Minnesota!

[MinnesotaNice]

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.

I did read it on this site! Using the foam bator was seriously stressful. I felt I had to monitor it constantly which I did. If I decide to hatch more, I'll get a Brinsea. But I feel I have enough broody hens to go around the block a few times. And I was surprised my hatch rate was so good, too. I feel like I messed with it too much. I'm not good at leaving things alone

And I pretty much gave up seeing through them. I tried my best to mark the air cells at the end.

 

[Minniechickmama]

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.

That is mighty generous of you, Ed. I have to wonder what Judy thought when he brought that one in ! LOL

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

That sounds like a Ralphie transaction Good for him though.

 

[KlopKlop]

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 read all kinds of posts about making them from coolers and things but have never heard of a wooden one! I will have to look it up. I had considered doing a cooler one before I bought this LG foamie for 40 bucks with a turner. I probably have most of the electronics I need for it from a fermentation chamber I built back when I used to brew beer. Brewing and hatching are not to different in terms of temperature regulation.

 

[Minniechickmama]

I did read it on this site! Using the foam bator was seriously stressful. I felt I had to monitor it constantly which I did. If I decide to hatch more, I'll get a Brinsea. But I feel I have enough broody hens to go around the block a few times. And I was surprised my hatch rate was so good, too. I feel like I messed with it too much. I'm not good at leaving things alone

And I pretty much gave up seeing through them. I tried my best to mark the air cells at the end.

I have never marked the air cells. I have a couple of hygrometers I use and if the humidity is right, then you don't have to worry about doing that, it is just extra work.

If you aren't trying to get early hatches and you can wait for a broody to kick in to do the job after it warms up a bit, then that is the way to go. If I weren't trying to hatch to show, I would likely go that route. I do need to get mine hatched before March if at all possible so they are finished for show in the fall, especially if I plan to show at State Fair. That is always a tricky show to make for me, either the older birds are looking ratty from breeding and their feathers are starting to fade for molt or it is so stinking hot I don't want to chance hauling them up to the fair then. We will see though. With the AI stuff cropping up again, who knows if we will have shows this year? It is far enough away so far that maybe we will be spared with this round of it.

 

[ejb3810]

Klop, there is just the unit you need on the Duluth Chicken facebook which is a converted Pepsi Cola cooler. If you could collect enough eggs for one hatch it should take care of the chicks you would want for a year or two.

 

[MinnesotaNice]

@Minniechickmama , The silkie I have has become rather fluffy. I don't think she can see half the time. I did use a small trimming scissors, but it made me nervous around her eyes. Thankfully, she/he sat very well. What do you do?

 

[Minniechickmama]

I have read all kinds of posts about making them from coolers and things but have never heard of a wooden one! I will have to look it up. I had considered doing a cooler one before I bought this LG foamie for 40 bucks with a turner. I probably have most of the electronics I need for it from a fermentation chamber I built back when I used to brew beer. Brewing and hatching are not to different in terms of temperature regulation.

I started a cabinet one to use at our fair when I hatch chicks down there. I didn't quite get it finished two years ago and another family had an old hatcher they brought down instead. So, it sits. It is plywood and pine framed. I will line it with the Reflectix insulation so it is easy to clean, use either a light bulb or a recycled heating element from my old Hovabator if it still works. One thing I don't like from all the newer incubators is they have the heat at the top, which to me is fighting against nature. The old redwood I had, had the heat and water in the bottom, which makes perfect sense to me, and a single fan in the top. There were metal panels to form curves in the corners so the air would circulate better. That all makes perfect sense to me, so when I do build my own, it is going to use some of that method. However, I also want to make one that is easy to clean. The incubator is no big deal, but the stupid hatcher is such a pain in the butt to clean! Plus, the metal brackets and screws they used on the GQF are sharp and not easy to clean up either. We will see what I come up with. For now, I am still going to use the pair of GQF that I have until I can get may smart-bator designed and built. I have a friend who uses a cooler type one her boyfriend built and it works pretty well. I think the top is a clear acrylic door. It works pretty well for her. The trick I think is to get reliable heating and controls, those wafers are good until they aren't and there is no warning with them, the just crap out.

 

[Minniechickmama]

@Minniechickmama , The silkie I have has become rather fluffy. I don't think she can see half the time. I did use a small trimming scissors, but it made me nervous around her eyes. Thankfully, she/he sat very well. What do you do?

I trimmed all of my Silkies' crests down to buzz cuts last year. This year I have done anything and now they are getting nasty. I may just pull them up and tape them. I know a lot of people do that with their Silkies for show to keep them clean. I hate trimming them down like last year because they don't grow a crest back for several months. The taping is like pulling up in a pony tail on top of their heads.

 

[MinnesotaNice]

Maybe I just didn't trim enough. That tape idea sounds interesting.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Maybe I just didn't trim enough. That tape idea sounds interesting.

You might be able to use the vet tape to do that even. It just has to be able to hold onto the feathers and not slide off the first time they shake their heads.
@destiny_56085 what do you do to keep the fluff out of the way?