APRIL HATCH-A-LONG come join in

[Madcap621]

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It occurs to me that this note on options to maintain incubator or brooder heat when power fails would be a helpful 'sticky' in an "Incubating and brooding Emergencies" thread. Is there such a thread?

I couldn't find my inverter to be able to plug in the brooder lamp to transport day-old chicks Sat [about a 1 hour trip] so I heated my Pizza warming stones and put them under one end of the brooder box, then covered the whole thing w/a towel. Worked great! I figured if it would keep a pizza warm for an hour, ought to keep the peeps warm!

 

[twinlights]

Well, third broody did a bad job,

, actually I think some of her buddies snuck additional eggs under her

. She hatched out four perky chicks, I think they are 3 d'uccle and one mille fleur cochin. (SURPRISE, no Speckled Sussex chick,

) But there was one dead chick under when she got off the nest, one dead half out of the shell, one cold but still alive half out of shell, and three unhatched eggs, one of which was tapping faintly. One other chick had hatched recently and was too young to be off eating and covorting. So I scooped up all but the 4 healthy chicks and ran for the house. Put the weak chick in an empty incubator, got the half out chick all the way out, and picked away at the tapping egg. Found a white chick, still alive. Put them all in the incubator. So now there are three chicks doing fairly well in the bator and four with momma hen.
My little Mille Fleur cochin hen went broody yesterday on a batch of eggs, and I have one more broody sitting on a batch of mille fleur cochin eggs. My eggs in the bator go on lockdown Tuesday.
I think I have lost count now, lol. I think I have 3 speckled sussex, 4 Spangled Orloff, 4 mille fleur cochin, 1 spangled OEG, 2 Self Blue OEG, 1 Black Copper Morans, 6 Blue mottled d'uccle, and about 8 mixed color d'uccle chicks so far for April. Wow!

I will have to get some pics up.
And my pony still hasn't hatched, um, I mean foaled!

 

[chickenmeadow]

Quote:
It occurs to me that this note on options to maintain incubator or brooder heat when power fails would be a helpful 'sticky' in an "Incubating and brooding Emergencies" thread. Is there such a thread?

I couldn't find my inverter to be able to plug in the brooder lamp to transport day-old chicks Sat [about a 1 hour trip] so I heated my Pizza warming stones and put them under one end of the brooder box, then covered the whole thing w/a towel. Worked great! I figured if it would keep a pizza warm for an hour, ought to keep the peeps warm!

Pizza warming stones! That's brilliant! You're creative!

 

[princessmama]

Quote:
My lock down is Tuesday as Well. So happy hatching to the 2 of us.
So guess before i leave wrk on Tuesday i need to make sure my temp is up to where it needs to be or do i do that Today?

Deana In Texas

Happy hatching indeed!

I plug my bator in a 2-3 days before I need it to let it get all stablized with temp and humidity.

 

[rancher hicks]

We have lock down and I'm giving the egg carton hatching system a shot. Hatch day is 4/29 or 4/30. Stayed tuned and cross everything you can cross.

 

[Madcap621]

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at one end

Those of us who sew know about a tool called a 'tube turner' that is a helper used to turn skinny sewn tubes of fabric right-side-out. It has a finger loop at one end, a small latch hook at the other, and is about 12" long. This tool can be inserted into the un-plugged vent holes of a "locked down" incubator and hooked into a hole in a shell to re-position the egg. It can also hook onto a zipped shell to 'lift the lid' & give a little assist to a chick trying to get out - without opening the bator. I have, on occasion, used this tool with great success

. I suspect a 12" crochet hook would also work. Or a piece of wire bent with a hook at one end. Everybody has cloths hangers!

 

[Madcap621]

Quote:
55% humidity sounds great, that's always my goal with "dry incubation" (not really dry, just dryer than most instructions). As far as venting, I am hoping that others will advise on this. I understand that the most venting is needed when they have pipped & even more so when they are zipping & hatching or hatched. Happy hatching, looking forward to your posts on it.

I put pc fans in my Hova-Bators. I remove the vent plugs when I lock down.................place a couple of sponges that I can wet down [w/tubing thru' vents] if need to increase humidity. Good luck!

 

[Madcap621]

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Wolftracks, SO sorry for your loss!

 

[Madcap621]

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Because my bators were so stuffed, I didn't have room for cartons and laid the eggs on their sides in the bators, I lost 6 chicks to drowning - a first for me. I will continue, in future, to use cartons for hatching!!

 

[wolftracks]

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Wolftracks, SO sorry for your loss!

Thank you. It was horrible. Services are on thursday and I can't seem to function. Thank goodness my baby brothers and sister are close together and can get things done. Feeling kind of useless right now. And like I'm not pulling my weight. Which I'm not.




K............subject change



No others even pipped. Not even 2 of the crazy rockers. I'm so sad. To top it off, if I'm correct????? I have 1 pullet to 6 roos.........go figure. Thing is I have not owned either breed, so gotta check the Marans thread when my brain thats working somewhat and see if I'm right with those. They're very cute and healthy though.

My little blue Ameracuana I'm keeping mo matter what. And he's one of my two BONUS eggs. LOL He's just soooooooooooooooo cute!

Can't wait for my next hatches in May............Polish. (WCBlue and Buff Laced)........Olive Eggers and morw BCMS!