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

[msladyhawke]

Setting up the bator tomorrow. But....EEK.....we are supposed to get a winter storm in my area on Sunday. That would be fine except I live in the area where heavy ice is predicted with widespread power outages expected from the ice. I have a car battery with a power inverter to run an incubator if necessary..I hope we don't get a power outage. We haven't been able to scrape together the money for a whole house generator yet (previous owners took it with them when the bank foreclosed). Plus the people who lived here before us installed gas logs in the fireplace...but you can't light them when the power is off, and the propane company said the line from the tank to the fireplace is no longer code and wouldn't fill the tank.


I can donate a dozen Swedish Flower Hen eggs (parents are direct from GFF) as a prize if anyone can come up with a suitable contest.

oh no! Sorry that you can't hatch with us, but it was so nice of you to donate the eggs for a contest!

 

[msladyhawke]

Ok, I'm kind of panicking for my shipped eggs now.  They ship tomorrow and we just had a nasty front hit us.  We have freezing temps that are going to last through next week.

Ask the seller to put a heat pack in with them.

 

[acemario]

Oh, one more thing. I know a lot of people are going to be hatching their own barnyard mixes for this hatch... if you have any cross breeds in your flock, post your pics in this thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/741828/post-a-picture-of-your-cross-breed !

That way others can go on to see what their little chicks might turn out like!

 

[ronott1]

Ok, I'm kind of panicking for my shipped eggs now. They ship tomorrow and we just had a nasty front hit us. We have freezing temps that are going to last through next week.

Ask them to put a heat pack in with the eggs.

Cold is often better than too hot for hatching eggs. 104 for too long will kill the embryo.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have two incubators. Both are little giant. One is still air, and one is forced air. I'm planning on setting up a turner in one, and then moving them to another on lockdown day. Which is best for actually incubating, and which is best for hatching? Oh, and has anybody here tried dry incubating?

Good advice from Ron on that.

On the dry incubation thing. I'm pretty lazy at checking humidity till the eggs are close to pipping. I found a fool proof method of checking humidity. I weigh the eggs when I collect them, when I set them and then at least twice during incubation. They should lose approximately 15% weight during incubation.
There is a simple graph about halfway down the following link that you can make.
http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/humidity.html
If your eggs aren't losing enough, it's too humid, too much weight loss = too dry.
Thin shells lose weight faster, thick shells and dark eggs work better with dry incubation.
I do kick the humidity up to about 65% for pipping.

 

[love2grinchicke]

I was calibrating for a hatch, but called it off because of the moving thing. My dry incubating manual said to fill only the two channels at the bottom of the bator. The same manual said to keep the humididty above 25%. My bator was below that most of the time.....
Any tips on dry incubating would be appreciated!
Oh, and does it really help the hatch to do it?

 

[ronott1]

I was calibrating for a hatch, but called it off because of the moving thing. My dry incubating manual said to fill only the two channels at the bottom of the bator. The same manual said to keep the humididty above 25%. My bator was below that most of the time.....
Any tips on dry incubating would be appreciated!
Oh, and does it really help the hatch to do it?

Humidity can work over a wide range--25 to 45%.

When incubating in the Genesis, I would get the humidity to 35% and not add water until it dropped below 20%.

The humidity in the incubator is changed by the humidity where you live. The number of channels filled will change by where you live and the Season.

Temperature is much more important than humidity for incubation. Now for Hatching though.....

 

[SunnySkies]

oh no! Sorry that you can't hatch with us, but it was so nice of you to donate the eggs for a contest!

Oh, I'm hatching, but I'm hoping the power doesn't go out and stop me from being able to set them next week.

 

[chiqita]

Just a quick good morning.....................

I should have ordered eggs but a little late now.............
Girls are holding back so I will have some but not many................
I swear they are just taking turns with winter vacation.......
I have a very OLD EE. She is blind in one eye, I separate her to eat because she cannot compete with the others.
 Thought she was through laying but has surprised me with two eggs this week.........She is very sweet...............

Have a Serama hen with eggs due this weekend...moving her into the house today.
We are very cold in Oregon.......

A big welcome to everyone joining the past few days.................

I think this is going to be a whole lot of fun.........................

My seremas are terrible mothers. They have to have heat or they kill their chicks. Sometimes they do it anyway little buggers...

I have two incubators. Both are little giant. One is still air, and one is forced air. I'm planning on setting up a turner in one, and then moving them to another on lockdown day. Which is best for actually incubating, and which is best for hatching? Oh, and has anybody here tried dry incubating?

What ron said still air for hatching.

Ok, I'm kind of panicking for my shipped eggs now.  They ship tomorrow and we just had a nasty front hit us.  We have freezing temps that are going to last through next week.

Can you ask the seller to put hold for pick up on the box and go get them? Save them a trip in the freezing open mail truck.

I was calibrating for a hatch, but called it off because of the moving thing. My dry incubating manual said to fill only the two channels at the bottom of the bator. The same manual said to keep the humididty above 25%. My bator was below that most of the time..... 
Any tips on dry incubating would be appreciated!
Oh, and does it really help the hatch to do it?

Under 25% rarely works. Dry incubation works better I know I repeat myself but if you want to know what humidity is right for your house and incubator weigh and adjust accordingly after the first week.

 

[insanity]

Just collected 12 eggs from the girls for this hatch. Including two more bantams ( rare in my flock) then promptly dropped them all on the sidewalk. *^$#//. At least I thought to check fertility. 11 had bullseyes so that's nice to know.