Setting up today 26 May 2012.... Anyone setting can join

[AlpineSpringsRanch]

aww, so sorry.
I had a near crisis, have my meat therm set to alarm at 102 so I can avert higher spike and after some dental work I went to sleep. Woke up and looked at therm and it was at 102.5 and rising

so here i run with the fan and open the vents on the bator as the the little red light indicating that it is heating is burning away!!! Finally we are steady at 101. It's not that hot today, overcast and kinda humid, not sure what caused that. Next time I do this I am buying or building an incubator. What do you folks use for a heat source?

I'm using a 38w Light bulb with a water heater thermostat and a Computer fan for ventilation. I didn't do the water heater thermostat mod. I probably should at some point. I'm not too worried at this point the incubator stays between 99 and 102 and my first eggs are still growing at 13 days. I will only change things up if I have problems with this big hatch..I'm still learning so I realize that some trial and error is to be expected.

 

[seahoob]

That's great news. I will be waiting until day nine to candle mine. I ended up moving the bactor into the house because of the large temp swings we have been having here in Nor Cal. Had the temp in the bator spike to around 104 for an unknown length of time (at least 4 hours) a few days ago. Even sense moving the whole set-up into the house, everything has been running just fine. Certainly, looking forward to seeing if the eggs made it but I am resigned to wait 3 more days just to play it safe.

is your incubator forced air or still?

I am using a still air incubator.

 

[Lyssa]

My eggs arrived this early afternoon. I have unwrapped them and have them settling. I am going to put 8 under my broody hen, but the rest I am going to put in a incubator. I have never done incubating before, I have always let my hen hatch them, but she can't sit on 16 eggs... so, here I go!

 

[Lyssa]

Well, my DH talked me into setting 6 under the hen and the rest in an incubator. We, of course, decided on the incubator at 5:40pm and had to race to the Feed store to get it before 6pm... but all's well and we got it all up and running last night. At about 9 pm 11 eggs went into the incubator and 6 eggs went under the hen, who was probably really happy to lose the golf balls she had been sitting on. We have been able to keep the temp steady at 99.3, so I think that will work. This is my first time ever using a incubator. Not very deep in my brain is a sincere hope, really really hoping, that all the eggs hatch within a day of each other, because my master plan is to have the hen raise all the babies. I just didn't think she could set on 17 eggs.

How many chicks can a hen raise? I think that 17 will be too many, but I ordered the eggs through the mail, and I don't know how many will actually hatch. I've read that hens can raise 12-14 chicks... any thoughts on this?

 

[AlpineSpringsRanch]

I've had a hen who consistently hatched and raised 10 - 12 on her own about 7 or 8 years ago at my other ranch. Cutest thing ever the trail of chicks following her where ever she went. She was just a large fowl mix breed.

 

[AlpineSpringsRanch]

Candled two today since I was turning. Both were jittering around like jitterbugs!

 

[Lyssa]

how exciting! How did the jittery little eggs look?

 

[vibratingtoad]

Candled today, it looks like only 5 out of 27 eggs aren't doing anything, the rest all look very productive, I'm amazed
I hope everything continues going so great!

Good luck to everyone!

 

[seahoob]

Just finished up candling my set. Everything is looking good

. I am amazed that all but one showed great signs of life (14 out of 15) with plenty of veins. The one in question is just to dark (egg color) to really tell what is happening in there. Have a great night all.

Sean

 

[AlpineSpringsRanch]

Moved my older (by a week) four into lock down and candled my 28 for this group. This is only my second set of eggs ever so I took a real good look at each egg. EVERY egg had movement except for 2. They were pretty clearly what I would expect a "Blood Ring" to be. I examined them three or four times and compared and I am sure they were no good. But everybody else is still going strong!