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

[ronott1]

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, my 3 yo grandson lives with us and is all about the eggs. lol That's why I had to get a specific fridge for the eggs and put in my room since my room is off limits. He would even go so far as take eggs out of the kitchen fridge and ask me to put them in the incubator. lol

As for the storage container to which you refer, I don't see on in the picture so I'm curious as to what purpose it serves?

And lastly, speaking of putting them in a flat for storage, I use a still air incubator so I was wondering, I've read on here somewhere something about using egg cartons in the incubator to help keep the eggs from getting knocked around by hatching chicks. Is this a good idea or no?

I just set (21 days ago), 24 eggs in the incubator but we had an extremely cold night one night and our gas lines froze so without the external heat source, the temperature in the incubator dropped down to 96 degrees and until we could get the lines thawed, it stayed around that for almost a full day. So now, I believe all of our eggs except 4 (which hatched 3 days ago) are dead. I will do a water candling later to be sure.

But the point of this story is the same as every other hatch I've had, when the new chicks begin flopping around and exploring, they inevitably bump into other eggs, which (from what I've read) causes the unhatched chicks to have to reposition themselves for hatching.

The container with water helps add a bit of humidity. It is glass and you can just see the top of it in the original picture. Go to the original post and click on the picture. It will get bigger.

Going down to 96 one night should not kill them.

Have you considered adding a fan kit? The are not too expensive.

Yes, I hatch in cut down egg cartons. It is a great way to set up for hatching and makes clean up easier along with not letting the first ones to hatch pester the ones still hatching.

 

[Amberjem]

The container with water helps add a bit of humidity. It is glass and you can just see the top of it in the original picture. Go to the original post and click on the picture. It will get bigger.

Going down to 96 one night should not kill them.

Have you considered adding a fan kit? The are not too expensive.

Yes, I hatch in cut down egg cartons. It is a great way to set up for hatching and makes clean up easier along with not letting the first ones to hatch pester the ones still hatching.

I would love to see picture of vid of this?

 

[ronott1]

I would love to see picture of vid of this?

The top of the egg carton or flat is cut off like in the picture. The bottoms are not cut. The cut tops let the air circulate.

Like this.

 

[Sustained]

I have two pipped eggs!

-Kathy

Woohoo!

Im being on my best behavior laugh out loud ron. Insert thumbs up winking smiley faced dude thingy. Hashbrown: no hating

Probably gonna be like herding bullfrogs into the back of a pick-up truck

Well there's a mental image that I never expected to have

Dearest CHAMPIONS (that would be the nice kids) of the bad, bad Acronym lady (that would be me):


I had four external pips this morning. One is at the completely WRONG end of the egg. I mean, right about a centimeter from the point... Either I incubated this poor baby upside down, or it's really confused!

My question is what do I do? I'm perfectly patient and am fine with doing nothing at all but this has NEVER happened to me and I would like to know what is the best course of action. It pipped around 8-9 a.m. Honestly, it's a very important egg or I would just leave it alone.

Thanks In Advance

Congrats on all the pips! Hoping the little confused chickie makes it okay. I've never had to deal with it either so I don't have any advice for you sorry. Looks like others picked up the slack though

 

[Amberjem]

The top of the egg carton or flat is cut off like in the picture. The bottoms are not cut. The cut tops let the air circulate.

Like this.

 

[ronott1]

ohh I see the lil sticky up thingies between the eggs you cutt that so it is hollow thanks that makes perfect sense now I like the idea too I wonder about the wire getting hot against the egg wouldn't the metal keep more of the heat? does the cardboard egg crate stuff get soggy or damp from the humidity? is there any chance of bacteria or anything with the cardboard egg crate causing issues? (sorry curious mind just asking to learn not to be a pest

The wire does not get hot. I like to keep it wire to help about foot problems.

The cardboard will get wet it the water channels are too full. I will the water channels and then wipe up any extra with paper towels. Humidity is set at 65 to 70% for hatch and that level of humidity will not make the card board get wet.

 

[Sustained]

The top of the egg carton or flat is cut off like in the picture. The bottoms are not cut. The cut tops let the air circulate.

Like this.

Has anyone here ever done anything like this with serama eggs? What did you use? Results? I tried cutting a quail carton down last night to put my most recent batch in lockdown but they were just a little too big for it and they were much too small for the smallest egg carton I have.

 

[chickwhispers]

These are from my mutt "micro" pair that I have a few others out of. Hoping for something other than black/brown

-Kathy

Good luck I hope you get what you want. Of course I can't wait to see the pictures!

Im being on my best behavior laugh out loud ron. Insert thumbs up winking smiley faced dude thingy. Hashbrown: no hating

@Roan Good Luck!

I hope no one minds that I'm following along and not hatching. I've never done it and this isn't a great time of year for me to do a first hatch. I want to learn from this one and try for the Easter hatch-a-long. So I appreciate all the questions and info being put out there! Thanks and best wishes to all hatchers!

 

[Sustained]

I hope no one minds that I'm following along and not hatching. I've never done it and this isn't a great time of year for me to do a first hatch. I want to learn from this one and try for the Easter hatch-a-long. So I appreciate all the questions and info being put out there! Thanks and best wishes to all hatchers!

Sounds like a great idea to learn as much as you can before jumping in and the more the merrier IMO

 

[Amberjem]

Good luck I hope you get what you want. Of course I can't wait to see the pictures!

@Roan Good Luck!

I hope no one minds that I'm following along and not hatching. I've never done it and this isn't a great time of year for me to do a first hatch. I want to learn from this one and try for the Easter hatch-a-long. So I appreciate all the questions and info being put out there! Thanks and best wishes to all hatchers!

haha well if I manage this diy incubator probly be lots questions lol