Harris Farms Nurture Right 360 Incubator is AMAZING!

[CrisAnderson27]

Well, the humidity is at 30% with no water, so I think I’m going to leave it dry until lockdown, since it was so high for the first week and a half. It’s usually so dry here, I guess I picked the one month of the year that it’s not to incubate.

I ran mine this entire hatch, right up to day 18, with virtually no water. I locked down at day 16, and increased humidity on day 18. Ran both trays full until hatch time. My hatch rate was fairly dismal (7/11 and 1/3 of those that survived the 105F heat spike), but everything that pipped hatched, which was a first.

 

[Willow2253]

When I first started running it, if I had no water the humidity would be down to 20%, which I felt was too low, so I had been adding water. But now the weather has changed and the ambient humidity is much higher, which is part of why I’ve been struggling to get it to go down.

 

[aart]

I almost wonder if the difference in where it instinctively thought it's foot was, was causing a weird reaction. Walking is an instinct in a newly hatched chick. The foot disrupting that might have odd consequence.

Makes sense.
Neurological issues are odd.

 

[Faraday40]

Has anyone ever moved eggs when pipped? Do they hatch?

I set up my NR 360 last night as a hatcher for the duck eggs (due Th-Fri). Although it looked good after an hour, I decided to let it go and transfer the eggs this morning. 2 out 7 are externally pipped! Yikes!

My coolerbater incubator was at 40% humidity, so I know they'll appreciate the bump up to 70%. I just hope I didn't shrinkwrap them by the move across the room to the other incubator. I don't want to be known as a duck murderer.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Has anyone ever moved eggs when pipped? Do they hatch?

I set up my NR 360 last night as a hatcher for the duck eggs (due Th-Fri). Although it looked good after an hour, I decided to let it go and transfer the eggs this morning. 2 out 7 are externally pipped! Yikes!

My coolerbater incubator was at 40% humidity, so I know they'll appreciate the bump up to 70%. I just hope I didn't shrinkwrap them by the move across the room to the other incubator. I don't want to be known as a duck murderer.

I took a few out and candled after an external pip and they hatched out fine. I just made sure to set them down into the same position as they were when I picked them up.

 

[CrisAnderson27]

Soooo....two surprised, one not so big...the other actually kinda big lol.

I broke down and ordered a dozen BBS eggs from Deer Run Farms (biiiig shock, I know lol).

I swear this is my last go at filling out my flock this season...lol. If it goes well, I'll have a shot at evening out the blue egg layers vs brown, lol...given the dubious rooster distribution! I'll also be hatching some Olive Eggers next season for sure (BBS Ameraucana over Barred Rock). As it stands, I'm positive that ONE of my BBS Ameraucana hatch from before is a blue roo (his name is 'Blue' and he's a big boy compared to the others). I believe I have a splash roo as well, and possibly one or two light blues. I think my black is a pullet...leaving the remaining splash and blue as pullets also.

Count:
Rooster 4
Pullet 3

Just went through my second hatch looking at wings. Of those seven BBS birds, it looks like possibly six girls and one boy (crossed fingers!). There's three blue, and three black in pullet, and one splash in possible roo.

Count:
Rooster 1
Pullet 6

Sooo, total we may have 9 pullets and 5 roo's. The final 12 will determine my blue to brown layer ratio, lol.

Now, for the somewhat bigger surprise.

Yep...fresh eggs. Rather large for a newly laying bird (the egg on the right is a ceramic dummy from TSC), so I'm assuming it's the Cornish Cross. Also...Johnny is showing NO INTEREST whatsoever in the Barred Rock girls still, so I'm assuming they're not sexually mature yet.

Soooo, to hatch or not to hatch?? Anyone curious what a handful of little Cornish Ayam's will look like lol??

Oh, on an interesting side note...that egg was laid 16 weeks to the day that Cornish Cross hatched lol. Who'd have thought? Going to be interesting to see how many I get a week.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

The egg looks so tiny in that huge egg flat!
I'd say go for it! Maybe the hatch rate (if fertile) will be really good and you'll have more to fill out your flock or to sell. Some people are really into eating black or black-ish fleshed chickens.

I just set my first batch of shipped eggs this morning. 11 Bielefelders along with 7 from my own flock. Why not the full 22? Because I made two little cradles for eggs that are upright and it took up some extra space to do it in a way that didn't interfere with tuning.
The Bieles are my main interest anyway as all of my previous hatch are doing great.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

So it officially happened, I stopped getting notifications on my own thread. Lol!
I hope everyone's hatches are going well!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Has anyone ever moved eggs when pipped? Do they hatch?

I set up my NR 360 last night as a hatcher for the duck eggs (due Th-Fri). Although it looked good after an hour, I decided to let it go and transfer the eggs this morning. 2 out 7 are externally pipped! Yikes!

My coolerbater incubator was at 40% humidity, so I know they'll appreciate the bump up to 70%. I just hope I didn't shrinkwrap them by the move across the room to the other incubator. I don't want to be known as a duck murderer.

Yes, I've actually tucked them under broody hens after they pipped. It's one of those "best practices" things. I still try not to open the incubator too much while I have externally pipped chicks but most of the time it's fine when I do. I'm sure they will be just fine!

 

[EarlJ]

On track to hatch some shipped lavender Guineas next week, along with some of our own chicks to round out the incubator spots.

We were trying to hatch some of our own Guinea eggs too, but 4 turned out to be chicken eggs (they were close to the right shape and found in the same nest as Guinea eggs). One died after lockdown, the other 3 hatched this morning. They look to be GLWs. Maybe we'll get another roo out of them.

In our last hatch, we had a surprise GLW/BO cross. It just looked like a Buff with a smudge on it's head. About 2 and a half weeks later, it's got some feathering...

Don't know sex yet, but it's a feisty little thing. It's in a brooder with same aged Jersey Giants, a couple other mutts, and a couple pure BOs that look to be about a week older and 50% larger, and it will push them around. It's mother is pretty ridiculous too - she'll occasionally sneak up and attack legs like she's a roo!