better hatchers...or something to that effect. Do you have an upper limit on the size you will put in the bator? If so, what is it...;-]

 

[scflock]

@scflock
, you mentioned earlier that your larger eggs make better hatchers...or something to that effect. Do you have an upper limit on the size you will put in the bator? If so, what is it...;-]

I've never had one I considered too big. As long as it is a normal shape, it goes in. The only ones I won't set are the oblong eggs

 

[NTBugtraq]

I've never had one I considered too big. As long as it is a normal shape, it goes in. The only ones I won't set are the oblong eggs

Well, fwiw, if I put 3 rails in a tray in the Brinsea, I find I cannot fit eggs in that are 65g or larger, I have to move the rail. I can put them in, standing up, but then they aren't touching the bottom of the tray and so did actually fall out when the turner tips them 45 degrees. I should say that I do get some pretty round eggs, as you know BCM eggs often don't have a "pointy end".

Up here, 63g-69g are called X-Large. So I have been setting only M and L eggs (49g - 62g). This time, however, I needed to put in some X-Large to fill up the trays on Day 0, so to do that I simply removed the rails in one tray and put a mix of L and X-Large eggs in whatever way they would fit. Of course that meant they had to be on their sides.

I assume you don't set the oblongs cause you figure the shell is thicker than normal? If that's true, I'm with you on that, those definitely feel like thicker shells.

So just as an aside...last year I planted 10,000+ garlic cloves and had dreams of $4 per bulb...finally got all my garlic cleaned and went to the "big event", a garlic festival, yesterday. While I made $359 in one day (the most I ever have), my dreams were burst, and completely trampled on...lolz. The upside, garlic harvests sucked this year (doh, I knew that, none of my suppliers have seed), so I'm kinda in a neat position of being one of a few with seed. The downside, stupid customers think garlic is $1.49 a pound...lolz, when in fact I've been paid $20/lb already. So it means I get a lot of disappointed, albeit delusional, customers.

Despite the ridiculous heat and humidity, and the daily rain, good nutrition makes eggs. I'm averaging 18 eggs a day from 21 layers right now...and they're not really the breed that produces an egg a day. My 14 week old cockerels are starting to get on each others nerves, despite having the big run to give space to each other...I'm totally understanding the idea of culling for gentleness. I just wish I could man up and start trying to caponize...but I have a plan for that after Christmas.

Fingers crossed for a way better hatch @scflock this time. Do you have those pads that Brinsea provides for humidity control? Have you needed them, or have you just used the vent? I started this set dry with the vent wide open since the ambient humidity was high. 2 days ago, I heard the humidity pump working, so I tampered the vent down a bit, and today again, so a bit more. Since setting, practically no water has been used from the pump...otoh, the Janoel I have had to add water to the channels 3 times already...always at 4:00am...what is with that thing?? There is no vent dampers on that thing. But no matter how little I put in it, it always seems to end up around 50%.

I hope everyone else's sets are doing well.

 

[FridayYet]

For what it's worth, I ran mine with the vents wide open the whole time, hoping the extra oxygen would compensate for the change in altitude.

The humidity pads catch the water and spread it out over a large surface area, and also keep the water from the pump from directly dripping on the eggs.

Hope you have a great hatch!

 

[scflock]

I don't have the pads, no pump. Maintaining 30% with no water and the vent wide open. I find that with the larger eggs, I space the rails to fit the eggs...

 

[NTBugtraq]

Day 11 Update: Ideal weight loss on Day 11 is 7.03%

Janoel: Average weight loss is 5.72%. The thing is designed to run at 50% and it is difficult to get it to stay there. Adding even a small amount of cool water quickly drives it up to 60%...and not adding water causes its alarm to go at 4:00am in the morning (on 3 different days now!) cause the humidity has dropped to 45%. I removed 7 definitely clears and suspect 3 more, giving me a 75% fertility rate. At least this time my current hatch rate is 100%...;-]

Brinsea: Average weight loss is 8.18%, due to the Brinsea automatic humidity pump and zero water inside the bator. Running at 35% humidity, the pump has barely had to work. I even closed the vent to 1/3 to help the pump work less. 1 early death...red ring...the egg was only 6 days old when set, 61.48 grams and had lost 8.75% of its initial weight. So, nothing spectacular in the details as to why the egg failed. 4 definitely clears and 2 more suspected, making the fertility rate 85%. Hatch rate is 97.06%...so far.

So, combined there's a 78.21% fertility rate, and potentially a 98.39% hatch rate...assuming I'm done with my late death syndrome. I really can't wait till my 2 new BCM cockerels come of age...they're still only 13.5 weeks old and I won't put them in till they have the size to be able to fend off Fred.

Project birds I currently have:

9 x 14 week 4 day-old cockerels going to be processed on 9/3
7 x 14 week 4 day-old pullets already in main flock pen
10 x 7 week 1 day-olds
16 x 5 week 6 day-olds
25 x 1 week 5 day-olds

How's everyone else's hatches?

 

[WalnutHill]

I set 24 turkey eggs on August 11, all but 1 had been refrigerated for a couple of days to a few weeks. I ended up with 7 viable. I added a few more during the first week, and of those one has a hole in the air cell end that I sealed. I pulled the clears Sunday. I added two more this week, and will be pulling one tonight that is clear. I have the Narragansett eggs in the GQF, and the project eggs and late bloomers in the Polyhatch.

The GQF was a great buy. It's insanely stable. I set it at 100F several weeks ago and it hasn't wavered at all, no matter the weather from 90F to 60F. Humidity control is fully manual, add water to the pan on dry days, leave it dry on damp days, and put water and a humidifier pad in for lockdown.

