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

[Ravynscroft]

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.

Oh, that reminds me... I have a chart I need to dig up for you... for breeding Lav and Splits...
Best thing to do with those to keep it from getting messy is to take a Lav roo from your upcoming hatch and put him over your Splits... or I might have a decent cockerel here soon, lol...

Don't think your toes have touched down yet...

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!!

Glad you got some peeping now!

Yes, I thought so, because none of them have never shown signs of broodiness until my banty went broody then all of a sudden it's like they all want to sit on her eggs. A couple I toss out and after two or three times they will give up and walk away, but Raven just went and claimed her own spot. I think if any more decide they want to I'll try to break them or I'll be over run with chicks in colder weather and no eggs in the fridge. 2 is enough.

From that I'd say Raven will be your goto broody... my good one just stuck her butt down, no ifs, ands or butts about it... if they waffle, I just don't let them try...
I'm blue about picking broody's, lol... sh*t or get off the pot!!

 

[WalnutHill]

three times the first ones turned out to be EEs.

which I would not have known had you guys not told me . the all black black lavender splits should be laying in a few weeks. and now Rayvn's eggs when and If they hatch. and now a new problem the big red football that lives here is starting to sit in trees closer to my coops. can't let my chickens out without staying with them. I hope when I get the hay fields cut it will be able to catch rabbits and leave my chickens a lone. I have deflators but it is so big and pretty and all the chickens are covered. also deflating footballs is against the rules .

SSS that farm boy he ain't so dumb .

 

[meganhundley]

The broody saga continues! A lot of people that have asked about eggs, don't have any because "everyone is broody". So you're not alone. Is it a fall thing???
X2
Megan, no eggs should be cold to touch. Even if they are dead. If they are in the incubator they should all be the same temp regardless of what's going on inside. I'm wondering if you are leaving the lid off while incubating, are they getting cold? Cold spots in the incubator? Do you leave the lid off everyday when candling? Maybe that's what delayed your hatch...?

No I always put the lid back on immediately after removing each egg. I periodically check the temp all over inside and there aren't any spots with a significant difference in temp. They aren't cold, they are still warm, they are just cool enough to notice the difference between the live and dead eggs though. I can't remember where I read it but something said if you feel the egg and there's enough of a difference in temp between it and a live egg that it's probably a quitter.

 

[WVduckchick]

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

Ok, I'm slow, but YEAH!!!!

I didn't notice the pips til after I started candling the others, the speckles kind of camouflaged the pips, but I think all the others are DIS. They were cold to the touch and I didn't see any movement and the drawdown hadn't progressed any. So I think 3 will be it.

I was going to say similar to what Ruby said. Don't count any out yet!!

The broody saga continues! A lot of people that have asked about eggs, don't have any because "everyone is broody". So you're not alone. Is it a fall thing???
X2
Megan, no eggs should be cold to touch. Even if they are dead. If they are in the incubator they should all be the same temp regardless of what's going on inside. I'm wondering if you are leaving the lid off while incubating, are they getting cold? Cold spots in the incubator? Do you leave the lid off everyday when candling? Maybe that's what delayed your hatch...?

x2!

 

[Ravynscroft]

I think I know what Megan means, though.  My eggs that are DIS are incubator temp, but as soon as they are removed from the incubator they seem to cool down to the touch very quickly, where viable eggs "feel" warmer to the touch due to the life inside.  It's a risky thing indeed to test an egg that way, which is why I don't candle until I am sure they are duds.

x2

I noticed when I take out an entire tray to candle for quitters that the quitters cool off very fast while the live ones hold temp much longer...

 

[WalnutHill]

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.

The F4 setting is calibration. Lock down your sensor in a fixed location. Use your calibrated thermometer in the same location and use the F4 adjustment so that your displayed temp equals your calibrated thermometer temp. Once calibrated, I leave mine at 37.8 and it is dead on 100F.

 

[RubyNala97]

sure hope rock bottom is getting close.

This is so funny!!!

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

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.

Good luck on the hatch!! Hopefully pips by Wednesday morning! I don't want to get my hopes up by I have 3 that are still very active in the shells. I'm locking them down tonight.

