incubator question ???

[tjbuckshotbarn]

It to 24 days, stubborn bird

 

[toptom]

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.

Nice! Somebody replied! Electricity here in PH is not as stable as your countries are. I was thinking of buying an incubator but it may be useless if electricity flow would suddenly stop; and may last long.

I would need an generator therefore.

 

[bullyfarm]

Signs of life!

can you post picture of when they come out

 

[tjbuckshotbarn]

I sure will, the bird is making slow progress

 

[tjbuckshotbarn]

Getting closer

 

[lazy gardener]

Toptom: If I read you correctly, what you're asking, is that if you have an incubator full of eggs, and your power is interrupted for 24 hours, will you loose your brood? Is that what you're asking? It all depends on where you are in the incubation process. There is a technique that can be done, where a batch of eggs is started and incubated long enough to see embryonic development. (3 - 4 days, i think) That batch can then be taken out and the next batch started. This allows the non-developing eggs to be removed from each batch, thus ensuring that when the 2 batches are combined, your bator space is maximized with developing embryos. I don't know any one who is actually doing this. Early on in development, incubation can be stopped without damage to embryo's. You'd have to read the studies for all of the details.

Now, here's a follow up to what I think is the question behind your question: "Am I wasting my time trying to hatch eggs if I have frequent power outages?" Not at all if you have a 12 V battery and $29 to spend. You can go to Walmart, and get a power converter. This will hook up to a car battery, or to a cigarette lighter in your car, and convert that 12V to household current. That should give you enough power to weather any outage.

 

[blucoondawg]

Also I'm sure one could buy or construct an incubator with a different power source such as propane maybe?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Mabuhay, toptom, a constant supply of electricity in your country is a challenge. I've been there a couple of times and even if one has power, it may be "brown" meaning, of unknown and inconsistent voltage.

I'd strongly suggest finding a few birds of breeds or varieties known to sit on eggs, to brood eggs. Here, we seek a Silkie/Cochin cross. That mix makes a broody hen that surpassed all mechanical incubators. A couple such broodies and you'd never have to be concerned.

 

[lazy gardener]

Good point, Fred!

 

[blucoondawg]

Well I just candled my eggs for the first time at day 10, I usually skip the earlier candling because it's hard for me to see anything in my colored eggs anyways. I set 42 eggs which is all my turner holds, I pulled out 3 clears, and it looks like maybe 2 quitters but I will leave them in there for now as I don't know for sure. I can see definite veining and the chick swimming around in most of the eggs, there are a couple without movement, I don't know if they are stuck to the side of the shell or what, time will tell how many hatch, but for now I will say the small temp difference from one side of the incubator to the other doesn't seem to have mattered much if at all. This hatch looks pretty promising.