Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[rebelINny]

Ya'll are funny! I use a LG incubator without fan or turners. I hand turn all my eggs three times a day. We use wood heat so its never a steady temp in the house. My LG's temps fluctuate like mad. Usually running between 100.0 and 100.5 during the day and 98.6 to 99.5 during the night. I have great hatches everytime. Don't worry so much about the temps unless of course you have turners in. In my experience they hold them closer to the heating element and you don't want the bator getting too hot. I had my bator get 109 degrees for a couple hours my first eggs I set this year while I was gone. I freaked out!! I waited for two days and they were all still growing so I left them. They all hatched at day 19 and 20 but all were completely mature and did well. I lost two because their heads were in the small end of the shell but they were full-grown. I just sold all but three of those chicks today

So, don't sweat the temps too bad, these chickies are super resilient

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

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THank you Kathy--I've been going nuts trying to figure this out. Never would have looked at this selection--

 

[rebelINny]

Oh, and I set turkey eggs yesterday though I know thats not early enough for this hatchalong for them to be hatched at easter but thats when they came in the mail so in they went. There are 13 turkey eggs in and I set several of my own mixed layer chicken eggs.

 

[moetrout]

Alittle advice please....my LG (w/fan) is at 20% humidity. I have all 3 wells filleds with water. I have added a wet paper towel off to the side on top of the wire screen. That will get it up to 25% and then it just drops back down. What percent humidity whould I be aiming for? Anyone with experience with LG's? I'd like to know if you fill all 3 wells at the start how often do you need to refill them. Right now I can't see what is going on with the water in the wells because the eggs obstruct the view. So what percent humidity and how ofter do you have to refill your wells on your forced air LG???

 

[AK Michelle]

on the black theermomiter is it accurate i have one just like that in my incubators plus one like the white one are the reading the same temp or not which one do u use for the temp

I always go by the mercury for temp. The battery operated ones just give me an idea of humidity but I don't stress about humidity. Actually I'm happy if I'm just in the ballpark. I may be overly casual about it but it works for me.

My advice......

You all just added your eggs to your preset incubators. Now is not the time to be messing around with the controls. Leave it alone for at least 24 hours. You should not be making adjustments just yet.

See! I told you

Here's a picture of my pedigree box I made to go in the incubator. I made it out of plastic needlepoint canvas and zip ties. It took about 30 minutes to make and cost less than $1.

I put a tie on the lid before placing it in the incubator, so the chicks couldn't climb out. All six eggs hatched.

In this case I used it to identify four campines so I would know the breeding and I put in the two lightest marans eggs I was hatching. Those two chicks are now banded with a zip tie. If they turn out to be roos, they won't make it into the flock. If they are girls I can judge the color of the egg they produce.

I had a second smaller box that held two marans eggs that were a specific pure line.

Deb

That is so cool! Thanks for the picture!

Kathy, I made corned beef, carrots, onions, cabbage, colcannon, and Irish Soda bread. For dessert, Baileys Irish Cream cupcakes with chocolate ganache and Bailey's buttercream frosting baked in little canning jars.

Holy WOW! That looks Yummy!

They were good but I am so full. Gotta lay down. I am tired after the big SET. Whew, six crested cream legbar eggs and one cracked and waxed Isbar egg.

I'm headed to bed for the night, too. I am stuffed and so tired.

That's it???? SEVEN eggs? You are gonna have to add more!

Seriously! What she said

ok here is my egg count, I can't get BYC to post my pics up for eggs. I set 49 turkey eggs last sat to hatch with the chicks. I looked at the turkey eggs today and I'm down to 32 eggs................ 4 EE eggs, 10 black java eggs, 6 buff orps eggs, 5 small splash cochin eggs, 14 buff orps or javas eggs from room # 1, 34 salmon faverolle eggs, 21 splash cochin/salmon faverolle eggs, 12 mystery full size eggs and 10 mystery small eggs. all together I have 148 EGGS!!!!!!!!!!

this is the big one!!!!!!!!!

You set 49 turkeys? How many hens do you have laying?

I set 136 today, pretty close to noon. Temps are still getting back to normal, but I'm not worried yet.
13 BBS COPPER MARANS, 12 Welsummers - Bethel Farms
22 Icelandics - Kathyinmo
15 Welsummers - LuckyPickens
24 Icelandics - NotAFarm
11 Iowa Blues
31 Iowa Blue/Ameraucana
4 SLW mix

OK off to fill out the form and then to bed. G'nite!

Mahonri, are you reading this? Do you see a trend here?

I'm back. Good grief... now I'm scared my bator is going to go wild on me. Do you think DW would notice if I bought a NEW 1588 with the digital thermostat and switched it out?

Problem is, they are back ordered. Other problem is, I can't even have it delivered to the office... cuz she's working there now!

Brinsea is steady at 100 degrees.
1588 fluctuates between 99.3 and 99.9... with the Brinsea Spot Check.

