INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[bradselig]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/lacy-bl

• The following is from a discussion on the Heritage Large Fowl thread. Does this make sense? They claim to have improved hatch rates immensely.

[COLOR=333333]Also, I hatch in egg cartons (plastic or stryo) with eggs upright. Seems my hatches are significantly better this way since the chick is already oriented "upright" since that is the way we incubate (unlike a broody where an egg is on its side the entire time)[/COLOR]

• [COLOR=333333]Oh yes I agree with Matt and Scott on the hatching the eggs uprighted just as they have been set in the turner I now do this practice and have increased my hatch yields tremendously I have lost more eggs from taking them out of the turner at 18 days (looked promising at candling) then laying them on sides to never have much anything good come out of that move lost lots this way(ignorance) it simply kills the embryo more times than not I ve found.[/COLOR]
• One benefit of hatching upright is the eggs don't get knocked around or turned over so they suffocate. I take egg cartons and cut them way down and then place them in there to hatch. They seem to hatch faster too.

I plan to try this with my last hatch. Seems like I haven't really heard any negatives to hatching in egg carton.

 

[Leahs Mom]

 

[racinchickins]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/lacy-bl

• The following is from a discussion on the Heritage Large Fowl thread. Does this make sense? They claim to have improved hatch rates immensely.

Also, I hatch in egg cartons (plastic or stryo) with eggs upright. Seems my hatches are significantly better this way since the chick is already oriented "upright" since that is the way we incubate (unlike a broody where an egg is on its side the entire time)

• Oh yes I agree with Matt and Scott on the hatching the eggs uprighted just as they have been set in the turner I now do this practice and have increased my hatch yields tremendously I have lost more eggs from taking them out of the turner at 18 days (looked promising at candling) then laying them on sides to never have much anything good come out of that move lost lots this way(ignorance) it simply kills the embryo more times than not I ve found.
• One benefit of hatching upright is the eggs don't get knocked around or turned over so they suffocate. I take egg cartons and cut them way down and then place them in there to hatch. They seem to hatch faster too.

I'd love to hear more on this. For me, hatching season is just around the corner. I have a new (to me) Sportsman cabinet incubator, and it has holders to keep the eggs upright during incubation, but nothing to do that for hatching. So this could apply to me. Once I start up, I'll have to play around with this concept, and I'd definitely like to see if anyone has experimented with this.

 

[pginsber]

Space constraints meant we designed and built a very small, yet fully equipped chicken coop.
In order to make everything work, we recessed the nest boxes between the wall studs, and made recessed in-wall gravity feeders using furnace ducting.
Another thing we did to save space was put the large barrel of water in the shed and 'pipe it in' to the coop through the walls to a space-saving corner-installation for the interior nipple waterer.

We keep a floating heater in the barrel. That worked great until the temperature got into the teens.

The water in the barrel was not warm enough to keep the water travelling in the pipes from freezing and cracked the PVC water pipe with the nipples.

After I replaced the cracked pipe, I wrapped heat tape on them to avoid a repeat performance.

Here's the pipe in it's winter state:



From the sounds of the forecast, I'll get to test my set-up under some dastardly cold temps in the coming days!

 

[pginsber]

Here's a picture of our 8 1/2-week old RIR that our broody Aretha hatched. Her name is Annie. She's a huge crybaby and doesn't give her mother a moments rest. She still sleeps under Aretha's wing at night, even though most of her sticks out.


Here's a picture of the Girls last night. They were upset I was trying to take a picture when they were trying to go to bed.

From left to right, it's Aretha (Cream Legbar), MsJackson (Cream legbar), Adele (Bantam black orp), Edith (BR), Celine (Dominique), and camera-shy Diana (GCM).

For BonBon's benefit--here's a closeup of Adele, her distant cousin. (Adele would be petrified to know I posted a pre-poopscoop shot--don't tell her)

 

[minmin1258]

Not sure what breed it is. She was a rescue along with the other black I've got. I also have two sisters that were supposed to be Plymouth Rock...they look nothing like Rocks to me. If I post pics can u help me figure out what they are?

 

[minmin1258]

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[Leahs Mom]

After I replaced the cracked pipe, I wrapped heat tape on them to avoid a repeat performance.

Here's the pipe in it's winter state:



From the sounds of the forecast, I'll get to test my set-up under some dastardly cold temps in the coming days!

I'll be watching to see how this works. Please keep us updated.

Also - do you notice any fumes when the heat tape is running?

 

[minmin1258]

I can only post one pic at a time. What am I doing wrong??

 

[minmin1258]

Is like to know what breed these girls are please.