Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Cindiloohoo]

Quote:
There is a knack to incubating, not everyone is good at it. I don't consider myself good at it. I have a huge redwood incubator here that anyone could hatch birds in. I would incubate AND hatch chickens and waterfowl at the same time. This box is so old, it has the wiring on the outside. I stopped using it because my wife did not like the electric bills this baby runs up. You can almost see that little wheel in the utility companies box start to smoke when I am running it. IMO: The sturdy way they used to build incubators makes it a lot easier to maintain temps etc. They hold the heat/humidity in and keep the hot/cold outside air out. They are naturally insulated.

I am going to have my friend Bob Jones put modern electrical parts in it and see how it works. I suspect that it will work very well. It has no turner, so I just roll the eggs a couple or three times as day...it doesn't seem to matter with this box. I think it holds 1200 LF eggs. Can't find a name on it, but it looks like one of those Sears/Montgomery Ward boxes.

Sometimes the old stuff works better than the new stuff............

Walt

Got pics of that baby Walt?

I LOVE the old bators

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
There is a knack to incubating, not everyone is good at it. I don't consider myself good at it. I have a huge redwood incubator here that anyone could hatch birds in. I would incubate AND hatch chickens and waterfowl at the same time. This box is so old, it has the wiring on the outside. I stopped using it because my wife did not like the electric bills this baby runs up. You can almost see that little wheel in the utility companies box start to smoke when I am running it. IMO: The sturdy way they used to build incubators makes it a lot easier to maintain temps etc. They hold the heat/humidity in and keep the hot/cold outside air out. They are naturally insulated.

I am going to have my friend Bob Jones put modern electrical parts in it and see how it works. I suspect that it will work very well. It has no turner, so I just roll the eggs a couple or three times as day...it doesn't seem to matter with this box. I think it holds 1200 LF eggs. Can't find a name on it, but it looks like one of those Sears/Montgomery Ward boxes.

Sometimes the old stuff works better than the new stuff............

Walt

Got pics of that baby Walt?

I LOVE the old bators

No, but when I move it out I'll take some and I need to do that sometime soon. The wife has a bunch of dog stuff stacked in front of that, so I think that means she has "retired it" and doesn't want me to fire it up. This is not a particularly pretty bator, but it could be......it's all heart redwood. Some of those old ones are pretty.

Walt

 

[punky rooster]

hey walt how much longer for the new SOP?
I want to get it bad!
punky

 

[aveca]

I thought I would add some Australorp pics.

Bennie the rooster.From Bob Whitney in Bath NY.Hes my favorite rooster hes non agressive .

My hen is just about to lay an egg at the show, she laid an egg every day at the fair show and also on the one day APA show.

Some pullets at the outside feeder.

Bob Whitneys pullets at the twin tiers show. One of his pullets was best english and she earned another championship but cant remeber for what.

another whitney cockeral at the show.

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
I am working on the last proof now. 1.5 months if I finish this week.

Walt

 

[punky rooster]

Quote:
I am working on the last proof now. 1.5 months if I finish this week.

Walt

ok thanks!

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
There is a knack to incubating, not everyone is good at it. I don't consider myself good at it. I have a huge redwood incubator here that anyone could hatch birds in. I would incubate AND hatch chickens and waterfowl at the same time. This box is so old, it has the wiring on the outside. I stopped using it because my wife did not like the electric bills this baby runs up. You can almost see that little wheel in the utility companies box start to smoke when I am running it. IMO: The sturdy way they used to build incubators makes it a lot easier to maintain temps etc. They hold the heat/humidity in and keep the hot/cold outside air out. They are naturally insulated.

I am going to have my friend Bob Jones put modern electrical parts in it and see how it works. I suspect that it will work very well. It has no turner, so I just roll the eggs a couple or three times as day...it doesn't seem to matter with this box. I think it holds 1200 LF eggs. Can't find a name on it, but it looks like one of those Sears/Montgomery Ward boxes.

Sometimes the old stuff works better than the new stuff............

Walt

I wish I wasn't as good at it as I am or I was smart enough to stop sooner. I always end up hatching way too many. I have two of the old Redwood jobs which I have a total of $65 invested in. I use one as an incubator & one as a hatcher. Picked them both up a farm auctions years ago. I polished them up & they look beautiful. They also hold temperature much better than the plywood cabinets do. No turners, I roll the eggs as well. They do impact the electric bill when both are running.

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
Dear Bob,
I could be the a fore mentioned women. (Except I am older and have had experience with horses and fencing). A friend gave me 4 hatchery pullets. I didn't have any particular love of chickens, in fact I really didn't know anything about them, except that to provide me with eggs, a hen will live her short life in a small cage. I figured if I had a few hens that would be 4 lives that would be better, besides, I was out taking care of 3 horses how much more work and a couple of chickens be? Well,It happened! I fell in love with a bunch of birds!! After some research, I decided I wanted to help save a dying breed. I purchased 5 buckeyes from a breeder. (2 cockerels, one of an Ohio line and the other ALBC. the others pullets,Ohio, and ALBC.) I plan to let somebody go broody(or maybe she will decide for me) and raise a few more. Yeah,I know, I am destined to get half roos, and maybe I can eat them....if not someone will.

it's nice to have a thread like this one so people like me can learn. I was particularly interested in the feathering/egg laying information.

From all us newbies, THANKS!

Ginny

 

[lildinkem]

Seems like my hatch rate goes up as my time is spent more outside of my brooder room. I mean I just put the eggs in the incubators with no water. I have the cheap ole foam bators with the auto turners. I put them in there and wait till day 18 IF I remember and then move them to my Holy Final Three day foam bator with two sopping wet sponges. And I mean HOLY. There is a big long 4 inch hole in the bottom. That gets the bator to 60% humidity give or take and I seem to do well. The worser hatches are when I am opening them up to see if some special eggs are developing. So, less time spent in the bators the better the hatch rate. Less water or no water is better then too much water. From my limited experience.
I have been told to get rid of that HOLY Bator, but I am loyal to what works. The HOLY INCUBATOR WORKS! Praise the lord!

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

Just curious, you folks that are running the redwood bators, where are you running them? Do they leak much air around the openings? If they are indeed that much more efficient than the plywood bators, then why are they running so much as to run up the power bill to where it is that noticeable. This past summer I ran a Dickey incubator, a Dickey Hatcher(mine), and 2 GQF bators(borrowed)for 4 months with no noticeable difference in the power bill. I ran them in my incubator brooder room which is approximately 75* to 80* at all times. Except for the fans running constantly, the units hardly ever came on calling for heat.

One thing that does help is thermal mass. I do run mine with 2ltr. bottles of water in the bottom of the units to help stabilize the temps. If I have to open one of them up(rarely), I shut it off, open the door the door very slowly(not to suck out all of the heat), do what I have to do, shut the door, then power it back up. It then only takes the heating element a few seconds to satisfy the thermostat and shut it off.