April Hatch Along

[BlueShadow]

No I'm planning on doing the tilt method with a 2x4. Hoping with as tight as they are won't be much rolling around.

Never thought of that, but great idea!

 

[Birdydeb]

   Five out of 13 eggs have been rocking(that I have seen) so far!  :yiipchick We're on day 19 now. So when I went to candle them yesterday the headlamp I had improvised into a candler, after my candler quite on me last week started to lose battery power and I could only see into the egg enough to see the air sacs. So frustrating. So I quickly candled and marked air cels, put them back into the incubator without turner and they kept wanting to roll!? I must have put the metal cover in upside down, I didn't realize it had a slight curve to it, just enough to make the eggs want to roll. So I quickly flipped it over and they seemed to be laying good.  I managed to round up enough batteries to get the headlamp back on full power and candled the eggs I had ? marked, all 5 were early quitters I had wanted to make sure were quitters so I got rid of them. Then we candled the eggs quickly to check the chicks movement, I don't think we got all of them candled but all the ones we did looked good! One has a very small air sac though?! I didn't want to have the incubator open any longer. The temp. naturally dropped because of the opening(the humidity sky rocketed though as soon as I adde water) but since then my incubators temp. reading hasn't gone up past 95 and the two inside thermometers don't match, one says 100, the other 98.  It takes a while for the little giant temp. to read right so I didn't adjust it for a few hours, then only by a hair. Hoping between the three it is close to the right temp?!   Oh and the big chickens!!!!! They got into my garden and dug up every single one of my newly sprouted lettuces, kale and mescluns!!!!  Then today they found a way into my other garden and were happily digging through my strawberries when I got up.  At least the strawberries are resilient!  I want to order a couple of good thermometers for my next hatch.  Anyone have a good reliable favourite?  I am wondering if the humidity is accurate on the incubator as well, it spiked to 90 briefly yesterday but had no condensation at all although that could just be because of the fan? I have it at staying at 70 now. (I had to soak up some water with paper towel through the wire mesh to get it down) Next time I will add water only to the 2 small channels(less surface area) Oh boy, long morning rambling, sorry I got chickens on my brain!  :cd  

This happened to me right after I set these two incubators. I had temps and humidity adjusted just where I wanted on both....then the rain and storms came. Humidity INSIDE my house shot up to 75% eeek! Caused me to have to scramble and do what you did...grab paper towels to try to absorb all the water back out. They both ran for a week with no water and humidity was right....now the rain has left...and the humidity and I had to go to sponges to adjust it again. Good grief what a roller coaster.

I also would love a good recommendation on a thermometer or hygrometer. I am using the IncuTherm Plus in one incubator and it seems to be accurate, so I ordered another. Of my two incubators, the Hovabator seems to adjust and hold temp and humidity quicker...the Farm Innovators takes some time to adjust and stabilize and then needs to NOT be opened because it takes so long to readjust. Just my observations.

Lockdown for the first half of my ducks tomorrow...Anconas and Cayugas. I have decided to keep a couple Anconas but the Cayugas are for sale. Then my batch of Welsh Harlequins go into lockdown Wednesday.

 

[MillersFarm]

Im very excited Today, i had checked in on my Favorite Chicken Mama and found two lil' surprises!






Two little chickies chirping away! at first i thought they were a Polish/Jersey Giant mix but now that i see this one it looks almost as if she has a muff, so Polish/Easter egger? all well im still so happy they hatched!

 

[tao chick]

Good luck!!!! wow - 100 eggs - must have a huge brooder~~~ LOL

I set 101 in anticipation of infertile eggs. I'm down to 87 eggs already. I had 5/12 keepers from the first set of shipped eggs. I have 37 more shipped eggs to candle on Thursday. I have 46 of my own eggs after finding a few infertile so far.
Of my last 106 shipped egg batch I only have 22 chicks. I've changed some things this time so I'm hoping for a better hatch rate, but my 1 rooster (to 18 hens) sometimes misses the mark. Lol. 20 more chicks from the shipped eggs would still give me a better selection for breeders. Many chicks from my flock will be sold to cover costs.

 

[tao chick]

Im very excited Today, i had checked in on my Favorite Chicken Mama and found two lil' surprises! Two little chickies chirping away! at first i thought they were a Polish/Jersey Giant mix but now that i see this one it looks almost as if she has a muff, so Polish/Easter egger? all well im still so happy they hatched!

Awww!

 

[tao chick]

This happened to me right after I set these two incubators. I had temps and humidity adjusted just where I wanted on both....then the rain and storms came. Humidity INSIDE my house shot up to 75% eeek! Caused me to have to scramble and do what you did...grab paper towels to try to absorb all the water back out. They both ran for a week with no water and humidity was right....now the rain has left...and the humidity and I had to go to sponges to adjust it again. Good grief what a roller coaster.

I also would love a good recommendation on a thermometer or hygrometer. I am using the IncuTherm Plus in one incubator and it seems to be accurate, so I ordered another. Of my two incubators, the Hovabator seems to adjust and hold temp and humidity quicker...the Farm Innovators takes some time to adjust and stabilize and then needs to NOT be opened because it takes so long to readjust. Just my observations.

Lockdown for the first half of my ducks tomorrow...Anconas and Cayugas. I have decided to keep a couple Anconas but the Cayugas are for sale. Then my batch of Welsh Harlequins go into lockdown Wednesday.

This is the one I use. https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-0032...e=UTF8&qid=1493559843&sr=8-9&keywords=acurite
Note: there is great info on calibration for these.

 

[Hillaire]

This is the one I use. https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-0032...e=UTF8&qid=1493559843&sr=8-9&keywords=acurite
Note: there is great info on calibration for these.

I may have to get one of those I bought a tiny one from amazon and I have trust issues with it lol

 

[spruce creek]

WE HAVE 2 PIPS!!!!

I am so ridiculously excited!!! Trying not to get my hopes up too much, but 2 external PIPS!!! Lots of rocking and a few chirps! So one pip is between the 14 and 18 day marked air cel lines, but the other egg is below the air cel line?! I'm a bit nervous about the size of the air cels, although better than last time, a few are still a bit small.

We now have 3 pips!!!!!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I may have to get one of those I bought a tiny one from amazon and I have trust issues with it lol

They sell those at Walmart and home depot. Just know they're not designed to be terribly accurate since weather is not a life or death situation. I have messed up the displays on two already with the humidity of lockdown, so that's another thing I don't like about them.

 

[spruce creek]

Ones out!!!!

Very chirpy, kicking all the other eggs around, but really tired, looked like a lot of work and happened really fast!