EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

[FaerieChicken]

You REALLY need to calibrate (temperature and humidity) first. The info at the beginning of the thread (or is it now the beginning of the Incubating with Friends Thread?) has all that key info. I wouldn't put any eggs in there until you have it holding steady temperatures and are confident of your humidity measurements.

- Ant Farm 

I looked at beginning of this thread and found info on calibrating the therm, but what about hygrometer? I bought a seperate 2 in 1

@FaerieChicken

How many eggs? The problem is putting in enough that you learn how to hatch without having a single lonely chick?

We set 19, after 2 wks in incubation lost 1, and the night before lockdown lost another 5. Out of the 13 at lockdown only 7 hatched out successfully but 1 failed, so I have 6 chicks now, 4 are from meat project and the other 2 are just random eggs hatched from rest of flock!

 

[FaerieChicken]

Hello everyone, good someone please tell me if there is anyway I can tell if the chicks inside my eggs are alive, I candles them at day 23 and the eggs were filled, only the air cell is what I could see. Do I need to just wait till it hits 28 before I disregard them as dead or is there another way to tell now?

Can you tell if the contents move around on its own, don't jiggle it to get it to move, but you could try tapping on the shell gently to see if you get a response! Are there still veins?

 

[BantyChooks]

I looked at beginning of this thread and found info on calibrating the therm, but what about hygrometer? I bought a seperate 2 in 1
We set 19, after 2 wks in incubation lost 1, and the night before lockdown lost another 5. Out of the 13 at lockdown only 7 hatched out successfully but 1 failed, so I have 6 chicks now, 4 are from meat project and the other 2 are just random eggs hatched from rest of flock!

Place a teaspoon of salt in a bottle cap or small cup and dampen it with a few drops of water (without dissolving it).
Carefully place the wet salt and the hygrometer inside a see-through container and close tightly. You can use a zip lock bag provided it seals well and you leave some air inside as well.
Let it sit for 24 hours and note the reading on the hygrometer without opening the container. The hygrometer should should read 75%. The difference is how much your hygrometer is off. For example, if your hygrometer reads 70% during the salt method test this means that to obtain the real humidity level you should add 5 points.
If you have an analog hygrometer, you can correct the reading. You will need to adjust the needle to the 75% mark by turning the screw on the back using a small screwdriver. Your hygrometer is now ready to be placed inside your incubator.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
THANK YOU! I was just about to type "You should ask Banti...."

OK, break over, back outside for more work.

(Why is it that I am the most productive on projects on Sundays, with work on Monday looming?!)

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

@FaerieChicken and @incubateme : I bought a Brinsea incubator - a fancy schmancy one with water pump, automated turning, etc., etc., etc. Paid a lot of money. The manual even suggested NOT to adjust the calibration since it came from the factory calibrated.

Guess what? Temperature was low by 1°C. I didn't realize until I hatched all the chicks in that 'bator 2-3 days late. I found the Incubating with Friends thread, and asked. I was then asked "Did you calibrate?" No, I didn't...

Now I know that the displayed temp is 1°C too low form now on.

BTW, you can also get by on humidity by weighing the eggs or tracking the size of the air cell. This is important because different types of eggs lose moisture differently/at different rates. (My humidity was set too high for my blue Cream Legbar eggs, for instance, and I had sticky chick issues.) Really dark eggs are different, and even the size of the egg matters (if there are really small ones vs. big ones).

Just my two cents...

OK, I'm really going back out to work now. I have to weed around my blackberry bushes.

- Ant Farm

 

[dan26552]

So it looks like I might be getting the parts I need to finish my bator! My mom said that if anyone needed anything to put it in her Amazon cart and she'd get it cyber monday so my brother and I sorted out what I need and he's going to put it in her cart.

 

[BantyChooks]

Anyone else had this happen to an el cheapo aquarium thermo?

Wonder if it would impact temp readout....

 

[chicken hawk 33]

What did you get? 

it's not as big as we wanted but it was on sale we got a 36 gallons bow front aqauriums and I have to 4o gallon filters witch should keep it really cleab

 

[BantyChooks]

So it looks like I might be getting the parts I need to finish my bator! My mom said that if anyone needed anything to put it in her Amazon cart and she'd get it cyber monday so my brother and I sorted out what I need and he's going to put it in her cart.

 

[BantyChooks]

Where is everyone?

It's lonely in here...