Hatching Chicks With A Heat Pad And A Egg Carton Experiment

[DogAndCat36]

My sister's DIY incubator did that a few months ago. Her little egg was day 6 I think. It was at 118 for 30 minutes. It miraculously hatched. The bator's temp for the 21 days ranged from 88 to 118. It sure is a miracle! And she only set one egg! Here's little miracle baby

Thanks, that is really reassuring, let's hope that my eggs also survive.
Also, cute chickie.

 

[nao57]

They say you want the humidity boost on the last few days of incubating. But a lot of us are using homemade incubators.

So is this where you guys got the idea to mist spray the eggs? And how often do you do that? Once a day? Once every four hours? etc..?

 

[DogAndCat36]

DogAndCat - I lived that one!! In 1981 I lived on top of Green Ridge Mtn in western MD on a 500-acre farm. On March 17, I had a foal born from my mare - her first. (This helps me keep my dates straight! lol)


Later that evening, I had to go out and get firewood (yup - only heat was a wood stove) and went out on the back porch to get wood off the wood stack. Lo and behold, I found a chicken - a naked neck (or turken) laying on top of the wood. Frozen. Stiff as a board. Seriously. So frozen that when I picked her up - her neck was stretched out in front of her body and her legs straight out behind and she didn't have a bend in her. I do believe had I slapped her against the woodpile, she would have broken in half!!

Unfortunately, the particular chicken was the pet of my then 10-year-old son. Her name was Gretchen (all the animals had names) and he went almost hysterical when I brought her inside - begging me to save his chicken.

Well, by that time I was just convinced there was no way in hell that was going to happen but decided it would be best if it looked like we had at least tried. So my husband got a box and laid a towel in it, put the chicken on the towel, covered her up with my son's favorite blanket - and put her behind the woodstove. As parents, we thought once my son had gone to sleep, we could come up with another idea - like have a funeral the next day.

The storm had started around 3 pm that afternoon and I guess it was around 6 pm that I went to get wood. So that chicken laid in that box for about 4 hours. When she suddenly came out from under the blanket, out of the box and was pecking around the floor.

To say our jaws hit the floor would be an understatement.

My son was ecstatic, to say the least, and insisted on keeping her in his room that night. I didn't argue the point.

All we could figure is that the temps had dropped so fast and so hard, that chicken went into a form of suspended animation?? And because the woodstove sent most of the heat out towards the room, she just slowly "thawed out". In any event, she lived another 3 years after that.

I will swear to this day - she was Frozen. Hard as a rock.

Whoa, amazing story. That chicken must have been confused!

 

[MGG]

Thanks, that is really reassuring, let's hope that my eggs also survive.
Also, cute chickie.

Thanks!

 

[DogAndCat36]

They say you want the humidity boost on the last few days of incubating. But a lot of us are using homemade incubators.

So is this where you guys got the idea to mist spray the eggs? And how often do you do that? Once a day? Once every four hours? etc..?

Maybe every three times a day, like replacing the usual amount of opening the incubator door to rotate the eggs? Because when people rotate the eggs, a rush of moister escapes. I read from a bunch of sources that people should not constantly take freshly hatched chicks out of the incubator or constantly open the incubator because of the moister getting out, so maybe, moist the eggs three times a day?

 

[nao57]

Thanks!

 

[DogAndCat36]

Day 10 (chicken incubation, eight days)- I read in an article that candling eggs too much can kill them, so I will candle them tomorrow and then start candling them every two days. The eggs look fine, from what I checked yesterday, but... the first one, you know, the JG one that I believed was the only survivor, might have a blood ring... a good amount of the egg darkened and fogged up with red. Yesterday I found three little red bubbles at the bottom of the yolk.

Side Note- If all of the chicks die, then I am going to take a break from the experiments. A thought popped into my mind today (You know, from the little guilty part of your brain that makes you feel like trash and reminds you of horrible things.) and it was, "What would their mothers think of me? How would they react if they found out that I took their egg, gave it life and failed their baby? Killing it before it could draw breath, but still old enough to have a sentient mind?" I can't get this out of my head now, I will try with all of my might to keep at least one of these babies alive. Not even a flood of exhaustion or hunger will make me forget that I promised their mothers that I would care for them and their babies.
(Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.)

 

[nao57]

Day 10 (chicken incubation, eight days)- I read in an article that candling eggs too much can kill them, so I will candle them tomorrow and then start candling them every two days. The eggs look fine, from what I checked yesterday, but... the first one, you know, the JG one that I believed was the only survivor, might have a blood ring... a good amount of the egg darkened and fogged up with red. Yesterday I found three little red bubbles at the bottom of the yolk.

Side Note- If all of the chicks die, then I am going to take a break from the experiments. A thought popped into my mind today (You know, from the little guilty part of your brain that makes you feel like trash and reminds you of horrible things.) and it was, "What would their mothers think of me? How would they react if they found out that I took their egg, gave it life and failed their baby? Killing it before it could draw breath, but still old enough to have a sentient mind?" I can't get this out of my head now, I will try with all of my might to keep at least one of these babies alive. Not even a flood of exhaustion or hunger will make me forget that I promised their mothers that I would care for them and their babies.
(Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.)

I don't think you should feel bad about this.

You have good intentions.

Now if you were playing mailbox baseball with your chicks then I'd be yeah, you are a bad person.

Sometimes you just need a bit of perspective.

The truth is we're here to figure out how to live on Earth spiritually and you have to skin your knees in the process to find out the way. Once you get it down you'll be able to help others, and you will be able to reach a point where you feel you can handle your resources and stewardship easier.

But if you need some time to de-stress that's OK too.

 

[DogAndCat36]

I don't think you should feel bad about this.

You have good intentions.

Now if you were playing mailbox baseball with your chicks then I'd be yeah, you are a bad person.

Sometimes you just need a bit of perspective.

The truth is we're here to figure out how to live on Earth spiritually and you have to skin your knees in the process to find out the way. Once you get it down you'll be able to help others, and you will be able to reach a point where you feel you can handle your resources and stewardship easier.

But if you need some time to de-stress that's OK too.

Thanks, what you said helps.

 

[Happychi2019]

So exciting! I’m going to check mine tomorrow. Hope they are doing as well as yours are