Incubators Anonymous

[DMRippy]

A chicken friend locally came by today and I was telling him about needing a new hatcher, he is going to help build it for me

He works at a place that builds those closet organizers and has lots of scraps left from jobs. He is going to cut all the wood at work, design it mostly and we will pick up the wood and he will come over and help me build it. Says it would take about an hour

I gave him a basket that I use and told him I wanted the drawers 3 baskets wide and 2 baskets deep, with 3 drawers and a way to pull the drawers out and still seal the opening so as not to let all the heat and humidity out. He suggest a double door for the bottom to put the mechanicals so I can get to them easy. I am so excited! I figured it would be months before I could make it! BIGGER and BETTER. No more cramming eggs in where I can. I will have room for 6 more baskets than I do now.

 

[ChickNmamma]

A chicken friend locally came by today and I was telling him about needing a new hatcher, he is going to help build it for me

He works at a place that builds those closet organizers and has lots of scraps left from jobs. He is going to cut all the wood at work, design it mostly and we will pick up the wood and he will come over and help me build it. Says it would take about an hour

I gave him a basket that I use and told him I wanted the drawers 3 baskets wide and 2 baskets deep, with 3 drawers and a way to pull the drawers out and still seal the opening so as not to let all the heat and humidity out. He suggest a double door for the bottom to put the mechanicals so I can get to them easy. I am so excited! I figured it would be months before I could make it! BIGGER and BETTER. No more cramming eggs in where I can. I will have room for 6 more baskets than I do now.

Oh boy - are YOU going to be in TROUBLE...

Six more baskets...

Really, that is great! Both that you can get the materials for scrap - and that you have somebody who can put it together for you. That is so cool - are you going to share pictures again?

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: SURE! I have lots of sheets of the same stuff,but he has more now and is just going to use that. Melanine I think is what it is called. It is similar to kitchen counter. Easy to clean.

I am not making the bator bigger, just making the hatcher MATCH

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote: SURE! I have lots of sheets of the same stuff,but he has more now and is just going to use that. Melanine I think is what it is called. It is similar to kitchen counter. Easy to clean.

I am not making the bator bigger, just making the hatcher MATCH

And then you can stop worrying about the "killer corner". That is just..

(Two Cool)...

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:

Now he is offering to help convert my pens over to sand runs

Maybe I should have married him.... NAH we would both be in BIG CHICKEN TROUBLE. His wife keep him under control and my hubby, just complains and helps.

 

[ozexpat]

Now he is offering to help convert my pens over to sand runs

Maybe I should have married him.... NAH we would both be in BIG CHICKEN TROUBLE. His wife keep him under control and my hubby, just complains and helps.

feed him well and you may get a new kitchen too

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
HAHA.... both houses have new kitchens

I will feed him well, find him more chickens if he wants them and some cash too.

 

[Runawaylobster]

I have had other hens try to get into the nest box at they same time breaking all but one egg, all of which had chicks in them. Depending on how many nest boxes you have you could put up wire doors to keep other hens out or as we do is to put a nest box in a brooder area. I do not know if your two hens would tolerate each other or each others chicks. You could see what happens but be prepared to separate them if the hens peck each other or the others chicks. I have a brooder area set up in the coop with a nest box, when one hen is sitting we go in at night and move her plus her eggs to the brooder area nest box. That box has a wire door on it which is closed till the hen has settled down with her eggs then it is opened to allow her to get out and eat. I have also taken a large wooden box with a removable top and used that for a nest box when we have run out of room. It is large enough to house the hen, a small feeder and a water container. All of the coop, nest boxes have deep litter wood shavings for good and easy house keeping plus NO smell. Here in Costa Rica we have high humidity so smell can be a problem, deep litter takes care of that and is very beneficial for the chickens and easy to take care of. I just clean out the nest boxes, let the wood shavings fall into the shavings on the floor and add fresh shavings to the nest boxes. There is a dirt floor in the coop and brooder area, the probiotics that develop in the dirt/litter are very beneficial to the flock plus giving them lots of material to scratch in when they are confined to the coop plus it is no problem for the chicks.
You can see the brooder area that is closed off to the main flock. You can barely see the head of the silkie hen that has chicks in the brooder area. The area is large enough so it can be divided into 2 brooder pins.
The same hen with her 10 chicks (1 is just under her tail).

