Incubators Anonymous

[holm25]

Liar, liar...liar!!

The buckeye I got from him scares me...I am even askeered to reach into the cage...He has terrible stink eye!



I get a toad egg every couple days. I am going to move the Buckeye back in with the girls. I am not sure he was eating the eggs now. I think they are just not laying a lot. Toads can be finicky. I am thinking of putting him outside with all the toad girls and moving the toad roosters to another pen.

Some of the toad roosters might make a trip to the pressure cooker too. I just hate to short myself on roosters because of how "tricky" they can be to stay alive.

I figure as soon as I cull down to two roosters they will both die and I lose the genetics I have worked so many years to 'make".

They do have a stink eye...


I hope he isn’t eating eggs... If he is I have the one I’m using for a breeder right now... I have another that has decent sized but he’s not square on his legs so idk if he should be used for this project and he’s not going into a breeding pen unless my good one croaks... He’s just not structurally sound enough IMHO...

 

[holm25]

@Michelle Farmer-Brown I forgot to ask where your Bucks came from?

 

[WVduckchick]

@Chasingcars

I love it! I bet your hens ate it in no time.
(or am I the only one with snow-pecking chickens?)

I have a group that loves to peck the snow off my boots when I enter their pen!

 

[Faraday40]

I just pulled the plug on my Mon-Tues test hatch. Not very spectacular. I got 5 English Orps. (I suspected my roos were not being very active & some of the eggs may have frozen a bit.) I had 10 clears, 4 quitters, & one malpositioned which died. I have since trimmed some fluff and hope my next hatch (in my cooler incubator) will be far better.

From shipped eggs I got 2 Spitzhaubens / 8 eggs and 5 Dominiques / 10 eggs. Again not a great hatch but on the bright side, I have one happy broody silkie mothering all 12 chicks.

I also think my Hovabator wafer is failing. The temp is just not as steady as I think it should be. (Of course I can't complain too much since it was found in my sister's attic. She used it twice in 2002. I brought it home & added a salvaged computer fan and use it as a back up.) Is eBay the cheapest source for a wafer?

Edit to add a pic:

 

[holm25]

I just pulled the plug on my Mon-Tues test hatch. Not very spectacular. I got 5 English Orps. (I suspected my roos were not being very active & some of the eggs may have frozen a bit.) I had 10 clears, 4 quitters, & one malpositioned which died. I have since trimmed some fluff and hope my next hatch (in my cooler incubator) will be far better.

From shipped eggs I got 2 Spitzhaubens / 8 eggs and 5 Dominiques / 10 eggs. Again not a great hatch but on the bright side, I have one happy broody silkie mothering all 12 chicks.

I also think my Hovabator wafer is failing. The temp is just not as steady as I think it should be. (Of course I can't complain too much since it was found in my sister's attic. She used it twice in 2002. I brought it home & added a salvaged computer fan and use it as a back up.) Is eBay the cheapest source for a wafer?

Edit to add a pic:
View attachment 1288490

I order my wafers from strombergs..

 

[duluthralphie]

I have planted my last chicken eggs of the year (I HOPE!)...

185 eggs.... Some are a little "wonky" a few have pretty loose air sacs. Some of the eggs are very old.

I will be breaking my own rule this hatch and candling in a week. Way too much chance of an exploding egg this time around. I did put the worst ones in the front rows.

Next hatch will be turkeys if they ever lay eggs.....ANd eagle eggs if I can get someone to climb the tree, risk life and limb from the eagle and life in prison from the feds...

I am kind of thinking I can talk to used cat salesman into it.

 

[The Farmers' Daughter]

@Michelle Farmer-Brown I forgot to ask where your Bucks came from?

Crystal McKinnon of Caroline AB. She's trying to get the Canadian buckeye association up and running.

 

[oregonkat]

Hi again. It's been a while since I've been on this thread. I decided to do a test hatch and set up an incubator. Just some orps from my own flock.

I've never washed hatching eggs before. I've always trusted in leaving the bloom alone and simply choosing the best eggs. But I read that rinsing with warm/hot water, spraying dilute Listerine, or spraying with H2O2 could improve hatch rate. Has anyone ever tried any these methods? The idea is to disinfect the outer shell to prevent colonies of bacteria from growing and entering the shell.

I'll be using my old foam Hovabator (with an added computer fan) because it has an auto turner. It doesn't hold the temp as steady as my home made cooler-bator, but with my schedule, I'm choosing the incubator with an auto turner.

I just finished a hatch after using the H2O2 spray on the shipped eggs. Did not seem to increase the hatch as it remained at 50%. I also sprayed my own eggs in the same batch and I got 100% hatch with them but they were my own eggs so no shipping stress. Seems like I get 50% on most of my shipped egg hatches so I dont know what to think really. I guess I need to do more research. I have a new hovabator with the upright turner which I DO believe helps with shipped eggs to make sure the air cell stays up where it should be.

 

[oregonkat]

I have planted my last chicken eggs of the year (I HOPE!)...

185 eggs.... Some are a little "wonky" a few have pretty loose air sacs. Some of the eggs are very old.

I will be breaking my own rule this hatch and candling in a week. Way too much chance of an exploding egg this time around. I did put the worst ones in the front rows.

Next hatch will be turkeys if they ever lay eggs.....ANd eagle eggs if I can get someone to climb the tree, risk life and limb from the eagle and life in prison from the feds...

I am kind of thinking I can talk to used cat salesman into it.

Used 'cat' ????

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Used 'cat' ????

Yes, he means used cat.....