Now I'm confused.....!!???

[Bill 101]

You don't need to be sorry, we simply have a difference of opinion. There ARE other people who have been hatching for a long time & have excellent hatches. I can't claim 100 %, but I can claim 98 or better, & of course that is my own eggs. I've bred, hatched & raised 100s of Bantam show birds. I have also used AI as a means for fertility, because of excessive feathering (Cochins).
So we have a difference of opinion, no big deal, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong, have you ever tried it?

I admit that I've never tried dry hatching, basically because I never had to. I've also never owned an Brinsea. I've owned Lyon incubators. Started in the 60s with a Turn-X 4 & a Roll-X. The Turn-x I converted to a TX-6 by changing out the wafer to a Solid state unit like the newer TX-6. I also bought a new TX-6. I bought a GQF with a solid state heat control, but after testing it found that it was not as accurate at keeping temperature & humidity stable as the Lyon Incubators, so I sold it. I have used the thermometers & wet bulb thermometers supplied with the Lyon Incubators (Merccury) & another ones, Kessler Instrument Mercury thermometers specially made for a range of 94 to 108. I LOVE accuracy. It must be within 1/2 a degree before I'm satisfied. BTW, I still use the original incubators. I've only used distilled water, because I didn't want the mineral deposits buildup that you get from tap or well water. The incubators are as clean as when they were new. I also do my own repair work & they all work, just like when they were new.
I'm also now afraid to experiment. I am extremely confident in my incubators to do what I want them to do & its worked.

So were alike, just a difference of opinion.

 

[NestingHillsSC]

That's the great thing about the human race. Ask 3 people there opinion and you'll get 6 different answers.

 

[yinepu]

You don't need to be sorry, we simply have a difference of opinion. There ARE other people who have been hatching for a long time & have excellent hatches. I can't claim 100 %, but I can claim 98 or better, & of course that is my own eggs. I've bred, hatched & raised 100s of Bantam show birds. I have also used AI as a means for fertility, because of excessive feathering (Cochins).
So we have a difference of opinion, no big deal, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong, have you ever tried it?

I admit that I've never tried dry hatching, basically because I never had to. I've also never owned an Brinsea. I've owned Lyon incubators. Started in the 60s with a Turn-X 4 & a Roll-X. The Turn-x I converted to a TX-6 by changing out the wafer to a Solid state unit like the newer TX-6. I also bought a new TX-6. I bought a GQF with a solid state heat control, but after testing it found that it was not as accurate at keeping temperature & humidity stable as the Lyon Incubators, so I sold it. I have used the thermometers & wet bulb thermometers supplied with the Lyon Incubators (Merccury) & another ones, Kessler Instrument Mercury thermometers specially made for a range of 94 to 108. I LOVE accuracy. It must be within 1/2 a degree before I'm satisfied. BTW, I still use the original incubators. I've only used distilled water, because I didn't want the mineral deposits buildup that you get from tap or well water. The incubators are as clean as when they were new. I also do my own repair work & they all work, just like when they were new.
I'm also now afraid to experiment. I am extremely confident in my incubators to do what I want them to do & its worked.

So were alike, just a difference of opinion.

Have I ever tried what? AI, bantams, or?

I've worked in the commercial poultry industry.. in the hatching end as well as the slaughter end. And I have done my fair share of AI on both poultry as well as other livestock (cattle and horses) and dogs.
I have experience with the BIG walk in incubators and hatchers where we hatched out tens of thousands of chicks a day as well as home made, smaller commercial and home use. Granted I have never used every incubator known to man (which would be impossible since people do make their own). But I also come from a long line of poultry men. My grandparent and great grand parents and great great grandparents (and their parents before them) all had methods for hatching out birds.. And through the generations they have taught me. We always had eggs hatching out (year round). And that's everything from parrots to ratites. So I hope my ancestor's experience and what they taught me as well as from my own experience should have at least a little merit. As it is I have seen so much misinformation passed off as the gospel truth.. (mostly by people with dismal hatch rates) because they heard it from someone else. Closing up the vents on an incubator is a major one.

