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Yay!! Welcome to the thread!! I am in LOVE with those HRIR!!I sent Sally a PM thanking her for all the good info on hatching. She told me to stop by so I am. Saying "HI".If it wasn't for people like her and others we wouldn't have all this great info to make our lives much easier. At least take some of the frustration out of trying to make things work. If you know what I mean.
Just some info. I have a flock of Production reds, 2 Roo's and 9 hens. Plus 2 EE's and a Delaware mixed in with them. I bought 8 Light Brahmas from TSC this year which are in the grow pen I built a few weeks ago. In my big brooder, I have 7 Leghorns and 10 Heritage Rhode Island Reds I bought from Ron Fogley, use to be the Ricky Bates Bloodline. April I have 25 Heritage Delawares coming from Paul Harter. So by next month my flocks went from 14 to 64.
My wife thinks I'm a bit off, but you know. She maybe right. Chickens to me are sort of addicting. All started just because our neighbors Barred-Rock Rooster got out and spent 2 weeks down here. I watched him like everyday. Thought he was the coolest thing ever. So I started getting some. And here we are today. LOL
Anyways, the reason I thanked Sally was because last month I bought a bator. Homemade plywood cabinet style one. Collected 20 eggs and put them in there. It was a total disaster!!NONE!! So I got reading on the dry method and thought I would try that once. First I clean that bator for HOURS!!!! Stored my eggs different, bought a new temp/hydro, replaced the fan that was in there. No turner so the first time I had to turn every egg. Didn't much like the fact I had to keep the door open that much 3-5x a day. So this time I got a 30 cardboard egg carton, cut the top and bottoms out so air can move through throw there. Put a 1x2 across the shelf. So all I had to do this time is open the door and tilt the carton. Took maybe 3 seconds. Much better. Slao I did a test with the water. So I know how much I needed to keep the humidity right and how much I would need at lock down. Just made everything much smoother when the time was right. Collected 15 eggs and off I went.
Candled at day 7. 2 infertile 2 with blood rings. Day 14 1 more blood ring and one that stopped between these 7 days. Then day 19 when I went to lock them down seen for sure 8 moving. Wasn't sure about the 9th one. The next day all hatched but the 1. So after lock down 8 out of 9. Which I was so happy!!!To be honest I didn't even care about the 9th one. LOL. Just was so happy to have the 8 I got. All in all, the dry method really worked for me. Had it running at 37% all the way till the 19th day. The first 10 days like a link I read I kept the vents closed then opened them for the rest of the time. Then on day 19 I shot the humidity up to 57-60%. Going to collect 30 eggs Saturday and try it again in a week.
Here are a few of the chicks. Like a day old, maybe.
Reds roo over a Delaware hen. My Fav.
Red over an EE hen. Fat little thing.
Just a red.
Hope I didn't go on and on. Tend to do that sometimes. LOL
