Hands on hatching and help

[BigWeenMachine]

50 eggs! All due at different times! Wow, you're brave! Where the heck are you brooding all these messy duck babies? And a pregnant wife! She's going to kill you!

What is this Lyon incubator you speak of? I've never heard of it....going to Google now!

Good, I'm glad! They look for trouble when they hatch, I swear!! Amy convinced me awhile ago that it was safe to move chicks whenever I want. I've done a few small, staggered hatches and I didn't want the chicks knocking the eggs around that were shipped and not due yet and I literally moved them as soon as they hatched. I just kept a blanket over the brooder so there were no drafts and kept it at 100ish and they were fine. Can't wait to see the pics!

I have the brooder set up in our family room right now but I plan on having a bigger brooder ready in our utility room for next weeks batch of 26 chicks. I'm hoping I can get my first big wave of chicks and these 4 I'm hatching now outside and into the coop by the time the last 20 runners hatch in 3 weeks. How long do you keep your chicks in a brooder before you put them outside? Is 2 weeks long enough if I put a heat lamp in the coop for them at night? My wife is gonna kill me, lol. She says I have baby fever and got carried away with the ducklings. I probably have, but my 11 year old son is gonna take them to the local bird swap and hopefully sell the majority of them. Kind of a life and business lesson for him to find out that hard work pays off!

The incubator is called a Marsh Automatic Incubator and it's made by Lyon Electric Company. The lady we bought it from said she thinks the name of the company may have changed though. This incubator is prob ten plus years old but is made out of hard plastic with a clear lid on the top. It also has a fan and an older, metal wire version of an auto turner. She sold it to my mom for 200 bucks and when I first saw it I told my mom she got screwed, lol. But once I plugged it in it has worked great. My mom had looked it up and found that a new Lyon incubator costs 600 bucks and after seeing how much better it holds temp than the FI and the humidity than the Brinsea I can vouch for the high cost of it. Here's a pic of the ol' dinosaur. That lil red piece of tape below the knob is where you set the temp and then there's a bottle of water off to the right that drips the water right in to keep the humidity constant.




Yea, this poor lil guy is so lonesome and it's cos he doesn't have anyone to play with cos of my staggered hatch. It makes it really difficult to keep track of which eggs need to go in or out. Seems so much easier to just do them all at one time. I finally got him to lay down and go to sleep by giving him a stuffed animal to sleep with. Guess he thinks that's his sister, lol.

 

[Sarkchick]

HI. I have 19 shipped Runner eggs from Idaho going into lock down tonight. 14 have good veins and movement. 5 have internal pips and 1 has external pip. 5 others still have veining but I see no movement. I incubated them in a forced fan styro, upright in carton, turning 5 times a day until Thursday when hubs was hospitalized. During those 5 days they only got turned once a day. They are now in a still air styro. Temp 99-100 and humidity 65-70. Some of these ACs look large, too large. And some strange shapes. Any special things I should watch out for. Thanks for any advice
Linda

 

[Blooie]

I brood my chicks outside from the start.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/yes-you-certainly-can-brood-chicks-outdoors

 

[BigWeenMachine]

I brood my chicks outside from the start.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/yes-you-certainly-can-brood-chicks-outdoors

Well, that may end up being what I have to do then.

 

[BigWeenMachine]

Crap. So after I just talked up the big game about the Lyon incubator, I decided to candle all the eggs and check progress. The anconas are starting day 21 tomorrow morning. The air sacks however looked extremely large on a few of them. I'm not sure what the humidity was cos I had both hygrometers in the hatcher but since I moved the first 4 ducks into the hatcher I have not checked the humidity in the Lyon. It had to be pretty low (our humidity right now is a ridiculous 10 pct in eastern Colorado) because the sacks got huge. Some appear right on for 21 days but about half of them look like they should be on day 27 right now and I'm afraid I need to slow down the shrink before I put them in lockdown on Monday. Same for the runners but most of those eggs didn't look as bad as the anconas did. What humidity should I go ahead and set it for to keep the air sacks right about where they are?

I am gonna get it set at 55-60% overnight and hopefully that will do until I hear from everyone in the morning. Thanks!

 

[caesargirl]

I have the brooder set up in our family room right now but I plan on having a bigger brooder ready in our utility room for next weeks batch of 26 chicks. I'm hoping I can get my first big wave of chicks and these 4 I'm hatching now outside and into the coop by the time the last 20 runners hatch in 3 weeks. How long do you keep your chicks in a brooder before you put them outside? Is 2 weeks long enough if I put a heat lamp in the coop for them at night? My wife is gonna kill me, lol. She says I have baby fever and got carried away with the ducklings. I probably have, but my 11 year old son is gonna take them to the local bird swap and hopefully sell the majority of them. Kind of a life and business lesson for him to find out that hard work pays off! The incubator is called a Marsh Automatic Incubator and it's made by Lyon Electric Company. The lady we bought it from said she thinks the name of the company may have changed though. This incubator is prob ten plus years old but is made out of hard plastic with a clear lid on the top. It also has a fan and an older, metal wire version of an auto turner. She sold it to my mom for 200 bucks and when I first saw it I told my mom she got screwed, lol. But once I plugged it in it has worked great. My mom had looked it up and found that a new Lyon incubator costs 600 bucks and after seeing how much better it holds temp than the FI and the humidity than the Brinsea I can vouch for the high cost of it. Here's a pic of the ol' dinosaur. That lil red piece of tape below the knob is where you set the temp and then there's a bottle of water off to the right that drips the water right in to keep the humidity constant. Yea, this poor lil guy is so lonesome and it's cos he doesn't have anyone to play with cos of my staggered hatch. It makes it really difficult to keep track of which eggs need to go in or out. Seems so much easier to just do them all at one time. I finally got him to lay down and go to sleep by giving him a stuffed animal to sleep with. Guess he thinks that's his sister, lol.

