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

[morrisonmanor]

Thank you

 

[elorraine52]

wish I could start incubating some eggs, but am afraid that our inside temps have too much variation right now, we heat with wood so temps go way down at night....way out of the range that it recommends to have your room temp. be....guess I must wait....it's hard....

 

[morrisonmanor]

Today will be another learning day. New that I see what exact they are, can sometime help me with what to do with them. Since they are not what I "thought" they were I'm confused...

 

[Tomtommom]

I've read stories about women in rural areas of South-America/Africa hatching eggs on their bodies.. just one or two eggs at a time. I suppose when you're out in such areas, every chick counts. An extra chicken could mean an extra egg a day! That would be plenty of incentive to very gently carry an egg on your body for three weeks

 

[Tomtommom]

Someone said they were at Walmart but my mother asked for them yesterday and they acted like she had a third eye in her forehead. She searched the whole toy department and they are nowhere to be found. Here's a pic...

I bet they're a summer item... someone mentioned they found them on Ebay, and I am sure Amazon will have them too.

 

[Beekissed]

This morning all the eggs in Nest #2 were cracked open and you could see where many were actually fertilized but were not developing. I think that temp spike on the first day was too much for them and killed the eggs. Just yolks with the fertilized bull's eye in them but no development. One egg's white was a little white as if it had gotten too hot and cooked.

Placed new eggs in the nest this morning in a nest that is already up to temps, with eggs that I know have been fertilized...all the eggs we are eating now are all fertilized and my rooster has been working over time on his flock duties...and quite successfully. I'm almost glad to start a new nest because my oldest and best layer has come into lay again for the year and I get to try hatching some of her eggs, which is a bonus! Can't even imagine what those chicks will look like

a little red New Hampshire crossed with a big Silver Laced Cochin oughta be real interesting to see. She may be too old to have viable eggs that will hatch, but I'm hoping to get to see for myself.

Welcome to a new day, Nest #3!

Y'all pray for me that this is the one that I don't mess up? I'm going with a 99.0 internal temps if I can get it so I can err on the side of caution. If I don't do it this time, it's likely that I won't waste any more eggs on this project...but I don't know if I can help myself. I may continue to try to hatch smaller clutches until I get this to work, somehow and in some way.

If they hatch it will be on the first day of spring!!!

 

[Beekissed]

wish I could start incubating some eggs, but am afraid that our inside temps have too much variation right now, we heat with wood so temps go way down at night....way out of the range that it recommends to have your room temp. be....guess I must wait....it's hard....

I heat with wood too and my room pretty much stays at 40s and 50s at night...mostly in the 40s now. But...the nest temps stay the same unless it gets down into the 20s. This nest is not reactive to ambient temps as much as a traditional incubator, I don't think. It doesn't seem to waver much at all if the temps in that room reach above 60-70 or below 40, even, until it hits the 20s and below. The nest holds temps very well, IMO.

The soil below seems to insulate the eggs and the pillow on top of the heating pad seems to insulate it from above, much like in a broody situation. I get up all through out the night and those temps stay rock steady.

Today will be another learning day. New that I see what exact they are, can sometime help me with what to do with them. Since they are not what I "thought" they were I'm confused...

The water wiggler has a core that you cannot see from these pics...a place to insert a thermometer so that you can measure the temps inside the water filled balloon. It's like a water balloon donut but just elongated.

 

[Aacre]

Someone said they were at Walmart but my mother asked for them yesterday and they acted like she had a third eye in her forehead. She searched the whole toy department and they are nowhere to be found. Here's a pic...

Check party favor isles?

 

[subhanalah]

If it doesn't work out this time, I highly recommend looking into a cheap thermostat. Zilla makes a cheap on/off thermostat, but I don't know how steady the temperature stays.

 

[Beekissed]

I'll keep that in mind!

Well, in the absence of a water wiggler, I've taped two water balloons together and have my thermometer place between them. Their two shapes taped together sort of resembles one large, misshapen egg, so it just might work. Better then my sandwich baggy one that sort of went flat and flaccid on me.

Now's where it gets down to the nitty gritty....can I hatch out this third and final nest using just items one can find around any typical farm/country home? That's the question and is the goal here.

Materials currently in use: cardboard box, trash bag, dirt, hay, balloons, tape, meat thermometer, water, heating pad, feathers(may not be in every home but they are purely optional), spray bottle(also optional..one can merely pour water into the soil around the nest or wipe a wet rag over the undersurface of the heating pad when turning the eggs), saggy pillow, one saggy and poorly functioning human.

We shall see......