She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[scflock]

 

[Eggs-otic]

Well it was for it's time, but I have never used it. I have other eggs BCMarans in another incubator I have, which is a "Humidaire" incubator. It does a rocking/cradle turner. I think it is way better. I think the next time, I will use the Turn-X only as a hatcher. Here is a picture of the humidaire. One last question, with the cradle incubators, do I need to do any additional hand turning of eggs during incubation, or does it do enough ? The manual doesn't mention additional hand turning, but want to do what is best for the eggs. Any opinions on chick starter ? Whether to feed medicated or non medicated. My local feed store says medicated, but they don't raise chickens .... Sorry for all the questions .... Just want it turn turn out well ! Thank you !!!

 

[Eggs-otic]

Thank you .... that is encouraging .... I will take that to heart !!!

 

[scflock]

Well it was for it's time, but I have never used it. I have other eggs BCMarans in another incubator I have, which is a "Humidaire" incubator. It does a rocking/cradle turner. I think it is way better. I think the next time, I will use the Turn-X only as a hatcher. Here is a picture of the humidaire. One last question, with the cradle incubators, do I need to do any additional hand turning of eggs during incubation, or does it do enough ? The manual doesn't mention additional hand turning, but want to do what is best for the eggs. Any opinions on chick starter ? Whether to feed medicated or non medicated. My local feed store says medicated, but they don't raise chickens .... Sorry for all the questions .... Just want it turn turn out well ! Thank you !!!

I've never used that style of incubator, but I would assume the cradle does all of the turning necessary. I feed medicated chick feed. I'm not sure if it's a necessity or not, I just always have, and have never had chicks that hatched healthy die later

 

[Eggs-otic]

Thank you !

 

[scflock]

Why am I imagining Amy's poor guests all huddled in a corner while she rants about dry incubation and wet chicks?

 

[themenagerie]

My air cells were too small with my last hatch. This is what I did: ran completely dry (which brought me to around 20%) and left it dry until I had my first internal pip. I'd incubated all eggs flat until lock down. At lock down, I put all eggs upright in egg cartons, but left the bator dry until I heard chicks peeping in the bator. THEN, and not until then, I increased the humidity to 65%. When I saw the first pip, I kicked the humidity up to 75%. Occasionally, when I had occasion to open the bator, I'd check the eggs that didn't show any pips. I caught 1 or 2 that had pipped on the bottom, or below the middle that way, and was able to re-position them to increase the likelihood that they would be able to progress. I had to do a bit of assisting on a couple: one which was messed up by my broody, and tho other was a low pip that failed to progress. Both assists were successful, and it was the best hatch ever. (22/23 that went into lock down.)

I've had two mostly unsuccessful hatches... 3/9 and 5/24... I'm in your neighboring state of MA, so our climate is probably similar. The first one I did what the manual told me to do... (epic fail). I tried dry-ish for the second hatch... keeping it around 30-35, but once or twice it went up to 40 when i added water. Do you use a styro bator? I bought a brinsea eco 20 and I'm going to do a duelling bator hatch myself. Is there such a thing as TOO dry?

 

[WalnutHill]

Very nice!

 

[WVduckchick]

Yes I believe too dry would cause the air cell to grow too large which wont allow the chick enough room to grow big enough, nor properly. My opinion.

 

[WVduckchick]

Love it! Wanna make me one? Lol