Incubators Anonymous

[debs_flock]

Quote: And actually, by day 10 for me the darkness is at the bottom. When I have an egg that far along dark at the top, it's bad.

Hope I'm wrong.

Deb

 

[Flowerbh]

So a very bad thing happened last night.....I added some water to my incubator for the humidity around midnight. This morning I got up and check the incubator and the top built in temp showed 99.9 but the two thermometers inside said 90 degrees!!! I thumped the built in one and the temp inside returned to 99.9. So are all my babies dead, do you think? How long can they go at 90 degrees and survive???? BOOOOO! I am so upset.

 

[ki4got]

you'd be surprised how well they actually do being cooled for a while... much better than overcooking. i had a broody off her eggs (wrong nest) for who knows how long... the eggs were cool to the touch. i put them back under her, and they hatched out just fine.

 

[debs_flock]

you'd be surprised how well they actually do being cooled for a while... much better than overcooking. i had a broody off her eggs (wrong nest) for who knows how long... the eggs were cool to the touch. i put them back under her, and they hatched out just fine.

x 2

 

[Flowerbh]

Thanks for the words of hope!

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

you'd be surprised how well they actually do being cooled for a while... much better than overcooking. i had a broody off her eggs (wrong nest) for who knows how long... the eggs were cool to the touch. i put them back under her, and they hatched out just fine.

x3
I even go as far as leaving the incubator open for 10-15 minutes a day since the laundry room is about 50 ish degrees. I take my time when i have to do anything in there. 90%ish hatch rate near constantly. I let eggs chill for like 4 hours when I upgraded my heating elements and those hatched out at 95%

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

5 ISBARS
5CHOCOLATE ORPS
1SFH
IN LOCK DOWN

 

[gladahmae]

Thinking of spring, and getting things figured out with our own eggs rather than shipped (eliminating variables here while we trouble-shoot our incubation problems) and I'm trying to figure out breeding pens.

I'm going to have about 14 pullets/hens and 2 roos, and I'd *like* to have them all in the big coop next year and use my small coop as a chick/grow-out coop. One roo is a wyandotte and one is an EE. I'd like to make OEs with my 2 marans pullets and the EE roo, but I don't want to have to permanently seperate the boys. I'm not so sure that's possible. Thoughts? I've got a diagram of my setup if that would be helpful.

 

[Flowerbh]

Does anyone live near Dawsonville, GA who has any newly hatched chicks? I have one lone Isbar chick hatching on Jan 3 and I really hate for it to be alone. Looking for one chick for it to have someone to grow up with! I have other eggs coming but that won't help with this one!

 

[Flowerbh]

So tomorrow is lockdown for me. I told you all about the bad shipping my eggs went thru and I pretty much thought the 4 legbar eggs were no good going into the incubator. I was right...one infertile.....no sign of anything inside. Three look like early quitters. I will take them out tomorrow after candling them one more time...but they were pretty much clear except for a small black patch. So that left the 2 Isbar eggs. I went to candle them on day 16 and had two chicks! Then disaster!!!! One egg dropped and smashed on the tile floor! Oh, I was sick to my stomach as I scooped up the small little black Isbar and held it while it died! Ugg! Why does this happen????? Why didn't I drop the eggs that were not good! So, that leaves me with one Isbar going into lockdown by itself! I agoinzed over that chick! Could I have saved it? Can one be saved at day 16? It only had 5 days left to go! I hate stuff like this to happen! Anyway, am scrabbling to find a day old chick to have for when this chick hatches so it won't have to be alone. Will let you guys know how it all turns out.