Hatch-Along - Setting eggs on 2/8/13 Anyone want to join me?

[r4eboxer]

To be honest i kinda threw my bator together with things i found around the house (money being a bit tight). I lined an plastic storage box with polystyrene and a reflective emergency blanket. Attatched an old light fitting to the lid and put in a firelight bulb i pinched out of my mothers electric fire (hope she doesnt notice lol) attatched a thermostat that had been given to me and off to go. Was given a plan by a friend that was similar, but she used a cardboard box, and no reflective blanket (i added this in hope that it would help reflect the heat). she has done 6 hatches in her's, hatch rate for the most recent was 23 hatch from 30 eggs.

That is great!! I would have never thought of putting in a reflective blanket. I have a very heavy Styrofoam box (my in laws have quite a few of them, they stored their canning jars in them) The only problem is they have pretty big "vents" all around. I would like to make hatchers out of them so I can use my second bator for more eggs.

I bet I could use some gorilla tape and put one of those reflective blankets in. What do you do for humidity? I think if I just put some wet sponges in with some rocks it would work good for a hatcher.

That was very industrious of you.

 

[chucksaway]

I have a bowl with a sponge in for humidity, this seems to be doing the job humidity is reading at 50 %. Will pop in another when i put the bator into lockdown. I think your boxes would work well for hatchers. Like my daughter always says 'nothing ventured, nothing gained.'

 

[OR4-hmom]

Sorry to sound dumb, but can i ask what is an EE not quite up with all the abreviations yet lol. Will post pics when they hatch and keep all posted, if thats ok think the family are a bit fed up of all the chicken talk lol. Good luck with your hatch r4eboxer, keep us posted is nice to hear how other peoples hatches are going.

EE, aka Easter Egger, most commonly sent out by hatcheries that breed bird that lay colored eggs, not pure Ameraucana or Araucana.

 

[chucksaway]

Facinating about EE i dont think that we have those here, bet they are attractive looking birds though. I think my kids would love to have birds called easter eggers though, rhey want stablepoots just because they sound funny lol.

 

[r4eboxer]

Stablepoots is a new one for me, what do they look like?

 

[r4eboxer]

Plugged in my my incubating bator this nmorning. I have not put any water in for humidity yet. I want to see how long it takes to get to temp without water, when I get to 99 ill add some water slowly. Right now my room humidity is around 20 percent. Pretty low, a few days ago my room humidity was around 30. I have marked and weighed my eggs. I got two more EE eggs yesterday but they were poopy, I wasn't going to set them but this hatch is my yearly experiment so I put them in water and washed off the poo. I marked which eggs I washed so we shall see how they do. I am most likely going to set tomorrow but if I'm not happy with my temp and humidity ill put it off another day.

 

[chucksaway]

Tried to upload image, dont think that it worked though, they look like D'Uccle bantams. My kids like telling their friends what differant breeds of chickens there are.

 

[chucksaway]

Better pic of a stableppot, very handsome birds, these are the lemon variety.

 

[OR4-hmom]

Looks similar to a mille fleur d'uccles. When I read it the first time I read Sebastapool, it's sure not the curly goose I had in mind. They are cute but I try to stay away from feather footed breeds. We have red clay soil and after it gets wet the birds sound like they are wearing tap shoes from all the mud balls that dry on their feet. The six brahams I have are plenty.

 

[r4eboxer]

They are very pretty, I especially like the lemon one. I've been looking at some birds with feathered feet but I haven't jumped in with two feet yet.
My bator went up to 105, I didn't adjust the temp yet. I added the rocks to see how that will affect the temp. It did bring it down a few degrees. I am going to have to adjust the rest of the day I think. I have a dial to adjust and it is very touchy. I can't wait until I can afford a better bator.