NY chicken lover!!!!

[LadyHawkeAvry]

I could use some advice on the incubator. I have the port holes open because the humidity level on its hygrometer keeps fluxing. When I have them closed its at 70% and it needs to be down in the 50's for chicks right? What can I do?

How far along in the incubation are they? If you are trying to get the humidity up while leaving the air vents open you may want to add some damp sponges (I have to keep a couple under the tray of my Brinsea to keep the humidity up, and in my coolerbator I use a syringe to inject warm water into the reservoir in the bottom daily to keep levels up. No matter what stage of the incubation, you want those vents open. The developing chicks need plenty of air, and hatching chicks need even more. Adjust your humidity by adding or removing water as opposed to opening or closing the vents, and leave the vents open so everyone can breathe easy

 

[mswendeu]

How far along in the incubation are they? If you are trying to get the humidity up while leaving the air vents open you may want to add some damp sponges (I have to keep a couple under the tray of my Brinsea to keep the humidity up, and in my coolerbator I use a syringe to inject warm water into the reservoir in the bottom daily to keep levels up. No matter what stage of the incubation, you want those vents open. The developing chicks need plenty of air, and hatching chicks need even more. Adjust your humidity by adding or removing water as opposed to opening or closing the vents, and leave the vents open so everyone can breathe easy

This is just day one. I placed them in the incubator this morning. It is a Farm Innovator's Pro Series 4200. I left the egg turner unplugged since it's day one. I will plug that in tomorrow morning for the beginning of their turning. I planned to go buy sponges in the morning as I saw that in another post somewhere. I also received my Brinsea mini advanced incubator in the mail today. So it's on it's test run tonight. And good thing too because somewhere along the lines I bid on Speckled Sussex eggs and won them this afternoon. So hoping for a good incubation turn out. Because I am looking forward to seeing all these beautiful chicks running around in my chicken run this summer.

And thank you so much for the advice.

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

This is just day one. I placed them in the incubator this morning. It is a Farm Innovator's Pro Series 4200. I left the egg turner unplugged since it's day one. I will plug that in tomorrow morning for the beginning of their turning. I planned to go buy sponges in the morning as I saw that in another post somewhere. I also received my Brinsea mini advanced incubator in the mail today. So it's on it's test run tonight. And good thing too because somewhere along the lines I bid on Speckled Sussex eggs and won them this afternoon. So hoping for a good incubation turn out. Because I am looking forward to seeing all these beautiful chicks running around in my chicken run this summer. 

And thank you so much for the advice. 

It sounds like you are well on your way!! The Brinseas are solid incubators - you'll enjoy your mini! I use mine for my high value eggs and the coolerbator for everything else, in addition to shipped eggs with sketchy air cells that do better with the limited intervention of hand turning. Keep us posted on your hatch!!!!

 

[mswendeu]

It sounds like you are well on your way!! The Brinseas are solid incubators - you'll enjoy your mini! I use mine for my high value eggs and the coolerbator for everything else, in addition to shipped eggs with sketchy air cells that do better with the limited intervention of hand turning. Keep us posted on your hatch!!!!

Thank you I will. Our BYC story started in Buffalo, NY. We bought chicks from TSC to Brood but of course in NY you have to buy them by lots of 6. It's a LAW hmmmph. Anyway, we bought them and got all the neighboring signatures to have our BYC flock. All our surrounding neighbors were excited about the thought. But a friend of ours had chickens in the city and the SPCA came and took them all away. So we asked a friend in Cherry Creek, NY to keep them for us. A weasel got them all

. That winter we moved to Ashville, NY and in March we bought our Spring chicks and ducklings... . They did great all summer. My ducklings grew up and flew the coop.... Sad when they grow up. But, the winter was too harsh for the ones that were our laying hens and sadly an opposum got my last hen in January. I was so prepared to move her here with me to Tennessee. Learned a lot of sad and great lessons the last two times. With a little more experience and lot more research I am brooding my third flock of chicks, and ducks. And learning how to incubate eggs as well.

I have been watching the Brinsea for a few weeks now reading about it, drooling over it and finally accidently bought one

.
I already have a Little Giant 9300 with no egg turner it contains my goose eggs.
And a Farm Innovators 4200 (Has my Lavenders in it) .... Pretty soon I will have incubators every where. lol
I can just see my empty furnitureless living room containing a bunch of tables holding incubators and brooders full of chicks... I know theirs something very very wrong with me. lol But, I am extremely excited about doing this. I really really hope it works out.

My thought process here was interrupted by my dogs barking their heads off and my 15 yr old daughter screaming mom I found a chicken... (Yes full grown running around my yard teasing the dogs.... So I had to chase it to get a better look and try to catch it... no such luck. LOL)

So I have a couple questions if anyone would like to chime in?

Is it possible for me to add duck eggs to one of these two incubators more likely the goose incubator? (I bid on some and won them).
Or should I save the brinsea for the duck eggs and Add the Sussex eggs I won to the other incubator already containing chick eggs? (Even this answer sounds like the correct one to me). I assume I would let them settle a couple hours after unpacking them and not worry about the turning portion if I did this. Since its already on?
And if I had too many duck eggs could I add them in with the chicken eggs in the bigger incubator anyway?
Lastly I want to try hatching turkey's has anyone tried this? And can someone give me some pointers on that?

