I can't wait to hatch quail in the spring.
I fix some things each time there are no eggs in there. This time I had it apart, I replaced the incandescent lamps with metallic heat elements for more reliability. I left the sockets and wired them to switches if I want more light. I was worried with the constant cycling the incandescent wouldn't hold up.
I still have several more things to do but I moved the eggs from the LG during the night into the cabinet.
That humidity should be ok. Except for when the chicks are about to pip, precise humidity throughout isn't a big deal IMO. It is the average humidity and how much weight is lost. During incubation, mine will range be between 20 and 45. I can get the hatcher much higher. That's why I weigh the eggs rather than stress about it.
I can see how a hen may be able to keep humidity up but she can't lower the humidity when ambient is 90% like it is here frequently. She still does better than an incubator.
Manually 3 times a day at exact intervals will work perfectly. A hen isn't that precise. She'll turn more often but won't know how far each turned.
Leghorns are among the smaller LF. That's one reason why they and the hybrids based on them are the bird of choice for commercial egg farms. Champion layers with the best feed:egg production conversion rate.
There are dozens of white varieties of chickens. If they're huge in comparison, perhaps a white rock. It depends on body type. A huge white bird with a similar body style as the leghorn and also lays a white egg is the White Minorca. They're quite rare though so probably not what you're thinking of.
Breed is the shape(among other things), color is the variety. Perhaps as many as 1/3 or 1/2 of all breeds have a white variety.
Leghorns come in something like 9 colors. When you count comb types, there are 13 varieties. White are by far the most common but I've also had black.
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/poultry/chickens/leghorn/
~~White Jersey Giants are pretty uncommon too so that's probably not it. Black JGs are much more common. They also come in blue. I've had all 3 and love them.
Leghorn hens run around 4 pounds, JGs should be about 10 though mine probably didn't get quite that big.
Here's a couple good breed comparison charts.
http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/chickenbreedcomparison.pdf
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html
Mine too. Especially with dark eggs. I was staggering hatches last year and had all the eggs dated. There was one that was over a week overdue. I took it out and cracked it open in an attempt to determine when it failed. There was a live chick about to hatch in it. I have no idea how it happened but it was one of the worst feelings I've had.
If you want a huge white egg go with Minorcas. I had White Minorcas but they come in Black and Buff. Blacks are a little bigger and much more common.
I hatched a White Minorca/Black Penedesenca cross pullet. She consistently laid the biggest eggs I've ever had. A jumbo egg is 71 grams. Once she was beyond pullet egg stage, almost all were jumbos. The last 2 eggs I got from her before I sold her were 82 and 94 grams.
For smaller birds that lay decent white eggs, I like Anconas and Jaerhons. Both are very hardy. Jaers are barely larger than a bantam and extremely cold and heat hardy.
I like the excelsior mats.
http://www.eggcartons.com/Excelsior-Nesting-Pads-p/ep1313.htm
a lot of places sell them
Commercial leghorn based hybrids lay much bigger eggs. Egg farms also sometimes use ahemeral lighting to produce larger eggs.
One or both could be off. I wouldn't stress over 5%. I wish I could get that close to ideal.
That's a peewee egg.
