Dark Egg Breeds Thread

[dudleyspinner]

Thanks, I had seen the chart, but your explaination of it is helpful. I will be setting up the incubator very soon. The eggs arrived much faster than I thought they would, mailed Thurs and arrived Sat from Calif. They seem to be in good condition, well padded and bubble wrapped. I am allowing them to settle for a day and then put them in the incubator. I am reading the article about setting shipped eggs. That seems to cover many of the problems that I never thought about.

 

[ronott1]

Thanks, I had seen the chart, but your explaination of it is helpful. I will be setting up the incubator very soon. The eggs arrived much faster than I thought they would, mailed Thurs and arrived Sat from Calif. They seem to be in good condition, well padded and bubble wrapped. I am allowing them to settle for a day and then put them in the incubator. I am reading the article about setting shipped eggs. That seems to cover many of the problems that I never thought about.

Your are well on your way!

Keep up updated on the hatch.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Im lazy. Mine is self set to 99.5 and 45% humidity which I will up to 65% at day 19

 

[ronott1]

Im lazy. Mine is self set to 99.5 and 45% humidity which I will up to 65% at day 19

Mine too.....I set my for 35% and then go to 65% at lockdown.

Gotta love the high tech incubators like Rcom and Brinsea Advance.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Mine too.....I set my for 35% and then go to 65% at lockdown.

Gotta love the high tech incubators like Rcom and Brinsea Advance.

I may try 35% next time to se what happens. does 35% work better on the dark eggs? Mine have been cooking 1 week. I suppose I can walk over and put it at 35%. They recommended 45% though in the manual

 

[Alaskan]

It was my understanding that the darker eggs sometimes have trouble losing enough water, because the darker egg has more paint layers on it. So, you tend to get better success with lower humidity.

But, watching the air sack (if you can even find it on e darker eggs) is your best indicator.

So, talking about incubators, do you'll have a best incubator brand if your room does have temp changes? And tends to range from 50 to 70?

 

[Hangtown Farms]

It was my understanding that the darker eggs sometimes have trouble losing enough water, because the darker egg has more paint layers on it. So, you tend to get better success with lower humidity.

But, watching the air sack (if you can even find it on e darker eggs) is your best indicator.

So, talking about incubators, do you'll have a best incubator brand if your room does have temp changes? And tends to range from 50 to 70?

I may lower it but seems to work well. I think I will keep this one at 45 and try 35 on my eggs

 

[Arielle]

Thanks, I had seen the chart, but your explaination of it is helpful. I will be setting up the incubator very soon. The eggs arrived much faster than I thought they would, mailed Thurs and arrived Sat from Calif. They seem to be in good condition, well padded and bubble wrapped. I am allowing them to settle for a day and then put them in the incubator. I am reading the article about setting shipped eggs. That seems to cover many of the problems that I never thought about.

Take your time to get the incubator set up and running properly. The eggs can rest while you are doing that. Which incubator do you have?? THere are support threads for some models. Each is a little different in the quirks.

I read Yinepu's page and ChooksChick's pages as they have been hatching like forever. WHen I was first learning to hatch I pulled together a list of resources. Unfortunately some links are broken now but there is still good info.

BackYardChickens Forum / Links to university info on incubating and hatching eggs

 

[aggiemae]

Keep in mind sometimes dark eggs take a extra day or so to hatch.

Our Wellsummer lays a very dark solid colored egg one day (almost always late in the day) alternating with a dark brown speckled egg (at mid day) the next. Her first egg took almost 11 months to arrive but this has been her pattern since she started laying .

 

[ChickenCanoe]

When I remember to do so (more often lately) I use a gram scale to weigh the eggs when I set them and then once or twice during incubation. They should lose ,6 to .7% per day. So by day 18 they should have lost 12%. If the whole batch loses more I raise the humidity, if they haven't lost enough I drop it but I don't watch it that closely. With most eggs I have a tough time seeing the air cell much less anything else.
My incubator is homemade. It took a couple bad hatches and lots of tweaking but I think it's almost perfect now. It's cabinet style and slides into a larger cabinet that is the hatcher. The floor of each is ceramic tile for easier cleaning but also to store heat in case of power outage. Both units have a nice digital temp control. The incubator has a heater and fan in a single unit. The hatcher has two heat sources and separate controls. The incubator has a single water pan that I fill if the humidity drops below 30. The hatcher has two water pans. One fills automatically from a gallon jug, the other I can fill from the outside if I want to up the humidity even more. The hatcher is an air space above, below, left and right of the incubator. A bank of fans draws air across the eggs, up one side past one heat element across the water pan on top of the incubator down the other side past another heat element and across the second water pan and then across the eggs.
I was concerned about oxygen so I added an aquarium pump which pumps ambient air into both units. It probably blows a little heat out but no worries about oxygen any more.
With 3 heat sources and controls between the 2 units I pretty much set it and forget it. When I power it up both units can come up to temperature and stabilize within 10 minutes. I sometimes go days without even looking at it.
About the only thing I want to add is a low temp alarm. When I separate the roosters this winter I'll probably open it up for a good cleaning and to add more reliable heat elements to the hatcher.