April Hatch Thread--Come Join Us!

[Kerjack]

After a long hiatus, looks like I'll be joining the egg hatching bandwagon haha.

Set 3 indian runner eggs last night, due to hatch on the 30th. So excited. Now the wheels are rolling and I'm wondering what I can incubate next haha.

 

[Mtn Margie]

I'm thinking that this (my first time hatching in an incubator) may be my last, at least for a while. Not that it's becoming a bad experience, it's just easier and cheaper to pick up chicks once somebody else hatches them. Maybe I'll feel different when they actually hatch, I don't know.

I only began this hatching project because I wanted silkies and the only breeder I found local to me didn't respond to my emails and having live chicks shipped was too expensive or I had to buy more chicks than I wanted. I guess I kinda jumped the gun buying my eggs 2 weeks ago because I went to TSC today and, surprise surprise, they had silkies. Granted they are all white so no color variety. Still, I can't complain for $1.99 a chick. I spent $10 on my eggs plus $12.00 for shipping and as of today, day 11, I have 4 eggs developing/moving. If you add in the $50+ cost of the incubator and IF all 4 developing chicks hatch, my average cost per chick is $18+, which I suppose is not bad considering the quality of the eggs I got. I saw pictures of all of her other birds so I know these will turn out to be nice as well.

Maybe I'm a little disappointed for another reason.. Honestly, I thought my family would be more involved in this. I have a 6 almost 7 year old son who loves science and loves building things so I thought this project would be right up his alley. When we built the incubator, it was me and my boyfriend, our son, and a friend of mine. I bought everything we needed at a few different stores and I came up with the basic design after doing tons of research. My boyfriend set up the wiring so the entire bator plugs in, that feeds an outlet on the bator. One plug is on constant for the fan and the other plug is tripped on and off by the thermostat for the light/heat. My friend helped a little here and there, mostly by taking pictures so we could document "The Great Chicken Project". But who's missing from this picture? My son.. Mr lets build something cool. Apparently he abandoned the "Great Chicken Project" in our garage to go in the house and play wii games. He says he thinks its cool, it's just slow going now. I'm sure his interest will increase once some hatch. Since setting the eggs, I've been on my own. The day I set them, around noon, I had to work from 3pm to 2am. I asked my boyfriend to check the temp and humidity for me once or trice.. His answer was that he didn't want to be bothered. It's not like it was hard.. Walk up stairs to a spare bedroom and look through the glass. Long story short, all checking on them and egg turning has been done by me. I wanted this to be a project the whole family could enjoy.

I have 4 sons and they are all different. It is possible that when they hatch and there is some action going on that he may appreciate more what he is seeing or maybe you can get him in on the brooder construction and such. Look at it this way, if he doesn't take to the chickens, make him start wrenching on your car and bond over oil changes........

 

[clayb226]

Had one pipped last night, it had just started to zip by morning, but was out of shell and walking around before we all left to start our day at 7 a.m.

 

[Arkansas81]

Ok here are some new pics of our new silkies and their new coop...






that's right before i moved them to the new coop...midnight and hershey. i love my new silkies!!

blue splash polish

crele polish

i hope to be getting some splash silkie babies by weeks end...what a busting by the seams chicken palace!!! don't loose faith and patience-the whole experience is a learning one, every time you have chicks or hatch you will learn something new! just keep plugging away and in the end it will work out for the best...just try to love and learn from everything you do!

 

[animaladdictions]

Ok here are some new pics of our new silkies and their new coop...






that's right before i moved them to the new coop...midnight and hershey. i love my new silkies!!

blue splash polish

crele polish

i hope to be getting some splash silkie babies by weeks end...what a busting by the seams chicken palace!!! don't loose faith and patience-the whole experience is a learning one, every time you have chicks or hatch you will learn something new! just keep plugging away and in the end it will work out for the best...just try to love and learn from everything you do!

Looks like you'd better get workin on another coop! Love the baby pics! I'd like to have about ten or so of the coop you posted!

 

[Arkansas81]

Animal-you hit right on the head on that one (needing more coops)

I plan on making some coops like the one posted out of pallets, I have the hook-up on free ones as many as I want! I bought that one at tsc, it's also on sale!!! i will keep that one and let that be the grow out pen for the future comers. I hope to start on the new coop for the babies this weekend, of course we have to be in another cold/wet snap but nice weather a'comin on fri...so new construction starting asap!

i will put our new coops on here and the progress as soon as we start on them for all to see...very easy-simple to do.

 

[annabell254]

As you've probably already realized by now, everyone has their own methods for hatching. I've been hatching for years and I'll tell you what methods I use but ultimately you should go with your gut on what you think is best in your situation.

1) Most people will tell you to stop turning on day 18 but I have found that stopping a little sooner helps to prevent backward or upside-down chicks so I stop turning on day 16. The extra two days gives the chick a little more time to get into the correct position for hatching.

2) I move my chicks (all species) to the hatcher after external pipping has occured. I run a dry incubator throughout the entire incubation period until I see the external pip. I then move the eggs to the hatcher and get the humidity up to around 70%. This is how I've always hatched chicks and it works great for me but like I said, everyone's different.

3) I personally wouldn't keep them in with the goose eggs as the higher humidity could be too much for them. Goose eggs need to lose quite a bit of weight before hatching so I'd be careful with that. If your goose eggs look like they're losing sufficient moisture already, than a couple days with higher humidity may not hurt them. My geese are very valuable and extremely difficult to hatch so I wouldn't risk it myself. As for keeping goose eggs at higher humidity levels than chickens, I don't. Like I said, I run a dry incubator throughout the entire incubation until external pipping with all species. The only time I would advise against doing this is if your humidity is extremely low (under 25%). Mine stays around 26% - 28%.

