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

[chicken pickin]

Oh boy, you gotta be careful with the styrofoam, it can impact the crop.

I moved the insulation once I noticed what they were doing to it.

 

[chicken pickin]

how do ur hatches go in the little giant? if u still use it.

I returned it after only a week of using it. So I have no accurate info on how it does through a full incubation and hatch. Just my personally preference for the Hovabator influenced my decision to return it.

 

[msladyhawke]

Silkie or Cochin anything really.

Darn it. I don't have either. Can anyone else help out?

 

[msladyhawke]

I'm just using my brinsea mini incubator for winter hatches. I don't want too many chicks. But I also have an rcom 20 pro. I love both rcoms and brinseas! I've also used a genesis in the past, it worked great too.

I swear by my Brinseas! I have both a mini advanced and an octagon 20 advanced. (Both with eggs in them currently )

 

[Whoops]

I ordered a Brinsea mini advanced and I am anxiously waiting for it to arrive!

 

[Pozees]

Darn it. I don't have either. Can anyone else help out?

I have Silkie eggs, if you want to try shipped. PM me if so. I have two pens, one is a Black Catdance cock bird out of a Lavender pen covered by a Black split to Lavender cock bird, housed with a Catdance Porcelain, and Shyscreations Splash and mismarked Partridge (looks like a Buff with a darker head); the other pen is a Blue cock bird with 2 Black hens and a light and dark Partridge, purchased as a group from Silkysensation this past spring. I have been getting 4-6 eggs per day between the two pens. The first pen is a younger group, just hatched in February of this year, I just started hatching their eggs two weeks ago, I have two chicks in the brooder that are almost certainly out of the Splash (very silver looking, so either Splash or Lavender in all likelihood), and one in the hatcher that just hatched today that looks silver with some buff down at the back of its neck. The other pen is older by a year, I hatch mainly Splash and Blue out of them. I do get an occasional Black, have not seen a Partridge chick so far. These hens are champion mothers, they have hatched and brooded chicks three times this year. They just got back to laying two weeks ago after I moved the last group of 10 chicks out at 2 months of age. They are wonderful. DH, who thought "the fluffy ones" were just silly when I got the first ones, now says if he was ever going to get chickens, "which I wouldn't," he would get just Silkies. They are easy to manage and have the funniest little personalities. I adore them. My original intent was to have a breed I could use to brood other eggs, and I have so fallen in love with them.

 

[mstricer]

I loved having two bators.

But a word to the wise...

When you wash your hatcher out and set it n the sun to dry after your hatch, be sure your free range chickens can't get to it. Or they will peck a hole in that nice incubator.

Sigh. Guess how I know this...

Been there done that. Lucky for me I live down the road from Meyer hatchery and was able to get a new bottom for 11.35. Very handy when things break.

 

[coldupnorth]

My DH would be proud of me because I do not have any of my incubators running right now. Little does he know that I'll be breaking at least one of them out for this hatch-along.

My favorites of my incubators are my Rcom mini and Rcom 20 Pro (now that I finally got the parts to fix it). My others are an old Lyons/Marsh incubator, a newer Brower top hatch and a Farm Innovators Styrofoam. If I want to hatch more than the 20 eggs that the Rcom 20 can hold, I like to use the Brower top hatch. I have the Brower only because my Rcom 20 wasn't working correctly and I needed something that I could hatch more than 3 in (my Rcom mini). The Styrofoam one is my least favorite to use because of different problems I've had with humidity (too little or too much) with it at different times of the year. The best incubator of all is The Broody Hen

. The toughest problem with them is finding the ON/Off button.

 

[msladyhawke]

I ordered a Brinsea mini advanced and I am anxiously waiting for it to arrive!

Good luck with it. It is easy to use and you get great results! What are you going to hatch?

 

[ronott1]

My DH would be proud of me because I do not have any of my incubators running right now. Little does he know that I'll be breaking at least one of them out for this hatch-along.

My favorites of my incubators are my Rcom mini and Rcom 20 Pro (now that I finally got the parts to fix it). My others are an old Lyons/Marsh incubator, a newer Brower top hatch and a Farm Innovators Styrofoam. If I want to hatch more than the 20 eggs that the Rcom 20 can hold, I like to use the Brower top hatch. I have the Brower only because my Rcom 20 wasn't working correctly and I needed something that I could hatch more than 3 in (my Rcom mini). The Styrofoam one is my least favorite to use because of different problems I've had with humidity (too little or too much) with it at different times of the year. The best incubator of all is The Broody Hen

. The toughest problem with them is finding the ON/Off button.

It is great to have you hatching with us!