My first test babies hatched

[Poison Ivy]

I made a homemade incubator about a month ago and decided to just try and hatch 4 eggs to start with. 2 were a no go and the other 2 hatched last night. Here is a couple pictures I took last night. They were doing great this morning when I left for work.

 

[Bantymama]

Congrats. They are so cute.

 

[aran]

so spill the details on the incubator!!!! awesome job with the babies they look great!

Is the bator forced air or still? is it styrofoam? is the sponge in addition to an evaporation dish? Im trying to make mine is all and im curious! As many pics as you want would be ok with me

 

[Poison Ivy]

I borrowed the design from someone on the board here. It works great! I added the sponge on Saturday to get my humidity up to 70 % and only had to add a little water to it on monday. I bought the cooler,acurite therm. water wiggler & dimmer at walmart. I already had the light fixture,wire & cup for water laying around at home. I then went to pet store to get the reptile temp. & humidity dials. Those worked great with the acurite as a back up.
here is the link to the one I borrowed idea from.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1166

 

[aran]

man thats a lot of guages in there.
I have a digital thermohygrometer already. I need to get the water weasel thing...where are they in walmart..are they with the toys?

I also need the light and rheostat ( dimmer) but im sure I can get that sorted in the next day or two.

So you had no fan in yours?
Where did the eggs come from?
How many times per day did you turn em?

thanks in advance , and sorry for all the qs...just trying to learn from the successful!

 

[Poison Ivy]

I took all the other temp. gauges out except the reptile & the acurite one. I had the others in there to see which two would read closest to each other.
Water wiggler is in the cheap toy section of walmart. I paid .88 cents for it. I ask the girl working there she really didn't know what I was talking about we walked around til we found it. I don't have a fan in mine and I turned my eggs twice a day. In the morning before work at 7 and around 6 when I get home. Filled the little water cup 3 times in the 3 weeks it was in there. It stayed around 50 % humidity. On day 18 I add a large sponge soaked with water and it brought my humidity up to 70%. I just took 4 of my own hens eggs to hatch. I couldn't believe it was so simple I can't wait until I get home from vaction to get some silkie eggs.

 

[aran]

ivy that is the absolute coolest! I figured it cant be all as complicated as we humans want to make it!!

What kind of silkies do you have? are they standards or bantams? What colours? What are the lil guys that hatched out?

 

[Poison Ivy]

I bought 2 white silkies off a lady they were 4 weeks old. I think they are the cutest things. Then I bought a blue silkie for my niece & a buff one for my mom. I bought them from mypetchicken.com They are all bantams. The little guys that hatched out are mutts! I have a delaware roo and I think the black one may be from my australorp hen & The little yellow one has to be from my Buff Orpington. My 8 year old daughter really got excited last night watching them hatch. We were up past midnight last night.

 

[aran]

see thats what i want for my son too....our first batch of chicks is now 5 weeks old...it will be what a few months before they produce? How bout the rooster...how long til he , well you know does his thing?

 

[Poison Ivy]

I believe they start doing the rooster thing around 5/6 months old. It also depends on the breed too. Some maybe a little earlier or later.