When I first came to BYC I had never heard of "lockdown" because we never used it. It is a newer term coined by people who apparently got tired of telling newbies the same thing over and over and listening to them whine about failed hatches.. so they told them to lock down the bator and don't touch. We didn't "lockdown" any of our incubators.. didn't "lockdown" the commercial hatchers. If we needed to open them and tend to things.. we did. The major concerns were air flow.. bacteria.. fertility, incubation humidity and temperature.

Just a tidbit of info...
In the commercial poultry industry those incubators and hatchers are in climate controlled room. They are equipped with alarms, thermostats, misters and so on. So they do have a set humidity and temperature that they use because the rooms ARE climate controlled. The fans are located at the back of the hatchers and towards the top.. so they blow across the tops of the racks and are not blowing directly on the eggs. The air hits the opposite wall and circulates AROUND the eggs.. So the fans do not blow directly onto them .
At hatch the only chicks that get counted as having "hatched" are those which have hatched completely out and are fluffed up. Any chicks that are still hatching or are wet get disposed of and not counted into the final tallies.
The boys who transfer eggs from the incubator to the hatcher also have to change over the trays that the eggs are in.. and they do not do it gently . rotten eggs pop.. eggs become cracked or broken... chicks get crushed all in the name of time.. the sooner they get done turning hundreds of trays of eggs .. the faster they can go home.
After hatch and the chicks are removed.. the clean up crew comes in. The hatchers are hosed down.. walls scrubbed with caustic chemicals (that will cause immediate chemical burns if they touch your skin) and disinfected.. then the lab crew comes in for a swab test. If any of those tests come back positive the clean up crew has to go back in and scrub everything down again with more caustic chemicals and more disinfectant.

 

[NestingHillsSC]

 

[Bill 101]

OK, you set 20 RIR eggs. How they doing? Haven't seen anything posted since YINEPU & I exchanged our "social niceities". Hope we didn't scare you off. We MAY be a couple of grumpy old people, but we both try to give our best advice, Soooooo, bring us up to date

 

[yinepu]

OK, you set 20 RIR eggs. How they doing? Haven't seen anything posted since YINEPU & I exchanged our "social niceities". Hope we didn't scare you off. We MAY be a couple of grumpy old people, but we both try to give our best advice, Soooooo, bring us up to date

Lol.. you know me so well!

 

[NestingHillsSC]

You guys so silly!!!

Well today, 7th day. Candled them all. Seems 2 may not be fertile. Nothing but yoke in there. Seems a few might have the death ring. Hard to see. I have a shitty light to candle with. Plus the eggs are brown. lol . But the rest have veins. So.

Some seem very dark inside. Just going to leave till day 14. I'm going to leave them all in there until they start smelling. HAHAHA.

The 5 duck eggs day 8. NOTHING but yoke. Had a felling to start with they may not be fertile.

I took out that bottom tray with all the squares in it and moved the water tray down there. Seems the BIG FAN is drying out the tray way to fast when it was on top with the fan blowing over it. So humidity still holding at 42%. Beeing my first time, some times I feel I don't know what I'm looking for. I feel buying chicks would be easier.

 

[yinepu]

You guys so silly!!!

Well today, 7th day. Candled them all. Seems 2 may not be fertile. Nothing but yoke in there. Seems a few might have the death ring. Hard to see. I have a shitty light to candle with. Plus the eggs are brown. lol . But the rest have veins. So.

Some seem very dark inside. Just going to leave till day 14. I'm going to leave them all in there until they start smelling. HAHAHA.

The 5 duck eggs day 8. NOTHING but yoke. Had a felling to start with they may not be fertile.

I took out that bottom tray with all the squares in it and moved the water tray down there. Seems the BIG FAN is drying out the tray way to fast when it was on top with the fan blowing over it. So humidity still holding at 42%. Beeing my first time, some times I feel I don't know what I'm looking for. I feel buying chicks would be easier.

hatching is addictive once you get the hang of it

*YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED*

 

[NestingHillsSC]

I do know. And will be doing a lot if I can get this figured out. Have Heritage RIRs and Heritage dealwares coming over the next few months. Worked on a grower pen yesterday with the scraps I had. Need a few more things then the wood.

 

[NestingHillsSC]

Have you guys seen this!