First time incubator questions.

[duluthralphie]

Some breeds may or may not ever go broody.

I don't havr bantams but they say they are really good brooders.

I have several breeds the only hen I had go broody was a black sex link. She was 4 years old.

So when is hard to answer.

WOW!!

I have had BA's, EE, White rock, Barred rock, and Rainbows go broody!

 

[feedman77]

WOW!!

 
I have had   BA's, EE, White rock, Barred rock, and Rainbows go broody!

I have barred rock. Silver laced wyandotte. Rhode islands. Black sex links. White leghorns. And some buff cross.

And none went broody. Maybe I just got lazy hens.

But my turkey hens whole other story.

 

[sassycassy427]

Ty so much

 

[roasted]

To answer your question about what to do if they don't hatch If your children are young go and buy some day old chicks ..They can find out sad things in life later.
I had a failure my first time picked up some day old chicks. kids were happy top see them..

what they don't know can upset them


Dale

 

[led2teach]

I did not Calibrate my thermometer or hygrometer. Didn't know I needed to. The chick that pipped was between day 23-25. I have an incubator full of eggs. I have eggs in there with all different dates. I took out the two red plugs to see if that would help.

You mentioned earlier that you didn't know what lock down was... I'm curious, did you take the chicken eggs out of the turner (but still in the incubator) on day 18 so that the chicks could get turned around facing the proper direction for hatching? If not, that could explain why they died around their hatch date.

 

[chant]

Make sure you rotate the eggs when you turn or candle - corners to middle, etc. so that the eggs get moved around the bator and you don't have some constantly in "hot spots"

Good advice, I will do that too.

 

[chant]

You mentioned earlier that you didn't know what lock down was... I'm curious, did you take the chicken eggs out of the turner (but still in the incubator) on day 18 so that the chicks could get turned around facing the proper direction for hatching?  If not, that could explain why they died around their hatch date.

I did take the eggs out of the Turner and placed them on the mat and left them alone.

 

[chant]

Thanks, i will definitely do that. I have the candle days marled out for 7 10 15 and 18 then lock down. I already have my chart made out and am recording temp and humidity. I really hope this works this time. I'm adding a little

Have you calibrated any of the thermometers with the ice test or the humidity with the salt test?  With that kind of range, you have to know which ones are off and by how much.

bit of water to the sponges in the morning to make sure it stays between 30 and 40%. So far it's been about 34 35. Temp went down a little over night but only a degree or 2. It's been at 103 most of the day.

I didn't. We just bought 4 brand new ones. I didn't see the post about how to do that until after I started this new hatch. If this doesn't work I am going to do what Ralph did a join the ranks of a different incubator.
The temps aren't as drastic ly different as they were, they are only around 10 degrees different now. I'm going to do moving eggs around the Bator and hopefully it will give them a better chance.

 

[DesertBrahma]

I'm back on day 5 with this new batch. I had to move the incubator from the kitchen to my bathroom because my boys were messing with it. The temps are staying at 102 which is a lot better than when it was in the kitchen. I had to add water today because my humidity was at 29%. I've also started moving them around some. I really want to candle them but I'm also wanting to leave them alone except for monitoring. The egg turner is working great, and I can't wait to see if I can get this batch to hatch.

 

[FridayYet]

I'm back on day 5 with this new batch. I had to move the incubator from the kitchen to my bathroom because my boys were messing with it. The temps are staying at 102 which is a lot better than when it was in the kitchen. I had to add water today because my humidity was at 29%. I've also started moving them around some. I really want to candle them but I'm also wanting to leave them alone except for monitoring. The egg turner is working great, and I can't wait to see if I can get this batch to hatch.

Awesome! In a couple more days candle and mark your air cells. It will really help you adjust humidity if you need to.

Hoping for a great hatch!