Consolidated Kansas

[Ivywoods]

Four eggs in one day... That's pretty awesome. I wouldn't worry about it. Sounds to me like she is just getting her egg laying machinery tuned up for the spring.

Humidity in my incubator 40% Humidity in my hatcher 65%

I hatch all my eggs in a separate hatcher except my black copper marans. They seem to require a lower humidity to hatch, so I leave them in the incubator at the bottom and hatch them at 40%

I'll have to catch up with everyone later. DH has a rehab appointment soon.

The one baby goat that survived yesterday is doing fine today and another doe had a single HUGE buckling. We have another doe that is pretty close to having her kids.

It is so nice we've got baby goats for Britt to play with. Danz, it's better than chicken TV. The triplets are small enough they can squeeze through the wire panel gate to their pen. They come out to the middle of the barn and play with Britt. They have been having a great time. Although Britt spent quite a bit of time in the house with us at first, she already prefers to stay in the barn. That makes me really happy. That is what we wanted, and so far she hasn't been playing to rough with the babies or with the little seramas running around the barn.

Later, folks!

 

[Hawkeye95]

HEChicken-- no idea about your crazy bird. But it does seem like she must have laid all those eggs... is that even possible?! I have heard countless times people on here saying something like that is impossible. But what if she were backed up?? I mean, I have no clue. LOL Hey, I'll forgive you on the candling

Kidding. Nah, I can understand your excitement!! I might have tried that too-- except that I don't think I would know what I was looking at on day 2! hehe

Karen, I'm pretty careful with what I say with the kids. I never put them down or call them names and I limit my cursing. However.. with that said, there are times I hit the roof and who knows what comes out of my mouth. Even so-- I never name call or say anything like 'you're stupid', etc... but I may start screaming "sh!t" over and over while I stomp or throw a major hissy fit. Depends on what happened... ha! When my kids stuck both ends of a cable cord into my computer (jammed them in)--short circuiting it and I realized I'd lost a $2K machine-- you bet it was every man for themselves. A much milder reaction when I bought myself this fancy wireless mouse for about $50 and the kids stuck cheese into the usb port and killed it. And no.... a toothpick did NOT work. BTW-- this all happened pretty recently. I now have a brand new laptop and a new mouse. BOTH of which I yell at the kids if they even LOOK at them. hehe! Usually I'm pretty easy going unless it comes to losing a bunch of money. A few weeks ago, they were playing on the La-Z boy chair downstairs and they climbed on the back and it fell over and put a big hole in the sheetrock. I was much more calm-- I just put them in time out for being wild and set about fixing the wall. I had it mudded over and patched up and sanded down before my DH got home from work. By that evening he had it painted while I was making dinner. Can't even see the spot.

It's a good thing I'm good at fixing things, or this place would be torn up. I've replaced door knobs, changed face plates on electric outlets.. oh yeah-- a round of kicking a ball in here broke one. They know they aren't supposed to. Most of this is all done when I go outside to take care of animals or work in the yard. Now they have to come out with me. Thank goodness we don't have carpet anymore-- that was the bane of my existence!! One time, my oldest child dumped an ENTIRE gallon of milk on the floor in the dining room under the table. Don't ask me why... Anyway, he freaked out and didn't tell me and I didn't know until the next morning when I smelled something rotten. I couldn't figure out where the smell was coming from and by the afternoon, the house smelled like skunk. I opened the windows and got on the floor and started sniffing. I found it when I put my hand in the stinking wet mess directly under the table. That was before we could afford the new wood, so while my DH was at work, I went out and got new padding for the spot and rented a Rug Dr. I pried off the baseboard and ripped up the carpet and cut out the wet padding under the carpet. Threw it away and then put clorox and baking soda on the wood subflooring to get the stench out. Trust me, it was horrid!! I set up fans to dry the wood subflooring. Then I used the steam cleaner to clean both the back of the carpeting and the front side. I ended up having to wait a few hours and repeat 3 more times before the carpet came out smelling clean. And that was using Oxy, baking soda and the professional cleaner. Then I taped the new dry padding back into the hole once it was dry, and waited for the carpet to dry over night and then the next day, put it down and did my best to stretch it back onto the tacks. KIDS!!! You're never the same after having them. I could keep going with the stories... heh.

 

[Hawkeye95]

forgot to say that my incubator runs about 40% humidity or so. It's kind of pre-set since it has a water channel that you fill up and when filled, it's supposed to be the correct amount of humidity. So far, it has been right on. During hatching, (and lockdown) you are supposed to fill up the second channel and then that is supposed to gain the correct amount of humidity at that point. I haven't made it that far. Sigh.

