Hatching Eggs the Scientific Way!

[cchardwick]

I'm anxious to see the results! With my own chickens I have found that if I switch pens for those at the top of the pecking order, and those at the bottom of the pecking order, the hens who went from the top to the bottom began to lay a smaller egg, and those who went from the bottom up, began to lay larger eggs. I'm not sure if it's because at the bottom you get less food and spend lots of time running around to get any at all, and at the top, everything comes easy to you. Hummmm...

I'm not sure that really applies to my chickens. I have them free range on a fenced in half acre. Most of the time they are out of the coop away from the food. They only jump into the coop to grab a bite to eat and lay an egg, not much competition around the food bowl.

 

[normanack]

WHO DID YOU BUY THAT BATOR FROM AND HOW CAN I GET ONE????? ;-)

An R-com is so outside my budget it isn't even funny!

If I ever win the lottery (which would be difficult seeing as I don't play it), all I want is an R-com incubator!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

LOL and DITTO that!!!

WHO DID YOU BUY THAT BATOR FROM AND HOW CAN I GET ONE????? ;-)

An R-com is so outside my budget it isn't even funny!

If I ever win the lottery (which would be difficult seeing as I don't play it), all I want is an R-com incubator!

Yes nice color! Holy cow 700 bucks!! Sounds like you should put your time n know how into designing a more affordable bator!! Its so hard with the market sometimes, people just get money grubby and fail to realize they can make more money selling more and have great success.... greed gets um everytime!!!! ugggggg!! Design a "Poor Man Bator" that soooo sounds like my styro bator LOL!!!

 

[JHorn91180]

Hmmm my only concern is fertility as 18 hens a alot for 1 roo to cover. U should still have a pretty good hatch rate tho. Did u break any eggs open and check the fertility rate b4 u began the experiement? I will def keep an eye on this thread as I wanna see how your awesome new bator does. It looks like it my take off tho and fly them to outer space LOL.

 

[cchardwick]

Actually I did have a hen sit on some eggs and right before they hatched she decided to switch nests, so they all died in the shell. Most of the ones she was sitting on were fertile at various stages of development. I think I may have set a few eggs that the hen sit on for one day, I'm not sure if sitting for a day then going back to room temp for a few days would kill the egg? I'll probably have at least one or two from that mess, but very few. I was almost tempted to set all fresh eggs from the day I got my incubator but really wanted to see how the round eggs turn out with this experiment!

$700 is really not that much. I work in a chemistry lab and we have equipment that costs $500,000 for just one instrument! For a piece of scientific lab equipment like this incubator, brand new for $700 is a steal! You can actually get them a lot cheaper, I think they make one for about $350 but on the locking down stage you have to manually change the settings. I almost didn't do the upgrade but I finally decided I really liked the automatic settings for other birds. Just set it to 'Duck', put your duck eggs in there and hit 'GO'! Nothing else needed until the day of hatching! It also came with three trays, one for goose eggs, one for quail, and one for chickens. With the cheaper model all the trays cost extra. It's really an amazing piece of technology. And I was thinking if I run into hard times I bet I could even rent it out for $50 a month. I bet people raising exotic birds would love to get their hands on this incubator!

 

[cchardwick]

WHO DID YOU BUY THAT BATOR FROM AND HOW CAN I GET ONE????? ;-)
An R-com is so outside my budget it isn't even funny!
If I ever win the lottery (which would be difficult seeing as I don't play it), all I want is an R-com incubator!

I know, I know...I think she loves me for my incubator LOL.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:

 

[cchardwick]

I think I figured out my next RCom 20 Experiment: Maximizing the number of eggs by stacking them! I bet I could almost fit 50 eggs in there with the right contraption!

 

[normanack]

I know, I know...I think she loves me for my incubator LOL.

I'd sell myself and all the toes on my right foot for an R-com incubator. I've also got a couple of free kittens. The first two things are worthless, but the kittens are pretty cute. . . .

 

[JHorn91180]

I'd sell myself and all the toes on my right foot for an R-com incubator. I've also got a couple of free kittens. The first two things are worthless, but the kittens are pretty cute. . . .