Minnesota!

[KlopKlop]

Think of it as a long-term investment.  If you are able to replenish your own laying stock for 5 years with it, would it pay for itself?

You make a fair point I am just REALLY cheap and $359 makes me balk a bit haha (that was for the 24 egg digital with auto turning)

Maybe someday when it comes up my wish list more

 

[holm25]

Why would you stop turning so early?

I have had better luck doing that. I dont know why but I do. I started out turning till day18 and had crappy hatch rates. Started going till day 14 and stopping and did alot better

 

[Minniechickmama]

Hatching makes me crazy. I used the hovabator 1602n. No fan, wafer "technology". I ran it so it was around 101.5 during the day and at night it got down to 99-99.5. The lack of consistency bugged me, but I read that marans eggs do well with higher temps because of their darker, thicker shell. I have no idea if there's any truth to it, but I hatched 22/24 with my first go.

The Brinseas look pretty cool. I want one. Okay, two.

Sorry, but that is the craziest thing I have heard yet about hatching. LOL You must have read it on this site? There is a school of thought that you must let the eggs cool for 15 minutes each day and mist them with water. Not true. In fact, if you have a foam incubator and you are doing this, good luck. It is tough to regain heat and humidity levels in those units to begin with, opening them daily to cool the eggs is just not necessary. I am quite surprised you got such a good hatch with the whole degree fluctuation on your unit. Marans or Wellie eggs are no different than white or blue or green or any other shade of brown egg. Unless you are heating with a light and the heat comes from 'solar absorption' process, the color has nothing at all to do with it. The one thing that is true with Marans and Welsummer eggs, you need a REALLY bright light to see into them, which is how I discovered my quick-check way of candling eggs. A fertile eggs at 3-4 days will cast a shadow inside the eggs when candling from the bottom end, a clear egg is not fertile and casts no shadow. It beats trying to see veins through those dark brown eggs. As for thickness of shell, brown eggs are thicker, in my experience, than white, but what really determines thickness is the diet and health of the bird laying the egg.

Some of the crazy stuff I have read just floors me, which is why one should always double and triple check information especially on this site where there are so many over-night experts. I am not accusing anyone this is a general observation, but there are a lot of crazy things that go around that are propagated by people with little or no experience with chickens. If you want to know the scientific truth of how to hatch or what feed requirements are to maintain healthy birds and things like that, check out a Ag University website that goes into that stuff and can provide you with solid information. There are nuances to using different types of units, but if something sounds kind of "out there", it probably is.

 

[holm25]

I am trying to find a cabinet incubator like ralph did but cant find a good deal. He got his from ejb for cheap.

 

[Minniechickmama]

You make a fair point

I am just REALLY cheap and $359 makes me balk a bit haha (that was for the 24 egg digital with auto turning)

Maybe someday when it comes up my wish list more

With your skills as a woodworker, you could build yourself a really nice incubator and hatcher, but you would probably want to buy the electronic controls for best results. They can run $80-100 though. There are simpler methods though people use to make their own using a lightbulb as the heat source. Look up al6517 and see what he did with a cabinet, and it looked good as a piece of furniture!

I have had better luck doing that. I dont know why but I do. I started out turning till day18 and had crappy hatch rates. Started going till day 14 and stopping and did alot better

That kind of boggles me. I think that most people would say the chick would stick in a wrong position if you did this. I know if I don't turn for even a day on some that I had to do it manually, I lost a LOT of chicks.

 

[Minniechickmama]

I am trying to find a cabinet incubator like ralph did but cant find a good deal. He got his from ejb for cheap.

Good ones are not cheap, trust me.

 

[holm25]

With your skills as a woodworker, you could build yourself a really nice incubator and hatcher, but you would probably want to buy the electronic controls for best results.  They can run $80-100 though.  There are simpler methods though people use to make their own using a lightbulb as the heat source.  Look up al6517 and see what he did with a cabinet, and it looked good as a piece of furniture!

That kind of boggles me.  I think that most people would say the chick would stick in a wrong position if you did this.  I know if I don't turn for even a day on some that I had to do it manually, I lost a LOT of chicks.

I have never had a chick stick to the eggs at all. I mentioned this on a hatching thread and they thought I was stupid. I am not on alot of threads anymore. Because I either raise stuff wrong or hatch wrong...

 

[holm25]

Good ones are not cheap, trust me.

Yeah. He got his for 300 bucks I believe. Maybe less.

 

[ejb3810]

Duluth Ralphie got a pair of Partridge Chanteler hens and a GQF incubator all for the astounding price of $0.00. He already had a Partridge Chantecler rooster that he is very fond of, which he got from the same source for the same price.
That Ralphie must be living right is all I can say.

 

[holm25]

Duluth Ralphie got a pair of Partridge Chanteler hens and a GQF incubator all for the astounding price of $0.00. He already had a Partridge Chantecler rooster that he is very fond of, which he got from the same source for the same price.
That Ralphie must be living right is all I can say.

Really!! He must have been talking estimated but never paid price!