Good lord, you talk a lotI 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.
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??
I thought about you this morning. I posted a Silence of the Lambs pic in the forbidden thread, and realized that Buffalo Bill's dog was a bitchen frizzie
I love the Brinsea turner, and don't take out clears until lockdown, for the exact reason that you mentioned.
I started having a seizure when I started reading your projections, so I just decided to post on what interested me