November Hatch-A-Long (2014)

[AmyLynn2374]

I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work...I got a little reptile one for my incubator. I candled my eggs and the air sacs looked a bit on the small side to me. I'm maintaining temperature, and letting them dry out a bit. I've no idea if it will work.

Next time, for sure, I'm doing dry incubating - it seems to be a bit less fraught. The only issue I have is that our house is quite dry (we used to have moisture problems so we really worked to fix them), so it's lower than the general humidity available elsewhere. Maybe I'll keep a bowl of water near the incubator on the outside.

What do you heat with? Do you have registers where you could put a bowl of water on one in the room where the incubator is? Or maybe a small humidifier in that room?

 

[Steampunked]

What do you heat with? Do you have registers where you could put a bowl of water on one in the room where the incubator is? Or maybe a small humidifier in that room?

I have one of the strangely misspelled and slightly peculiar Chinese incubators for the 'bator itself. It is in the most 'stable' room in the house - by which I mean, the temperature doesn't rocket up too much. I'm in Australia, so it is starting to sometimes get very, very hot.

(The house has central heating, if that's what you are asking - though we turn it off this time of year!

We're one of the few households in Australia which needs heating as sometimes it can get to 0C where we are.)

I will try to put a bowl of water in the room where the incubator is, I admit I'm reluctant to put a humidifier in for human health reasons - my partner has some health issues with breathing that makes high humidity problematic. Fortunately, where we live it's dry most of the time. I know my cats will probably dabble in it. They love water.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I have one of the strangely misspelled and slightly peculiar Chinese incubators for the 'bator itself. It is in the most 'stable' room in the house - by which I mean, the temperature doesn't rocket up too much. I'm in Australia, so it is starting to sometimes get very, very hot.

(The house has central heating, if that's what you are asking - though we turn it off this time of year!

We're one of the few households in Australia which needs heating as sometimes it can get to 0C where we are.)

I will try to put a bowl of water in the room where the incubator is, I admit I'm reluctant to put a humidifier in for human health reasons - my partner has some health issues with breathing that makes high humidity problematic. Fortunately, where we live it's dry most of the time. I know my cats will probably dabble in it. They love water.

I see, well good luck!! My dream vacation is Australia. (Outback, not cities....lol) We're in Northern NY USA so we are definitely using heat right now....lol

 

[darkbluespace]

I have one of the strangely misspelled and slightly peculiar Chinese incubators for the 'bator itself. It is in the most 'stable' room in the house - by which I mean, the temperature doesn't rocket up too much. I'm in Australia, so it is starting to sometimes get very, very hot.

(The house has central heating, if that's what you are asking - though we turn it off this time of year!

We're one of the few households in Australia which needs heating as sometimes it can get to 0C where we are.)

I will try to put a bowl of water in the room where the incubator is, I admit I'm reluctant to put a humidifier in for human health reasons - my partner has some health issues with breathing that makes high humidity problematic. Fortunately, where we live it's dry most of the time. I know my cats will probably dabble in it. They love water.

The eggs themselves create humidity so if you don't have it vented too much there may be enough humidity inside for them. I have my vents on top totally open because it gets the humidity down... it is very humid here!

 

[Dcat]

MrsFitzDarcy, the way I see it, I have to open the bator several times a day anyway to turn them, I pull them out one at a time to candle and turn. I leave the lid over top to cut down on heat loss. Not really worried about loosing the humidity as much until lock down in which case I won't be opening it anyway.

I basically prefer to do a dry hatch, I keep the humidity between 30-50% until lock down then raise it up to 65-70%. I keep my temps between 99-100 and the new bator helps me do that so very much better and makes me feel much less stressed. I might have to cover some of the holes to keep the humidity up for longer periods but, I do have a lot of holes in it, probably too many anyway.

 

[Steampunked]

I've been wondering about the high humidity advice that came with my incubator on days 1-18 - honestly, a broody chicken isn't a duck, she isn't going to be coming back with wet feathers, surely. AFAIK, chickens can't sweat either.

