Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[rodriguezpoultry]

How odd. My hens never leave the nest. They would drop dead on top of it if I didn't give food and water. I had it happen once, never again. One of the best show birds I ever had. Maybe they just stand up for a few seconds at a time rather than walking off of the nest?

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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LOVING all this information on collecting and hatching eggs. So much to think about and consider. Interesting to note that Brinsea has now added a cooling feature to their octagon 20 and 40 incubators.

 

[Bentley]

“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.”

G.W. Carver.


And you're supposed to do that kind of thing, it's your job. Just curious, but what was the high and low?

The high temperature was somewhat interesting. Normally in our controlled incubation we start at about 100.3 F at day 0 then drop each day until we hit 98.5 as they are moved to the hatcher which is at 98. When we use a constant temp we set the temperature at 99.6 for all 18 days. For the hen she had early temperatures over 101. This just DOES NOT WORK in artificial incubators. My thoughts are that most forced air incubators heat eggs with air movement that surrounds the egg while the hen heats her eggs from the top from direct contact of the egg on her skin. I remember the old hovabator incubators directions used to say to use as set temperature of 103 F. This will not work in forced air machines but didn't seem too bad in incubators without a fan. Maybe when the heat was supplied from the top with no air movement that higher temp more simulated the hen. I don't know though. Either way I learned that using artificial incubation we still can't duplicate the success of the hen even of we set our machines to mimic the exact temp.

For the low temp, not counting the times she was off the eggs, we saw low readings in the low 99 F range but usually not below.

 

[Bentley]

How odd. My hens never leave the nest. They would drop dead on top of it if I didn't give food and water. I had it happen once, never again. One of the best show birds I ever had. Maybe they just stand up for a few seconds at a time rather than walking off of the nest? 

It's cold in Pennsylvania!! I might stay put too haha

 

[BarnGoddess01]

How odd. My hens never leave the nest. They would drop dead on top of it if I didn't give food and water. I had it happen once, never again. One of the best show birds I ever had. Maybe they just stand up for a few seconds at a time rather than walking off of the nest?

Best broody I've had left the nest at least once a day. I was convinced nothing would hatch she was off it so often. But it was the best hatch of Marans I've ever had. 7 out of 7. She was also a fabulous mom. Mothered those chicks brilliantly for a full 16 weeks. Her sons were crowing when I finally had to separate them. Because she is an Ameraucana and I didn't want her Marans "sons" messing about with my Ameraucana breeders.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

It's cold in Pennsylvania!! I might stay put too haha

Haha! The 14" of snow makes me want to stay put!

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Haha! The 14" of snow makes me want to stay put!

ha....I'm cooking on the grill and was just complaining to my wife that its FREEZING outside here (I'm about 50 miles north of Atlanta). Its 38F outside and NO snow here praise glory!!! I'm staying put too

 

[melroseladi]

Thanks Arielle and Bentley.

My best brooders, guinea and silkie, both leave the nest.

Penny

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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I was out grilling in the 14" of snow yesterday - and it was still coming down. I never let a bit of snow slow me down!!

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

I was out grilling in the 14" of snow yesterday - and it was still coming down. I never let a bit of snow slow me down!!

Us "sutherners" can be such weather-wussies....I'll take the heat and the severe thunderstorms....please keep "that white stuff" up there