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

[ronott1]

Well it looks like I'll be starting the incubation in my Little Giant.
I decided to redo all the electric and electronics in my homemade cabinet to make them more reliable. I think I'm also installing a programmable alarm thermometer with double sensing units for both the incubator and hatcher. I can add that during the incubation.
I procrastinated ordering some parts and they're in transit. Some will be here by Wednesday but probably not in time so I'll fire up the LG today so I can start on time and I'll have time to test everything.

Yes! I am firing up my Brinsea today!

Whatever day of the week you set your eggs on is the same day you can expect them to start hatching. (Sometimes earlier. Sometimes later.) We will set our chicken eggs at 12:00pm on Wednesday, Dec. 11th so our hatch day (Day 21) is Wednesday, Jan 1st. Another way to look at it is in hours. Wednesday, 12/11 at 12pm(noon) is 0 hours. 12/12 at 12am is 12 hours and 12pm (noon) on 12/12 is 24 hours. 24 hours = 1 day or Day 1 of incubation. When you read or hear "lock down or stop turning" on Day 18 it means after the full 24 hours of Day 18 has gone by you stop turning. So that would mean that Day 18 ends on Sunday 12/29 @11:59am. Day 19 starts @ 12:00pm (noon) Sunday and lockdown begins. Day 20 starts @ 12pm(noon) on Monday and Day 21 starts @ 12pm(noon) on Tuesday and ends on Wednesday @11:59am. So on Wednesday at 11:59am you have had 21 days (each consisting of 24 hours) of full development.

This is great! Incubation starts on the first day because the embryo starts developing as soon as the egg hits 85 or so. Yes @Wisher1000 I will add this to the first post!

this may be a stupid question... but does anyone have a link on how exactly to clean your incubator? i have a hovabator and it just feels so fragile... but i think i do want to clean it before the hatch. and would you clean the turner also?
my eggs were shipped out yesterday

thanks so much for all the help so far!! i feel much more confident with my first hatch having you guys along!
and about counting the days, i made a little chart for each day to log the temp and humidity. Should i have the day i set labeled as day 0?

See Below:

If it is new, you can just use some liquid detergent. But DO NOT get any water on the thermostat or any other electronics.

If it's used, I would use Lysol or spray a dilute chlorox solution.

Whatever you use, rinse it well and some people put it in the sun to dry. That might not be an option this time of year.
Again, Keep the electronics dry.

Someone in this thread recommends using peroxide.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/138943/disinfecting-an-incubator

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/331442/how-do-you-clean-your-styrofoam-incubator
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/359793/best-way-to-clean-styrofoam-incubator

I am adding this to the first post too. I might make a tips thread too...

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Here's a link to the manufacturer of LG incubators.
http://www.miller-mfg.com/page/1/poultry-product-instructions.jsp

There are several links all the way at the bottom as well as instructional videos.
There's a little about cleaning the incubator on the pdf "incubator instruction manual"

I assume the information will be accurate for any Styrofoam incubator.

 

[KimberlyK0509]

Do we have to wait until tomorrow? Cant we just set them now?!!! LOL
This is my first time ever hatching eggs.
I just got my Brinsea Mini Advance Wednesday.
Set it up. Warmed up faster than a hen could lay an egg.
Got the hygrometer set up.
Just got the eggs yesterday.
They were cold but not frozen. They were shipped to me. Will they be ok? How cold is too cold before they are no good?
Now i just want to put in them in the bator.
Tonight I will be checking for detached air cells. Have them in a carton waiting......
I am not patient.

 

[mspj]

Whatever day of the week you set your eggs on is the same day you can expect them to start hatching. (Sometimes earlier. Sometimes later.) We will set our chicken eggs at 12:00pm on Wednesday, Dec. 11th so our hatch day (Day 21) is Wednesday, Jan 1st. Another way to look at it is in hours. Wednesday, 12/11 at 12pm(noon) is 0 hours. 12/12 at 12am is 12 hours and 12pm (noon) on 12/12 is 24 hours. 24 hours = 1 day or Day 1 of incubation. When you read or hear "lock down or stop turning" on Day 18 it means after the full 24 hours of Day 18 has gone by you stop turning. So that would mean that Day 18 ends on Sunday 12/29 @11:59am. Day 19 starts @ 12:00pm (noon) Sunday and lockdown begins. Day 20 starts @ 12pm(noon) on Monday and Day 21 starts @ 12pm(noon) on Tuesday and ends on Wednesday @11:59am. So on Wednesday at 11:59am you have had 21 days (each consisting of 24 hours) of full development.

