Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[thedragonlady]

This is, indeed, interesting. Although our hatches are typically strong. I find that in the incubators I always have some chicks stuck in the sell that I'm certain otherwie would hve hatched had they been underneath hens.

I use the cardboard carton bottoms to hatch as I find that they DO absorb some moisture that makes it easier on the chicks to hatch. I put the carton bottoms in the day before lockdown, and lightly mist them as I want the humidity about 60% at least for hatching these very thick eggs. Use a new carton bottom for each hatch.

 

[thedragonlady]

By this do you mean you cut each individual cell apart to allow space between them, or just that you cut the top off and cut a section of however many cells you need?

I just punch out the bottoms of the carton cells , leaving the carton intact.

 

[Robert Blosl]

http://www.gqfmfg.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=77

I have a friend who has a Rolex model that is about a $600 desk top incubator and he has had it for about six years he tells me if its fertile the eggs will hatch. This model is less than $150 and is just as good as his Rolex he tells me. He said if he had it all over he would buy two one for 18 days and one for the last 3 days for hatching.

I have small home made box made out of old Red Wood I found and also ordered Red Wood scraps in four inch wide by 18 inch long boards which are one inch thick. I was given a wooden box incubator from a mentor of mine Franklin J Young of Minn when I met him 30 years ago and it was all ready 40 years old. It was Red Wood as well. Red Wood holds moisture better than press board or plywood. He had four of them and used them for his four breeding pens he used when raising R I Reds. I modeled this unit from his. I took some of the guts from my cheap Midget incubators then added a ceiling fan and it works great. I even hatched call ducks in them and that is the hardest thing in the world to hatch.

One day I will make pictures and show how to make one for you craft minded people. Heck if you dont have Red Wood Fir Plywood would work well to for chickens.

The nice thing about these small units is you know who the eggs came from and then you can lay the tray on a table and toe punch your birds you can not mix up the chicks. If you have family's and you toe punch a bunch of chicks and you mess up and let a chick get over from another pen you could toe punch him pen two and he is from pen three and his mother or father was a pen three bird. Down the road you could short cut yourself in the vigor department and then wonder what happened. This happens a lot especially when older breeders get older then their strains are so inbreed they cant get their chicks to hatch.

You be surprised how many people send me a personnel message that say I would like to get a old strain of chickens like R I Reds, Dorkings, Javas or R I Whites but we dont know how to hatch them. We just get chicks from the feed store every year. These people are masters of rearing chickens but dont have a clue how to run a incubator. We need to help these people and then they can join the fun of reproducing their own from their breeding stock. I will work on a article for this on my web site. I have just written a article on How to Get Started with Rhode Island Red Large. Using a trio to start with. The nice thing about this article is you can change the name R I Red and put Javas or Plymouth Rocks or Lamonas in it and do the same thing. Simple full proof method or KISS. Have a nice weekend and ROLL TIDE.

 

[galanie]

When I use egg cartons, I cut the top off and the bottom of each cell. I use the whole carton even if I only have 6 eggs. The styrofoam ones can be sanitized and used again.

 

[kathyinmo]

I use to use regular egg cartons..... until I got plastic ones (about $1.29 each). I cut them up and fit them in (I can get 81 in a Hovabator). I incubate in a Sportsman and use tabletop 'bators for hatchers.

 

[NotAFarm]

Kathy, Do you use the Hovabator just as a hatcher? If so, what do you incubate in?

 

[kathyinmo]

Kathy, Do you use the Hovabator just as a hatcher? If so, what do you incubate in?

I incubate in a Sportsman, and just use tabletop 'bators for hatching.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

I incubate in a Sportsman, and just use tabletop 'bators for hatching.

Kathy, I do EXACTLY the same thing. Occasionally I will hatch in my sportsman if I have too many pens all hatching together and I can't easily separate them to toe punch them accordingly in my table top. I'm only hatching one breed so keeping breeding pens separated at hatch for me is important

 

[kathyinmo]

Kinda off topic, but I got this "chicken related," email from a friend.....

Our teacher asked us what our favorite animal was, and I said, "Fried chicken." She said I wasn't funny, but she couldn't have been right, everyone else in the class laughed. My parents told me to always be truthful and honest, and I am. Fried chicken is my favorite animal.

I told my dad what happened, and he said my teacher was probably a member of PETA. He said they love animals very much. I do, too. Especially chicken, pork and beef. Anyway, my teacher sent me to the principal's office. I told him what happened, and he laughed too. Then he told me not to do it again.

The next day in class my teacher asked me what my favorite live animal was. I told her it was chicken. She asked me why, just like she'd asked the other children. So I told her it was because you could make them into fried chicken. She sent me back to the principal's office again. He laughed, and told me not to do it again.

I don't understand. My parents taught me to be honest, but my teacher doesn't like it when I am. Today, my teacher asked us to tell her what famous person we admire most. I told her, "Colonel Sanders".

Guess where I am now..

 

[cubalaya]

anyone use egg crate in brinsea incubators?