mpenner
Hatching
- Jun 3, 2015
- 1
- 0
- 7
My expectations and financial investment were pretty low. I found an old used Hova-bator 1588 and broken egg turner on Craig's List for $50. It is so old that it has 6 rocker switches rather than 8.
Over the course of about 3 days, I collected some eggs from my little flock of a 2 Leghorns, 2 Golden Comets, and a hen that looks like a Golden Comet but lays blue eggs. I ended up with 13 eggs (that sounds ominous doesn't it). I let the incubator stabilize for about 24 hours, but the temperature seemed a bit low (about 98 deg F or so), but I marked up the eggs and put them in. I was measuring with 2 Radio Shack sensors and another wireless sensor and 2 of them matched within a degree or so, but I was a bit concerned about the temp.
After about 3 days I put a regular oral medical thermometer in and it read a bit low too, so I adjusted the temperature up, but I was not sure what I was doing since I could find no instructions for the 6 switch thermostat. After adjustment, the temperature seemed to be better, but I was not trusting my thermometers very much. I was trying to keep the humidity around 40% or so, but biased towards lower rather than higher.
Candling on day 7 didn't reveal much to me since I had little idea what I was looking for, but on the lighter colored eggs I seemed to see some veins and a black spot so I sniffed them all and put them back.
I considered this a bit of a throw away run and I was trying to get it down for the next "real" run. However about this time a predator got my beautiful Black Jersey Giant rooster, and after that I really wanted at least one chick to keep his lineage going, but didn't dare to get my hopes up.
I sniffed the eggs a few times, but did not candle again until lockdown and then I could only see the air pocket and not much else but the shells seemed to be full which I thought seemed proper.
The evening of day 20, I checked before heading to bed and much to my surprise, there was a chick running around and pips on a few other eggs. I was pretty excited because this was one more chick that I expected out of the whole batch. Lo and behold, there was a total of 5 the next morning and 6 more hatched during the day. So now I have 11 barnyard mutt chicks, but they are awfully cute. My daughter has named them all and they are doing great in the brooder.
The two black ones are hard to see in the picture, but they are sleeping by the feed bowl
This is our favorite, but I can't remember his name.
Alvin (since he is chipmunk colored)
Gary (I don't know why?)
I am pretty thrilled with experience and can't wait to try again. Someone local is going to give me some Black Copper Maran eggs if I will hatch some out for her. How awesome is that.
I think I had some "beginner's luck" and the information here in this site was really helpful. The 2 eggs that did not hatch seemed to develop to day 18 or 19 and one of them had the yolk almost fully absorbed so I am not sure what happened. My late rooster certainly was doing his job well.
I posted my story in case there are others that would like to hatch some chicks, but might be a bit afraid about the outcome. Jump in, it's awesome and don't fret too much. I think they can sense anxiety.
Over the course of about 3 days, I collected some eggs from my little flock of a 2 Leghorns, 2 Golden Comets, and a hen that looks like a Golden Comet but lays blue eggs. I ended up with 13 eggs (that sounds ominous doesn't it). I let the incubator stabilize for about 24 hours, but the temperature seemed a bit low (about 98 deg F or so), but I marked up the eggs and put them in. I was measuring with 2 Radio Shack sensors and another wireless sensor and 2 of them matched within a degree or so, but I was a bit concerned about the temp.
After about 3 days I put a regular oral medical thermometer in and it read a bit low too, so I adjusted the temperature up, but I was not sure what I was doing since I could find no instructions for the 6 switch thermostat. After adjustment, the temperature seemed to be better, but I was not trusting my thermometers very much. I was trying to keep the humidity around 40% or so, but biased towards lower rather than higher.
Candling on day 7 didn't reveal much to me since I had little idea what I was looking for, but on the lighter colored eggs I seemed to see some veins and a black spot so I sniffed them all and put them back.
I considered this a bit of a throw away run and I was trying to get it down for the next "real" run. However about this time a predator got my beautiful Black Jersey Giant rooster, and after that I really wanted at least one chick to keep his lineage going, but didn't dare to get my hopes up.
I sniffed the eggs a few times, but did not candle again until lockdown and then I could only see the air pocket and not much else but the shells seemed to be full which I thought seemed proper.
The evening of day 20, I checked before heading to bed and much to my surprise, there was a chick running around and pips on a few other eggs. I was pretty excited because this was one more chick that I expected out of the whole batch. Lo and behold, there was a total of 5 the next morning and 6 more hatched during the day. So now I have 11 barnyard mutt chicks, but they are awfully cute. My daughter has named them all and they are doing great in the brooder.
The two black ones are hard to see in the picture, but they are sleeping by the feed bowl
This is our favorite, but I can't remember his name.
Alvin (since he is chipmunk colored)
Gary (I don't know why?)
I am pretty thrilled with experience and can't wait to try again. Someone local is going to give me some Black Copper Maran eggs if I will hatch some out for her. How awesome is that.
I think I had some "beginner's luck" and the information here in this site was really helpful. The 2 eggs that did not hatch seemed to develop to day 18 or 19 and one of them had the yolk almost fully absorbed so I am not sure what happened. My late rooster certainly was doing his job well.
I posted my story in case there are others that would like to hatch some chicks, but might be a bit afraid about the outcome. Jump in, it's awesome and don't fret too much. I think they can sense anxiety.
Only got my babies earlier in the year. But it is something to look forward to in the future!
