- Mar 31, 2014
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Hi!
I joined BYC last month, just before getting my first "hatch." I think I could properly be described as a lurker? I read all kinds of posts but was a little shy to jump into the fray. Though, I did post a question or two and got great advice. I thought I was well on my way to a "simple" hatch in my homemade incubator. "Simple" is what my husband swore the process would be, based on his recollection of his kindergarten-class incubator in, like, a shoe box with a light bulb or something. To hear him tell it, it was like they waved their hands, tapped the box twice and BAM! Chickens. "Simple" was not my experience.
Problems punched me in the face from the start. My incubator's temp ran hot (a few times it jumped up by 2 degrees), yet still managed to have cool spots and, frankly, was a complete humidity headache. After 20 days of constant fretting, I came home from work to find a beautiful chick that hatched while I was away had gotten under the floor screen and drowned. HORRIBLE. So much guilt. And that poor chick would end up being the only one from the hatch, as that night (day 21) I awoke at 2AM to check on the rest of the eggs and -- SOMEHOW -- my never-above 58% humidity reading was at a CRAZY 81%!
As of now, I am a hatching failure.
.. but I don't want to give up. I'm getting a proper incubator this time WITH a turner and a fan. Anyway... hello.
I joined BYC last month, just before getting my first "hatch." I think I could properly be described as a lurker? I read all kinds of posts but was a little shy to jump into the fray. Though, I did post a question or two and got great advice. I thought I was well on my way to a "simple" hatch in my homemade incubator. "Simple" is what my husband swore the process would be, based on his recollection of his kindergarten-class incubator in, like, a shoe box with a light bulb or something. To hear him tell it, it was like they waved their hands, tapped the box twice and BAM! Chickens. "Simple" was not my experience.
Problems punched me in the face from the start. My incubator's temp ran hot (a few times it jumped up by 2 degrees), yet still managed to have cool spots and, frankly, was a complete humidity headache. After 20 days of constant fretting, I came home from work to find a beautiful chick that hatched while I was away had gotten under the floor screen and drowned. HORRIBLE. So much guilt. And that poor chick would end up being the only one from the hatch, as that night (day 21) I awoke at 2AM to check on the rest of the eggs and -- SOMEHOW -- my never-above 58% humidity reading was at a CRAZY 81%!
As of now, I am a hatching failure.
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and Welcome To BYC! So sorry about your hatches and the incubator problems, it's hard when a hatch goes wrong and you wind up with nothing, and so sorry about the little chick that drowned. There are some nice commericial incubators out there, so even if you don't want to repeat the experience of making your own right now, don't give up!
