It's Official...

[PeepsCA]

Here's my latest hatch, 39 keets this time. Had to divide them up into 2 bucket loads.
Finally hatched some Coral Blues (2 are Pied, that I'll keep). There's 3 more Chocolates and a heavily Pied Cinnamon that I'll have to keep too, lol

I have one more small batch going into lock-down today, then I get a break for a month+. The Hens slacked off on laying so I had been hoarding all the eggs I collected for Easter, lol. I have recently started storing some again tho, to incubate and hatch with eggs from one of my Turkey Hens (so the keets can teach the poults how to eat and drink etc). I have 5 Turkey eggs as of yesterday, so as soon as she gives me at least 8 I'll set them with as many Guinea eggs that I'll need to fill the egg turner.

 

[Mmmatt13]

Gosh they're all BEAUTIFUL! I love your pictures.

 

[perchie.girl]

Cute babies Peeps. So Turkeys take the same amount of time as Guineas in the 'bator?

Here's my latest hatch, 39 keets this time. Had to divide them up into 2 bucket loads.
Finally hatched some Coral Blues (2 are Pied, that I'll keep). There's 3 more Chocolates and a heavily Pied Cinnamon that I'll have to keep too, lol

I have one more small batch going into lock-down today, then I get a break for a month+. The Hens slacked off on laying so I had been hoarding all the eggs I collected for Easter, lol. I have recently started storing some again tho, to incubate and hatch with eggs from one of my Turkey Hens (so the keets can teach the poults how to eat and drink etc). I have 5 Turkey eggs as of yesterday, so as soon as she gives me at least 8 I'll set them with as many Guinea eggs that I'll need to fill the egg turner.

 

[perchie.girl]

So Peeps.... have you given any thought about a cabinet hatcher? I have heard one made just by taking the egg turners out of the incubators and putting them on trays in a cabinet where all the humidity and heat is regulated. Then reserving the individual incubators for lock down units.

Oh Oh and there is a delightful thread of a woman who found a mystry egg on her front porch. Then she decided to hatch it without a formal incubator. She made one out of two pyrex bowls a damp towl and a table lamp. Amazing and successful....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/750468/new-australian-hatching-mystery-egg-at-home

Sorry you know me I tend to wander off subject....LOL

My guineas are laying egsies like crazy now. I need to do a clean sweep and gather up a fresh batch for hatching....

deb

 

[PeepsCA]

Heya deb, ltns
Yah, I've wanted a cabinet incubator since before I ordered my first 1588... but I just can't bring myself to order one, and I'm too lazy and busy to build one lol. I recently requested a quote for a Dickey incubator, with all the bells and whistles plus delivery... and I just about passed out, lol. But that's what I really want if I decide I'm ready to lose what little control over my hatching addiction I have left lol. The thought of hundreds of keets in a big brooder all at once instead of the small batches I'm used to hatching makes me cringe tho... lol. (Cuz you KNOW I won't stagger my hatches into smaller batches that hatch a week or so apart, I'll be trying to fill that thing with as many eggs as I can just to see how many I can hatch at once, lol).

The Turkey eggs I've hatched take 26-28 days, in my 1588s. I give the eggs an extra turn/spin a few times a day just to make sure the embryos don't end up sticking from not being tilted/turned enough in the auto turners. When I've set Guinea and Turkey eggs together in the past by the time the big ol giant poults have fluffed and dried and are ready to be taken out of the hatcher I usually have several keets already doing their thing in the brooder, so the poults adjust pretty quick and have plenty of company. I hatched 5 last year and the keets immediately had them eating and drinking, then a week or so later I had greedy speedy keets eating meal worms from my hands with the poults, lol.

Cute mystery egg thread, and that's amazing how well the really simple little home made incubator worked.

Congrats on your Guinea girls laying lots of eggs for you!

 

[amberr]

Peeps my daughter and I have decided next time we head south we have to stop to get some of your pretty colored Guineas! I have no idea what colors ours will be that are coming from the Grange CoOp but I wasn't picky until I start seeing yours now I want a rainbow

 

[PeepsCA]

My flocks aren't NIPIP certified so I'm not allowed to legally sell keets/birds/eggs to anyone that will be taking them out of CA

If you get caught sneaking them across the state line... just remember you never heard of PeepsCA, lol.

 

[amberr]

No problem wink wink nudge nudge say no more. Lol just like the **** fruit ha

 

[PeepsCA]

Hatch #7... Just 20 keets, since egg production had slowed down (weird laying season!). All the eggs I collected for several weeks went in the fridge.. they were tasty, but having empty incubators just felt wrong for this time of year, lol.

Hatched out a runt this time (the Pied Brown, top right), it was the last keet to hatch and took 3 days from pip to hatch (day 29, everybody else hatched on day 26/27), but it seems to be holding it's own so far.
He needed 2 toes fixed, so I taped his foot after I took the pic.
We'll see how he does... I won't sell him, but if he makes it to 16 wks he'll go in the freezer.


No more keet pics until the first of next month... when my mix of Guinea and Turkey eggs hatch.
I'm candling them tonight (it's only day 5 tho, lol). I am anxious for some baby Turkey poults.

 

[Mmmatt13]

Hey your next hatch will be right around when mine do! Is it a runt because the egg was smaller?