my hatching style experiment

[Christie Rhae]

Ok I have decided to do an experiment to see what works best for me. All my eggs are shipped 3000 to 4000 miles so I expect hatch rates to be lower than not shipped. I am using a hova bator 1588 with an egg turner. I am using a little giant still air for my hatcher. I am using the dryer humidity incubation. I keep the humidity between 20 and 35% for the incubation then up to 65+% for hatch.

HATCH #1 (over)
For this hatch I candled often. I was very careful but I just loved to see the little chicks moving around in there so probably candled 8 times up until the 18th day. Then I moved eggs over to little giant, laid them on their side and added lots of water. After 12 hours my humidity was still not as high as I wanted so did open the incubator for a second to add a dish with paper towels folded up so that I could add water through a straw and rewet the towels. I was then able to get humidity up to 65%. On day 20 we had one pip. The morning of the 21st day we hatched one awesome little cutie pie.

HATCH #2
eggs set on 7/10, I candled once on day 7. I will candle again on day 14 and then move to hatcher on day 18. For this hatch I will try setting them in egg cartons to keep them big end up. Hatch date is 7/31.

HATCH #3
I set these eggs on 7/15. I have not candled. Not going to touch them until I move them to the hatcher. Due to hatch on 8/15.

HATCH #4
I am going to toss these eggs in my purse and forget about them. KIDDING!! I don't have a 4th batch yet.. but I hope to have more soon! lol

 

[Ann Lotten]

Hi Christie, thanks for getting me hooked on the forum too! When you asked me on FB if I had checked out BYC, I hadn't gone into the forum yet... WoW! So, I've been learning a lot from others here. I owe you a Big Thanks! I look forward to following your hatching experiment. Oh, I am setting 18 Black Coppers in the incubator today, along with some Marans/Orp. Mutts. I will hope for a good hatch. Good luck with your hatch!

 

[LittleDarlings]

That's AWESOME!! I can't wait to see how it all works out!! I was just at TSC (again...lol) and was looking at all their baby chick goodies.

I'm hoping to get mine in a couple of weeks...*fingers crossed*

 

[Christie Rhae]

Quote:
ANN!! yay! another nail tech/chicken addict!! So glad I am not the only one. lol
Can't wait to hear how your hatch goes.

 

[Ann Lotten]

Yes, we certainly share some common obsessions, haha. How is your hatching experiment going? I had a power outtage on day 12 (bummer deal) for 1.5 hours (we live in the Sierra Foothills, occasional outtages due to fallen pine trees), so I wasn't sure if I would even get any to hatch. I ended up with a 50% hatch rate this time and 5 chicks. Much better than my last hatch, so things are looking up. I did things quite differently this time, by using the dry hatch method that ChooksChicks has out. Between that and now having egg turners, I think that may have done the trick. Yay! Can't wait to hatch me some more eggs!