6th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2015 Hatch-A-Long

[Sueg4332]

Don't close the vent. The chicks will die at the end because they need ventilation.

The temperature likely needs to be increased--get a better thermometer. Brinsea sells a very good one for about $20.00.

Humidity goes down as temperature goes up. Humidity is base on surface size of water and not depth so fill a tank with a small surface area first. Try to get humidity to 35% for the first hatch and see how the air cells develop.

I have a brinsea too. I dont add any water until the 18 day ( I live in California, not much Humidityt) This last hatch 18 out of 24 eggs. the last 6 eggs weren't fertile. So 100% hatch. usually at lest 80 %. I set them, I don't touch again until day 18, fill one channel with water. Oh vent is open. Can raise humidity by particle closing vent.
My brinsea is almost 3 years old have had good hatches with it. It is getting tired too.
PS I would like to join the hatch along my hens laid me enough eggs.

 

[ronott1]

Tonight I will fire up the 'bator and get everything in place for setting. Got more than 2 doz eggs stashed for this HAL already. Balmy winter weather has got the girls in good spirits and they are laying well. And it has been warm enough to keep the eggs from freezing before I can get out to collect in the evenings (d'Uccles are not known to be very broody so they don't do a good job of keeping them warm for me.)

That is a great reminder!

I need to get mine fired up too!

 

[Roan]

I've got my new 'bator heating up and am going to try this. Please sign me up. This will be my first time and as a virgin hatcher I am quite intimidated.

I have a Brinsea Eco 20 with the turner. I am thinking you guys have said the temp should be 99.5, but what humidity am I looking for. I live in TN. where it has rained for 9 straight days, so we have plenty of natural humidity...just no sun. I am only getting a temp of 95 by the Brinsea thermometer. The thermometer/humidity monitor I got at Walmart says 90 degrees and 29% humidity with the vent 3/4 closed. So I'm thinking I need to adjust the temp some. What should my humidity be though? The air is so wet you can wring it out so I haven't put any water into the incubator yet. All this is prep work for the big day. My hens are laying like there is no tomorrow, and they may believe that with the serious lack of sun, so I have plenty of eggs. Going to set RCM, blue copper marans, birchen marans and some blue egg laying mutts.

Thanks in advance for the moral support. I've had my incubator since July and have been scared to try this. It seems very complicated.

I have been reading the forums for awhile but joined so I could be a part of this HAL. Hatching my mixed up chicks plus some bantams and "naked necks" for friends

Heya, welcome to the HAL!!! If you haven't seen it, go back to page 114 in this thread and you'll see a worksheet that I made for incubating chicken eggs. It should help keep you from getting too overwhelmed. The sheet itself may seem a bit intimidating but it's a matter of just filling in the blanks.

Good luck with the hatch-a-long!

 

[ronott1]

I have a brinsea too. I dont add any water until the 18 day ( I live in California, not much Humidityt) This last hatch 18 out of 24 eggs. the last 6 eggs weren't fertile. So 100% hatch. usually at lest 80 %. I set them, I don't touch again until day 18, fill one channel with water. Oh vent is open. Can raise humidity by particle closing vent.
My brinsea is almost 3 years old have had good hatches with it. It is getting tired too.
PS I would like to join the hatch along my hens laid me enough eggs.

Brinsea incubators are awesome!



It is great to have you hatching with us!

 

[hennible]

X2 ( especially on the brinsea )

 

[chickkrakidd]

No problem if you set it up so that they hatch at the same time by putting the duck eggs in sooner... The high humidity at Hatch time for the chicks will probably affect the duckies who are not ready for such high humidity... Someone else will probably give you a clear answer

The problem is that I want to hatch something for NYD and I should've already set the duck eggs if I wanted to hatch them on NYD. So ig I'll just stick with hatching a few chicks out for now. I'll work on ducks later.

I will add you to the HAL!

I'm guessing HAL stands for Hatch-A-Long?? Lol

My first attempt at hatching (in a homemade incubator no less) was 13 of my two pullets first 14 eggs (one was cracked). I had 2 "early quitters," one I accidentally killed during hatch, one I had to "cull," and 9 vigorous, healthy chicks... only 3 cockerals! Anyway, I say GO FOR IT!

Will do. That's encouraging to hear!! I just hope I don't get my hopes up too high.

15 hens with 3 roosters? Isn't that bad? It's only a 5:1 H.R.R. (Hens to Rooster Ratio)! My poor hens would be torn up. I've seen the affects of having too many roosters with the hens and it's never been pretty. I thought that the best H.R.R. would be 12:1. Am I wrong?

I think you're right bc I've heard the 12:1 H.R.R thing too, but like someone else said, it depends on the individual roo and hens. All 18 chickens of my flock have been together since day 1. They were never separated. The roos haven't had one fight (that I'm aware of) and the hens seem to be fine. I've seen the big RIR mate with a few of my BO hens, but I've never seen the other two Roos show any interest in any of the hens. But, I'm also gone for 8 hours, five days a week.

 

[Amberjem]

welp got the DIY incubator wired up and ready to hatch some eggs just doing some tweaks and geeks on it next day to fine tune the temp just right

 

[Zanlm]

welp got the DIY incubator wired up and ready to hatch some eggs just doing some tweaks and geeks on it next day to fine tune the temp just right

AWAOME! Looks good. Just don't do like me and rush into it. Make sure you can control temp and humitity. Good luck!!

 

[Roan]

Every flock I've ever had has been a multiple rooster flock and it's always been the same story. The cockerels become cocks and the hens go into shock from the group mountings. At one point, I walked around the corner of our house and apparently took a hen by surprise because she dropped down, spread her wings out a little (just like they do when they mate) and waited for the inevitable. It broke my heart that she was so beat down that anything that approached her would trigger that response.

I walked over, picked her up and put her on a perch in the chicken house. I then butchered all but 1 rooster and it still took more than a month for her to recover. Needless to say her production rate never really recovered. And our H.R.R. for that flock was 8:1. I've seen similar responses from some of our other hens from different flocks as well but never as bad as we had let this one get. Now, I can not bring myself to let the H.R.R. get below 12:1.

In fact, I'm gonna have to go out here in a couple days and start butchering our roosters again because our cockerels have reached maturity. Of course, they are Ameracaunas and they have to contend with a Black Australorp so he does well to keep them in their place but still. I can not bring myself to take the chance. It's just a horrible sinking feeling to see 3 or 4 roosters standing around a hen taking turns over and over again.

 

[Zanlm]

Omgosh Roan that sounds so sad. I felt her pain as I read.