February 2023 hatch-a-long

[gimmie birdies]

The eggs from my hens are not fertile. I will keep an eye on this new rooster. Hopefully I can get a few fertile eggs by the time my shipped eggs come this week.

 

[junior67]

The eggs from my hens are not fertile. I will keep an eye on this new rooster. Hopefully I can get a few fertile eggs by the time my shipped eggs come this week.

Sorry they weren't fertilized yet. Hopefully soon!!!

 

[BuckeyeFoodie]

I did my day 3 candle today - 9 out of 12 Splash eggs are fertile, with two definite clears, and one that I genuinely can't tell if it's fertile, or red ring. The two Cuckoo/Splash eggs are definitely infertile, which isn't too surprising. She has laid me another two eggs so far after being down with the boy, and I'm hoping I'll get two more before setting this week's eggs.

I'll leave them all in there through day 7 just in case, but my day 3 candle is typically accurate.

I've got six eggs collected so far this week, I'm hoping for another six before I set on Friday.

 

[LhickenChicken]

To be honest, I didn't test it before starting modifications. My bad. I'd read somewhere in the reviews, several of them, that insulating the unit with blankets etc. helped to keep the temperature more consistent. But for the price and overall good reviews, it seemed worth the trouble.

I decided to take it a step further and made a foam box with the shipping box it came in, some plastic wrap, a can of spray foam, and duct tape. I'm using towels to cover the top, but plan to sew a custom blanket to fit. Then I drilled two extra holes in the lid and added removable plugs. Then I made a hood of sorts to cover the turner motor, as all the wires and such are exposed on the top of the lid and subject to damage. THEN I started tests with three additional thermometers/hygrometers. (Why didn't I do that FIRST? Gah!)

My foam box caused me grief with adjusting settings for ambient room temp and calibration to get a consistent 99.5 actual temperature. Plus the fact that its temperature gauge runs about 0.3 +/- too high, and hygrometer readings were 10% too high in the first place. And I absolutely HATE that it's difficult to manage the amount of water in the base. Adding water is easy, but taking some out is impossible without unloading all the eggs. If you're interested in all the details of how I finally got to an acceptable range, message me.

At any rate, I had planned to start eggs on Jan. 15th anyway, so .....
I still have my trusty little 12-egg Kebonnixs incubator. If this new unit doesn't work out, I'll probably just buy a second Kebonnixs and call it a day.

I would be greatly interested to compare notes with you as our hatches progress! What is your hatch date? Mine is Feb. 4th.

For me, I didn't really cover up stuff or anything you did. I just put it in a semi-dark area and well it's going. I haven't really calculated my hatch date. I'm not sure if our incubators are exactly the same, but mine has a built-in thermometer and hygrometer so I don't really need the extras. Is this your first hatch? I got the right range by pulling out that little black plug in the top. For humidity, oh, that's grief. I add a bit, let the hygrometer measure it, add a bit more, and so on until you have the right humidity.

 

[AusHen]

The eggs from my hens are not fertile. I will keep an eye on this new rooster. Hopefully I can get a few fertile eggs by the time my shipped eggs come this week.

Sorry to hear, hopefully he starts working for you

 

[LhickenChicken]

The eggs from my hens are not fertile. I will keep an eye on this new rooster. Hopefully I can get a few fertile eggs by the time my shipped eggs come this week.

I hope in the future your rooster gets going with mating

 

[BarnyardChaos]

For me, I didn't really cover up stuff or anything you did. I just put it in a semi-dark area and well it's going. I haven't really calculated my hatch date. I'm not sure if our incubators are exactly the same, but mine has a built-in thermometer and hygrometer so I don't really need the extras. Is this your first hatch? I got the right range by pulling out that little black plug in the top. For humidity, oh, that's grief. I add a bit, let the hygrometer measure it, add a bit more, and so on until you have the right humidity.

Did you set chicken eggs? Then your hatch date is 21 days after putting them in the incubator. Give or take a day or two.

This is my second year of hatching. I did maybe 6 batches last year, in a smaller Kebonnixs incubator. My new incubator also has a built-in thermometer and hygrometer, but I've had some of them fail so I don't trust just the one that came with it.

I'm very curious to see how your hatch turns out with the box as it was designed to be used, and no changes - versus mine, with all my tedious and maybe superfluous modifications.

 

[Chicken poppy]

Will be following this thread! Im considering hatching out a batch of my Japanese eggs, sorry to hear that your hens eggs weren’t fertile.

 

[AusHen]

I'm not seeing any development in the shipped eggs which is a huge bummer.
Pulled three eggs of my own, two araucana I put in there and one Leghorn. Still have 7 eggs which I think is 3 Leghorn and 4 Marans or the other way around. Both cross my Cream Legbar. Might throw another half a dozen in.
Waiting a bit longer to check the muscovy eggs

 

[gimmie birdies]

There was one hen that liked to pester my rooster, today i saw her on the nest, and he was pestering her.