incubator question ???

[lazy gardener]

No. The starter is higher protein, so will give the hens a nutritional boost, and make for stronger babies if you choose to hatch their eggs. however, you will need to give the hens some extra calcium to make the shells nice and strong.

 

[tjbuckshotbarn]

I also feed them 2 grain scratch with oyster shell mixed in. Is that enough calcium boost?

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm not sure. I free feed oyster shell, so they take as much as they want.

 

[tjbuckshotbarn]

I have been trying to hatch birds now for four weeks with no success , so I have been going thru the list of possible faults on my part. Temp, humidity, wormer, rotation, ect. And I was wondering if the feed had a impact on my hatch rates

 

[blucoondawg]

Temp, humidity, and fertility are the most likely problems, I personally feel adding too much water in the incubation stage is a problem many have

 

[Hounds51]

I always thought Candleing was done on days 7, 14, and 18 at lockdown.

 

[blucoondawg]

That is typical but you can candle whenever you want just not advisable to open the incubator if you have chicks pipping as it could shrink wrap them

 

[toptom]

Hope somebody answer my question...

 

[Fred's Hens]

Can you pause on incubating the eggs? Like 1 day?

It is not recommended. Stopping and starting the embryo's incubation process is possible but it is a sure bet that many of them may fail to restart properly.

Hatching eggs, for me, is a time consuming process that needs to be completed within certain time constraints, such as March - May. I want to be successful and I need to move on with other pressing things in life. I prefer to do it right, do it as well as I can and hatch as many of the eggs as possible. Done.

 

[tjbuckshotbarn]

Signs of life!