Hi, incubator help

[LoriLovesLace]

Hi, I am new on here. I have been enjoying raising chickens and ducks. I am crazy about unique birds like olive eggers, laced feathered and other unique feathers or eggs. I was looking for a dun laced wyandotte seller. They have the most beautiful feathers. Or if anyone knows how to breed chickens to get dun lace. It looks like silver laced mixed with white.
I have had some issues with incubation. I had many eggs not hatch, found some were very close to being ready but died right before. And the few that did hatch had curled feet. I tried to fix with vitamins you guys recommended on here and band aids on the feet also recommended on here. But nether worked all but one chick died that had curled feet. And that one had a slight case.
I had a small bowl of water in it at all times, checked the temp with a thermometer keeping it around 99 degrees and turned them once a day. I was using a Styrofoam kind of incubator. It is near 30 years old yet seemed to keep the temp up well.

 

[henny1129]

Hello and ! I hope you enjoy BYC just as much as the rest of us do! I love all the crazy colored birds, they're so unique! I unfortunately don't know anything about incubating, so hopefully someone else who does can help you.

 

[drumstick diva]

I have never incubated either. But there are several "hatch a thons," going on now and the folks on there give advice and suggestions freely. You could put "Hatch A Thons," in the searchbox - it should come up.

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC - there's also the "Incubating and hatching Eggs forum".

CT

 

[Teila]

G’Day from down under LoriLovesLace

Welcome!

Sorry that I have no experience with incubators, just broody hens. However, I see that you have received some good starting points from Ken and Diva so I will just add that I hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun. Unlike non chicken loving friends, family and colleagues, BYC’ers never tire of stories or pictures that feature our feathered and non feathered friends

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, LoriLovesLace, and ! Great to have you aboard! I've nothing to add to the great advice you've aleady received so I'll just say best wishes and happy hatching!

 

[N F C]

What beautiful egg colors you have! Hope you can get your incubation issues settled. Have you tried using a broody hen? Maybe you'd have better results?

 

[mckendall]

I am a new member also from Northern California in the redwoods. I have a small flock of mixed breed however also looking for a quality incubator at a good price

 

[LoriLovesLace]

Thanks for all the welcomes! Does anyone know of a good hygrometer. I don't want to buy one and it not really work. I am bad about buying cheap then regretting it. Oh and I hate the ones you have to put batteries in. I have 3 kids so we already have too much stuff that keeps needing batteries.

 

[mckendall]

I have one hen a Verysi very Broody hen, she is a silkie. I would like to put some eggs under her to hatch but have no idea what I'm doing. Would I need to put her in a separate coop? I am a carpenter and could easily build one however not sure what design to use for one hen to hatch chics any ideas?