First time incubation

[JuniorEct]

Here an Easter egger.

 

[CNJ]

Got lucky this morning my rooster started crowing this morning and had to get up from bed to check up and made sure he would be quite because the neighbors might complain. So I set up a lamp in the coop and by the time I put back all the hens inside the coop my rooster ended up mating I also found an egg layed. I was giving some advice to not touch the eggs and let my hen do her job. I want her to lay as much as possible so I won’t interrupt her laying again.

I experimented with 1 inch velcro collars to lower the crowing sound of my cockerels, and I found out that certain breeds like the bresse chicken will die shortly after you reach the sweet spot (acceptable tone). The bresse neck skin is thick and fatty in comparison to other heritage breeds, so they can't wear rooster collars.
Knowing that, I started putting my bresse rooster in a box with holes similar to a game cock transportation box at night and I keep the box in a storage room to contain the sound. I let him out in the day, its okay if he crows in the day, its the early morning that worries me.

Also, when two of my hens were laying for about a month, I introduced them to a 4 month old rooster in a breeding pen. I started gathering eggs 3 days after first sight of mating. I collected eggs for 10 days then placed all of them in an incubator, 6 of 10 eggs were fertile when I candled them on the 8 day.

You need to regulate the temperature to 99.50F to 100F in a home made incubator and rotate a minimum of 3 times a day. If you use an egg carton, you can lift the sides up with a book and alternate sides once in the morning, evening and before you sleep. In addition, you need a humidity and temperature gauge from Lowes. I keep my humidity at 60 with a bowl of water.

 

[JuniorEct]

I experimented with 1 inch velcro collars to lower the crowing sound of my cockerels, and I found out that certain breeds like the bresse chicken will die shortly after you reach the sweet spot (acceptable tone). The bresse neck skin is thick and fatty in comparison to other heritage breeds, so they can't wear rooster collars.
Knowing that, I started putting my bresse rooster in a box with holes similar to a game cock transportation box at night and I keep the box in a storage room to contain the sound. I let him out in the day, its okay if he crows in the day, its the early morning that worries me.

Also, when two of my hens were laying for about a month, I introduced them to a 4 month old rooster in a breeding pen. I started gathering eggs 3 days after first sight of mating. I collected eggs for 10 days then placed all of them in an incubator, 6 of 10 eggs were fertile when I candled them on the 8 day.

You need to regulate the temperature to 99.50F to 100F in a home made incubator and rotate a minimum of 3 times a day. If you use an egg carton, you can lift the sides up with a book and alternate sides once in the morning, evening and before you sleep. In addition, you need a humidity and temperature gauge from Lowes. I keep my humidity at 60 with a bowl of water.

What I will do is keep a heat light on inside the coop during the night, to keep all my eggs warm enough so that way they may hatch inside the coop, i won’t keep the Light too far or to close that way the eggs receive the amount of heat they need in order to incubate. Let me know if this works.

 

[JuniorEct]

What I will do is keep a heat light on inside the coop during the night, to keep all my eggs warm enough so that way they may hatch inside the coop, i won’t keep the Light too far or to close that way the eggs receive the amount of heat they need in order to incubate. Let me know if this works.

Just for safety measures I ended up incubating a couple of eggs in a incubator with a heat lamp on and 3 out of 4 eggs ended up cooking from the inside. Had I fertile egg when I opened all the 4 eggs and the other 3 were no good.

 

[JuniorEct]

I experimented with 1 inch velcro collars to lower the crowing sound of my cockerels, and I found out that certain breeds like the bresse chicken will die shortly after you reach the sweet spot (acceptable tone). The bresse neck skin is thick and fatty in comparison to other heritage breeds, so they can't wear rooster collars.
Knowing that, I started putting my bresse rooster in a box with holes similar to a game cock transportation box at night and I keep the box in a storage room to contain the sound. I let him out in the day, its okay if he crows in the day, its the early morning that worries me.

