Missi, you will LOVE your Sportsman. It's super easy to use and the hatch rates are very high. I could never get my pheasant eggs to hatch in the styrofoam incubators but with the Sportsman I hatched quite a few last year. I'm hoping it'll work better with my geese. Last year, I lost a couple of batches of goose eggs in the styrofoam incubators. By the time I finally got my Sportsman in my geese had just about quit laying. We'll see what the Sportsman does this year. For starters, I'm running mine dry for the geese. From what I've read, and Gracie confirmed, it's highly recommended for hatching geese. We'll see!
On fertility, I think as a general rule the quicker you set them the better. Although, I've hatched eggs that were two - three weeks old before.
Ha Ha isn't that the truth!!I filled up my Brinsea a week ago with 28 eggs and I've already started saving up some more. My Sportsman should be here Tuesday!
I'm excited to see what kind of hatch I get with that bad boy. I think I will add all the eggs from the Brinsea into that when it get's here!!
Hey, I have a question.... How long can I save eggs before their hatch rate starts to decline??? It's 7 days right??
Hi, everyone! Seven days left to hatching and all 20 eggs appear to be thriving! We will be building a brooder box in the next couple of days. How large does it need to be? We'll also be working on a grow-out pen. Will 12x4 be sufficient until I can move them in with the older birds? Thanks for any input!
Brandy
I've used cardboard boxes before, although, you really need to be careful with the light. Probably not a good idea! Plastic tubs with a light work very well. Steer clear of strofoam icechests (Ask me how I know!!). Put some marbles in their drinking water so that they don't fall in and drown. They're rather goofy sometimes! Also, last year I had used papertowels to line the bottom of the tub and some kind of way they scratched around and got the edge of the papertowel in their drinking water. The papertowel absorbed all of the water from the water container. (Must have been Bounty Papertowels - the "quicker picker upper"!!) Luckily my husband went in the bathroom just in time to save some of the chicks trying to swim around in 3" of water. I lost about half the chicks. My point is that you just have to try. Even some of us that have been doing this for a while have weird things that happen sometimes.
Overall, it is quite an enjoyable experience. Some of us have so much fun that we continue the activity practically all year long. Possibly an addiction???