This is so helpful, Thank You!!

 

[mstricer]

Someone explained this to me before but I forgot.

Just why are hatching eggs more expensive than chicks?

That was a question I had and asked the hatchery, they couldn't give me a good answer, that is why you don't order eggs from the hatchery...(A) you get hatchery birds (B) they over charge
You always try to find local eggs either on here or from friends.

I have a question what do you do with all the extra chicks that you can't keep and how old they should be to rehome them I hatched a few chicks a few weeks back and they did have a home intill they back out and another person will only take females and they have to be off heat and she wants them for free

You can list on Craiglist, here or go to swaps in your area, you can also take to shows and pay for sale cages

 

[JLaw]

Well I don't think my house is set up to hatch in winter I'm having trouble holding a steady temp in my genn 1588 atm. I have an older drafty house so I set bator up in a room that my daughter walks through only in morning and night, with closed doors. But that's going to stop as she will go through my bedroom. I was running a radiator style heater but changed to a forced air one last night. Last night was low today high lowered set point down some. Anyone else with a gen1588 notice the temp never gets to the temp setting? I set it for 102.0 highest it reads is 101.7 on the gage built into bator but the heat light cuts off and the temp will flex 101.2-101.7 never reaching the 102 it's set for. I turned it on yesterday morning and I noticed these flexes last night and even today never gets to where its set always .2-6 under where it's set.

I've also put a towl under it to keep cold from wood table top off bottom of it some more. And I put a pot of water in front of the heater to emit some humidity and radiate some heat when it's cycling off at temp.

 

[SoManyHats]

I have my incubator turned on, and just switched out the bulb from halogen to a regular. My last hatch (which was also my first), I had problems with the bulb flickering when the humidity got above about 40%. I'm hoping the switch to a good old fashioned bulb will fix that. We'll see. The flickering bulb didn't affect temperatures, but it was annoying and I worried the whole time that it was going to go out.

 

[chicken pickin]

double post sorry

 

[chicken pickin]

Well I don't think my house is set up to hatch in winter I'm having trouble holding a steady temp in my genn 1588 atm. I have an older drafty house so I set bator up in a room that my daughter walks through only in morning and night, with closed doors. But that's going to stop as she will go through my bedroom. I was running a radiator style heater but changed to a forced air one last night. Last night was low today high lowered set point down some. Anyone else with a gen1588 notice the temp never gets to the temp setting? I set it for 102.0 highest it reads is 101.7 on the gage built into bator but the heat light cuts off and the temp will flex 101.2-101.7 never reaching the 102 it's set for. I turned it on yesterday morning and I noticed these flexes last night and even today never gets to where its set always .2-6 under where it's set.

I've also put a towl under it to keep cold from wood table top off bottom of it some more. And I put a pot of water in front of the heater to emit some humidity and radiate some heat when it's cycling off at temp.

The Hovabator 1588 should be set at 99.9 not 102, that is too hot.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Do we have to wait until tomorrow? Cant we just set them now?!!! LOL
This is my first time ever hatching eggs.
I just got my Brinsea Mini Advance Wednesday.
Set it up. Warmed up faster than a hen could lay an egg.
Got the hygrometer set up.
Just got the eggs yesterday.
They were cold but not frozen. They were shipped to me. Will they be ok? How cold is too cold before they are no good?
Now i just want to put in them in the bator.
Tonight I will be checking for detached air cells. Have them in a carton waiting......
I am not patient.

As long as ice crystals don't form in the egg, they can survive. According to the below study, they can go down to 28.4 for a short period.
http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/poweroff.html