Also, when two of my hens were laying for about a month, I introduced them to a 4 month old rooster in a breeding pen. I started gathering eggs 3 days after first sight of mating. I collected eggs for 10 days then placed all of them in an incubator, 6 of 10 eggs were fertile when I candled them on the 8 day.

You need to regulate the temperature to 99.50F to 100F in a home made incubator and rotate a minimum of 3 times a day. If you use an egg carton, you can lift the sides up with a book and alternate sides once in the morning, evening and before you sleep. In addition, you need a humidity and temperature gauge from Lowes. I keep my humidity at 60 with a bowl of water.

Do you keep that bowl of water inside that incubator, I bout one instead of making one, the only way the incubator reach 100.1 F% is but playing a heat lamp on top of it, but that also damages the eggs while incubation.

 

[CNJ]

Do you keep that bowl of water inside that incubator, I bout one instead of making one, the only way the incubator reach 100.1 F% is but playing a heat lamp on top of it, but that also damages the eggs while incubation.

You can make an incubator with a Foam cooler, 110 watt heat lamp, adjustable switch and a cheap electronic humidity and temperature meter from Lowes. But if I was you, I would buy one from a feed store or online from Amazon or Ebay.

If you buy mail order eggs, you need the ones that can hold the eggs pointy side down and automatically tilts it side to side. The biggest problem with mail-order eggs is air displacement. If the eggs are kept pointy side down during the incubation, they have time to settle, and you will get a higher hatch rate, in comparison to incubators that hold the egg sideways and roll them around. However, either one works with fresh home grown eggs.
You can search Youtube to see how other people built their homemade incubators. I used a 25 gallon plastic pot lined with tin foil, bowl of water, 110 watt light bulb with a dimmer switch to adjust the temperature. In addition, a humidity and temperature meter is required to set the temp and humidity. The outside temperature maybe different where you live, I live in the tropics where there is no snow.

I ended up with three different types of incubators and have a lot of experience with ebay eggs. Eventually, I found out that I could order live chicks from Mcmurray hatchery, its so much cheaper than ebay eggs. I just started hatching my own eggs....

 

[JuniorEct]

I went to a store and bought a still air incubator, it bring its own thermostat, and heats up the eggs itself. Any idea how I can increase the humidity? Since my chickens haven’t layed anything fertile yet I haven’t quite used the incubator. The rooster mated two of the hens this morning but I went on and searched up how long it would take for them to lay those fertile eggs. It says within 3-7 days my hen will lay those fertile eggs, and within 21 days those eggs will hatch if incubated properly. I have two eggs in the coop but I’m not sure if those eggs are fertile or not.

 

[JuniorEct]

Look I had this idea just to keep them warm during the night, I want the hen to lay as many eggs as possible to see which ones would hatch.

 

[CNJ]

Look I had this idea just to keep them warm during the night, I want the hen to lay as many eggs as possible to see which ones would hatch.

I put my eggs on a shelf in the house at room temperature, we can gather them this way up to 10 days before placing them in the incubator. My neighbor gathered his eggs and stored them in his refrigerator and they still hatched in the incubator.

 

[CNJ]

I went to a store and bought a still air incubator, it bring its own thermostat, and heats up the eggs itself. Any idea how I can increase the humidity? Since my chickens haven’t layed anything fertile yet I haven’t quite used the incubator. The rooster mated two of the hens this morning but I went on and searched up how long it would take for them to lay those fertile eggs. It says within 3-7 days my hen will lay those fertile eggs, and within 21 days those eggs will hatch if incubated properly. I have two eggs in the coop but I’m not sure if those eggs are fertile or not.

I wouldn't worry if its fertile or not, you can candle the eggs after 8 days in your incubator. Also, the incubator you bought should have come with instructions. I use a small syringe filled with water and measure how much is needed to get the humidity to 60. The humidity without any water where I live goes down to 44 dry. I never let it go down past 50, I always add around 3 syringe when it gets down to 54. There is a small hole near the bottom of my incubator where I add water in one of my incubators. In another one there is a small hole on top where I can angle my syringe so the water runs down the side. My third incubator is an advance brinsea and it has a port outside with a level to maintain.