You can also give him a mirror!

 

[BigWeenMachine]

You can also give him a mirror!

Lol, good idea.

 

[BigWeenMachine]

Lil turd kept us up all night screaming in his brooder for someone to hold him. Still no more progress on those pippers in the incubator so I don't think he is getting any company for at least half of the day. Took him over 36 hours to hatch after pipping and his buddies are hitting 24 late morning today to early afternoon.

 

[caesargirl]

Lil turd kept us up all night screaming in his brooder for someone to hold him.  Still no more progress on those pippers in the incubator so I don't think he is getting any company for at least half of the day.  Took him over 36 hours to hatch after pipping and his buddies are hitting 24 late morning today to early afternoon.

Sounds about right!!
I have a single in the brooder and in the past, the mirror seems to be the way to go.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I used to travel from Charleston WV to Toledo a few times a month for business, so I went through there often! Now I'm in Parkersburg WV, so we aren't too far apart. I just locked down 7 golden sebrights, 4 OEGBs, and 2 lavender orpingtons!

Good luck!!

Here he is. I tried to get a good pic of his face to show his beak. You can kinda see the line down his beak in the 2nd pick.










He's already a spoiled rotten lil ducky. I held him for a few minutes when I took him out of the hatcher and now he screams if I put him down. He has to snuggle up against my neck and thats the only way he is quiet, lol. Hope his siblings hatch soon so I can put him down.....

Awe....he's cute.

I have the brooder set up in our family room right now but I plan on having a bigger brooder ready in our utility room for next weeks batch of 26 chicks. I'm hoping I can get my first big wave of chicks and these 4 I'm hatching now outside and into the coop by the time the last 20 runners hatch in 3 weeks. How long do you keep your chicks in a brooder before you put them outside? Is 2 weeks long enough if I put a heat lamp in the coop for them at night? My wife is gonna kill me, lol. She says I have baby fever and got carried away with the ducklings. I probably have, but my 11 year old son is gonna take them to the local bird swap and hopefully sell the majority of them. Kind of a life and business lesson for him to find out that hard work pays off!

The incubator is called a Marsh Automatic Incubator and it's made by Lyon Electric Company. The lady we bought it from said she thinks the name of the company may have changed though. This incubator is prob ten plus years old but is made out of hard plastic with a clear lid on the top. It also has a fan and an older, metal wire version of an auto turner. She sold it to my mom for 200 bucks and when I first saw it I told my mom she got screwed, lol. But once I plugged it in it has worked great. My mom had looked it up and found that a new Lyon incubator costs 600 bucks and after seeing how much better it holds temp than the FI and the humidity than the Brinsea I can vouch for the high cost of it. Here's a pic of the ol' dinosaur. That lil red piece of tape below the knob is where you set the temp and then there's a bottle of water off to the right that drips the water right in to keep the humidity constant.




Yea, this poor lil guy is so lonesome and it's cos he doesn't have anyone to play with cos of my staggered hatch. It makes it really difficult to keep track of which eggs need to go in or out. Seems so much easier to just do them all at one time. I finally got him to lay down and go to sleep by giving him a stuffed animal to sleep with. Guess he thinks that's his sister, lol.

That's a cool set up.

HI. I have 19 shipped Runner eggs from Idaho going into lock down tonight. 14 have good veins and movement. 5 have internal pips and 1 has external pip. 5 others still have veining but I see no movement. I incubated them in a forced fan styro, upright in carton, turning 5 times a day until Thursday when hubs was hospitalized. During those 5 days they only got turned once a day. They are now in a still air styro. Temp 99-100 and humidity 65-70. Some of these ACs look large, too large. And some strange shapes. Any special things I should watch out for. Thanks for any advice
Linda

Sounds like you are right on track.

Crap. So after I just talked up the big game about the Lyon incubator, I decided to candle all the eggs and check progress. The anconas are starting day 21 tomorrow morning. The air sacks however looked extremely large on a few of them. I'm not sure what the humidity was cos I had both hygrometers in the hatcher but since I moved the first 4 ducks into the hatcher I have not checked the humidity in the Lyon. It had to be pretty low (our humidity right now is a ridiculous 10 pct in eastern Colorado) because the sacks got huge. Some appear right on for 21 days but about half of them look like they should be on day 27 right now and I'm afraid I need to slow down the shrink before I put them in lockdown on Monday. Same for the runners but most of those eggs didn't look as bad as the anconas did. What humidity should I go ahead and set it for to keep the air sacks right about where they are?

I am gonna get it set at 55-60% overnight and hopefully that will do until I hear from everyone in the morning. Thanks!

That sounds like a good range to me.

Lil turd kept us up all night screaming in his brooder for someone to hold him. Still no more progress on those pippers in the incubator so I don't think he is getting any company for at least half of the day. Took him over 36 hours to hatch after pipping and his buddies are hitting 24 late morning today to early afternoon.

My very first hatch ever resulted in a lone chick. The first two nights I ended up sleeping on the floor beside the cage so that I could reassure him once he got going. The third night I pulled the cage in beside my bed.....lol He was out a lot with us while he grew up. He did not like going back to his quarters at night, but he delt with it. lol

Sounds about right!!
I have a single in the brooder and in the past, the mirror seems to be the way to go.

I tried the stuffed animals and the mirror and nothing worked with ours. He just wanted to be out with us. I do have some awesome pics though of him with everyone...lol