5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[chickensnewtome]

thanks yall

 

[JLaw]

For the Genesis, keeping the center well filled day 1 through day 19 (it will not hurt for it to get to half full before you add more water) and that will keep your humidity correct. Then on the evening of the 19th day I fill one of the side wells. When I see the first pip I fill the second side well. You don't want to up your humidity too soon. If your incubation temps and humidity have been correct through day 19, the chicks are less likely to have trouble hatching. I have even just brought it up to 55% and the chicks hatch fine. Once the first chick hatches, its wet body brings up the humidity anyway.

I use fish tank airline tubing and run two lengths of it through the hole at the back of the incubator that the turner cord goes through, into each side well so I can use a turkey baster attached to the tubing to add water without opening the incubator. When it gets close to lockdown I can post some pictures of how I set up for hatch if you like.

Well I just got home took some pics of my bator cause I was going to share the fish tubing. I run mine a little different I took a Philips screw driver same size of tubing and I put it into two vents that are by the side trays #1 and #2. Instead of a turkey baster I use a children's med syringe. Here are two quick pics I did. I put the tubing through the mesh on inside but not touching the bottom of tray so it wont suck any water back out. But also I chase the water through the tubing with a syringe full of air.

 

[Aphrael]

Guess who is back in!!!! YUP THAT IS ME!!! I received word today that my grievance has been accepted and I am back in the nursing program!! Now to just wait and see if my eggs come in tomorrow.

That is wonderful news!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Well that paper was not bad too bad about sounding Soooo Scientific that it makes it hard for most to make sense of what is being said. Some get so into technical jargon that its almost as bad as reading a legal document.

I understand, some do make your eyes go crossed. Most of the papers are meant to be shared by the scientific community.
At least someone is doing the research though. That's how the mysteries are solved. Even if that research is meant to benefit the commercial poultry market.

 

[Wunjo]

I am going to be manually turning my eggs, but they will be in an egg flat with a wooden base for stability. What is the angle at which I need to tilt them. Going this route instead of an egg turner. I have wire line running through holes in the top of the Hovabator attach to the wooden base to raise and lower each side of the flat of eggs but I am not sure if I have enough room to tilt enough without it touching the (HUGE) PC fan I installed. (It was the only one I had spare.) Last time I manually turned each one opening it 3 times a day. I had humidity problems.





Now on other thoughts next hatch I am thinking of gutting the Hovabator 1602n and putting everything from it in a 40" x 17" x 20" cooler that we have here. I have a nice triple paned piece of glass 17" x 24" x 1.5" thick for a viewing window. Do you guys think that the heating element will keep that large of an area to an adequate temp? I would build two of the egg flat turners for it so that i wouldn't need to open it. With maybe a 3 gallon sealed bucket of water so it can keep a stable temp. It would be easy cleaning just take out the plug and wash.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I took advantage of the snow we got today to look for predators prints around our coops…I was pretty surprised to find the 2 legged type of predator has been on my property and around my coops…Seriously?? I really can NOT imagine walking onto someone's property and just looking around at their stuff…




THIS is the land to the rear of our property and where the footprints came from….now WHERE the heck is this jerk parking???

I know, weird isn't it. But it happens. Could he have been hunting?
Perhaps poaching or hunting for something to steal.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

...
Am I the farthest north participate ? Waving a hand from Fairbanks Alaska... Peace,,,,

So far.
Who thinks they're farthest south, west, east?
Any outside the US?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Quote: A sponge or one of those wafer humidity pads increases the surface area, increasing evaporation, thereby increasing.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

okay so i wont really worry to much until the eggs go into lockdown?

oh awesome! i have the genesis, do you fill up all the troughs to get your humidity up for hatching? Thanks! im keeping my fingers crossed

i guess the humidity isnt as important as i originally thought... do you think i should keep a hydrometer to measure the humidity in the room as well? I have the incubator in my room but i think i may need to move it to a room with more consistent temps because my room fluctuates too much for some reason

You can experiment, playing with the humidity during incubation so you can see what you'll need to fill for hatch time which is the only real critical time for it. Even then it isn't as critical as temperature is throughout incubation.
If you get the humidity too high, you can always open the incubator up for a bit. After all, a hen gets off the nest daily for a half hour to an hour depending on ambient temps. She will usually have more success hatching doing so than an incubator.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Does anyone have a good cheat sheet? This is my 1st incubator hatching...
I just had a Broody set and she didn't do very well I had to take 4 chicks from her at the pip because she had killed 3 of them, one didn't get out seemed to dry. I did get 4 cute chicks...


I did a test run on my incubator which is a Farm Innovator 4200. It got to temperature and held well. What is a dry hatch? I thought humidity was very important?

Thanks....

How old was your broody? What breed? Had she set and hatched before that?

Dry hatch is basically using little or no water at the beginning and not worrying about it.
Humidity is important but not critical till pipping time. That's why they call it lock down. The humidity has to be up so the inner membrane doesn't stick to the chick dry out and basically encapsulate the chick preventing it from moving.
During incubation, 15% of the egg weight needs be lost by moisture transpiring and oxygen coming in, enlarging the air pocket.
I weighed all my eggs today. I'll keep humidity between 10 and 50%. I'll weigh again each week to make sure weight loss is on target. If they're losing too much weight, I'll up the humidity, If they aren't losing enough, I'll drop it.
Day 18, I try to get it over 60% but under 80.
At least that's how I do it.