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

[AmyLynn2374]

Even BYC bought Ameraucanas

Yes, yes, I saw that...lol

 

[meganhundley]

Cold?

Not really cold but significantly cooler than the others. I read somewhere that if an egg feels cooler than the others it's more than likely a quitter.

 

[Ravynscroft]

I have 2 pips!!!!! And 1 is working hard at pipping I think.

Yay!!! About time!!!

Now remember the post from earlier?? Think it was from lazy gardner...
A hand goes under each side...

Lol, I'm not touching them, I'm afraid I'll kill them.

Apparently the second group does not know that!!  The first group got the message, why not these guys?  I am concerned with the egg size though...lol Does that sound familiar?? No seriously I am. Some of  these eggs aren't any bigger than the smalls at the store. Some are mediums. I guess we'll find out. Serious question. I know little about broodiness and unlike me haven't done a ton of research since the first went broody. Does a broody hen entice the others to become hormonal as well and go broody?

Congrats!!! Now wait to do any candling until you have no more hatchers and pippers.

Broodiness is a very contagious disease... spreads like wildfire throughout the flock and takes down the most susceptible first... I had at least 7 at one time this summer and think at one point was up tp 11...

Most first timers are easily breakable... toss them out a couple times and they get offended and give up...
I have a 'broody instigator' who only breaks when she gets my best broody going...
Seriously though... a great broody is worth her weight in gold... using all flock feed makes it easier to keep them in the flock and she will do all the work... it's awesome, but you got to weed out the useless broodys first...

 

[BYC910]

I'm loving this!!! This is great!!

the only problem is with our support group . they make it so you want to do more not less . this can get really bad if your not careful you'll be setting every week like me . all it takes is two incubators running all the time . and a whole lot of money for feed and constant work on coops . and turning anything you can find into something to put chickens in . I'm even thinking about turning my old TV cabinet into a brooder . what have I done to myself . sure hope rock bottom is getting close.

 

[meganhundley]

Yay!!! About time!!!

Now remember the post from earlier?? Think it was from lazy gardner...
A hand goes under each side...

Broodiness is a very contagious disease... spreads like wildfire throughout the flock and takes down the most susceptible first... I had at least 7 at one time this summer and think at one point was up tp 11...

Most first timers are easily breakable... toss them out a couple times and they get offended and give up...
I have a 'broody instigator' who only breaks when she gets my best broody going...
Seriously though... a great broody is worth her weight in gold... using all flock feed makes it easier to keep them in the flock and she will do all the work... it's awesome, but you got to weed out the useless broodys first...

Yep, 1 hand under each cheek!! I'm sitting on the floor beside the table that the bator is sitting on just listening to the sweet little peeps that are coming from inside!!

 

[scflock]

Yes, yes, I saw that...lol

I would take it as a sign. Put the soap box away, and get back to the "fun and playful" vibe of the thread

 

[scflock]

Yep, 1 hand under each cheek!! I'm sitting on the floor beside the table that the bator is sitting on just listening to the sweet little peeps that are coming from inside!!

You'll still be doing the same thing in 6 hours. Take a nap

 

[sideWing]

Superman would look a bit happier than that, irl, I think?

Final count is 9/12 So, 75% Full on blue this time(unless you count 2 candles and marking the air cells at lockdown as red/purple).

2/2 BA's, and 7/10 Rhodebars(3 girls and 4 boys).

We ran lower and moister this time. Last time we ran high and dry. We also candled a lot more.
So, now I guess we'll have to collect more Rhodebar eggs and run a high/dry hatch to see if it was the method used or the stock that lowered our hatch rate.
Drat, and hubbs thought he was hiding the bator from me until the HRIR get here.

We are in love, though!











@sideWing , I didn't get to taking pics today, try again tomorrow.

@meganhundley , How's it going?

@E1 else,

I'm 393 posts behind this morning. If you post the pics @gachooks please tag me so I don't miss them. Super cute chicks by the way.

I locked down last night. 14 good eggs at lockdown, but I kept 2 iffy ones in so there are 16 in the bator now. The new STC 1000 is amazing. I wish I would have done that a long time ago. I used to have a temp variation of 3-4 degrees and now it's about 1 degree.

@WalnutHill what Celsius do you set your STC 1000 for when you incubate chicken eggs? 37.7 seems to run my incubator at 102 so I turned it down a bit.

I have not checked the eggs under the broody, but I will candle them one of these nights to make sure she's getting something done while she's not laying eggs.

 

[meganhundley]

the only problem is with our support group . they make it so you want to do more not less . this can get really bad if your not careful you'll be setting every week like me . all it takes  is two incubators running all the time . and a whole lot of money for feed and constant work on coops . and turning anything you can find into something to put chickens in . I'm even thinking about turning my old TV cabinet into a brooder . what have I done to myself . sure hope rock bottom is getting close.

Yeah, I've noticed, lol. Ever since I got my first chickens a couple months ago all I want to do is get more, lol. And ever since I saw the 1st shadow in these eggs all I've wanted is to get more eggs, this is bad, lol.

 

[WalnutHill]

Understood. But what if your hatches were running < 25% hatch rate? Experience may not help, and suggestions even from the experienced helpful folks at BYC may not help because there ARE so many good but divergent methods that can work. Mix and match advice will not work, so if it was me (and it was at one time) I started with PASreform and once I was following those guidelines, I found I needed to scrap my crappy incubators because I can't watch them and heat and cool rooms and use blankets to make up for crappy thermostats. A thermostat is supposed to be a thermostat...we demand it in our homes, if I want 72 degrees I want it no matter what temperature it is outside, no reason to expect less of a "precise" incubator!

Now that I have had good hatches limited only by egg quality, I am able to further refine profiles to account for my variable environment rather than a controlled lab environment. Each one of us does this, and shares in hopes of helping others. But my incubation program won't work at 6000 feet ASL, nor in a very dry or very moist climate. Heck, thanks to Michigan where the weather changes hour by hour, I just shoot for averages. In the GQF, I add one coffee cup of water to the water pan twice a week. It seems to work. Very unscientific, but there is little danger of overhumidification or underhumidification in this fashion.