New to incubating,need assistance..

[jwatts]

Hi,i am completly new to the incubation process. My friend gave me 2 older hova bators with automatic turners. I have disenfected them and there ready to use but im a little nervous.I guess my question is Where do i even start? What to expect,what to/not to do? I have 25 chickens now and 4 roos (layers and bantams) How should i go about gathering my eggs? I'm only getting about 2 a day now..Can they be refridgerated,do you just leave them out at room temp. How long can i wait till they go in the incubator? Thanks again for taking the time

 

[CCourson05]

Incubate at 99.5 degrees. On the 18th day, stop turning and add water to the incubator base. (buy a hygrometer for accuracy)

Store eggs at room temp in a dark area. Turn 1-2 times daily while storing

Just scoop up the eggs and bring them inside! Lol.

You can store them for up to 7 days before you see a loss in the percent to hatch.

 

[Glenmar]

Store eggs and incubate pointy side down.

 

[TucsonAZ]

It's all way more work than it's worth, just send me the incubators, turners and chickens, I'll do the work for you and let you enjoy the pictures without having to do any of the work.

 

[jwatts]

Quote:
I bet it is alot of work,it sounds addicting..

 

[branston]

Get your incubator up and running at least a couple of days before adding the eggs, that way you can get the temp and humidity regulated.
Once they start hatching you really need to watch over the incubator as once one hatches it sends the temp and humity off. If you don't control it, you'll get deformaties. We got one chick with a crooked toe and one developed a crooked beak (which, I'm told is genetic rather than a dip in the temp/humidity, but I'm not so sure)
Good luck!

 

[Arielle]

Egg collection and storage: you get better results when the eggs are no more then 10 days old, 7 is better. Day light is increasing, so production will be increasing too. May I suggest spending about a month reading old posts about incubating--you'll learn a lot, really.

Feed your chickens well, extra vitamins, greens and more protein for about 30 days before collection.

Store pointy end down, use only clean eggs or eggs than can be spot cleaned with sand paper, store in humid area at 45-60 degrees and turn 2x per day.

Get a note book and keep notes about incubator temps and humidity 2-4 times a day, number of eggs inside, where you are incubating in your house, ambient temp and humidity.

Candling eggs or weighing eggs during incubation is critical. Eggs must loose 13% of weight so that the chicks are small enough to twist to zip. Find a digital scale, if you can. Many people have sucess with the dry incubation method, see ChooksCHick BYC page for details.

Accurate thermometer is critical; ball park RH is good, as candling or weighing method will reveal if the %RH should be increased or decreased.

I have touched on the important aspects of incubating; everything must be nearly perfect to get a good hatch. I started a thread of information when I was just starting to learn about incubating. Here it is.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=541936



Good luck--it's fun, scary, nerve wracking and you'll never stop!

 

[cva34]

Set them up with turner in and all on and operating in a room or area with stable temp(65-80) and no draft.Play with them tell you can control temp 99.5 +or- a 1 degree or so.And control humidity in the range you want .It may take days .Once you get there then its time to think EGGS. Maybe even a dummy run with a dozen or so eggs from the Grocery store for a few days.Not going to hatch for sure but see that everything is going to control with a load on it .Once you are happy with that throw away those eggs and put some fertile eggs in and your GOOD TO GO. So many newbes fail because they get it plug it in put eggs in and then they start haveing problems and eggs get too cool ,toohot ,too dry, too wet while there trying to get things under control and working properly...cva34

 

[TucsonAZ]

Quote:
Winter solstice is the 22nd of next month so the days will be getting about 1 minute less light per day until then, after the 22nd of Dec. the above applies.

 

[jwatts]

Quote:
Wow,thanks Arielle,that was a great artcle..