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

[ronott1]

Quote: I got up a 5:00 am pacific time today. Did some house cleaning and chicken chores. It's the first day of spring, so time to worm the chickens!

I have Marnans egg scheduled to hatch on the29th. I set 20 and 12 are definitely developing. 3 were clears and 5 are questionable. The last time i tried Marans eggs I got one of 4 to hatch. Three did develop. I hope to have a better hatch this time. My Marans is blue! These are Bev Davis FBCM Marans.

I will post here with their progress.

 

[EnnisLakeFarm]

My entry for the Calendar. The picture was taken in June so that would be a good month for entry I suppose. This is our Bantam Cochin (we called her Aunt Jemimah) with her 3 little chicks. Aunt Jemimah got killed by a skunk about 4 months after this picture was taken. She will be missed. She was a great mama!
Edited to say : This pic fits in with "Finally Summer! Day June 20th, or maybe "Old Maids Day" June 4th

 

[Arielle]

WHEW! Thanks all! I did in fact need a

And a couple of cups of coffee! So now that I have had both I feel better That and that heafty dose of vitamin D I got playing with the kiddos outside this beautiful morning!!!

Anyway, I do have one question. I wasnt aware that with a still air incubator the temp needed to be a bit higher at the top. So, like I said before, it has been steady at 99-101. Do you think this will be a problem?

I havent promised anyone any chicks yet. I am being greedy with my first ever hatch and plan on keep all hens just for me!

But I am sure I will just have to set some eggs not long afterr these hatch, right?

THe LG has a manual on line, this is made by Miller Manufacturing. THe Still air type are not designed for stacking, HOWEVER, you can add a fan at any time. THink PC fan size and adapter. I used the pics/instructions on BYC to wire and install mine. I had never done any wiring before. In the still air, 102 on top of the eggs like the hen, that is her body temp. CHooksCHick's info is to have temp at half height of the egg at 99. If you use the fan, you can circulate the warm air without changing the temp knob. Only takes about 30-60 minutes to install, about the time a hen would be off getting dinner and have a good stretch.

Hi everyone ok i have a question i checked on the eggs last night and the temp is at 100. I have 22 eggs stacked in each incubator the the 100 temp is on top of them i switch the eggs out so all have a chance on top but the eggs on the bottom are cool to the touch and so are some of the ones on the top someone on here yesterday told me that with a still air incubator that the temp on top of the stacked eggs should be 102 do i need to up my temp can i still save my eggs?

See above, A fan will fix most of the problem. Cool eggs grow slower and might, repeat might, have feet issues. You can install a fan at any time. I intalled mine at about 1 week into incubating. Boy I changed a lot of things that first incubation. !LOL Very traumatic for me and the eggs! LOL Managed to hatch about half.

Quote:
For a while, I just thought that incubating was very difficult. We tried all sorts of solutions each spring. The first thing we did was put in a fan. Then egg cartons for the last 3 days. I bought more and more thermometers. I kept a log of the temps. One year, I remember setting the alarm and getting up almost every hour or two and checking to make sure it hadn't gone up or down too much. I only left the house once for about 6 hours that whole hatch. It swung wildly from 97 to 104. It was a miserable three weeks. I just thought I was bad at incubating. And I didn't pay attention to the fact that one incubator did okay and the other didn't until two years ago when we bought a third styrobator in the middle of a hatch because our very first incubator just kept spiking and I finally realized that it wasn't me that was the one causing all of the problems. However, silly me, didn't mark the defective incubator and so I lost track of which one it was. Smart, huh? I used it again last year once, but this spring I finally figured it which was which. Yes, I would get it stabilized, then I would see significant temp swings without me touching it for days. It was in a room with no drafts and steady temperature. There is little doubt in my mind that it was defective all these years. So I lost one last batch of eggs to it this spring. If it hadn't been my first incubator or if I were smarter, I think I could have figured it out sooner.

So, it's retired. But I've got another styrobator hatching out a few chicks right now ... just zipping and cheeping to beat the band!
Ahhhh, the lessons we learn incubating!!!

I did build my own after extensive research on BYC. Basically wanted inexpensive. Had a large plastic cooler, a frame with glass (for a window), mason jars, electrical tape, wire cutters, drill and bits, twine, plywood, silacone and lightbulbs. BOught WHT, bottle lamp fixture, desk fan.

Planning the design was the most difficult part: creating a design using as many supplies currently available without purchase. I really do get a good hatch rate from it. I prefer to use it as a hatcher.

 

[sarasweatman]

Our incubator broke. All were lost.

I am too upset to even think about it.

 

[kvmommy]

Anyway you can get to TSC? How long ago did it break? I've heard people have gone quite a long time without power and they eggs still survived? Some throw warmed towels on the bator or eggs until powers up. I'm soooo sorry!!!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Our incubator broke. All were lost.

I am too upset to even think about it.

Can it be fixed?

 

[Mahonri]

Further clarification on Post #1. For the Incubator contest.


The spreadsheet for guesses is ---> HERE
and if you don't see your name on it, fill this form out HERE!

 

[Arielle]

My entry for the Calendar. The picture was taken in June so that would be a good month for entry I suppose. This is our Bantam Cochin (we called her Aunt Jemimah) with her 3 little chicks. Aunt Jemimah got killed by a skunk about 4 months after this picture was taken. She will be missed. She was a great mama!

Beautiful. And serene.

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Ragerkid,

sorry if I scared you about opening the incubator to lower the Humidity. I was trying to calm you down. Like SCM said, Humidity is not that big of a deal. I think you are fine with the eggs and you will have a great hatch.

Several of us have mentioned the air cell development. That is the important thing. Someone else mentioned the porous eggs. Same thing there--they are a problem if they evaporate too quickly or if they allow bacteria in. Out of 8 EE eggs, 3 were porous and all of those hatched fine.

Have a great hatch Everyone

 

[EnnisLakeFarm]

Our incubator broke. All were lost.

I am too upset to even think about it.

So sorry to hear that!