The Polyhatch is way better than an LG. The proportional thermostat keeps the temp extremely stable. The ability to change egg sizes without adjusting the thermostat by moving the thermometer/sensor boom is very nice. I'm impressed! And the turner design is very, very nice. I can actually do a staggered hatch and have some eggs turning and others not, simply by removing the rails in part of the turner. I don't plan to do this under normal circumstances, but very little I do is normal.

 

[WVduckchick]

So can't you change the humidity alarm on the Janoel? I have the Chinese knockoff version, and I believe the settings are the same.
Press and hold the Set button for about 3 seconds, and a code will come up, then use the +/- buttons to change it. "AS" is my humidity low setting.
Here are the rest, in case yours are the same. I'm honestly not sure if they are.


Not using that old knockoff anymore. Something went wrong with the heater or heat sensor or something. Bought the Brinsea Advance 20 instead.

I'm starting day 9 now. Of 32 eggs, I have 6 clear, and one early quitter. 3 of my clear were from 4 Silver Sebrights that the gal I got the eggs from thought they might not be fertile yet, so I'm not surprised about those. At least 1 was fertile! So far, I'm happy! Maintaining perfect temp, and 32-34% humidity. Didn't weigh on day 7, but might on day 10, and remove clears.

 

[NTBugtraq]

I set 24 turkey eggs on August 11, all but 1 had been refrigerated for a couple of days to a few weeks. I ended up with 7 viable. I added a few more during the first week, and of those one has a hole in the air cell end that I sealed. I pulled the clears Sunday. I added two more this week, and will be pulling one tonight that is clear. I have the Narragansett eggs in the GQF, and the project eggs and late bloomers in the Polyhatch.

The GQF was a great buy. It's insanely stable. I set it at 100F several weeks ago and it hasn't wavered at all, no matter the weather from 90F to 60F. Humidity control is fully manual, add water to the pan on dry days, leave it dry on damp days, and put water and a humidifier pad in for lockdown.

The Polyhatch is way better than an LG. The proportional thermostat keeps the temp extremely stable. The ability to change egg sizes without adjusting the thermostat by moving the thermometer/sensor boom is very nice. I'm impressed! And the turner design is very, very nice. I can actually do a staggered hatch and have some eggs turning and others not, simply by removing the rails in part of the turner. I don't plan to do this under normal circumstances, but very little I do is normal.

I thought I heard that refrigerating eggs kills their fertility? Did I get that wrong?? Anyway, shame so many weren't viable, but it sure sounds like you're going to have fun with this hatch @WalnutHill . What are your project eggs?

I sure like the sound of a sensor boom, that makes so much sense, shame they all don't have that. The Janoel turner is like your Polyhatch in that you can remove racks if you want to. The Brinsea 40 turner is, IMO, not so well designed. When I candled the eggs in the Brinsea yesterday I took the rest of the rails out as I found I had kinda "grabbed" the eggs between the rails. And so with removing the clears it means the eggs can move a lot more than they could before. Luckily there are no sharp movements with it (unlike the Janoel) but I still don't like the idea that the eggs will move one complete row during the turning. No breaks yet, but I keep worrying.

So can't you change the humidity alarm on the Janoel? I have the Chinese knockoff version, and I believe the settings are the same.
Press and hold the Set button for about 3 seconds, and a code will come up, then use the +/- buttons to change it. "AS" is my humidity low setting.
Here are the rest, in case yours are the same. I'm honestly not sure if they are.

Not using that old knockoff anymore. Something went wrong with the heater or heat sensor or something. Bought the Brinsea Advance 20 instead.

I'm starting day 9 now. Of 32 eggs, I have 6 clear, and one early quitter. 3 of my clear were from 4 Silver Sebrights that the gal I got the eggs from thought they might not be fertile yet, so I'm not surprised about those. At least 1 was fertile! So far, I'm happy! Maintaining perfect temp, and 32-34% humidity. Didn't weigh on day 7, but might on day 10, and remove clears.

Thanks for the reminder @WVduckchick , I have just turned that setting down to 30%, so no more being woke up at 4:00am. The instructions I read said that AS was the humidity setting, leaving me to believe the alarm would sound at some unknown values above and below that setting. Your instructions make more sense.

Seems my fertility rate is pretty good compared to you two.

I was doing some forecasting with my spreadsheet last night regarding when I can cull my original laying flock. I don't want to start hatching in 2016 until I have culled all 21 of my original layers. If I assume my project pullets will start laying after 20 weeks, and my first setting in 2016 is January 22nd (which gives me 16 week old cockerels on the first day my processor can process in 2016), I will have 32 laying project birds as of 12/30/15. So I am thinking now that I will have them processed on the last date I can get birds processed this year, 12/22/15. That let's me collect eggs for up to 22 days prior to my first setting...which of course isn't ideal but depending on how regularly they are laying...

BTW, I have 2 pure BCM cockerels to introduce to my main flock, including my existing 1yr-19 week Rooster Fred. I can keep them separated up to 12/22, at which point they will be 30 weeks old. I have to believe I can put them in the main flock before that. They can see and hear each other now, and have been for 9 weeks already. There are 9 other cockerels in with them at the moment who are 1 week older, but the BCM's really seem to crow more often. When I put them in the main flock I want to put them both in at the same time so they can be more assertive with the hens and pullets, while presumably standing off against Fred.

Right now my thinking is that the older cockerels go for processing on 9/3, leaving the 2 young BCM's as the oldest in their space. Leave them like that for a couple of weeks to build up their confidence, and then move them...at that point they will be 19 weeks or so. Thoughts??