Incubators Anonymous

[DMRippy]

Quote:
not sure i'd put the towel over them, first because evaporating water lowers temperature immediately near it, and also, i want max air circulation aorund the eggs, and wet paper towel (even dry) will decrease the air flow.

what I do is layer the paper towel on the wire, under the eggs, and put the eggs on a paper towel lined cookie tray (the kind oreos come in). then if i need to dampen the paper towel on the bottom the eggs stay dry. the paper towel on the cookie tray is just to give traction. the bare plastic is slick. an added benefit, the rows on the cookie tray keep eggs from shifting much when hatched chicks decide to go wandering.

and with the paper towel on the bottom (make sure you don't cover the air holes at the edges), i fill all the water compartments in the tray underneath, and enough moisture makes it up thru to keep the humidity about 55-60 and when i have external pip I pour a small bit of HOT water onto the paper towel to crank it up a bit more short term.

I'm also bad about continually openning the hatcher to check progresses, so when i do i add a bit more hot water to the paper and it's back up over 70% within a minute. once the paper on the bottom dries out it goes back to where it was before.

this is a pic i posted before but it shows the cookie tray idea...
http://ki4got.com/byc/chicks/2011.10.26-11.29.jpg

I like the oreo tray idea! I have been using egg cartons and last hatch two pipped upside down and died. One pipped upside down this batch but I was looking. That was a first for me. That keeps the eggs in place and no fear of upside down pippers

I have oreo trays, they are our favs

Let me make sure I got this you have a paper towel UNDER the oreo tray and that is the paper towel you add hot water to?

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
not sure i'd put the towel over them, first because evaporating water lowers temperature immediately near it, and also, i want max air circulation aorund the eggs, and wet paper towel (even dry) will decrease the air flow.

what I do is layer the paper towel on the wire, under the eggs, and put the eggs on a paper towel lined cookie tray (the kind oreos come in). then if i need to dampen the paper towel on the bottom the eggs stay dry. the paper towel on the cookie tray is just to give traction. the bare plastic is slick. an added benefit, the rows on the cookie tray keep eggs from shifting much when hatched chicks decide to go wandering.

and with the paper towel on the bottom (make sure you don't cover the air holes at the edges), i fill all the water compartments in the tray underneath, and enough moisture makes it up thru to keep the humidity about 55-60 and when i have external pip I pour a small bit of HOT water onto the paper towel to crank it up a bit more short term.

I'm also bad about continually openning the hatcher to check progresses, so when i do i add a bit more hot water to the paper and it's back up over 70% within a minute. once the paper on the bottom dries out it goes back to where it was before.

this is a pic i posted before but it shows the cookie tray idea...
http://ki4got.com/byc/chicks/2011.10.26-11.29.jpg

I like the oreo tray idea! I have been using egg cartons and last hatch two pipped upside down and died. One pipped upside down this batch but I was looking. That was a first for me. That keeps the eggs in place and no fear of upside down pippers

I have oreo trays, they are our favs

Let me make sure I got this you have a paper towel UNDER the oreo tray and that is the paper towel you add hot water to?

yes, i water the paper UNDER the oreo tray. so the eggs stay dry. but the humidity cranks up FAST that way.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
Donna, I asked about this and did some searching and ALL the feedback was that the marans are the same as any other chicken egg. Your experience has me wondering if they do need more moisture at hatching.

I incubated a number of turkey eggs this past summer and I raised the RH to over 90% pretty easily. The one caution from Porter Turkeys was to lower the temp to 97. Don't know if this would apply to chicken eggs.

Found a spot to set up a row of coops like yours ! My children will need to giive up their rope swing. I'll try to set them up with a new one elsewhere.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
Great work Karen! Makes want to build more coops!

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
Donna, I asked about this and did some searching and ALL the feedback was that the marans are the same as any other chicken egg. Your experience has me wondering if they do need more moisture at hatching.

I incubated a number of turkey eggs this past summer and I raised the RH to over 90% pretty easily. The one caution from Porter Turkeys was to lower the temp to 97. Don't know if this would apply to chicken eggs.

