Chicks are hatching!!!

[Wiccadwitch]

Thanks! Having to make an incubator to get the last several hatched definitely added exponentially to how much effort and stress was involved on my part. My intent was to let the hen do the work lol. And she did mostly. I'm loving having the babies around and the kids have learned a lot.

I am very impressed with your success. I am new to the chicken world too. I have 10 RIR Hens, 2 Brown Leghorn hens and 1 Silkie pullet. All of them between 6 and 7 months old. I have a White Silkie Roo who is breeding with some of them, but we are taking all the eggs. I am looking for a RIR Roo to add to the flock before I start trying to have chicks. I have a lot of research to do on how to make it happen. I hope I can be as successful on my first go around as you.

 

[Swastik Choudhari]

Can we get pictures of your diy incubator?

 

[Wiccadwitch]

Can we get pictures of your diy incubator?

Yes but be warned it is very underwhelming. Everything used I had on hand except for the lightbulb which I got from a neighbor.

 

[Wiccadwitch]

I just noticed how dark those are. I took new ones with the flash on to hopefully make things more clear.

 

[Swastik Choudhari]

How many watt bulb you use? And what is the size of the box?.....just tinking to make one

 

[aart]

How many watt bulb you use?

Curious too and how did you control the heat level?
Without reading back, it was just a couple eggs for a few days?

 

[Wiccadwitch]

The bulb is 30 watt but 25 would be better I had to poke a bunch of holes to help regulate/reduce heat and keep it at a stable level. According to my reading 99.5 to 102 range is considered appropriate so I tried to keep mine right on the 100 with my thermometer. This thermometer is one I've used to check the temp of my lizards terrarium and its always kept pretty accurate reads even if it's old and analog. Unfortunately being analog getting fractional temps is difficult hence my just sticking to the nice even 100.
Unfortunately humidity levels were total guesswork. Honestly I'm baffled by my even partial success given I couldnt tell you what those were at any point in this endeavor. So if you don't like to fly by the seat of your pants on this buy a humidity gauge.
The styrofoam cooler is I think pretty standard size around two feet long at a guess. Given how much futzing I had to do to get the temp into acceptable range I'm sure it could be larger to hold more eggs especially with the 30 watt bulb instead of 25. Or larger bulb even I guess if you had an even bigger container...
Yes it was only 5 eggs for several days. Honestly it was an emergency measure for me to try and save the eggs my hen was no longer sitting on so my utterly awful build was only meant to get them those last days. I think it absolutely could work for a full 3 week hatching but I know mine would fluctuate a bit with external conditions so if you are considering it try and keep it somewhere that external temps remain fairly constant to avoid turning into a helicopter mom and constantly checking on it like I did. Even with a 25 watt bulb chances are you would need to poke holes in order to get the temp where you want it.
Also added note mine has a raised floor. When I cut the chicken wire it was in a hurry and I eyeballed the width so it wouldn't go all the way down to the bottom of the container. It sits a good 3 inches above. Positive side to this is water container in the bottom could spill and not get my eggs wet plus just as a place to put the water container it's convenient.
It's far from perfect but it allowed several chicks to survive so I'll keep it around in case of another eggmergency!

 

[Wiccadwitch]

Well last chick finally hatched. That one was an ordeal and a day later than expected. Here she is almost dry. 8 chicks total 4 hatched naturally under our hen and 4 hatched in my crappy incubator. If the wing test is holding true with no exceptions to the rule then there is only one rooster in the lot.

 

[Swastik Choudhari]

More pics of chicks plz

 

[Wiccadwitch]

More pics of chicks plz

Ok! I wasnt sure anyone was still interested in this thread. I'll post a few new pics in a bit. After all they are starting to get bigger and look different with their wing feathers and even tail feathers starting now.