Some questions about eggs and incubators

[bayvistafarm]

I have been reading the thread on the newbies and incubating.. (its gonna take me awhile, theres 240 some pages), but its getting me excited about getting one!! I have a few questions.
First, the mini-advance, seems too small to me, even tho I have never raised fowl this way. How many have actually boughten one, only to have wished for a bigger one?? Only 7 large chicken eggs? How many guinea eggs do you think. Do they fall into the category of quail/pheasant? I know how big they are, my guinea's started laying in the fall. I have never seen a quail/pheasant egg tho. I would want to hatch scads of those.
Ok, hen question. I have 2 roosters. They are probably the most mixed up breeds (a friend has chickens, and roosters, all different colours and sizes. She gave me 12 eggs and my broody hen that came with the guinea's..... she hatched them.... so...
If I took one of those roosters (he 'looks' mostly barred rock.. hes black and white speckled, with redish hairs mixed in on his neck and tail), and threw him in with my Rhode Island Red crossed up hens.... would I get a good layer bird out of the chicks?? I have 15 of those hens. I like to keep at least 15 layers at a time. If I hatched out 2 batches, I suppose if I eventually mixed them (what pullets I got), they would fight??
The broody hen will of course hatch some of hers (I see already that her eggs have been fertilized. All of these run together with 'her' guinea's. (cept the Rhodes) She is a smaller whitish hen, but has feathers on her feet I see. Any idea what she would be?
Would the mini-advance's humidity level keep itself where is should be? How can there be no control on that (I think is says that). My house is cold quite alot of the time. Will this affect the incubator? In the stove room, right where I am now tho... with it on (wood heat), its VERY hot sometimes, although the rest of the house freezes, lol. I know I am rambling here. I want one so bad, and actually have contemplated it in the past. With this great site, I have written down a few notes on what you guys have said about yours, like proper temps, and humidity levels. Can I ask what 'lockdown' means? Is that when the eggs are stopped turning, and you leave them until they hatch? How long do they stay in the incubator after they do hatch? Do you take them out so they don't bother the others? While they are soaking wet? I sure don't want to inadvertently kill anything that manages to actually hatch. Thanks in advance. P.S. I have raised MANY batches of day olds, so I am not completely stupid in the chicken rearing game. Just a little stupid. I think it would be awesome (not to sound morbid or be fearmongering.. but if anything did happen in this world, where our food supply was compromised in anyway.... to have a way to actually produce your own chickens for eggs/meat, either having an incubator.. providing there was still electricity... or a broody hen or two that could do the job for you!!

 

[Mahonri]

Yeah you are right, you did ramble on, but let me at least try to answer a couple of your questions.

The mini-advance is small. But if you only want to replace 15 layers a year, you could do that with a mini-advance and 3 or 4 hatches. If you had a cabinet incubator or a GQF 1588, you could hatch out enough in one time to get 15 pullets for replacement birds.

You could probably put 8 guinea eggs or 8 pheasant eggs in the mini advance.

Any combination of Rhode Island Red and Barred Rock will yield good laying hens. Here they call them Black Sex links and they are egg laying machines. I had one once that went 93 days without missing a day.

There will always be a pecking order in a flock. The younger ones will usually be picked on my the older ones. That's just the nature of chickens.

Smaller whitish hen with feathers on her feet is most likely a cochin cross or perhaps a faverolle cross... how many toes?

All incubators need to be kept in an area where the temperature is constant.

If you get the humidity pump with the mini-advance, humidity levels will be kept in the correct range.

Days 1-18.... 33%
Days 19-hatch.. 70% ("Lockdown"- when you stop turning the eggs)

Once they start hatching you don't open the incubator until most have hatched, other wise, those that have pipped will dry out and won't hatch.

Good luck.

 

[bayvistafarm]

Thanks for the info! I will go and count the hens toes next time I am in the barn. Well, that kind of sucks that you have to have a house with a constant temperature. I am not so sure that an incubator will work for me until summertime, but I think you have convinced me to maybe go to a bit bigger size. And get a humidity pump. Good lord, how much money can you spend on a complete set up? (I do know the huge incubators are in the thousands... not going that far, lol).