 

[darkbluespace]

I've been wondering about the high humidity advice that came with my incubator on days 1-18 - honestly, a broody chicken isn't a duck, she isn't going to be coming back with wet feathers, surely. AFAIK, chickens can't sweat either.

Apparently, the way duck eggs get wet actually does something to the membrane to help the egg loose moisture, not the opposite... so even duck eggs do not need more humidity, they need less, just like chickens... maybe even less than chickens. I find it all so interesting. Good thing there are so many eggs to experiment on! I am getting excited for my duck eggs!!

 

[ochochicas]

This is my second try at incubating eggs. Last time I had mostly clears. I ended up with 2 chicks that are still alive.

Due November 11:

• 15 Crested Cream Legbar
• 6 Silkie crosses (just a test to see if my roo is fertile)

Due November 18:

• 6 Rouen duck eggs

I can't wait to candle in two days!

I remember reading about your last hatch. I hope you have a great hatch this time!!! I started with 8 CCL eggs and just tossed two yesterday. The other six look promising. I was doubting the fertility of my flock since the woman I bought them from just incubated 20 eggs and only 4 hatched (3 were cockerels LOL). So far I'm hopeful for both of us.

 

[darajosami]

I love candling, too, but I'm fearful that opening the 'bator too much will screw up the eggs too much. I'm on Day 5, and I want. To. Sooo. Bad.

I am so hanging out to candle my eggs. I have 20 under my 2 broodies and I'm not sure if I should candle today (day 3) or leave a little longer. I kicking them off the nest once a day atleast to eat and drink (otherwise they aren't leaving and I don't want them to get sick or die) and I'm not sure if I kick them off at night if they will not get back on. Unless I can candle through the day but not sure it will be dark enough in there to candle.

 

[ochochicas]

I see that people usually post how many and what kinds of eggs they are setting, and then updates are made when candling is done. I was just wondering if you all wouldn't mind posting some other information as well. I'd really love to know if people are doing dry or wet hatches, still air or forced air, I'm curious as to what temps and humidity you all are shooting for as well.

We are new to chickens, too. Got my first set of chicks in March, two hens in April, and now I'm hooked and have over 20 birds. It wasn't long ago somewhere on the forum that I posted I never ever planned to own an incubator or hatch eggs. LOL then in June one of my hens went broody so I bought her some eggs to hatch. It was a good start for me to have the broody do all the work and I just got to have the fun. Ten eggs hatched, one died, I kept 4 chicks and sold 5 of them. Some people have said that broody raised chicks are not friendly, but that does not have to be the case. If you talk to the eggs before they hatch they will be used to human voices before they enter the world. My chicks were all very friendly, even the cockerels.

Lacking another broody, I bought an incubator and just set my first batch of eggs. I got a Hovabator with a turbofan. I bought two additional thermometers and two hygrometers, one of which is completely useless. I am doing a modified wet incubation. I'm trying to keep my humidity around 40%. I will add a little water if the humidity gets low, but I'm not keeping the water full all the time. Instead, I am weighing my eggs at 7 and 14 days to make sure they are on track for losing 13% of their original weight. I am also hand turning my eggs 3 times a day. Although this is an experimental hatch, I must be doing something right since my babies are growing! I candled at day 7. Some of the questionable eggs I will candle again at day 10 and take them out if they are not looking good.

The temp I'm trying to keep between 99 and 100 degrees. It seems parts of the incubator are warmer than other parts, despite having a fan. The first day the temp was probably around 103, and since then it has held between 98 and 101. Our house is not heated, so the room the incubator is in stays around 62 degrees all day. Turning the eggs does not affect temp or humidity that much at this point. The incubator is open for 1 - 2 minutes and them temp drops to about 88 degrees. It heats back up really quickly. My broody hen used to leave the nest for up to 30 minutes at a time and the eggs were fine. One egg even got pushed out of the nest one night. It was completely cold when I found it in the morning and it hatched normally on day 21.

I hope this helps. Don't feel too badly about things going wrong. As long as we can learn from it, not all is lost. I am keeping a chart of all my weights, etc and will post my findings after the chicks hatch.