4th Annual BYC NYD Hatch-a-long

[SilkieSensation]

Incubation time for guineas is 26-28 days. Mine have always hatched at 25-26 days - many people that I've talked to have had the same experience.

The person I got them from told me hers run 28 days. What set day should I be using since there is such a variance in hatch times with these.

 

[champer]

Aww beautiful dogs!

I just went to feed my sheep and wore a hat, which I don't normally do, sheep took one look at the hat decided I was a stranger and ran for the hills.
I knit this last year when I was on tenterhooks waiting for my first eggs to hatch.

 

[coldupnorth]

Aww beautiful dogs!
I just went to feed my sheep and wore a hat, which I don't normally do, sheep took one look at the hat decided I was a stranger and ran for the hills.
I knit this last year when I was on tenterhooks waiting for my first eggs to hatch.

Love the hat!

 

[champer]

Thank you! Should have chosen a hen motif, cause when those chicks hatched about 65% were roos!

 

[mstricer]

Just November 28th and 88 pages already

lets see.. I have 36 eggs cooking in the bator right now that i plan to hatch around the 4th- 5th. then that gives it time to rest and set more eggs!
I expect for all the eggs in the brinsea to hatch (24 of them). the other 12 are in my hovabator. all of them from the hova are dead.

i did everything exactly to the instructions but they all have those stupid blood rings

You have bacteria in the hova-bator if they had blood rings clean it out good.

Quote:

Duh, to cure the winter blues, chat to nice folks, for three weeks you can enter contests and win prizes, you meet new folks, you can learn new things. Its cold outside and nothing to do but chat online. You can share pictures, jokes, just a place to bring in the New Year with. Join even if you want to hatch or you don't want to. You can still win prizes if you don't hatch. You can also help with judging pictures and such.

Hello everyone,

Does anybody near Atlanta have an incubator we can borrow for the Hatch-a-long? My 6-year-old made his own incubator and we've been trying to hatch eggs for the last two months (two one-dozen batches) and they just aren't developing. It's really sad. We just signed up to do the Hatch-a-long, and he's REALLY excited, and we're going to buy a new batch of fertilized eggs to do it, but I just don't want him to go through with it and be disappointed all over again. Our eggs are from a local farm, and they develop halfway and then just stop. We candle them almost every day, haha. If we could just borrow someone's tried and true incubator for just this one batch of eggs, I'd be so thankful!! You can even have some of the chicks we hatch!

~Sheree

Knowing that six year old children are more intelligent, then we give credit for, if explained in an adult way with terminology, he should understand that it happens. How smart for him to think about it. KEEP trying, if you give up because he will be disappointed, he will learn that it is easy to give up than to get it right. Good lesson to teach him. If you have an aquarium try that. Don't give up. Hope you will allow him to ask us some question. I love when the kids join in the fun. I had my kids at a really young age and made a lot of mistakes. I now have to opportunity to see how I should have done things, by watching others and their mistakes, which will make me a wonderful Nana in April. Never stop trying.

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this is a project for a 6 year old

Eggs in one basket....hee hee.

Okay, I am making use of this new format with a pic. Yes, we were up before the dawn again and beat the hunters. Took this pic a little later when there was some light.

My Bella:

She is gorgeous, is she mixed with St .Bernard shes huge. Here is my Zoe and Austin (Lab/pit mix)

aoxa. I would be heart broken for you if something happened.


Very nice, We have Luna (3) Titan (3) and Goliath (8 months)

Luna



Titan



Goliath much smaller

Don't you just love them. Do they out grow the barking thing?

 

[janelle18]

ALWAYS have a back up male for all breeding set ups. Never put all those eggs in one basket.

One of the BYCers (Hall Family Farm?) has a theory,
"ALWAYS keep a back-up Roo. You will Never, EVER use him. But as sure as the sun rises, the day you decide to just stick with the one Roo is the day a fox comes by, an extra tricky racoon finds that one teeny gap you didn't think you needed to cover at the roofline of our run, your youngest forgets to close the run door after the last egg check.....ect"

We have back up roo's for all our breeding pens! Sometimes I just wanna get rid of them with they are picking on each other/ the barnyard mix of hens. But i know if i do then SOMETHING will happen and I will regret it!