Very good point Ruby. As this thread has gone along, I have seen several posts that say "I am becoming more and more blue". Don't think I have seen that for red

The first hatch is so exciting, and you want to be in there doing whatever you can. I did. My first hatch was horrible. How many of us can tell horror stories of our first hatch, and most of them were because we tried to do too much?

It's so true! I killed my first chick at the end of my first hatch. (Opened an egg and it was alive till I tore the membrane ) That was traumatic! I'm even trying to be more hands off, which is hard. But I've found I can candle without actually touching the eggs, so I'm able to get my fix!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

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

Discussing differences is what this was originally about and as long as it's done without malice there is no reason not to enjoy a good debate and exchange of differences.

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.

And that is why as an example with the vent conversation, I said that would be a good suggestion to make IF someone were having problems with chicks in that fashion. But since it wasn't my case, I would stick to what I have found works. When someone asks for help with something, I use what I have experienced over what I have heard as a recommendation and I ADD what other's have tried or other things that I have heard works. I think that it is better for people to hear and see an array of things that work for others so that they have options in front of them.

Take the co2 argument for example. The basis of that is the CO2 causes stress that in turn makes the embryo/chick stronger. It's not the co2 that makes them stronger, it is the stress. So how much stress is too much? Someone that has shipped eggs that have undergone an extreme amount of stress, would adding undo stress help or compromise? Someone like me who is not hands off-if you go by some people's philosophy I cause stress by "over candling". Is this why my chicks hatch out strong and I seldom have post hatch deaths-or is it the sav a chick I add to my water for every hatch? Don't know- but it's working, so why would I mess with it? When someone asks my opinion, I am going to base it on what I have experienced, but usually I will give other points of view.

If I had a hands off hatcher that was having weak small-hard to grow chicks I might say hey, Sally has a study about closing vents for co2 build up to help make them stronger. Check out the section in her article about it. But as a general question I am going to answer with "I keep mine out for the duration because that's what I have found works for me."

 

[sideWing]

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.

I agree with Ruby 100% and I would not throw an egg out because of temp, BUT when I use the temp gun on the egg shell the DIS eggs are typically 1.5 degrees cooler than the live ones after about day 16. Not scientific, but something I started to notice.

The broody saga continues! A lot of people that have asked about eggs, don't have any because "everyone is broody". So you're not alone. Is it a fall thing???
X2
Megan, no eggs should be cold to touch. Even if they are dead. If they are in the incubator they should all be the same temp regardless of what's going on inside. I'm wondering if you are leaving the lid off while incubating, are they getting cold? Cold spots in the incubator? Do you leave the lid off everyday when candling? Maybe that's what delayed your hatch...?

I'm expecting a little later than Wed morning since I had those temp drops. May have killed two weak ones, and delayed my hatch. We will see soon enough.

The F4 setting is calibration. Lock down your sensor in a fixed location. Use your calibrated thermometer in the same location and use the F4 adjustment so that your displayed temp equals your calibrated thermometer temp. Once calibrated, I leave mine at 37.8 and it is dead on 100F.

Thanks Walnut! I'm going to be such a thermometer nerd by the time I'm done.




What is the compressor setting? Do I need to worry about that one?

 

[Cockatrice6420]

So I had left the nest box in the kennel in the coop with the two dud eggs in it to try to entice the others to lay in there and leave my broody alone. Yesterday 2 or 3 eggs were actually laid in there. This morning when I went out to open the coops and check on everyone Raven was in there, so I was happy to see it was getting used. Just went back out to check for eggs and check on Sukoshi and Raven is still in there and if another chicken walks in front of her she screetches at them!! I mean she is vocal!. Sukoshi fans her feather and "growls" a bit, but Raven is full out momma bear voice. So, it'll be interesting to see if she is going to go full out broody. I took out the two dud eggs and let her keep the one she as on and added one I took out that got laid with Sukoshi's. If she is truely broody I'll let her have the eggs laid today, but this has got to be it! I didn't want to deal with broodies at all and now there's possibly two. It's starting to get chilly here especially at night. They could have waited until spring at least. I just find it funny that not a single hen in my first coop has gone broody in the almost year  that I have had them and these guys are hormonal left and right...lol

Broodies are intriguing. I had three hens force their broodiness on us, and two others I spent about a solid two weeks trying to break them of it. Four different breeds all one mission.