I built an Incubator - TEST HATCH COMPLETE

[Attack Chicken]

Mine had to survive through a 6 hour power outage about a week ago. I kept a hot waterbottle in there with them. You should be fine. Goodluck!

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

I built a candler out of a coffee can, a light base and an extension cord. Less than $5.00. Worked great.

Of the two bantam eggs have definate veins.
Of the three White Leghorn eggs, a bright yolk in each. I am questioning if they were fetile to begin with.
Of the 4 brown eggs, 2 have definate veins. The other two, darker shell, I could not really tell. Will candle again at day 12.

This is sooooo much fun!!

 

[speckledhen]

You're doing terrific, Ed!

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

1/9/2008 - Candling results as of Day #13

2 Bantam Egg - Babies moving
3 White Eggs - REMOVED - Checked - Not Fertilized
4 Brown Eggs - 3 developing nicely. 1 no veins, yolk moving freely.

Loving them.

 

[TheNewMrsEvans]

how are they doing? should pip soon!

how did the temps do? is the bator a winner?

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

We to recap, we started with

2 Bantam Egg - On Day 18, definate movement in both.
3 White Eggs - REMOVED - Checked - Not Fertilized
4 Brown Eggs - On Day 18, 2 have movement inside. 1 REMOVED - Not Fertilized. The other, I believe quite

Fertility was always iffy in the standards as the Rooster is a White Leghorn that was about 18 weeks when these eggs were fertilized. Obviously, he was not able to catch my Leghorn girls that are older than him.

We will see what happens, I think there should be action tomorrow. Unfortunately, I will not be here to see it. I am going out of town for all of next week. My wife and 12 year old are in charge. The brooder is fired up and ready for babies. They know what to do.

I have been very happy with the Incubator. Temp holds great and the Humidity has been rather easy also. Temp did go down a little bit because here it is currently 4 degrees. The basement is much colder than normal, which I think messed with the Incubator. But it is still within range and I think we are good to go.

I will provide update 1/26/2009 when I return.

 

[sarahloveschickens]

awesome job!

 

[speckledhen]

Awesome, Ed. BTW, Skye is definitely laying again..from her, Dusty, Smoky and Meg, got one egg each yesterday. Contact me when you get back.

 

[RonnieAtkeson]

Thats an awsome home made bator. I cant wait to hear how the hatch goes. Im inspired to build my own but some look to complicated for a simple boy like me.

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

Thought I would provide an update. The chicks started hatching on 1/17/2009. I went out of the country for 9 days on the 17th. My son and wife were the keepers of the incubator. We ended up with One Chick. There were a couple of issues that caused complications for my son (bator watcher). First, the 2 bantam eggs got rolling around and got up against the cage around the light bulb, I think they got too hot. Second, when the humidity was raised, the duct tape that was holding the inside piece of plexiglas came loose and fell off sometime during the day and fell down on top of the eggs and heat source, again, I think they got got too hot.

This was a great test hatch and the following corrective measures were taken. First, put up a piece of hardware cloth that prevents rolling eggs or chicks from getting to close to the heat source. Second, use gorilla glue to attach the plexiglas to the inside of the bator and then use duct tape as a security.

The one chick has been named BABE. I sure hope it is a girl, because my son is with that chick all the time. He felt sorry for it being alone.

Here is a picture of the chick yesterday sitting on my arm while ready BYC.

The Dad is a White Leghorn Rooster and the Mom and Production Red from Ideal Poultry. Not sure if that is a sex-link or not.