January Hatch Buddies?

[Chickenpoor]

I will join and be a january hatch buddy. Im using a homemade incubator that I got from a friend. My friends dad made it out of one of the trash cans from Hardees that he got when they were remodeling it. I will try to get pics of it later. Ive used styrofoam incubators before with little to no success. I set a dozen gold sex link eggs and 3 eggs from my chickens that roam around in my yard which will be mixed chicks. They were set at 8pm on December 26. Since I have to turn them by hand I started candling on the 3rd day and candle them every night when I turn them which is 3 times a day. so far all 3 of the mixed chicks eggs are good and one of the sex link eggs wasnt fertile and when I candled tonight a 2nd is possibly a quitter, but im gonna give it a few more days to be sure, which leaves 10 that are good with very active embryos in them. They are supposed to hatch on January 16th. It is good about holding the temp and only decreases when I open it to turn them but it recovers the temp quickly so maybe I will have a good hatch.

 

[chkinut]

yeah, we would love to see pics and keep us updated on the progress!

 

[mountainwhisper]

Quote:
do you spray AS you're removing babies? or do you get the babies out, put them in the brooder, and THEN come back and spray?

I spray AFTER I've removed the babies.Usually I have a lil box that I set them in as I pull out.Then I spray a mist over the eggs.This especially helps with he big bators as they don't warm back up or humidify as quickly as my lil Reptipro that I got spoiled with.

OMGoodness at the babies... lol How many incubators do you run at once? Do you sell the chicks or do you keep them? They're gorgeous

Do you use the standard humidity range for hatching or do you "dry hatch"? with that many babies you have to give us newbies some tips

- edited for my poor spelling hehe

 

[k2chickens]

I'm a little late to this party but would love to jump in. I set 10 buff silkie eggs on the 20th and 17 bbs, white, and more buffs and porcelian's from another seller on the 23rd. Both clutches of eggs are from TOP breeders here on byc and I'm very excited to see the hopeful chicks. I will be candleing the other bbs clutch tonight so I will be back with the results. Out of the 10 buffs I candled a few days ago I got 5 still going strong so I'm happy with that.

 

[terrilhb]

I candled mine but from what i have been told and read it is to soon. they are brown. we put them in on the 31st. I just keep praying they will hatch. 1st time doing this. so very nervous

 

[crazyforchicks]

So I have a question...... I have a lg incubator with turner, set to go into lock down on jan. 10th Is it ok to just let them run around in the incubator the whole time while lock down is going on?

 

[Chickie15]

Quote:
Yeah, they can be in there for 3 days before they absolutely need food and water.

 

[crazyforchicks]

Quote:
Yeah, they can be in there for 3 days before they absolutely need food and water.

Ok so what would happen if one of them got stuck in the shell? Or if it got stuck by another chick?

 

[k2chickens]

Quote:
Yeah, they can be in there for 3 days before they absolutely need food and water.

Ok so what would happen if one of them got stuck in the shell? Or if it got stuck by another chick?

its really up to you, some people help chicks out, some don't. I wait 24 hrs from pip,if they are not out in 24hrs then im going in after them. If i got them into the situation to begin with you can be sure as heck im going to get them out of it. Another chick usually can't get another chick stuck, unless they roll the egg over that's zipping by running into it. Then i remove the chicks once dry in the bator and position the zip'ing egg face up again to finish hatching.

 

[gofasterstripe]

I have 1 duckling due on the 14th and 2 due on the 20th..I cant wait. Just be glad you only have 18 to wait for a chick. I have 28.