 

[sherry57]

Ok, if it has a constant temperature with little flucuation then the card board shouldn't be a problem, but if you ever want to start a new, I'd recommend using a styrofoam cooler or something else that insulates better. If both thermometers read the same thing, they should be acurate but I think I found your problem, tempatures are too low. For a forced air incubator they should be 99.5 degrees and for a still air like the one you have now is, they should be kept at 101 - 102 degrees. At 98 degrees, they would at first develop as normal, but maybe slightly behind, but then they would quit developing about half way through. If any somehow made it, they would hatch extremely late and would be at high risk for deformities. I truly believe that is your main problem and if you fix it, it may work just fine. 3 - 4 degrees higher should make a huge difference! For air flow, just make a couple of holes in the top and the bottom (make sure bottom holes are not blocked) and the air will naturally circulate some as heat rises. You don't need a hygrometer if you are watching air cell size. So if you're willing to give it another go, make a couple holes in the bottom and top of the incubator and increase the temperature by 3 - 4 degrees and it should work, Good Luck!!

Oh, and unless the eggs smell from the outside, you are safe to open them and check them out, sometimes you can figure out why they died from doing this.

Thanks so much! I have a question though, just for our understanding. The science project instructions said to keep the box as airtight as possible with duct tape. I'm confused why they would tell us to do that, when according to your experience they need air flow with air holes?

So we're going to try again... wish us luck! Does anyone think we still need a fan in there? We're going to get a temperature monitor in there and styrofoam the sides (thanks Bnewns!), get a hygrometer, keep it running to check the levels, and start again with all y'all on 12/11. Can't wait!

Pics of our homegrown incubator:





~Sheree

 

[janelle18]

Aww beautiful dogs!
I just went to feed my sheep and wore a hat, which I don't normally do, sheep took one look at the hat decided I was a stranger and ran for the hills.
I knit this last year when I was on tenterhooks waiting for my first eggs to hatch.

I love it too! do you have a pattern?!

 

[cochins1088]

Thanks so much! I have a question though, just for our understanding. The science project instructions said to keep the box as airtight as possible with duct tape. I'm confused why they would tell us to do that, when according to your experience they need air flow with air holes?

So we're going to try again... wish us luck! Does anyone think we still need a fan in there? We're going to get a temperature monitor in there and styrofoam the sides (thanks Bnewns!), get a hygrometer, keep it running to check the levels, and start again with all y'all on 12/11. Can't wait!

Pics of our homegrown incubator:





~Sheree

If you were able to keep a stable temperature with the card board then the styrofoam might not be nessicary but it should still help. All of my previous hatches were in a still air incubator and I was gettin 90 - 95% hatch rates most of the time so the fan won't make to big of a difference in my opinion, but it could help if you're willing to put one in.

The instructions probably said to keep it air tight to help hold the humidity and temperature in better, but the eggs need some air flow in order to exchange gases properly. If you add a couple of holes near the bottom, and some on the top, air will naturally be flowing without an added fan. As the air heats, it rises and some of it will be released through the holes on top, at the same time it will draw in fresh air from the bottom holes.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask! I really think what killed your eggs was the low temperature, but all of these aspects should improve your hatch rate. So remember, the temperature for your incuabtor WITHOUT a computer fan should be kept between 101 and 102 degrees F. And if you decide to install a fan, keep it at 99.5 degrees. Good Luck!

 

[bnewns]

I just checked the set date for Guineas & it says 26 days but I was told 28. Can someone please confirm which is correct so I know which day to set or if I need to go ahead & set them now instead of waiting for the contests & hatch-along. I don't want them to get too old before I get them set.

I already have to fire up at least 1 more bator for the hatch-along because I set Christmas Quackers before I saw this. Now I need to know if I'm going to end up with a 3rd bator going as well.

I've always heard that bird eggs incubation periods are always in a multiple of 7, so if this is the case 28 days would be the correct amount of days.