Consolidated Kansas

[KsKingBee]

If you are really worried about the humidity you can weigh the eggs and then figure that they should loose 13% of the total weight during the hatch. So mid way they should weigh 7% less than when you set them and be able to adjust the humidity up or down according to the weight loss. Nah, I did it once, decided it was too much worrying over nothing.

 

[chicken danz]

I really try not to candle unless it is important for incubator space. The more you handle an egg the greater your chance of introducing bacteria or dropping it and breaking it. This time of year I do candle because space is a premium. The color of eggs and the density of the shell makes a huge difference in what you can see. Also what you use to candle with makes a difference. I bought a very expensive candler which was junk in my opinion. I use a small mini flashlight with a lot of power that "outshines" (pun intended) any thing else.
But like the others, day 10 is usually a good time to do it.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Ok, thanks! I'll candle on Day 10.

That sound like a ton of work, KKB! the humidity jumps to 60% or so when I add water and then I try to bring it down a little and even tho I'm checking it often all of a sudden it's down to 20-25%. I'm afraid I'm going to be very successful at ruining this hatch.

 

[Trish44]

Prairie you would be surprised at the fluctuations these little things can handle. After all when the hens sit on eggs they do get up for awhile each day & leave the eggs so they get cooled down & the humidity goes down. I do try not to mess with my eggs that much like Danz said but I do usually candle when I have my incubator full so I'm not incubating eggs for nothing. That way I weed out the ones that aren't fertile or quit at that point. It's a lot harder as she said to see what's going on in the dark eggs or the blue ones.

I've been working on a rabbit hutch I got from my friend. She had a dog rip a couple of holes in the bottom wire so I had to take a lot of screws out to take off the boards that support the wire so I could get to them to patch them. I saw how many fence nails she had on that thing & there was no way I was taking all of those out, so I just patched in new wire & I think it will be fine. The rabbits aren't that big so there won't be much weight on it. It took me forever to take all of those screws out & put them all back in though. I have to make a couple of doors & a divider & then I'm done with it. The price was right so I didn't mind doing a little work to it.

 

[chicken danz]

Prairie don't obsess about humidity. If you have an average of near 30% to 40% during incubating you'll be just fine. Remember when you add water initially it is going to peak the humidity level and then smooth out once it dissipates and moves around. Those little fluctuations won't hurt a thing. I'm not familiar with how the humidity is set up on that brand of incubator. If it is running consistently lower than 25% try putting a small damp sponge in there. Honestly you are better off having a lower humidity than one too high. When you hatch you will need to tweak it a little but don't fret about that too much now. People incubate with light bulbs and do fine so you are way ahead of them.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Speaking of candling -- I am apparently too stupid to candle! Here is the cut and paste version already posted to Alohachickens so sorry for the repetition Trish44.

>>This is my one and only Buff Sussex/Ideal Speckled Sussex cross but how cute is that? I am calling it a he because he acts like a cockerel and has enormous feet which you can't see well in the pic but trust me, they are enormous. He has a little black spot on his head, a bit of black on his wings, back and tail. Who knows how this little one will turn out but if it's a male, I may have something to use for my 2 Alohas and 2 half Aloha/half Buffs. Should be fun.

So --

I had about 7 eggs of the Buff/Speckled cross. Those and the rest of 51 eggs in two separate incubators did NOTHING. Nothing, I'm telling you. I talk to my eggs thinking they will recognize my voice once they've hatched. I talked to blanks for weeks. My teens are having a great time with this one after their initial sympathy. Not only am I suffering a great loss of anticipated birds and some were pre-sold, I am now a figure of fun to my scoffing children. Oh well.

My Buff Sussex are the cutest, fluffiest birds. FLUFFIEST, not being an attribute when it comes to fertility. Those eggs were not fertile due to all that cute fluff, just like the English Orps. You know, you have to TRIM THE FLUFF so the action has a result. Lesson learned.

