Simulated Natural Nest Incubation~Experiment #1 So it begins....

[foxvalleyfarm]

A range of 99.5-100.5 seems to be where it wants to stay...sort of levels off there and stays at that temp when it finally gets the nest up to the right temps.  I think this heating pad is remarkable in holding a steady temp.  I had an ancient heating pad in the back of my cupboard that I experimented with first on my thermometer and it couldn't hold temps at all...it only had three settings and none of them seemed to be the right one and on one setting the temps would waffle back and forth.

I'm glad I had access to this variable setting, digital heating pad of a newer sort to finally do the nesting with...it's been very steady and reliable. 


Thanks!  That would explain it, then.  And so typical...girls can always handle more extremes than guys...           Just funnin'...don't burn me at the stake for that one! 

Ok. I'm going to walmart later today and will look for that heating pad and when I finally get home I'll set up a box in my bathroom. And we'll see what happens.

 

[Beekissed]

Ok. I'm going to walmart later today and will look for that heating pad and when I finally get home I'll set up a box in my bathroom. And we'll see what happens.

Remember all my mistakes....get your nest temps right before adding eggs, more soil in the bottom of the box so that it will hold better humidity, don't forget and leave them with~eggs exposed, on high temps, or go out of town while ambient temps drop into the 20s.

 

[chickkrzi]

However, while the embryos of both genders of egg have a similar ideal temperature girls can handle a different extreme than males. So incubating too warm/cold for one gender than the other COULD influence the ratio of boys to girls in the hatch but only in the sense that you hatch out fewer total eggs in the first place by killing off some of the others.

I remember reading something about this sometime ago. And if I remember right you should hatch more hens at a lower temperature, and more males if your incubator ran at higher temps.

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

Remember all my mistakes....get your nest temps right before adding eggs, more soil in the bottom of the box so that it will hold better humidity, don't forget and leave them with~eggs exposed, on high temps, or go out of town while ambient temps drop into the 20s. 

Yes ma'am. I'm gonna set it up tonight(if I have time) and let it get to temp. Tho I need to find feathers and learn how to make a water wiggle.

 

[Beekissed]

Yes ma'am. I'm gonna set it up tonight(if I have time) and let it get to temp. Tho I need to find feathers and learn how to make a water wiggle.

At Walmart they have some very lovely feather boas back in the crafty section and I think they even have bags of brightly colored feathers....could be your nest will be very festive! Water wiggle can just be two sandwich baggies that seal shut with a zip strip, filled partially with water, get all the air out, fold over the top and tape the two bags together to form a water bag sandwich of sorts...but plump instead of flat. You will have more success with using actual water balloons and I'm going to get me some when next I go to town...cheap, won't leak and will maintain a round shape better.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Chik, that's right. But it doesn't work the way people hope... A lower temp will hatch out all the eggs.... A higher temp will only hatch out the boys!!!

There is some evidence that chicken eggs can be converted from males into females like reptile eggs... But in this case if you bred them to a male chicken they would only carry male chromosomes and so would only give you roosters as a result. The research on this is very new and even in the most controlled experiments they hint at this working on maybe 10% of eggs.

In short, you get what you get unless you want all roosters for some reason...

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

At Walmart they have some very lovely feather boas back in the crafty section and I think they even have bags of brightly colored feathers....could be your nest will be very festive!   Water wiggle can just be two sandwich baggies that seal shut with a zip strip, filled partially with water, get all the air out, fold over the top and tape the two bags together to form a water bag sandwich of sorts...but plump instead of flat.  You will have more success with using actual water balloons and I'm going to get me some when next I go to town...cheap, won't leak and will maintain a round shape better. 

It would be very festive. And hum...I'll have to look at some water ballons. I wonder if I could stick the meat thermo into a non fertile egg and just change it every so often so it won't start smelling. I wonder if that would give an even better idea of the inside temp of the eggs...

 

[Adelina]

Walmart cheap toy section has water wigglers... So one stop shopping

 

[Beekissed]

Walmart cheap toy section has water wigglers... So one stop shopping

Good to know!!

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

Hum...in that case...