 

[chicken danz]

HEchicken. not to disagree but there are a few things I think you should know about hatching. First 100.5 is too hot for the area your eggs are sitting. People recommend the 100.5 temp for still air because there are cold spots in a still air incubator. If it were me, I'd be checking the temps all over the egg sitting area and making sure they were fairly stable.You need to be about 99.5, unless you have checked the area where your eggs are and it is running cooler there. Regardless of other temps in a bator you need to keep the egg area as close as you can to 99.5. The dangers of it being too warm is the chicks will develop too fast and they could use up the room in the egg for the airspace. If it is too cool they will hatch late and you might have development problems, like angel wing, bad legs or weakness. Without the air space they will die. Still air might work but you need to make sure they are getting plenty of oxygen. If you have plugs you can remove for air I would certainly do so. Your humidity is probably ok for now but I've found about 35 to 40% works best for incubating over all. It's just tried and true results. 60% to 70% works well for hatching. The chicks will still thrive at a lower humidity but if their egg lining gets too dry they will have trouble hatching. Even if you raise humidity substantially the last few days that membrane might have gotten too tough for a weaker chick to break through. I did a lot of hatching before I got things to an acceptable level for myself. One thing that makes a huge difference is the amount of humidity in the room you are hatching in. A drop in humidity there can make a huge difference in your bator. Spring is great for hatching though because with spring rains the humidity level usually stay a little higher.
I'm a bit obsessive about checking conditions because it really breaks my heart to see a full grown chick that couldn't make it out of it's egg. But when there is a lot of other things going I sometime slack on checking. It has proven to me time and again how important it is to recreate the same atmosphere a mother hen would give. I make mistakes for sure but for the most part I hatch 100% of my fertile eggs. If I don't watch carefully that drops to about 90%.
Everyone has their opinions about hatching so people will disagree, but I've gone through the mistake making process and anything I can do to help someone else avoid that I will. I'm still learning with the game birds though. Their conditions vary from chickens. Since I have to hatch both I have to find happy mediums in there.

 

[Hawkeye95]

The one baby goat that survived yesterday is doing fine today and another doe had a single HUGE buckling. We have another doe that is pretty close to having her kids.

It is so nice we've got baby goats for Britt to play with. Danz, it's better than chicken TV. The triplets are small enough they can squeeze through the wire panel gate to their pen. They come out to the middle of the barn and play with Britt. They have been having a great time. Although Britt spent quite a bit of time in the house with us at first, she already prefers to stay in the barn. That makes me really happy. That is what we wanted, and so far she hasn't been playing to rough with the babies or with the little seramas running around the barn.

Later, folks!

YAY!! So glad the little doe is doing well today. That was really a close call for you all. Sounds like your puppy is really going to work out! That's fantastic!

HEChicken-- sounds like you got good advice from Danz and Ivy!

 

[chicken danz]

Hawkeye I was cracking up at your post. Brings back a lot of memories. I am so glad my kids are grown but all those disasters become the funniest memories! I never allowed name calling either. My DH was guilty of that and although I never allowed arguing in front of my kids either, I would blow up right there and then. There were more times than one I told him to get the .... out because he called my kids stupid or something. No they weren't his children and he wasn't good at being a step in Dad but still it just wasn't allowed. I got told some negative things as a child and I still carry scars from that. I didn't want my kids to feel like I do. It wasn't even always name calling but it still hurt me deeply. I don't think parents have any idea how deep they can scar a kid sometimes.
I never spanked my kids either, well not the younger three. The two oldest ones were victims of my own immaturity. Reason being I only behaved because I was afraid of the beating I would get, not because it was right nor wrong. I raised my kids using the prize vs loosing a privilege method and it was wonderful. I kept score card with a point system that we totaled up for the week. I also sent them to their rooms when they were bad which was awful for them when they wanted to be doing something else. Even in high school when my 6'4" weight lifting monster of a son knew he had gotten me irritated he would duck his head and say, "I'm going to my room."
My biggest regret now is that I hadn't learned not to yell back then. I freak out if anyone yells at me. It scares me and its kind of a fight or flight thing. I feel so bad for ever yelling at my kids. I try not to yell but still do when things upset me. Mostly now it's at the cats and they just slink down and leave the room very quickly! I do wish I could go back and raise my kids again. They turned out pretty darned good but just the same I did make some big mistakes I would love to change.
This goofy duck is cracking me up today. Instead of getting back into his crate like normal, s(he) had decided to jump into his old bin and play. Silly bird. I guess he just needed to feel like a tiny baby duck again. Then about every 15 minutes or so he runs back into the kitchen looking for more catfood to eat. He has a whole bowl full of duck food in his crate but obviously he has gotten a bit too spoiled. I've really created a monster! When I go out after bit he is coming with me to do chores. Maybe I can wear him down so he will take a nap.

 

[HEChicken]

