Christmas Hatch-A-Long

[oolyboolu]

Ive lost 8 so far because of inconsistent temps... im not home during the day to always be on top of it so i really need it
Hindsight 20/20 and i wish i got it earlier :/

 

[gimmie birdies]

I hatched my last batch in a sneaky incubator I hid from hubby in upstairs bedroom closet, he has been using that bathroom upstairs because the water is warmer, how will I hatch a sneaky hatch now?

The last batch I hatched got smuggled outdoors to the coop, and I left the first few days brooder box up stairs. He looked in that closet, but didn't say he saw a used brooder box. Phew!

 

[Pstock44]

Have to vent: i ordered a thermostat for my diy incubator cuz the temps just dont stay consistent. It was supposed to be delivered at the latest yesterday and its still not here.. grrrr. Im so mad!! Bah! I dont want more chicks to die

Did you know that you can buy multimeters (voltmeters) from places like Sears or Lowes and they come with a thermocouple lead that can read temps? They're actually pretty accurate, I've checked mine against calibrated ones at work and it was almost right on.

 

[Altfrizzle]

I hatched my last batch in a sneaky incubator I hid from hubby in upstairs bedroom closet, he has been using that bathroom upstairs because the water is warmer, how will I hatch a sneaky hatch now?

The last batch I hatched got smuggled outdoors to the coop, and I left the first few days brooder box up stairs. He looked in that closet, but didn't say he saw a used brooder box. Phew!

That male blindness really comes in handy sometimes!

We had the stone wall in front of our house re-stacked, and there were lots of extra stones... I had the landscaper dump them all along the side of the back yard. We're talking a 3' tall by about 15' long piles of BIG ROCKS!

Some year later, my husband looks at me all puzzled and wants to know where all those rocks came from? lol

 

[aliciaplus3]

I candled tonight and pulled the clears...... sigh out of my friends 24 10 were clear. Out of my 32 13 were clear...... grrr not great numbers. The only thing I could figure is there is a hen trying to be broody and many of the clear ones came from her pen, so I wonder if they started and when I left them at room temp till I set them they stopped? Either that or the one hen I Really wanted chicks from is not friendly with the roo?

 

[oolyboolu]

Thermostat finally came! I spent most of the night figuring out the wiring and redoing it multiple times because clearly I can't think ahead on to where it will be positioned in the incubator. Go me! Anyways finally got things arranged properly and set about testing it... Holy crap is that bottle lamp loud when it switches on and off! The incubator is in the room next to mine and there's no way I'd be able to sleep with that. :-( I'm thinking maybe tomorrow I'll switch it over to the old lamp one I have. Tonight I'm testing having it attached to the plug-in dimmer switch. My thinking is that at a lower light it will take longer to raise and lower the heat, so less snapping on and off. We'll see how that goes!

 

[gimmie birdies]

Alicia plus... it is just the time of year, the roo is not mounting or the hens are not going down. Some people who sell E-bay eggs don't bother selling in Dec, Jan. and the hatcheries even slow their hatches. Be happy about the fertile ones! Yeah!

 

[aliciaplus3]

Alicia plus... it is just the time of year, the roo is not mounting or the hens are not going down. Some people who sell E-bay eggs don't bother selling in Dec, Jan. and the hatcheries even slow their hatches. Be happy about the fertile ones! Yeah!

thank you for the kind words. I was worried about the warm then cool thing or getting too cold with the time of year, you are probably right about them lol

 

[gimmie birdies]

If there is not a crack in the egg from being frozen, then set it!

 

[aliciaplus3]

If there is not a crack in the egg from being frozen, then set it!

I decided to run a test on the eggs the broody was keeping warm and set them in the bator last night..... so we will see if they fare better.