4) This one is difficult to answer. I leave temps around 99-100 for hatching. If your still air varies that much...7 degrees up or down....I don't know if I'd risk it. If the eggs are just as valuable to you as your geese than I might suggest leaving them to hatch in the same incubator as the goose eggs, however, if your goose eggs are most important to you, I might go ahead and move them to the still air and try REALLY hard to keep the temp stable. That one is going to have to be your call.

Don't get nervous. I'm sure it'll all work out okay. If not, you're not alone. We all have had unsuccessful hatches and know how it feels. We're with you!

Thank you!!!! for me the chicken eggs are more valuable, as the goose eggs got sent to me by mistake... they are painted geese and I would love to have a few, but I did not order or even expect them haha .... They are also not due to hatch for 2 more weeks.... and 4 have been kept at same humidity as the chicken eggs....38-48% with 45% being where I try to keep them... the other 3 (of which only one looks good are still in my still air as I had only room for 4 of the goose eggs in my brinsea) plan was to move all still air eggs to brinsea and brinsea eggs to still air for hatch.... but am now reconsidering....

I am having a problem getting the humidity above 52% without the temp getting over 100-101 in the still air... close the vents for more humidity and up goes the temp

so I added a bowle of hot water with a sponge and we will see..... I am not moveing the eggs until I can get it stable so they may just have to hatch in the brinsea

As for the eggs in the still air (3 goose and some random fresh eggs as a experament).... I had 2 sussex hens go broody and am thinking of giving them these eggs .... they are devoloping but have had crazy temp swings and I am done with the still air... I want to pull my hair out with it!!!!

 

[Arkansas81]

Anna-try moving your still air...i put mine in the bedroom and am testing it out. The temp and humidity is a little wacky-before I had it in the bathroom so I might move it back to the bathroom. I have a still air and I never had any problems with temps or humidity. I plan on setting eggs thurs..maybe fri. I am changing my arrangements this time around...keeping the eggs in an open egg carton till lockdown. I am hoping that will be easier to turn them by hand...and I know that they are turned and kept in the correct position. I had done a swap for an egg turner but the turner was never sent...so hand turning this time around too.

I'm sorry you are having such a hard time with your still air...keep tweeking it, don't give up yet. Well I'm off to go outside for a few...keep us posted! Very interesting about the goose eggs-I will love an update.

April

 

[animaladdictions]

Thank you!!!! for me the chicken eggs are more valuable, as the goose eggs got sent to me by mistake... they are painted geese and I would love to have a few, but I did not order or even expect them haha .... They are also not due to hatch for 2 more weeks.... and 4 have been kept at same humidity as the chicken eggs....38-48% with 45% being where I try to keep them... the other 3 (of which only one looks good are still in my still air as I had only room for 4 of the goose eggs in my brinsea) plan was to move all still air eggs to brinsea and brinsea eggs to still air for hatch.... but am now reconsidering....

I am having a problem getting the humidity above 52% without the temp getting over 100-101 in the still air... close the vents for more humidity and up goes the temp

so I added a bowle of hot water with a sponge and we will see..... I am not moveing the eggs until I can get it stable so they may just have to hatch in the brinsea

As for the eggs in the still air (3 goose and some random fresh eggs as a experament).... I had 2 sussex hens go broody and am thinking of giving them these eggs .... they are devoloping but have had crazy temp swings and I am done with the still air... I want to pull my hair out with it!!!!

Still air's can be a challenge FOR SURE but they are really good to hatch in if you can get the temp and humidity right. The key to raising your humidity is surface area. Even with all of the chambers full most of us have to add an extra dish of water or two. New, clean sponges work well or if you don't have any, women's sanitary pads work great too! Sounds crazy I know, but several people use them to up the humidity and they're sterile so no worries of bacteria! They hold a lot of water too! I have both of the vents open in mine and don't have a problem with the temp. Just make sure to place your pads or sponges or dishes under the vents so that you can add more water if you need to without having to open the bator. It's not going to kill the chicks if you do open it, but it will take it a while to get the humidity back to where you want it. Sure do wish I had accidental eggs sent to me!!! That'd be a GREAT surprise FOR SURE!

PS...I do think that you're running your humidity a bit too high. I try to keep mine at around 26% - 27% throughout incubation and then raise it to 70% or so at lockdown.

the higher humidity works for you!

 

[annabell254]

Yes, I ordered my first online eggs and got a whole batch extra! haha...

when the eggs came I was like " wow those look like they should be eggs"

and my hubby was like " more eggs! I thought you said you had them all?!

me "no baby these are not eggs! I did not order any more eggs I swear!"

so I open the box and lo and behold it is full of HUGE eggs!

Hubby "those are eggs"

me" WHAT!!!! I did not order any more eggs.... THESE ARE HUGE!"
hubby "you got swan eggs!!!! I cant believe you sent that kind of money on eggs!"

me "No! I did not! I could not find anyone to part with any for a price I could manage! I DID NOT ORDER THESE! and no way they are swan eggs those are way to expensive to accidently send someone! they must be goose eggs....or maybe I ordered dummy eggs, then forgot I orered them and they got the size of them wrong"

hubby "these look real...."

me "AUGGGGGG

They CANT be REAL! my incubator is full! What am I going to do!"

and that is where this still air incubator came from as I borrowed it... and it is old and well used...