HEchicken. not to disagree but there are a few things I think you should know about hatching. First 100.5 is too hot for the area your eggs are sitting. People recommend the 100.5 temp for still air because there are cold spots in a still air incubator. If it were me, I'd be checking the temps all over the egg sitting area and making sure they were fairly stable.You need to be about 99.5, unless you have checked the area where your eggs are and it is running cooler there. Regardless of other temps in a bator you need to keep the egg area as close as you can to 99.5. The dangers of it being too warm is the chicks will develop too fast and they could use up the room in the egg for the airspace. If it is too cool they will hatch late and you might have development problems, like angel wing, bad legs or weakness. Without the air space they will die. Still air might work but you need to make sure they are getting plenty of oxygen. If you have plugs you can remove for air I would certainly do so. Your humidity is probably ok for now but I've found about 35 to 40% works best for incubating over all. It's just tried and true results. 60% to 70% works well for hatching. The chicks will still thrive at a lower humidity but if their egg lining gets too dry they will have trouble hatching. Even if you raise humidity substantially the last few days that membrane might have gotten too tough for a weaker chick to break through. I did a lot of hatching before I got things to an acceptable level for myself. One thing that makes a huge difference is the amount of humidity in the room you are hatching in. A drop in humidity there can make a huge difference in your bator. Spring is great for hatching though because with spring rains the humidity level usually stay a little higher.
I'm a bit obsessive about checking conditions because it really breaks my heart to see a full grown chick that couldn't make it out of it's egg. But when there is a lot of other things going I sometime slack on checking. It has proven to me time and again how important it is to recreate the same atmosphere a mother hen would give. I make mistakes for sure but for the most part I hatch 100% of my fertile eggs. If I don't watch carefully that drops to about 90%.
Everyone has their opinions about hatching so people will disagree, but I've gone through the mistake making process and anything I can do to help someone else avoid that I will. I'm still learning with the game birds though. Their conditions vary from chickens. Since I have to hatch both I have to find happy mediums in there.

Thanks Danz. My incubator is a home-built so it works a little differently than the commercial 'bators. My heat source is a reptile heating pad that takes up the entire floor. Then there are bowls of water, covered by wire baskets (so the chicks can't fall in), and all of that is covered by a piece of 1/4" hardware cloth, and then a layer of shelf liner. The egg carton sits on the shelf liner. Because the heat source is a mat that covers the entire floor, there really aren't hot and cold spots - the temp radiates upward evenly throughout the incubator. I have an 18-count carton with 16 eggs in it which worked perfectly because it allows me to nestle the thermometer into the two empty spots in the carton, so that it is at the same level as the eggs - not on top of them or below them. The thermostat probe is next to it and is sitting at about the level of the middle of an egg. The thermometer is analog so doesn't read quite as exact as a digital. I really prefer digital output because I like 100.2 or 99.6 more than I like squinting to see what line it matches up with. Unfortunately, I haven't found a digital that seems to read accurately and this analog seems to do pretty well. The markings on it are small enough that it is hard to see halves. So 99.5 is hard to see and so is 100.5. Suffice it to say it is right *around* the 100 mark and not budging much - maybe a hair over (which is why I said 100.5) and sometimes a hair under. I'm loathe to make any adjustments for fear of ending up with it wildly swinging.

The reason I decided to reduce my humidity this time is because the two hatches where I tried a higher humidity - the BCM and Coturnix - I had a lot of fully formed chicks that never hatched. I read an article written by Renee. I will paste some of it here:

Quote: and

Quote: The sentence above that really stood out for me is "Many times if there isn't enough evaporation, the chick can't get into the right position to get enough leverage to pip and they never make it out. The chick is just too big." because it seemed to describe the problems I had when I had my humidity around 40% for incubation. That is why I decided to go with lower humidity this time around.

I am still trying to learn what works best for me, but having tried the other with less success, I decided it is time to try something else this time. I know that shipped eggs can be difficult to hatch and if they hadn't developed at all, I would have put it down to that. But because they developed and then didn't hatch....I knew it had to be something about my incubation conditions.

I totally agree with you about air flow, especially while they are hatching. I always try to make sure there is a good air exchange throughout.

 

[chicken danz]

Have you ever put your hand under a hen to get an egg? It is warm and moist under there. I just don't believe in the dry hatch method. Renee makes valid points but that would apply to humidity that is too high,not just no humidity. she is saying the same thing I am about humidity during incubation, other than I believe that too dry will cause the lining to dry too much. With either method you need more humidity to hatch. Let me know how your hatch turns out. There are several places on the internet that show how large the air sack should be during incubation. If you are wanting to candle those would be something really good to check.

 

[HEChicken]

That's a good idea to check the air sac - I'll plan on doing that.

I know there is a lot of argument both for and against dry hatching - everyone has their own opinion. I am certainly not experienced enough to argue strongly either for or against - I'm still just trying to find what works best for me with my incubator. The best hatch I've had so far was the one where I didn't add water until lockdown, and since I didn't have great success at 40% humidity I decided it was time to try something else. I guess I'm kind of in the boat of "it it ain't broke don't fix it" but the flip side is that if IS broke, I need to find a way to fix it, and that's where I'm at now.

I think there is some misconception about the term "dry" incubation. It really just means not adding water - not that the incubator itself is DRY. In my case, the humidity is closer to 30% most of the time than 25%, which is only 10% difference than the 40% many people recommend. It would be interesting to see what the humidity level is under a hen who is sitting on clutch - but even then, it may vary widely depending on where in the country you are, what altitude you're at etc. Yet hens are able to hatch successfully both in moist, humid climates, and in dry climates like that of Arizona. I think there is still something they know that we don't LOL.

 

[chicken danz]

We are all here to share information. What works for each of us is the most important. That is why I said let me know how your hatch turns out. If it works it is what you should do. I read all kinds of things before I ever did any hatching but ultimately I had to establish my own betters to make it work.