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

[Beekissed]

Bee, Googling around a bit about woodstove incubating, I found this. Perhaps it gives some more ideas:

"In the early 80's I knew an old woman in Western North Carolina She lived where Fairfield's Apple Valley is today above Lake Lure NC. She used a shoebox slid under a woodstove for an incubator. This is how she did it:
A shoebox with a cut piece of car tire inner tube lining the bottom. About 2 inches of river sand on top of that, water added to make the sand moist. using an egg she would make 2 depressions in the sand for each egg so when she rolled the egg from depression to depression it would turn the egg 180 degrees. In these she put her eggs and put a lid on it. With her bare foot she would feel the floor next to the woodstove. Her bare foot was the only thermometer she ever used. sliding the box to where " It just feels right " . She never used a calendar. She would roll the eggs before Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and before bed. This was her daily ritual until she heard the peeping from the eggs when she would stop turning them. The next day and the day after she removed her chicks with a perfect hatch rate every time.
This Lady was 92 years old when I met her.
She passed away 2 years later at age 94."

LOVE this story! Sounds like a story out of one of the Foxfire books...I'll have to look at mine and see if they have anything on incubating eggs in this manner. Thank you for this story...love the old times!

 

[Beekissed]

I had a similar experience when mine picked me up from the store yesterday. I had a heating pad, feather boa, meat thermometers, dirt, and water ballons. I also had 3 easter baskets. He gave me a questioning look so I said "For the chickens." He just shook his head and said "I shoulda known."

Good man.

Hilarious!! My husband would have wanted me to model said boa and get pictures to boot! This whole experiment has been very interesting and illuminating as well as educational. We're currently stuck in a concrete jungle

but I'm trying to shorten the learning curve for when we set up our homestead.

Bee, and everyone else, thanks for being so transparent in your successes and failures! Your willingness to share is much appreciated.

I have very little pride...no one learns from pride, least of all me. It's the ability to admit failures and then climb back up out of them that I admire in others, so I guess I try to model that in my life as well. If you think about it, we learn best those lessons we have to repeat. I so want to learn!

Thanks for following along and your kind words!

I guess it just depends whose farm we're talking about.
For instance, I have spare thermostats laying around, but have never in my whole adult life had balloons or water balloons in it.

As for using fleece, keep in mind it's plastic and doesn't breath well at all, and may suffocate your eggs.

Good point and I'm glad you said that...I hadn't thought of it. See? This is why I put these experiments out here as I am in the middle of them and not after I have done them....more minds than mine on the project can help me be successful. I just went and removed my big ol' fleece and feather filled broody mama pillow and replaced it with a much, much smaller and very loose feather filled pillow that just covers the heating pad but does not seal in the sides like the other pillow did.

Thank you!!

 

[Beekissed]

I'm going to try to keep this nest's internal temps a little cooler...try to keep them on 99.0 this time. I have an even dozen eggs in the nest and I let them come up to the nest temps gradually today....no impatience on my part. Will try to turn and air them three times a day or as often as I am passing the box...not airing for a long time but just the kind of airing it would take for a broody to stand up and move the eggs or get up for poop, eat and drink but not for long periods and never for longer than 20-30 min..but most often just for a few minutes.

This is the final nest and it has to be the one......spring hatch here we come!

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

I'm going to try to keep this nest's internal temps a little cooler...try to keep them on 99.0 this time.  I have an even dozen eggs in the nest and I let them come up to the nest temps gradually today....no impatience on my part.  Will try to turn and air them three times a day or as often as I am passing the box...not airing for a long time but just the kind of airing it would take for a broody to stand up and move the eggs or get up for poop, eat and drink but not for long periods and never for longer than 20-30 min..but most often just for a few minutes. 

This is the final nest and it has to be the one......spring hatch here we come! 

Good luck. I moved my adventure to it's own thread and am now just waiting for eggs.

 

[subhanalah]

Hurray! I'm very excited!
You can completely cover the nest, but it would need to be made of a natural fiber that breathes very well. Cotton velour/jersey/flannel/terry, bamboo velour/terry, hemp velour/jersey/french terry are great examples.

 

[EEBLACKCOPPERMARAN]

Did you candle a egg? How did it go? This is a very interesting experiment!!!!

 

[chickencrazy999]

Heya Am following this thread fingers crossed the eggs will hatch

 

[Beekissed]

Did you candle a egg? How did it go? This is a very interesting experiment!!!!

I just started the newest nest yesterday to nothing to candle just yet....but I'll keep this thread updated when I do.

Heya Am following this thread fingers crossed the eggs will hatch

Thank you!

Today I measured the surface of the nest temps at the same time as I measured the internal egg temps and the internal temps showed 99.0 and surface showed 109.0 if this digital thermometer can be trusted. I'm using a regular thermometer to measure internal egg temps...I don't really trust digital thermometers....just an old nurse's learned distrust of anything digital to be accurate as you cannot calibrate them for accuracy if they are not.

If this is to be believed, it's no wonder the first nest did not develop....I was incubating at around 89-90* for internal egg temps on that one. Live and learn...

I was very pleased to find the soil under the nest warm and moist, more so than the first nest I had put together that had less soil, more bedding and wasn't holding moisture quite so well. This amount of soil seems to be just perfect for holding moisture so I'm not misting the feathers/eggs as frequently as before. On mist about every other egg turning, if that. Just keeping that soil moist, much like a sponge in a traditional incubator.

 

[chickkrzi]

I just started the newest nest yesterday to nothing to candle just yet....but I'll keep this thread updated when I do. 


Thank you! 

Today I measured the surface of the nest temps at the same time as I measured the internal egg temps and the internal temps showed 99.0 and surface showed 109.0 if this digital thermometer can be trusted.  I'm using a regular thermometer to measure internal egg temps...I don't really trust digital thermometers....just an old nurse's learned distrust of anything digital to be accurate as you cannot calibrate them for accuracy if they are not.

If this is to be believed, it's no wonder the first nest did not develop....I was incubating at around 89-90* for internal egg temps on that one.  Live and learn...

I was very pleased to find the soil under the nest warm and moist, more so than the first nest I had put together that had less soil, more bedding and wasn't holding moisture quite so well.  This amount of soil seems to be just perfect for holding moisture so I'm not misting the feathers/eggs as frequently as before.  On mist about every other egg turning, if that.  Just keeping that soil moist, much like a sponge in a traditional incubator. 

Good luck with this clutch, have my fringes crossed. When I hatch ( with LG incubator) I used a folded over zip lock bag and use a baby's thermometer. Checking temperature only when I turned the eggs. I had more confidence that my air temp was right.
again good luck!

 

[Tomtommom]

A lot of older folks used to hatch chicks near the wood stove (I believe reading even about UNDER the stove, somehow.. sounds like breakfast to me, really.) These electronic incubators have only been around for 20-30 years.. Just gotta relearn the old methods