First Time Incubating. *Pics*

[Six Chickies]

Thanks miss broody hen! I have a low-watt lamp and a heating mat, as when we turned the mat on, it only got to about 80 degrees. The temperature is now hovering between 100 and 90. I just put the eggs in, so tomorrow morning around 10 I'll turn them. I'm going to try and keep a log, but diaries haven't worked too well for me in the past! Lol! when we were at the farm, the owner had some lovely chicks, 3.50 a piece, 2 weeks old. We got six of them and they're just darling! I might start or join a thread about raising and/or introducing chicks.

 

[Colourful]

Today is the start of my first egg-hatching adventure!

I am picking up 2 doz. Americana x eggs. This morning I started reading this thread, and it created some questions for me. My eggs were laid over a course of 4 days. Will this severely affect the hatch date? When do I start turning my eggs? Any tips to help keep the temperature up? Is there any way to use a reptile heating pad as a heatsource? I know it's a little late to start thinking about these things, but until this morning I never realized how much could go wrong!
Any tips would be super appreciated!!!

Broodyhen has some great advice follow it and you'll be on your way to hatching your own chicks.

You'll need something to use as an incubator. I once heard of a lady who hatched in a round fish bowl with just straw down the bottom, but I wouldn't think that you'd get a good hatch rate from that. You need Temp at about 99.5 F and humidity at about 40-55% until day 18 where you need to go up to 70%. What ever you do, don't help them hatch! I know it's tempting but I can guarantee you will almost always kill them instead of helping.

Hens usually lay eggs over the course of a week before sitting on them and starting incubation. So long as your eggs are less than 10 days old, they'll be okay. When you get them, leave them to sit for 24 hours (in decreases the chances of mutation in the egg from being shaken around) in a cool and humid place. But never put them in the fridge or you'll lose most of your hatch.

You need humidity so they'll need to be in-closed but at the same time they need oxygen or they'll suffocate.

Another option is that you can ask around to find if anyone has a broody hen or two to borrow.

Either way, good luck and happy hatchings

 

[MissBroodyHen]

Broodyhen has some great advice follow it and you'll be on your way to hatching your own chicks.

You'll need something to use as an incubator. I once heard of a lady who hatched in a round fish bowl with just straw down the bottom, but I wouldn't think that you'd get a good hatch rate from that. You need Temp at about 99.5 F and humidity at about 40-55% until day 18 where you need to go up to 70%. What ever you do, don't help them hatch! I know it's tempting but I can guarantee you will almost always kill them instead of helping. 

Hens usually lay eggs over the course of a week before sitting on them and starting incubation. So long as your eggs are less than 10 days old, they'll be okay. When you get them, leave them to sit for 24 hours (in decreases the chances of mutation in the egg from being shaken around) in a cool and humid place. But never put them in the fridge or you'll lose most of your hatch.

You need humidity so they'll need to be in-closed but at the same time they need oxygen or they'll suffocate.

Another option is that you can ask around to find if anyone has a broody hen or two to borrow.

Either way, good luck and happy hatchings

Lol thanks for that. Considering I'm yet to hatch anything. I think I've read and reread so much. It's not as easy as it looks. A good note is I got most of my money back on the bator that I have cause of the temp problem. So I have just bought a new one fully auto and am bidding on another one as well so I have one for hatching. Like we talked about. I've gone and bought one that's fully digital. Built in digital temps/humidity and alarmed. So hopefully it will work a treat. It's been such a nightmare I went out yesterday for an hour and a half came back and my blasted bator went up to 40 c. Omg I freaked. Got the temp down and today rectangles my 23 eggs quickly and they looked pretty good. Could see some wiggling around. It's such hard work! Day 9 today. The wait. Errgh! Lol
How you doing anymore going?

 

[Colourful]

Quote:
Arg, temp changes will one day give me a heart attack. I had a power outage the other day (with 13 duck eggs in the incubator including Black East Indies, which weren't cheap). They got snuggled up in bed with for about an hour until the power came back on. I looks like I lost one, but the rest have heart-beats. I also have 56 Quail eggs in. I set up the racks so they could go in with the duck eggs, but a few had broken in transit (and they had actually started to go mouldy) so I set up incubator 2 and put them in there so they didn't infect anything. That said, they all look good, no sign of mould and none of them smell bad so I think I may just be in the clear. I have a good feeling for these hatches. I have quail due in13 days and ducks in 15.

 

[PalmHen]

I went and got some fertilized eggs today and it was about 40 minute trip home. You said you left them to sit for a day, but the guy that I got these from told me yesterday in an email to come and get them asap. He wasn't there when I picked up the eggs and so I couldn't ask him any questions and the other people there didn't know anything about them. Because I don't know when They were collected or how they were stored and he was sort of getting jumpy about having me come and get them, I'm tempted to go ahead and stick them in the incubator. I got them at 11:00am and now it's almost 7:00 pm. I'm going to be gone most of the day tomorrow so I'm thinking tonight would be good! Besides, I'm getting all jumpy!!!

Hello! A few months ago, I decided to buy some Isa Browns, for the eggs. We got a lovely rooster to protect them when they were outside and free-range. Then lock them up at night. Their enclosed Run is quite large anyway, but fresh grass is good for them and it makes them so happy to peck among it. The lot are very docile and easy to care for but they were bought from a place that de-beaked them and probably have sisters in tiny cages being fed on a conveyor belt right this moment.

Sad thought. I bought some young Guinea fowl, who have fit right in, and there seems to be no problems at the moment. Which is where I get the the main story. I wanted more chickens, but this time ones that were hand-raised and raised right. So, I bought an incubator. A friend and I both wanted chicks, so I'll pop some in my brooders and he'll pop some under a couple of his broody hens.

I went to a breeder and bought some pure-bred eggs in person, left them to sit for a day (to make sure they didn't get to jumbled in the trip home). They went in on Saturday, February 2nd. And here they are;


I have 14 Australorp, 6 Silver Laced Wyandotte, 4 Welsummers, 1 Light Sussex and 8 Golden Sebright eggs. I've researched a lot, and understand that the Sebrights will be a bit more difficult. Plus to that the fact that some of the eggs were a bit smaller than the others leads me to believe they came from a hen's very first season.

I'm hoping for two Sebright hens, but I know I'll love any I get. They are a harder to raise breed, I've been told, but I have the space, time and patience so I think I'll be fine. I have two separate brooders in case some of the chicks don't get along, one larger than the other and both outside. I'm going to medicate them against Coccidiosis but not Mereks (because I can only buy in batches enough to do 1000 chickens). If anyone else know where to get some in a smaller batch, in Australia, let me know.

In future, I'll join Hatch-a-longs. But this is my first batch, and I wanted to share in the excitement.

I'm candling at 9 days, and I'll see how many I have fertile then.

Feel free to throw advise at me, and being critical is fine too. I would prefer to swallow my pride rather than hurt any of my lovely poultry.

 

[chickenfarmgirl]

Week two!!!!!