Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[3riverschick]

Oh no, I'm dead serious when I say small batches. Between Leghorns and Langshans I'm extremely lucky to get 12 eggs a week right now. I just came back to poultry last spring after 2-3 years without birds, and those pullets are just coming into lay now, so...yeah extremely small batches for now. Once hens come back into lay and the younger pullets it will be 5-6 times that.

Nothing wrong with that I have read it counseled in Sussex. Because the breeder has fewer chicks t watch
and can get to know each one better for evaluation. I have capability to hatch 14 at a time. That's fine with me. if I can get 4 hatches that's 56 chicks. plenty for me for a season. would I like to hatch 200? Sure. But I also have to have facilities to raise that many to culling and that's not happening here.

Best,
Karen

 

[Zanna]

Thought I would update on my experiment - there was discussion not too long ago about hatching eggs upright by putting them into egg cartons after taking them out of the egg turner.

Normally I had just been taking the eggs out of the turner and laying them back into the incubator. The hatch in Dec and the hatch going on now, I cut apart egg cartons into 4 egg squares and placed the eggs back into the incubator in the egg "holders". So far - very pleased with this compared to having the eggs rolling around inside the incubator. The chicks seem to be hatching faster since they have something solid to push against that holds their egg in place while they pop the top off of their egg. I did have one egg that they knocked out of the carton because they were getting so rowdy, but otherwise I am not having the eggs getting kicked all over the place by the hatchmates. Some of these eggs are going from no sign of any hatching to being out of the egg completely in just a few hours - compared to sometimes twelve hours or more from start of a hole to finish hatching when the eggs are left loose in the incubator. The chicks also seem less stressed with this method. Highly recommend using the egg cartons after removing the eggs from the turners to anybody that has not tried it yet.

I did the same thing for the first time and had done it the way you used to for years. I used styrofoam egg cartons cut in 1/2 so 6 eggs in each section. Can't say I had greater numbers hatch but the hatch was over much more quickly. First time hatching the New Hampsires though and I had heard they pop like popcorn and they sure did

 

[Zanna]

Love this idea.

Can you explain in more detail please ? You cut egg carton into 4 egg sq sections. then put lockdown eggs in ? as many as needed, put everything back in incubator lockdown.
do you cut hole in bottom of Sq or leave intact ? add more water ? Thanks Just started 2nd run of bator hatching, day 19

Yes, you cut a holes in the bottom of each. I hatch in Hovabators and only ever need to fill the water tray that comes with the incubator on lockdown day. Never had to add more water. Works for me in my environment.

 

[bnjrob]

Love this idea.

Can you explain in more detail please ? You cut egg carton into 4 egg sq sections. then put lockdown eggs in ? as many as needed, put everything back in incubator lockdown.
do you cut hole in bottom of Sq or leave intact ? add more water ? Thanks Just started 2nd run of bator hatching, day 19

I cut mine into 4 egg squares although I do have a couple of 6 egg modules from using an old 18 count egg carton. Cut the bottom out of each egg space - just the flat part - for air flow. After taking the eggs out of the turner, just put the eggs into the cut-up carton modules - fat side upright/pointy side down - and place the egg cartons into the incubator. This is done on day 18 when I normally stop the turner.

I have a humidity pump that automatically pumps water into the incubator onto a moisture sponge to keep the humidity at the level that I set, so I don't have to add water. But you shouldn't have to add any more water than normal by using this egg carton method to hold the hatching eggs.

As far as "lockdown" - I don't have a "lockdown" and I have not had any problems with opening up the incubator during the last three days or even during active hatching in order to do whatever I need to do.

 

[NanaKat]

I've done the same as bnjrob and Zanna for the past three years. I use two Hovabators for incubating and one for hatching.

 

[thedragonlady]

I did the same thing for the first time and had done it the way you used to for years. I used styrofoam egg cartons cut in 1/2 so 6 eggs in each section. Can't say I had greater numbers hatch but the hatch was over much more quickly. First time hatching the New Hampsires though and I had heard they pop like popcorn and they sure did

I've hatched in egg cartons for years. My big Orp babies that hatch first would play football with the later hatching eggs if I didn't . I also use shelf liner under the cartons in the hatcher. This makes hatcher clean up much easier. The shelf liner can be washed and disinfected, but I never reuse egg cartons for the next hatch. I try to use the pulp cartons, with the bottoms punched out, as they are more absorbent too.

 

[NanaKat]

 
I've hatched in egg cartons for years. My big Orp babies that hatch first would play football with the later hatching eggs if I didn't . I also use shelf liner under the cartons in the hatcher. This makes hatcher clean up much easier. The shelf liner can be washed and disinfected, but I never reuse egg cartons for the next hatch. I try to use the pulp cartons, with the bottoms punched out, as they are more absorbent too.

Good idea on the pulp cartons.. Yes, never reuse the styrofoam cartons.
On bantam eggs. I put a small square of bubble wrap beside the egg to stablize it...once chicks are hatching, those eggs get rocked in the cup.

 

[ronott1]

Thought I would update on my experiment - there was discussion not too long ago about hatching eggs upright by putting them into egg cartons after taking them out of the egg turner.

Normally I had just been taking the eggs out of the turner and laying them back into the incubator. The hatch in Dec and the hatch going on now, I cut apart egg cartons into 4 egg squares and placed the eggs back into the incubator in the egg "holders". So far - very pleased with this compared to having the eggs rolling around inside the incubator. The chicks seem to be hatching faster since they have something solid to push against that holds their egg in place while they pop the top off of their egg. I did have one egg that they knocked out of the carton because they were getting so rowdy, but otherwise I am not having the eggs getting kicked all over the place by the hatchmates. Some of these eggs are going from no sign of any hatching to being out of the egg completely in just a few hours - compared to sometimes twelve hours or more from start of a hole to finish hatching when the eggs are left loose in the incubator. The chicks also seem less stressed with this method. Highly recommend using the egg cartons after removing the eggs from the turners to anybody that has not tried it yet.

The Pros hatch this way--Hatcheries hatch like this. They know what they are doing too

Love this idea.

Can you explain in more detail please ? You cut egg carton into 4 egg sq sections. then put lockdown eggs in ? as many as needed, put everything back in incubator lockdown.
do you cut hole in bottom of Sq or leave intact ? add more water ? Thanks Just started 2nd run of bator hatching, day 19

I use scissors to cut the top of the carton down. I use egg flats and cut out the number of spaces to match the hatch. The top is cut to allow for air flow.

I candle and tilt the egg back slightly so the the biggest part of the air cell is up. The chick nearly always pip in the center of that spot.

This is what it looks like:



If the chicks start pestering the ones still hatching, take them out. It is ok to open the incubator to do that.

 

[Fred's Hens]

 

[bnjrob]

The Pros hatch this way--Hatcheries hatch like this. They know what they are doing too

I use scissors to cut the top of the carton down. I use egg flats and cut out the number of spaces to match the hatch. The top is cut to allow for air flow.

I'm very pleased with this method. Much better than having the unhatched eggs get turned into hockey pucks by the earlier hatching chicks. And overall, the chicks seem to have more "happy" cheeping going on - not hearing distressed cheeping coming from eggs rolling around/getting kicked around, while still trying to get the first hole pecked through the shell.

Yes, I have had to remove chicks even with this method though. Some have thought that laying on top of the eggs in the cartons made a nice resting place - just didn't work well when their hatchmate was trying to get out of the same egg they were laying on.