4th Annual BYC NYD Hatch-a-long

[janelle18]

It should say somewhere. I would guess it's eaither a little giant or farm innovators incubator, model number would vary based on wether or not it's forced air.

And yes, you need to add water for humidity, but the amount varies. There should be a tray in the very bottom below the wire with little "cup" areas for water. You should only add water to 1 or 2 of the cups depending on the humidity levels. You would need to invest in a hygrometer to measure humidity. You can find a lot of information if you read some of the articles on hatching in the
learning center here on BYC. You can also search humidity and other aspects of incubation in the forums. If you have questions, feel free to ask! and Good Luck!

Thanks, i found the manual, and their are channels underneath to add the water. The bigger incubator I have is a sportsman that has a fan. But this one is a still air.
And yes definitely going to get a hydrometer and a new thermometer! I made the mistake of using only one thermometer last time which turned out to be faulty

 

[lil'turkeymama]

I signed up last night.I will be hatching my own eggs.Some easter-eggers,some mixed and some from my large blue bantam project pen,one of my 3 blue hens lays a blue egg so she is a blue blue egg layer.LOL.My turkeys have went alittle bonkers lately and I have one hen laying.Never had fall turkey eggs before.I'm gonna have to set some of what I have now in a few days but I am going to save up for this hatch,too.I have 2 bators running now and hatched 19 EEs and 6 bantams last week.I have 8 more mixed set to hatch this saturday.I reckon I'll set the turkeys 7 days earlier than the chickens so I can have them hatch together on New Years.I can hardly wait to see all the little ones hatched during this.I sure hope someone can keep a count of how many we all get hatched that day.I'm sure it will be an awesome number.I'll never get caught up reading all the posts on this thread so I'll just try to keep up from here.Good luck to everyone!

 

[SilkieSensation]

If a scovy was the mom they'll still take 35 days, if a mallard derived breed laid the egg and scovy was daddy they should take 28 days I think.

from my experience, scovie mixes hatch at 30-32 days regardless of which parent was the scovie.

 

[michaelf]

I use the same incubator janelle18. I have good luck using it. I put a fan in mine to keep the air moving and the temperature more even. There are 2 plugs on top I keep one in and pull the other one out. I also keep both the water troughs full with water. When it is time to take out the turner I add a bottle of warm water inside on tray beside the eggs. I found that the turner creates heat. So the temp would drop a little when removed. But with the bottle of water in with the eggs it stayed even. The temperature adjustment is a little tricky, move it in very small increments and let sit awhile about 10 monutes to adjust. Good luck!

 

[mstricer]

Quote: Where did you get that?
Walmart

Isn't that big. I think I saw the same thing. But it was big Not at all. It's maybe the size of two eggs stacked on top of one another.

I was just at Walmart and even in that section and it just slipped my mind.

MSTRICER: it's our Great Pyr's first winter too!

Celtic, you still got eggs? I haven't filled my bator completely.....yet.

I Love my girl she is about 8 months old and crazy. They play hard. Does yours do the Pyr bump, full steam ahead and barrel into you. I make it a game so I know how to stop it.

We're over 200. Woot

 

[Lacy Blues]

I use the same incubator janelle18. I have good luck using it. I put a fan in mine to keep the air moving and the temperature more even. There are 2 plugs on top I keep one in and pull the other one out. I also keep both the water troughs full with water. When it is time to take out the turner I add a bottle of warm water inside on tray beside the eggs. I found that the turner creates heat. So the temp would drop a little when removed. But with the bottle of water in with the eggs it stayed even. The temperature adjustment is a little tricky, move it in very small increments and let sit awhile about 10 monutes to adjust. Good luck!

Just a little side note here... when I tried to incubate last year after moving to a totally different area, I thought I could just do what I had done before... humidity wise.

I lost practically the whole set.

I would say it depends on where she lives compared to where you live before attempting to just fill up both reservoirs. Your local relative humidity has a LOT to do with it. I would recommend running the incubator for a few days and watch your humidity levels. Fill one reservoir up to start with, if you need more, put water in the other reservoir. It's hard to take water OUT when you have a turner full of eggs in there. It won't hurt the eggs to stop everything and remove some water but it will mess up your hatch time.

 

[janelle18]

I use the same incubator janelle18. I have good luck using it. I put a fan in mine to keep the air moving and the temperature more even. There are 2 plugs on top I keep one in and pull the other one out. I also keep both the water troughs full with water. When it is time to take out the turner I add a bottle of warm water inside on tray beside the eggs. I found that the turner creates heat. So the temp would drop a little when removed. But with the bottle of water in with the eggs it stayed even. The temperature adjustment is a little tricky, move it in very small increments and let sit awhile about 10 monutes to adjust. Good luck!

thanks so much ill keep that in mind!!

Just a little side note here... when I tried to incubate last year after moving to a totally different area, I thought I could just do what I had done before... humidity wise.
I lost practically the whole set.
I would say it depends on where she lives compared to where you live before attempting to just fill up both reservoirs. Your local relative humidity has a LOT to do with it. I would recommend running the incubator for a few days and watch your humidity levels. Fill one reservoir up to start with, if you need more, put water in the other reservoir. It's hard to take water OUT when you have a turner full of eggs in there. It won't hurt the eggs to stop everything and remove some water but it will mess up your hatch time.

yes it will be full on winter here, but i will be incubating in my basement which is more humid than other places

 

[Blarneyeggs]

I Love my girl she is about 8 months old and crazy. They play hard. Does yours do the Pyr bump, full steam ahead and barrel into you. I make it a game so I know how to stop it. 

The Pyr Bump?! Whaaaaa? Hee hee, sounds dangerous! Nope, my girl is only 4 months, she's not running me over.....yet. Although our pigs used to do that, nothing like 175 lbs of pork coming at ya.

 

[cluckitall]

from my experience, scovie mixes hatch at 30-32 days regardless of which parent was the scovie.

Thanks, Julie and SilkieSensation! Yeah, it's a scovie dad, magpie mom, so we'll see! I'm not going to worry about trying to hit NYD dead-on But at least now I know not to give up on the little bugger too soon!

 

[aoxa]

It is much warmer up here today.  It is 21 degrees and snowing right now, but that is much better than yesterday morning's 1 degree.  But I understand about your body acclimating to different temps.  When we lived in Kansas City and came home (Minnesota) for the Holidays I was shivering the entire time.

21 degrees is a sweatshirt day for me when I'm working outside now

Hah, boy you are right about that!  I grew up in South Dakota, and during the winters it got down to -30 degrees pretty commonly.  By the time that spring rolled around and the temps hit 32, we were in teeshirts!  I remember we moved, and I was shocked to learn that people in other parts of the country measure snow in inches.  ('Inches?  Why bother with inches?  What do you say: it'll snow 48 inches today?")

Now that I'm acclimated, anything below 70 sends me running for long sleeves, lol.

So you guys don't all measure in inches? We measure in CM here.

48 inches of snow?!

30-50 cm is common for a snow storm here. The winter before last we had one with 75+ cm in one drop.

Schools don't close for any less than 20 unless the roads are full of black ice.

I remember school closing once for a temp that would freeze skin in 15 minutes. That was the coldest day I ever recall. Something like -40 with a wind chill of -50.