Homemade Incubator experiment

[HeritageHenNut]

Not yet. Last night I checked for pips before bed and nada as well. So I'm just Impatiently waiting now

 

[HeritageHenNut]

This morning I hear peeping from the egg I set a couple of days behind the others, the other two are still & quiet. Did the float test and both were bobbing at the top clearly very late quitters. So fingers crossed for the remaining egg that is chirping at me.

 

[HeritageHenNut]

Last one is almost out

 

[HeritageHenNut]

Final thoughts.

My last chick hatched overnight and appears to have pipped through a blood vessel...poor little thing was gone when I woke up this morning. So out of five eggs I have one healthy vibrant chick. I had one early quitter around day 5/6...two late quitters between day 16/18...two that hatched. I'm going to chalk the one loss to bad luck. I think I may just give in and buy an incubator, as a 20% hatch is somewhat disappointing. But this little one is certainly worth it.

 

[yochickiemomma]

Can you post pics of your homemade incubator? I told my bff I would help her incubate some duck eggs in the spring. Ive already started building a foam cooler type as my first go round.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Sorry to hear that. Are you going to get the lone chick a buddy? It isn't good for chicks to be alone. They need others for warmth and company.

 

[HeritageHenNut]

Sorry to hear that. Are you going to get the lone chick a buddy? It isn't good for chicks to be alone. They need others for warmth and company.

I'm looking to see if anyone around has chicks, but for the time being it's got a stuffed toy to cuddle with.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Yeah, I guess this is a more difficult time of the year to find chicks. It's a cute little guy though!

 

[HeritageHenNut]

Yeah, I guess this is a more difficult time of the year to find chicks. It's a cute little guy though!

I have a couple people asking around but for the moment he's eating/drinking well and I do believe he's going to end up with a name as our house chicken over the next while ;-)

 

[HeritageHenNut]

Well I decided to give it one more attempt before giving up on this little incubator. I set a dozen eggs, 10 from my mature polish flock (year old hens & an EE Roo) and two from my younger layer in my other flock.

Of the 12 I set 11 made it to lock down. There was one egg that had a crack so I sealed it with wax around day 14. Ultimately it was a late quitter, I suspect bacterial contamination.
Of the 11 that went into lock down I ended up with 9 chicks. 2 eggs were late quitters, the one with the crack & one from my younger chantecler cross hen. Both looked like they died around day 18/19 on eggtopsy.

The chicks from the mature hens hatched in quick succession all 8 hatching within about 16 hours of each other moving very quickly from pip to zip to out. The one pullet egg that pipped did not advance beyond a pip for nearly 18 hours and I ended up assisting. Chick was malpositioned and could not turn to zip. I was dubious about it last night but left it in the bator to fluff up and this morning it is bright & active.

The only changes I made to this run was to move the incubator to a smaller room to help avoid temperature swings & to use eggs from mature hens. The difference was dramatic taking my hatch from 20% to over 80%.