INCUBATING w/FRIENDS! w/Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs No problem!

[hippiestink]

I have Red Sex-links, as well, and mine wasted a lot of feed...until I built a gravity feeder out of 4" PVC pipe with a "Y" on the bottom. No muss, no fuss, and no more wasted feed.

Weird about the sex links being messy. I have a red and a black and they're the two neatest eaters! I have more issues with my Barred Rock knocking the food over and generally making a mess.

 

[hippiestink]

And what's weirder is that the red sex link is blind in one eye, and she's the dainty eater of the flock.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Subscribing to learn more! Am still fairly new to chickens (1.5 years so far), but we've had many many additions since the original 4 we bought. That darned chicken math thing! In this short time, I have learned quite a bit thanks to all the folks here on BYC. We even have an accidental roo, a Salmon Faverolles aptly named RuPaul, and have had 2 broodies hatch clutches of eggs.

Recently, I bought my man an incubation kit as part of his birthday gift, consisting of an incubator (used Genesis Hovabator), hygrometer and candler. We have many things going on right now, so I am not HE is not ready to start incubating until after the holidays. I want HE will want to start with hatching our own eggs first, because we don't even know if the incubator will work, and I don't he would not want to invest in buying pricey eggs as a newbie hatcher.

I don't know why I keep making typos. It's his birthday incubator afterall, not mine.

He did say that he was tempted to invest in an incubator.

. Shouldn't part of my gift to him include me hatching some wonderful eggs for him so that he doesn't have to do all the work and worrying? hehehe.

LOL you fit right in! first off, buy a few more thermo/hygro combos because you will need a few! And then start reading and understanding incubation! I can save you a lot of hassle because as I was learning I took notes and saved links! its all here Hatching 101 start reading, get your thermo hygros calibrated (tells you how in that article) tells you how to collect and save eggs, and all that good stuff in the article. You are correct, start with your own eggs, sell them off on CL or something, and practice practice practice, and then try getting shipped eggs not too far away though. shipped eggs can be tough even for a seasoned hatcher. but you have to understand the basics. and that article has the basics


Setting fresh eggs and egg quality see hatching 101 article

Humidity
Humidity is NOT A SET NUMBER, you need it YES! However, you use it as a tool to "adjust" egg weight loss during incubation. We candle on days 7,10,14,18 To WATCH WEIGHT LOSS IN EVERY EGG! An EGG MUST lose approximately 13-14% of its weight during the incubation process. THIS IS YOUR GOAL!! You can monitor this by marking Air cells and also by weighing.is never a set number, its about the required weight loss that the embryo/chick needs to loose to be able to turn and pip inside the egg, its about optimum chick quality and growth size inside that egg, too much humidity can bring a mushy wet chick that cannot absorb its yolk correctly and has excess fluids and sometimes cannot turn to hatch it is that large of a chick.

With a Forced Air Incubator (fan model) you can get the best hatch rate by keeping the temperature at 99.5º F. throughout the entire incubation period. HOWEVER, when using a Still Air incubator (no fan) at 102º F. The reason for different temperatures is that with a fan model the circulating air warms all around the egg while still air temperatures are warmer at the top of the egg than at the bottom. The temperature is measured at the level where the embryos develop (at the top of the HORIZONTAL egg).

CALIBRATION! YES! It’s IMPORTANT! Calibrate the thermometer/s you are using for your Incubator. I use 3 thermometers! You need to make sure your thermometer is reading correctly, Even one degree may cause serious problems with your hatch! see HATCHING 101 for how to calibrate

Ventilation: Oxygen requirements will increases during development and during hatching never cover vent holes during hatch time.

BE PREPARED TO LOOSE ELECTRIC have a back up plan for emergencies see hatching 101 article for suggestions

SHIPPED EGGS = CHANGE OF PLANS see hatching 101 article

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

 

[kwhites634]

Weird about the sex links being messy. I have a red and a black and they're the two neatest eaters! I have more issues with my Barred Rock knocking the food over and generally making a mess.

Well, I can guarantee your BR wouldn't knock over a 4" PVC gravity feeder strapped to the side of the run. You ought to check them out. Mine's already paid for itself in the short time since I made it, just in saved feed costs

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Thanks Sally. I'm a total newbie and this is my 2nd hatch only so I'm not very knowledgeable about the air cells. When I candle, I don't check or mark the air cells, I only look for the development of the chick. I am keeping the humidity around 30% +/-. I have a couple LF eggs and the rest are Silkie eggs. It's also my first time with Silkie eggs.

