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

[Gardeningmama]

Quote: Wait at least a good hour before making any more adjustments...I'd wait 2 hours, myself!

I'm keeping busy and took the family to Magic Mountain! Otherwise I won't stop hervin!

Stop Hervin!!!

 

[ronott1]

Thanks I turned it up a half a turn. Should I adjust it around every 30 mins or is that too soon?

Watch it to make sure it has stopped going up and then move it more if needed( I saw a post that said to wait two hours. Good advice!). When it gets close to 98 I would not move it much and wait longer to adjust. Actually , 98 would be perfect for hatching.

I might even set an alarm and check it at something like 1AM. They tend to spike in the middle of the night sometimes.

 

[champer]

Congrats Bantambury on your pip! Don't forget that they they can take a good long rest before they start to zip.

 

[bantambury]

may be too early to twll but is my chick zipping down instead of across? I realized the fine crack going down...does this mean anything,

 

[bantambury]

Congrats Bantambury on your pip! Don't forget that they they can take a good long rest before they start to zip.

yep! thanks!

 

[ronott1]

may be too early to twll but is my chick zipping down instead of across? I realized the fine crack going down...does this mean anything,

No, the pip does not mean much. The often zip in a completely different place.

You will have chicks soon!

 

[SoManyHats]

I would barely bump up the temp. control. Remember that the middle of the egg needs to be 98 degrees. Watch it closely. Wafer Thermostats can be touchy.

Is the middle of the egg usually warmer or cooler than the top of the egg?

 

[ronott1]

Is the middle of the egg usually warmer or cooler than the top of the egg?

Still air or Fan forced? The whole incubator is supposed to be the same with a fan. It often is not though. with a still air, it will be warmer at the top and cooler at the bottom.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have a couple adjustable cheap dial type that were reading 60 when it was actually 32 this morning. I put them outside for an hour and then looked up my humidity on Accuweather.
I have a couple digitals that are a little more reliable.

Well I took those two dial units outside this morning about 4AM. After an hour they were both about 60%, accuweather for my zip code said it was 32%. No big deal, right? I adjusted both to read 32. Six hours later they were sitting right next to each other when my humidity was 29%. One read 15% and the other read 50%.
Guess what happened next. They both went right into the trash.

Quote:

I like the way Chickencanoe does it. He puts it outside and then check the humidity for his area. That should be fairly close.

The only caveat is to put it up on something away from any water or moisture where it gets good ambient air flow.

Actually, didn't plan to... my curiosity is legendary as well

.

After having these, and if they are reproducible - were I to ever need to reduce to one strain, it would be them! Their egg laying is phenomenal for a large bird; in mid-winter, still five days on, one off. The eggs are low-end large, running 58 grams on average, and while they're not cuddly like my BPRs, they're a *lot* more personable than the WL - And they are SO darn cute when they're little! IF they can reproduce themselves, it will make up for the extra winter feed, and the summer feed is no more than the other breeds. Since we're a farm, I have to be mindful of the return, else husband objects. Otherwise, I'd have the place full of silkies & frizzles & CP's

Hopefully, we'll have the answer here in a month or so! From what I've read, the color depth/pattern is the major variable, and I really don't care if the color varies - it did on all the batches I've seen, anyway!

I really like FRs as a meat bird. I've never kept any long enough to lay but my friend said they laid pretty well.
Last winter I bought 50 of them because I had to get my chicken numbers up fast before I applied for my city permit. (weird rule story for another day)
I didn't know how I was ever going to process 50 birds by myself and I had an epiphany.
I scheduled 2 meetups to teach our members how to process chickens. We did half as Cornish game hens at the first one and the other half at 9 weeks. They were so big some of the cocks were too big to fit in the large vacuum bags.

I did quite a bit of research on them and I was under the impression that their genetics is from 2 lines that won't allow the offspring to breed true. I could be wrong. I think only one company in the US was granted a license to breed and sell them.

I GOT A PIP!!!!!!!!

BONUS!!!!!

You are reading correctly. The Acurite's are not reading correctly. Intellicast says Penn is 60% now, so they are way low if they are saying 37%.

They may not go up correctly either. For now, fill the water tanks like normal. I would guess you do not need anything more, like sponges. I would order one of these for next time:

http://incubatorwarehouse.com/egg-incubator-accessories.html?cat=46

The $15.00 one should work fine.

I have this one and the humidity is pretty close.
http://incubatorwarehouse.com/incubator-remote-thermometer-hygrometer.html

Thanks I turned it up a half a turn. Should I adjust it around every 30 mins or is that too soon?

Unless it is over 101 I would wait at least an hour between adjustments. That will give the eggs time to acclimate.

This is exactly what happened to me. Mine are reading around 34% when my weather station and weather.com both say 70% for my area. So what do I do to make sure I have correct humidity for this hatch?


ETA- my incubator is homemade, so I don't have official water tanks.

I would err on the side of too much humidity. Most people have trouble getting it higher. (almost said up)

Like Ron said, if the windows fog, it's too high.

Watch it to make sure it has stopped going up and then move it more if needed( I saw a post that said to wait two hours. Good advice!). When it gets close to 98 I would not move it much and wait longer to adjust. Actually , 98 would be perfect for hatching.

I might even set an alarm and check it at something like 1AM. They tend to spike in the middle of the night sometimes.

I was up with mine all night. When I moved half the eggs, both the incubator and hatcher went wonky. Both had been running at 99.5.
That's what happens when you're poor and buy cheap controllers.

 

[CackleJoy]

What with coming home from a trip and discovering dead birds, I've had a rough day. Now I'm thinking all sorts of panic thoughts about the incubator. Set eggs 12:08 am on the 12th so almost the 11th. Figured since it was technically the 12th that it was okay to lock down today.

I put them big-end-up in the cartons with the bottoms cut out. That looks like a good idea. Then I read that I should have candled. Well I'm afraid to handle them now. I did lock down, raised humidity and all at 7:00 a.m. Should I go candle now? Leave them alone? Humidity readings are 67% and 88% percent so I figure it's over 70%. We have the fan incubator (HB 1588).

Should I just leave everything alone and hope for the best?