The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

Fred's Hens said:

I enjoy building incubators and hatchers. One of these days, should I ever come across a stash of Redwood, I would like to build a knock off of one the famous incubators from the golden era. Someday. Redwood is an amazing wood for holding temp and humidity well. Meanwhile, I build lots from Omaha Steak shipping foam boxes. I like the ones big enough to hold these standard turners. Sometimes, I have to gently hacksaw off a row of cups to fit the turner into the incubator, but still. I believe even missing a row, it will still hold 34-36 eggs. Of course, when you build the hatchers from the Omaha Steak boxes, no turner fitment is required as none is needed. If I ever do get around to building that redwood cabinet, I'd incorporate these same, common turners into it, I do believe. They work well enough and aren't that prohibitively expensive. Unlike the "Cradle" rocker for my Brinsea. If I didn't like the reliability of the Brinsea so much, I'd never have sprung the $90 for the cradle rocker. My goodness. You can buy two conventional turning trays for the cost of one Brinsea cradle. Spendy. The Brinsea 20 also only holds 24 LF and approx 32 bantam eggs. They're not very big. Since I only hatch out 80-100 chicks per year, it is hard to justify doing much more than I am already. Don't forget to toe punch your chicks. If you haven't thought through the "system" and haven't yet gotten a toe punch or haven't yet figured all the combinations that are possible to make symbolic codes from them? Well, that's something to study this weekend if you have some quiet time.

Click to expand...

Fred's Hens said:

11 healthy LF chicks.

The date being May 7th means that even should this batch may produce something quite nice, the bird(s) would be awfully young for the important fall shows. We'll see. First, we just have to raise them out and keep them safe.

These Reds need time to mature, put on feathering and bulk up to look their best. It's a long road ahead.

Click to expand...

Fred's Hens said:

I enjoy building incubators and hatchers. One of these days, should I ever come across a stash of Redwood, I would like to build a knock off of one the famous incubators from the golden era. Someday. Redwood is an amazing wood for holding temp and humidity well.

Meanwhile, I build lots from Omaha Steak shipping foam boxes. I like the ones big enough to hold these standard turners. Sometimes, I have to gently hacksaw off a row of cups to fit the turner into the incubator, but still. I believe even missing a row, it will still hold 34-36 eggs.

Of course, when you build the hatchers from the Omaha Steak boxes, no turner fitment is required as none is needed.


If I ever do get around to building that redwood cabinet, I'd incorporate these same, common turners into it, I do believe. They work well enough and aren't that prohibitively expensive. Unlike the "Cradle" rocker for my Brinsea. If I didn't like the reliability of the Brinsea so much, I'd never have sprung the $90 for the cradle rocker. My goodness. You can buy two conventional turning trays for the cost of one Brinsea cradle. Spendy. The Brinsea 20 also only holds 24 LF and approx 32 bantam eggs. They're not very big.

Since I only hatch out 80-100 chicks per year, it is hard to justify doing much more than I am already.





Don't forget to toe punch your chicks. If you haven't thought through the "system" and haven't yet gotten a toe punch or haven't yet figured all the combinations that are possible to make symbolic codes from them?
Well, that's something to study this weekend if you have some quiet time.

Click to expand...

cmom said:

Quote:
A friend of mine who is a veterinarian., gave me a bunch of nice coolers that refrigerated drugs for her clinic come in.

Click to expand...

cmom said:

What are you using for heat?

Click to expand...

Fred's Hens said:

Typical light bulb setup. Double light bulbs. Though I always start with new bulbs as a precaution, never had a bulb burnout mid course yet. But I figure even if one bulb did burn out, the remaining bulb would keep it plenty warm until I noticed and changed out the bulb.

Just a fail safe measure.

Click to expand...

bluebirdnanny said:

First pip was late night Friday and hatched by Saturday morning. Most hatched by last night with two more pipps. That makes 17 of 24 hatched out and waiting today to see if the other two zip out. Today was supposed to be hatch day.... or so I had figured.

One still had egg yolk tiny piece still so I don't know if it will make it.

But since we had lost power and the motor on one incubator burned out and was cooling before I noticed and transfered them to the other I guess I could expect some won't hatch.... but I guess I can be glad some of them made it.

Click to expand...

bluebirdnanny said:

First pip was late night Friday and hatched by Saturday morning. Most hatched by last night with two more pipps. That makes 17 of 24 hatched out and waiting today to see if the other two zip out. Today was supposed to be hatch day.... or so I had figured.

One still had egg yolk tiny piece still so I don't know if it will make it.

But since we had lost power and the motor on one incubator burned out and was cooling before I noticed and transfered them to the other I guess I could expect some won't hatch.... but I guess I can be glad some of them made it.

Click to expand...