The Incubator Thread

[microburst]

It was actually taken at a goat dairy in Templeton, CA. Need to find myself a big chicken statue!

 

[chickens44]

Hi iv put in an egg in the incubator when iv all ready have eggs the they have been there for one day will if be ok?

 

[chickens44]

Iv put in 5 eggs in the mini advanced and im worring about the humidity i have only filled one half of the well but i have herd that if it's humid in the air you dont have to put water in and the incubators in the kitchen should i not fill it up any more and is it usual for the incubator to use alot of water on the first day?

 

[jnjmanning]

Got my new bator and ran it for a week to make sure temp and humidity would stabilize. Everything went fine until day 18 when I took eggs out of turner. Temp kept bouncing from 92 to 98, no where close to my 99.5. Day 21 was Saturday, No pipping no movement no sound. I finally candled last night, couldnt see in my brown or green eggs but could see a pulsing blood vessel in my one white egg. Finally got my temp up and steady almost 24 hrs now. Do I still have a chance of a late hatch?

 

[gimmie birdies]

mine all hatched (6) on days 22 and 23. over the weekend.

 

[microburst]

It's day 14 and finally got around to candling last night. Saw a lot of veins, and chicks wiggling around! There were a few questionable ones and some clear as well.
I've been trying to keep it about 40% humidity. In the beginning I was worried because the thermometers the bator came with were 10 degrees different from one another. To solve this I'm using a digital meat thermometer that I cross checked with a BD thermometer that is very accurate. I have it set at 100℉ with an alarm to go off it climbs above 102℉, and it seems to be working so far but I'm always looking for improvement.
What do you usually set the humidity at during the last few days before hatch? I'm worried if I raise it too high I'll get wet, mushy chicks!

 

[gimmie birdies]

mine was home made I didn't pay attention to humidity levels, just increased it during hatching. If is did anything diff though I probably would have locked down on day 19 but that was my bator.

 

[Nike]

What do you guys think of the Hova Bator 1602N?? I'm looking into getting this but having a tough time deciding!

 

[jnjmanning]

I have it,and it's very sensitive to room temp. We heat with wood and the temp jumps and falls quite a bit. Other than that, it has worked great for me.

 

[gimmie birdies]

here is my chicks that hatched from the above eggs set up in the same order as above... the blue egg hatched but didn't make it. the Yellow was a suprise color, the dad was coco maran the moms were all diff.



when they first started to hatch last week I had them in a little box near the 5 day olds, but soon separated the bigger chicks and left the banties till the newbies got their footing.


The newbies were very hard to photo

note how clean their bed is they were sleeping/playing on it for a couple of hrs. paper got messy though.these last 2 pics are today