I have had other hens try to get into the nest box at they same time breaking all but one egg, all of which had chicks in them. Depending on how many nest boxes you have you could put up wire doors to keep other hens out or as we do is to put a nest box in a brooder area. I do not know if your two hens would tolerate each other or each others chicks. You could see what happens but be prepared to separate them if the hens peck each other or the others chicks. I have a brooder area set up in the coop with a nest box, when one hen is sitting we go in at night and move her plus her eggs to the brooder area nest box. That box has a wire door on it which is closed till the hen has settled down with her eggs then it is opened to allow her to get out and eat. I have also taken a large wooden box with a removable top and used that for a nest box when we have run out of room. It is large enough to house the hen, a small feeder and a water container. All of the coop, nest boxes have deep litter wood shavings for good and easy house keeping plus NO smell. Here in Costa Rica we have high humidity so smell can be a problem, deep litter takes care of that and is very beneficial for the chickens and easy to take care of. I just clean out the nest boxes, let the wood shavings fall into the shavings on the floor and add fresh shavings to the nest boxes. There is a dirt floor in the coop and brooder area, the probiotics that develop in the dirt/litter are very beneficial to the flock plus giving them lots of material to scratch in when they are confined to the coop plus it is no problem for the chicks.
You can see the brooder area that is closed off to the main flock. You can barely see the head of the silkie hen that has chicks in the brooder area. The area is large enough so it can be divided into 2 brooder pins.
The same hen with her 10 chicks (1 is just under her tail).

Thanks for the awesome pics, your coop is really nice. Because i live in florida most of the space mine have is in the run and not inside the coop, they just sleep and lay eggs in there so i'll have to build a separate place, but i get the idea. So far she is still sitting, and on the same next box, i haven't moved her yet, she is a dark brahma, and i'm glad to see her sitting because she was over favored by the rooster and needs some time to grow feathers back, poor girl. Cochin buddy on the other hand still sits but has moved nest boxes a couple of times. So i just grab the eggs from under her (since i know they are new ones), and then collect the ones she was sitting on and put them back underneath her in her new box. She is a grouchy thing and growls at me every time i do that... LOL!!!


I learned something new yesterday.... Never move the tractor when the girls are out!!!!

I have 16 pullets and 4 cockerels in a growout pen, and they just started going out.. I only moved the tractor about 15 ft, but they were totally confused, trying to get back into the boys growout pen instead of their own and causing a huge rucus in the boys pen, and some of them were running around on the spot where the tractor used to be getting really agitated... so i had to capture everyone in the dark and manually cart them over to their own pen and put them in!! I wont be doing that again LOL!!

 

[Arielle]

very definately an incubator addict. I have a home made incubator and a seperate home made hatcher which means that I can incubate eggs every six days, I cannot wait to hatch every three weeks, the suspense is just too great.

Now for building more pens . . . . ..

Quote:
Turkeys are another matter... I don't like turkeys...
Oh you would LOVE my turkeys. I've NEVER had a problem with any of my turkeys, My kids are respondsible for cooping up at night. THe roaming 3 muskateers ( 4th sold as a pet) make the grain delivery man nervous too, or DID, until I explained that these had never hurt anyone and were very nosy so they liked to be almost on his feet and peering at him with one eye!!

i feel everyones pain
i just ordered a second hovabator
i have buff orpingtons & silkies everywhere
i told my wife i might have to start putting some in her closet
for some reason she didn't think it was all that good of an idea......just not sure why

piglett

I understand her reaction . . . she just hasn't warmed up to the fluff balls yet. Dh had to handle a hatch in an emergency and now . . . he's addicted too.

Hope your wife gets there too!!

 

[gladahmae]

Well, it seems that all I had to do was talk bad about her. My silkie is now broody.

I would really like to move some of my eggs that are due to hatch on Friday under her (replacing the ones she's currently sitting on) but I'm having trouble finding a solid answer about a few things. How many eggs can I put under her? I'm thinking 7, if I still have that many good ones left. Best to do all of this after dark? I have a big plastic dog crate set up in the coop to move her in to...probably will do that after work tonight....so I can keep the others from bothering her and possibly killing any chicks. I'm planning on putting food and water in there for her. Anything else I should do for this setup? I know people have done the opposite (broody until lockdown and then put in a hatcher) but I don't seem to be having issues with the incubating part.....just the hatching part. I got 50% of my shipped BCM eggs to the end, fully developed, and then the stupid incubator stopped working and I lost every single one of them. It doesn't look like my genesis will be here until hatch day or later, so that's not an option at this time.