pros/cons of incubating?

[Akane]

Incubating is kinda hit or miss. Some people are great at it and some people just have no luck for various sometimes unknown reasons. I have seen several people posting online about killing 5 or more hatches in a row and occasionally noone can really figure out why. Even people who seem very knowledgeable and pay lots of attention to their incubator sometimes have multiple bad hatches. Then some people seem to get lucky, have all the right conditions, and just hatch high percentages without really trying. It's hard to say but most people don't seem to do well their first hatch. If I could do it again I'd start with eggs I didn't care about until I knew how everything worked.

With the smaller styrofoam incubators they can easily be impacted by conditions in the room. Fluctuating house temps, amount of sunlight, and even outdoor weather conditions particularly when it comes to humidity can cause spikes and dips with these incubators. OR I almost killed a hatch because the lights in my house aren't very bright so I left a flashlight pointed into the incubator in order to check on the hatching chicks frequently. Well I failed to realize the flashlight beam was partially hitting the thermostat wafer and was just enough to throw it off so it didn't turn on until the temp was 5F below what it should have been. I pulled the light, turned the thermostat up so it would turn on right away, and then had to babysit it for the next 5hrs until the temp was stable again.

With the fluctuating humidity it's usually because you filled multiple spaces in the water tray, spilled some water between the spaces, and/or let it run dry between filling. The humidity is dependent on surface area of water available and will go up very quickly when you increase the surface area. It will also drop very quickly if you let an area run dry. Mine went from running a nice 45% for days to 20% in less than 12hrs because the water all evaporated. I also spiked the humidity severely by adding small amounts of water to all the areas instead of filling one area completely. I had my hovabator to 85%. Humidity lesson #1 If you only raise the water level in an area without increasing the amount of surface in contact with the air it will not impact the humidity much if at all but if you add water to various areas or spill any on the plastic it can raise it very quickly. Lesson #2 don't add lots of water at once. Small amounts are best. Lesson # 3 cost me 5-7 eggs. Don't over fill a water area because if the mesh sags at all your eggs will touch and drown.

Those are the types of things I wish I'd learned on less expensive and less important eggs.....

 

[dancingbear]

I have a Little Giant, it has some good points and some bad. I bought the turner, and later bought the fan kit. The turner's no good with turkey or larger, but is ok for chicken eggs. I have to check every now and then that the eggs aren't sliding up in the holders, and push them back down into the cups. The cups are hard to install on the turner bars, and if you install cups in all the holes on the turner bars, there's no place to put your thermometer or hygrometer, and no place to put any containers of water, except in the narrow space down the center where there's a gap for the motor. (I found that the caps from mouthwash bottles are about right.)

I have a little round hygrometer, and found out I can get little round thermometers from a reptile supply cheap, so I'll get one of those soon and it'll make things easier. Meanwhile I have a long glass thermometer, the kind in a metal holder with the temp markings on it. It takes up a whole row of egg cups, there's no place else to put it.

If you wash the bottom after a hatch, (and you need to, to prevent bacterial contamination in later hatches) it will very likely leak forever after, so that you won't be able to use the water channels in the bottom anymore, unless you buy the liner, as well, another very overpriced bit. That's why I need space for little water containers.

If you don't have a turner, you really need to put a sheet of that rubbery mesh type non-slip shelf liner on top of the hardware cloth screen. The metal screen won't quite ever lay flat, and the eggs will roll against each other. The rubber mesh helps a lot with that. It's nicer surface for chicks to hatch out on, too, it's softer and gives them good traction while they build up some leg strength. I think it helps prevent leg injuries to new hatchlings, too, by preventing them from slipping and pulling or tearing tiny muscles and tendons.

On the positive side, the LG has been very good at holding a steady temp, (once you get it adjusted, that can take a day or two, so set it up ahead of time, if you get one of these) very small fluctuation, it goes between 99 and 99.5F, perfect.

My hatch rates improved with the addition of the fan kit, and the kit eliminates having to constantly rearrange the eggs, too. Less handling, less chance of contamination or breakage.

I have a batch in right now, in the turner. So far, so good, I hope. I'm re-candling in just a little bit to see how they are. I let my humidity get too high during the first week, but the folks here have reassured me that they're probably just fine.

I'm planning to take these out and stick them under my broodies, just before they hatch. This way they won't lose half of them to breaking them in the nest, or that's the hope, anyway. On day 18, I'm planning to remove the auto-turner, and put the eggs in cartons, so they'll be big-end-up. They seem to do better that way.

To me, having hens raise the chicks is the way to go, I don't really have time to fool with them a lot. But the breakage rate is high in the nests, unless you have room to isolate each hen and give her an area of her own. I've done that when I only have 1 or 2 broodies, and when my flock size is at it's lowest, (usually in the spring) but right now I have 36 chickens, and 5 are broody. They play musical nests when they don't get a private area, and you can lose a lot of eggs that way. So with the 'bator, I don't have to keep tabs on the hens and their nests. I just have to keep an eye on the temp/humidity. Until I move the eggs to the hens, anyway. Or maybe I'll wait 'til they hatch, and slip new babies under the hens, sneaking in by dark of night.

The upside of hatching in the 'bator and without hens, is you get to hold the little chicks and pet and fuss over them, and feed them, etc. The downside is you get to hold the little chicks and pet and fuss over them, and feed them, etc.! If any are destined for freezer camp, that makes it harder. Also, if you're busy, taking care of a brooder full of chicks can be quite a handful.

 

[chicksgalore]

I was looking for Miss Prissy's instructions on building your own incubator but couldn't find it. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I was wondering if I would be able to add a fan myself to my LG.

 

[MissPrissy]

The directions are in the link in my signature line.

I have 7 incubators.

If you buy an incubator - buy the genesis. It is the biggest bang for your buck if you are a beginner hatcher. If you can afford it get the turner. Hand turning looses its novelty fast.

I do not mix fowl in incubation. Gamebirds (like quail and turkeys), waterfowl and chickens and guineas all need a different length of time and conditions for a good hatch. I do often stagger hatches but I have enough incubators that I use some for hatchers and some for incubators as needed.

There is never a guarentee that you will have a good hatch.

Shipped eggs are always a guessing game. Some you will excellent hatch rates and others you will be sadly disappointed with 0 hatches. It is a risk you have to be willing to take to get better than average, better than hatchery quality stock.

Hatching is an experience everyone needs to have in their portfolio. Especially fo children to see life exploding from a egg shell. It is one of the most moving times I know of. I cry at the sheer awesome power of every single hatch.

 

[miss_jayne]

Quote:
thanks MissPrissy! i was thinking of incubating mostly for that very reason, that my children would have the awesome experience. i'll probably blubber like a baby!

i still think i am in agreement with you on the genesis...easy, breezy and we have laying hens. i am not a breeder, not interested in breeding, just more hens for us to use. would have plenty of mutty eggs for free.

again, thanks!

 

[chicksgalore]

Wow, that is really a cool incubator Miss Prissy. I'm going to hold onto that idea...