Hatching Chicks With A Heat Pad And A Egg Carton Experiment

[Jeanna Marie]

Omgoodness! How exciting. Can't wait to see how successful your hatch is.

 

[Jeanna Marie]

The heat pad should probably last, as long as you aren't getting it wet. If the heat pad gets wet then who knows what would happen. But just having a small amount of weight on the heat pad shouldn't hurt it, because they would have to anticipate making them be able to endure people laying on them when people hurt their backs etc; people use heating pads then.

But I don't understand also how to regulate the temperature well. This seems like the hard part.

I've been experimenting with some homemade incubators also, and that seems like the hardest part. Like right after I turn it on, the temperature seems to look OK. Then I come back 5 hours later and see a temperature like 104.

Its pretty frustrating.

The China made incubator that I'd ordered only goes up to about 92 degrees and didn't work right. Then I see people on Youtube are doing homemade incubators. Although people on Youtube tend to over dramaticize their successes and not their headaches and failures.

I have built many incubators and temp is the absolute hardest thing to regulate. And, no, the DIYers on YouTube do not tell you how hard it is to regulate them.

 

[DogAndCat36]

Omgoodness! How exciting. Can't wait to see how successful your hatch is.

I was so surprised! I almost killed the poor things! I can't wait!

 

[DogAndCat36]

I have built many incubators and temp is the absolute hardest thing to regulate. And, no, the DIYers on YouTube do not tell you how hard it is to regulate them.

You can say that again, I have to check on the temp. like every hour.

 

[nao57]

I have built many incubators and temp is the absolute hardest thing to regulate. And, no, the DIYers on YouTube do not tell you how hard it is to regulate them.

Do light bulbs regulate better than heat pads? It seems like a lot of videos of self made stuff show light bulbs. I didn't even see any on heat pads.

Thanks for your comments and experience.

 

[nao57]

You can say that again, I have to check on the temp. like every hour.

Sounds reasonable. I applaud your discipline.

Would you say the success rate goes up by checking it once an hour? And is there such a thing as checking it too much also? Or not enough? The homemade boxes I wonder if some of them will overheat.

 

[Flashpoint]

Watching how your experiment goes. Years (and years and years) ago, my father had an egg route and bought eggs from a local Amish farm. One week he bought a case of eggs, brought it home and sat it near the furnace floor grate. A few days later he heard a sound coming from the box, opened it up and there were 3 baby chicks. Seems that the Amish guy had the case in a room with a wood stove - and this case was too close to it on one corner and Dad finished up with the furnace.

Needless to say, he didn't try selling any of those remaining eggs. lol

 

[nao57]

Watching how your experiment goes. Years (and years and years) ago, my father had an egg route and bought eggs from a local Amish farm. One week he bought a case of eggs, brought it home and sat it near the furnace floor grate. A few days later he heard a sound coming from the box, opened it up and there were 3 baby chicks. Seems that the Amish guy had the case in a room with a wood stove - and this case was too close to it on one corner and Dad finished up with the furnace.

Needless to say, he didn't try selling any of those remaining eggs. lol

That sounds totally fun to try though! What a cool experience!

Some of the videos I've been looking at people are using store bought eggs also, and getting hatch rates. (They are supposed to be infertile. So it does have a higher fail rate than fertile eggs.) But I would try this pretty soon if it weren't for the fact that due to Covid19 you can't even buy eggs in the stores in my area. Its also ridiculous how many things you can't buy right now.

Right now we're a pretty good area for still being unaffected by the virus. And yet when you go to Walmart you can't buy ANY canned goods, no dairy products even no milk, no eggs, etc. All dry goods are gone also.

And everyone is saying its the hoarders fault but actually neglect to count the rich people are hoarding also, while the rich people say its the 'commoners'. And then there's the reduced food rates out there with the previous years crop failures too.

Oops went off on a tangent.

Anyway I just meant to comment on these egg experiments.

 

[nao57]

I use a MagicFly Janoel 12. It's one of the really cheap incubators. It runs like a dream for me. I don't have anything bad to say about it. The lowest hatch rate I ever got in it was 80%. I also incubated a ton of eggs in it. Out of 186 eggs last summer I ended up with 179 birds. I also jam packed the poor thing when there was an emergency. I had 30 eggs I there, when the incubator can technically fit only 12. (if you wonder how I had so many, a guinea hen abandoned her and her sister's nest in the middle of the night) I got 29 of those eggs to hatch, and when I got them they were on day 8.

Is there any trick to keeping your neighbors from noticing that many birds? That's what I'd like to know also lol.

I'm particularly interested in any tricks for urban chicken/duck farming to keep people from noticing.

 

[nao57]

Used to be 6 and now it is 3 because of the heat change were I am at.

Although, please bear in mind, you guys might have different makers of hot pads. So your settings might not be the same. Hope I don't sound like a jerk, but wanted to help you avoid trouble.