So does increasing humidity cause the egg to lose weight or gain weight? I wasn't even aware of that because I was just worried about the possibility of drowning these 2 eggs when the others go into lockdown. Thank you!

adding too much humidity will not let the egg loose enough water weight. think of it like this.... cooking the egg... cooking causes water loss correct.... slight cooking causes slight loss.... see the long post comment I did below.... on the bottom here... and then you too should have a look at the notes article of mine....... after you have a look, maybe candle yours mark air cells and see if you can upload images of your pencil marks to show us where your at and what days they are on to give us a better idea of how to help you out.

EDIT TO ADD... in that article toward the middle near day 18 you will see a bunch of images and you can see pencil marks to compare what they should in fact look like for real on my eggs that I added to the page.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

Troublemaker with a capital "T"!!!! Hubby would kill me if we suddenly became over run with new chicks every 21 days!!

LOL you fit right in! first off, buy a few more thermo/hygro combos because you will need a few! And then start reading and understanding incubation! I can save you a lot of hassle because as I was learning I took notes and saved links! its all here Hatching 101 start reading, get your thermo hygros calibrated (tells you how in that article) tells you how to collect and save eggs, and all that good stuff in the article. You are correct, start with your own eggs, sell them off on CL or something, and practice practice practice, and then try getting shipped eggs not too far away though. shipped eggs can be tough even for a seasoned hatcher. but you have to understand the basics. and that article has the basics


Setting fresh eggs and egg quality see hatching 101 article

Humidity
Humidity is NOT A SET NUMBER, you need it YES! However, you use it as a tool to "adjust" egg weight loss during incubation. We candle on days 7,10,14,18 To WATCH WEIGHT LOSS IN EVERY EGG! An EGG MUST lose approximately 13-14% of its weight during the incubation process. THIS IS YOUR GOAL!! You can monitor this by marking Air cells and also by weighing.is never a set number, its about the required weight loss that the embryo/chick needs to loose to be able to turn and pip inside the egg, its about optimum chick quality and growth size inside that egg, too much humidity can bring a mushy wet chick that cannot absorb its yolk correctly and has excess fluids and sometimes cannot turn to hatch it is that large of a chick.

Temperature With a Forced Air Incubator (fan model) you can get the best hatch rate by keeping the temperature at 99.5º F. throughout the entire incubation period. HOWEVER, when using a Still Air incubator (no fan) at 102º F. The reason for different temperatures is that with a fan model the circulating air warms all around the egg while still air temperatures are warmer at the top of the egg than at the bottom. The temperature is measured at the level where the embryos develop (at the top of the egg). A high temperature tends to produce early hatches. A consistently cooler temperature tends to increase incubation times and produce weakened chicks.
CALIBRATION! YES! It’s IMPORTANT! Calibrate the thermometer/s you are using for your Incubator. I use 3 thermometers! You need to make sure your thermometer is reading correctly, Even one degree may cause serious problems with your hatch! see HATCHING 101 for how to calibrate

Ventilation: Oxygen requirements will increases during development and during hatching never cover vent holes during hatch time.

BE PREPARED TO LOOSE ELECTRIC have a back up plan for emergencies see hatching 101 article for suggestions

SHIPPED EGGS = CHANGE OF PLANS see hatching 101 article

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

 

[kguinness76]

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Hi all! I hope I can get some guidance on this. I had 6 bantams, two were sitting on eggs, and I had several eggs in the fridge from some others. One night, a raccoon came in and slaughtered all my chickens, except for the one hen that had actually hatched two eggs (she was in another place). These were pets to me, and I was just devastated. One of the hens that was killed, had two eggs that went unnoticed by the racoon. They were cold when we found them. I took her eggs and put them in a aquarium with a light bulb over them. Got it to around 99-100F. A couple of days later, after reading something on a forum here, I decided to take the eggs in the fridge (I couldn't bring myself no eat them now), and put them in there also. Then I started seeing signs of life, and went and bought a Brinsea Manual Egg Incubator. Now all except 1 are showing signs of life! My problem is, I have one incubator, and these poor eggs are at all different levels of development- and the very first one looks really close to hatching. Does anyone have any tips? Maybe I could put the first one in the aquarium with another heat source, and do the lock down? But I'm not sure what to do. Any ideas greatly appreciated!

@lisahefner Wondering what you have decided to do?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Kid is spoiling one chick out of the bunch, and it pooped on me the turd!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Hello there little peep

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I am off, heading out for the eve! have a good night everyone!

Plenty on the thread to help out if you need questions answered!

Gotta Love BYC!!!