So, last Friday I realized things had gone seriously, hopelessly, awry and I was going to have one lone bird and none of the birds I had planned to raise, caponize and process. I promptly ordered White Rocks (not the crosses) from two different places and one of the places didn't have Whites but did have Columbian Rocks. All males except for 6 female Columbian Rocks because I needed a few more egg layers.This little guy hatched during the night and this morning I picked up my first batch of 25 and this afternoon the second batch of 25, so he has plenty of friends just in the nick of time. I have separated him with the pullets and am keeping them in my craftroom in their own brooder under the Brinsea Eco50 so I can keep an eye on he and the girls and they won't have any problems from the other crazy vigorous cockerels in the main brooder. They are so cute but they are wild!

The breeder Buffs have had their bums properly trimmed and so I will begin collecting eggs soon and try again but won't hatch as many since I don't want to process birds in August. I may try for just a few more Buff/Speckled crosses just for fun, but the Buff chicks I had presold I need to get those taken care of as the customers are patiently waiting. Sheesh!<<<

So that's my tale of woe. But all's well that ends well, except now I had to pay for chicks that I planned to hatch myself. The upside is that I have 50 cockerels and only 5 pullets and I wouldn't have had that ratio from my own hatch.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Prairie you would be surprised at the fluctuations these little things can handle. After all when the hens sit on eggs they do get up for awhile each day & leave the eggs so they get cooled down & the humidity goes down. I do try not to mess with my eggs that much like Danz said but I do usually candle when I have my incubator full so I'm not incubating eggs for nothing. That way I weed out the ones that aren't fertile or quit at that point. It's a lot harder as she said to see what's going on in the dark eggs or the blue ones.

I've been working on a rabbit hutch I got from my friend. She had a dog rip a couple of holes in the bottom wire so I had to take a lot of screws out to take off the boards that support the wire so I could get to them to patch them. I saw how many fence nails she had on that thing & there was no way I was taking all of those out, so I just patched in new wire & I think it will be fine. The rabbits aren't that big so there won't be much weight on it. It took me forever to take all of those screws out & put them all back in though. I have to make a couple of doors & a divider & then I'm done with it. The price was right so I didn't mind doing a little work to it.

Lucky you! I Need to start building my hutch but last Saturday DH helped me with our new peacock pen and we really need to finish that before we start anything new.

Prairie don't obsess about humidity. If you have an average of near 30% to 40% during incubating you'll be just fine. Remember when you add water initially it is going to peak the humidity level and then smooth out once it dissipates and moves around. Those little fluctuations won't hurt a thing. I'm not familiar with how the humidity is set up on that brand of incubator. If it is running consistently lower than 25% try putting a small damp sponge in there. Honestly you are better off having a lower humidity than one too high. When you hatch you will need to tweak it a little but don't fret about that too much now.  People incubate with light bulbs and do fine so you are way ahead of them.

Thanks Trish and Danz! I'll continue keeping an eye on it and try to at least not let the humidity get too high.

 

[venymae]

Prairie don't obsess about humidity. If you have an average of near 30% to 40% during incubating you'll be just fine. Remember when you add water initially it is going to peak the humidity level and then smooth out once it dissipates and moves around. Those little fluctuations won't hurt a thing. I'm not familiar with how the humidity is set up on that brand of incubator. If it is running consistently lower than 25% try putting a small damp sponge in there. Honestly you are better off having a lower humidity than one too high. When you hatch you will need to tweak it a little but don't fret about that too much now. People incubate with light bulbs and do fine so you are way ahead of them.

You make it sound light light bulbs are a bad thing

 

[Trish44]

Well Deerfield, lesson learned huh. That's why I candle on day 10 so I'm not taking up incubator space with blanks or quitters. Your chick is a cutie though!

Oh yeah Prairie I know all about projects! I'm just trying to get some of mine done that have been waiting for my recovery. I'm still not 100% but am getting through some things.

 

[chicken danz]

Deerfield I sent you an email a couple of days ago. Hope you get a chance to check it. Sorry your eggs weren't fertile. We are still dealing with the chance of eggs existing in freezing temps. I don't even remember the last date it froze but it wasn't long ago.
I was out watering and came in for a drink. I need to get back out there and finish feeding the birds.
My babies in the brooder were out of water again. I just watered them last night. I am going to have to get those auto waterers going. I had four gallon waterers out there and they emptied them in 12 hours.