Found a spot to set up a row of coops like yours ! My children will need to giive up their rope swing. I'll try to set them up with a new one elsewhere.

Well that first batch of marans just didn't do anything really. Two pipped and hatched no problem. but 7 did nothing

This round I just don't know what is different really. The ones we helped seemed to have TWO membranes! the outer one was really thick and the inner one was thin like saranwrap ok thinner really just a thin transparent film. How did you get the humidity up so high? I could add another sponge. I just saw were someone used a tube sock and put it in the water and then could lower it and raise it to the light and fan... thought that was a good idea.


I think people are used to poor hatch rates and don't think it is different, but that is not my norm. I will not hatch anymore Marans till mid to late Jan. They are in with my Blue Copper now and I want to wait 6 weeks to make sure he is the daddy! I will hatch some Olive Egger about then too... they seem to be the same thick shell and membrane. Maybe a test hatch with HIGH humidity is in order... I don't think you can drown them at that point can you? I mean after they pip....

I hope you have good luck with the kids! and the pens

I want to see when you are done!

 

[discoveregg]

4 BBS Ameraucauna bantams have hatched, 3 have pipped, 1 has zipped. Woo-hoo!!!

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
Donna, I asked about this and did some searching and ALL the feedback was that the marans are the same as any other chicken egg. Your experience has me wondering if they do need more moisture at hatching.

I incubated a number of turkey eggs this past summer and I raised the RH to over 90% pretty easily. The one caution from Porter Turkeys was to lower the temp to 97. Don't know if this would apply to chicken eggs.

Found a spot to set up a row of coops like yours ! My children will need to giive up their rope swing. I'll try to set them up with a new one elsewhere.

Well that first batch of marans just didn't do anything really. Two pipped and hatched no problem. but 7 did nothing

This round I just don't know what is different really. The ones we helped seemed to have TWO membranes! the outer one was really thick and the inner one was thin like saranwrap ok thinner really just a thin transparent film. How did you get the humidity up so high? I could add another sponge. I just saw were someone used a tube sock and put it in the water and then could lower it and raise it to the light and fan... thought that was a good idea.


I think people are used to poor hatch rates and don't think it is different, but that is not my norm. I will not hatch anymore Marans till mid to late Jan. They are in with my Blue Copper now and I want to wait 6 weeks to make sure he is the daddy! I will hatch some Olive Egger about then too... they seem to be the same thick shell and membrane. Maybe a test hatch with HIGH humidity is in order... I don't think you can drown them at that point can you? I mean after they pip....

I hope you have good luck with the kids! and the pens

I want to see when you are done!

All my eggs have 2 membranes just as you described: one thick and white the other very thin, almost jelly like which is where I find the vessels when helping an egg hatch.

To get the humidity up high I can use several warm wet sponges or four paper cups with a sponge cut to fit into the cup with 1" above the cup. Fill the cups with warm water. My LG also has water pans at the bottom which I also fill.

I have only tried to hatch shipped marans eggs as my girls were not laying yet. Got 4 chicks out of a zillion eggs. SO I'm no help YET. My own eggs hatch at a pretty good rate IMO. I'm still new at it and hope to do better. In last batch 35 hatched leaving 7 unhatched.


I don't see how you can drown the chicks during lockdown if the air cells are in good order at that time. THe high humidity is to soften the turkey eggs; I suppose that could work for the chicken eggs too. Do read the page on hatching tukeys at PorterTUrkeys.com and see what I mean about the need to decrease the temps at high humidites.

2 of my marans hens are laying .

 

[Blarneyeggs]

This is my first hatch. I have 31 that went to lockdown, 12 of which are Marans. We've been watching them hatch throughout the day and I definitely noticed that the Marans are taking significantly longer to hatch than the other breeds.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
Keep us updated. Are you doing anything to help them? more water, anything?

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
Very interesting.

My chickens are robust, hardy, and tough birds. Gentle to us. But a menace to my older, senior roosters. My boys even take on the turkeys.

My point is, the marans seem to be very hardy, so I would expect the chicks to be also. So maybe there is something with the eggs.