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

Thank you I will. Our BYC story started in Buffalo, NY. We bought chicks from TSC to Brood but of course in NY you have to buy them by lots of 6. It's a LAW hmmmph. Anyway, we bought them and got all the neighboring signatures to have our BYC flock. All our surrounding neighbors were excited about the thought. But a friend of ours had chickens in the city and the SPCA came and took them all away. So we asked a friend in Cherry Creek, NY to keep them for us. A weasel got them all  . That winter we moved to Ashville, NY and in March we bought our Spring chicks and ducklings... . They did great all summer. My ducklings grew up and flew the coop.... Sad when they grow up. But, the winter was too harsh for the ones that were our laying hens and sadly an opposum got my last hen in January. I was so prepared to move her here with me to Tennessee. Learned a lot of sad and great lessons the last two times. With a little more experience and lot more research I am brooding my third flock of chicks, and ducks. And learning how to incubate eggs as well. 

I have been watching the Brinsea for a few weeks now reading about it, drooling over it and finally accidently bought one  .
I already have a Little Giant 9300 with no egg turner it contains my goose eggs. 
And a Farm Innovators 4200 (Has my Lavenders in it) .... Pretty soon I will have incubators every where. lol
I can just see my empty furnitureless living room containing a bunch of tables holding incubators and brooders full of chicks... I know theirs something very very wrong with me. lol But, I am extremely excited about doing this. I really really hope it works out.

My thought process here was interrupted by my dogs barking their heads off and my 15 yr old daughter screaming mom I found a chicken... (Yes full grown running around my yard teasing the dogs.... So I had to chase it to get a better look and try to catch it... no such luck. LOL) 

So I have a couple questions if anyone would like to chime in? 

Is it possible for me to add duck eggs to one of these two incubators more likely the goose incubator? (I bid on some and won them).
Or should I save the brinsea for the duck eggs and Add the Sussex eggs I won to the other incubator already containing chick eggs? (Even this answer sounds like the correct one to me). I assume I would let them settle a couple hours after unpacking them and not worry about the turning portion if I did this. Since its already on?
And if I had too many duck eggs could I add them in with the chicken eggs in the bigger incubator anyway? 
Lastly I want to try hatching turkey's has anyone tried this? And can someone give me some pointers on that?

I have ducks and geese in my Brinsea at the moment, since they all need similar care. They get a 10min cool down each day followed by a misting with distilled water.
In my coolerbator, I have chickens and game fowl, since they don't need misting, and hand turning gives them brief periods of cool down during the day.
I stagger my waterfowl batches so that the giant geese are not hatching out at the same time as the smaller ducks.
I would say if you run ducks with chickens, you will have to pull them out of the incubator daily for their cool down and misting.

 

[mswendeu]

I am thinking I will save the Ducks for the Brinsea. I can leave the egg turner in there right? The mini Adv cool down setting is 60, 120, or 180 minutes I think but seems to me like that's too long. If you only need to cool them for 10-20 minutes total and mist. So what am I missing with that setting? Is there a way to not set that? I know when Stella my only Campbell went broody on unfertilized eggs she would leave the nest maybe 15-30 minutes tops twice a day. Long enough to eat drink and swim.

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

I am thinking I will save the Ducks for the Brinsea. I can leave the egg turner in there right? The mini Adv cool down setting is 60, 120, or 180 minutes I think but seems to me like that's too long. If you only need to cool them for 10-20 minutes total and mist. So what am I missing with that setting? Is there a way to not set that? I know when Stella my only Campbell went broody on unfertilized eggs she would leave the nest maybe 15-30 minutes tops twice a day. Long enough to eat drink and swim. 

I don't even use the programmable cool down. I just pull the lid off, goof off for about 10 minutes, mist everyone, then put it back on.

 

[Pyxis]

Hello all! I'm still sick but feeling much better than I was. Chickens are all well, although it is still very weird for me to see all the girls out in the yard without any roosters. I have no healthy adult roosters aside from Raptor the ayam cemani and he's still in quarantine and not allowed to free range anyway. I can't wait till my two juvenile boys are old enough to go out with the girls so they have some protection.

I'm still house sitting, but I smuggled some sizzle chicks over to the house to keep me company and so I can have some chick play time and they are adorable and doing well. So far it looks like at least two of the four are frizzled.

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

Hello all! I'm still sick but feeling much better than I was. Chickens are all well, although it is still very weird for me to see all the girls out in the yard without any roosters. I have no healthy adult roosters aside from Raptor the ayam cemani and he's still in quarantine and not allowed to free range anyway. I can't wait till my two juvenile boys are old enough to go out with the girls so they have some protection.

I'm still house sitting, but I smuggled some sizzle chicks over to the house to keep me company and so I can have some chick play time and they are adorable and doing well. So far it looks like at least two of the four are frizzled.

Good to hear that you are feeling better!!! The little sizzles sound like the perfect little house sitting helpers!!!! Too cute!!!

 

[rancher hicks]

Good to hear that you are feeling better!!! The little sizzles sound like the perfect little house sitting helpers!!!! Too cute!!!

Ditto.