Ron... thanks for the idea. I finally turned it off, turned on the "5" switch and now it looks like it's going to be stable. What's crazy is I had it on the "7" switch from Friday morning until this afternoon... when it just started dropping for no reason.

First, you could always ship it to Laree, she loves a good conspiracy.
Second, your 1588 is 99*, it's FINE! No problem,
Lastly, glad you followed Ron's advice.

Someone remind me that I am not supposed to be worried that my incubator has been stuck at 97.5 for 6 hours. Fingers are itching to fiddle withe knob.

Refer to KathyinMo post near the top of this multi-quote.

Ok, question, I need to complete my form but it is asking for how many chicks will hatch. Is what we put there the brinsea contest? I was hoping to know total set first.

Good question.

 

[AK Michelle]

Alittle advice please....my LG (w/fan) is at 20% humidity. I have all 3 wells filleds with water. I have added a wet paper towel off to the side on top of the wire screen. That will get it up to 25% and then it just drops back down. What percent humidity whould I be aiming for? Anyone with experience with LG's? I'd like to know if you fill all 3 wells at the start how often do you need to refill them. Right now I can't see what is going on with the water in the wells because the eggs obstruct the view. So what percent humidity and how ofter do you have to refill your wells on your forced air LG???

Read the cheat sheet posted by Chookschick https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/incubation-cheat-sheet According to the sheet, (towards the bottom of the page) forced air should aim for about 20% till lockdown.

 

[kellyn]

I sat 17 eggs... chicken eggs, anyways.

I noticed you all have issues with keeping your bator closed, but my problem is...

I KEEEEEEP ADDING IN MORE EGGS!!! I have to chant, "DON'T PUT IN ANYMORE, DON'T PUT IN ANYMORE, STOOOOOOOOOP PUTTTTING MORE EGGGS INNN!!! YOU ALREADY HAVE WWAAAAAAAAY TOOO MANY!!!!"

Yeeeeah, I hatch too many, and can't get rid of 'em. I hatched like, 125 button quail since like feb 29th or so. I've sold... like 20. Tops. Is 1 an 2 dollars too much?

Hey, does anyone know why my eggs would die between days 12-16? And right before hatching? If I get them past the 16th day, they're generally fine.

And I usually only loose quail eggs before hatch day. It isn't my incubator either, because it wrks great and my quail hatch rates increase by 10% every hatch. Last time was 60%!

Can you enter an incubator/hatcher design in the 'ingenious inventions' contest?

 

[Lark Rise]

Here are the 7 w/bw ameraucana sitting pretty.

 

[Arielle]

Alittle advice please....my LG (w/fan) is at 20% humidity. I have all 3 wells filleds with water. I have added a wet paper towel off to the side on top of the wire screen. That will get it up to 25% and then it just drops back down. What percent humidity whould I be aiming for? Anyone with experience with LG's? I'd like to know if you fill all 3 wells at the start how often do you need to refill them. Right now I can't see what is going on with the water in the wells because the eggs obstruct the view. So what percent humidity and how ofter do you have to refill your wells on your forced air LG???

I use an Lg with an added PC fan. I follow ChooksChicks instructions in general. Have you read it? https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/incubation-cheat-sheet Many consider 20% to be fine. Under that and I add moisture. I also have a wood stove, though this is the first time I am incubating with the stove running. House moisture is also effected by hanging clothes to dry and cooking. Both add moisture to my house.

I really depend on the air cell development to let me know if I need to increase the moisture levels or increase the air loss out of the LG to speed moisture loss. I keep this diagram handy.

Diagrams of air cells, duck and chicken:
http://www.poultryconnection.com/quackers/aircell.html

 

[HortonFarms]

Hey, Hortonfarms! Congratulations! Now aren'tyou glad I talked you into joining the hatch? How 'bout a cut of that prize?! JK!

I'll trade you on the numbers for my Valentine's hatch. I can't vouch for the 15 I sold as straight run day olds, but the 13 I kept, 9 boys and 4 girls. My New Year's hatch was exactly split, 6 boys & 6 girls.

Deb

I am the same way. last five hatches 25 girls and 1 boy

Ya'll are funny! I use a LG incubator without fan or turners. I hand turn all my eggs three times a day. We use wood heat so its never a steady temp in the house. My LG's temps fluctuate like mad. Usually running between 100.0 and 100.5 during the day and 98.6 to 99.5 during the night. I have great hatches everytime. Don't worry so much about the temps unless of course you have turners in. In my experience they hold them closer to the heating element and you don't want the bator getting too hot. I had my bator get 109 degrees for a couple hours my first eggs I set this year while I was gone. I freaked out!! I waited for two days and they were all still growing so I left them. They all hatched at day 19 and 20 but all were completely mature and did well. I lost two because their heads were in the small end of the shell but they were full-grown. I just sold all but three of those chicks today

So, don't sweat the temps too bad, these chickies are super resilient

I agree. GHD hatch I had my incubator malfunction and spike to 125 over night, I have out of 250 eggs- 1 survived to hatch. Don't stress too much about it.