Some incubator questions...

[SpiritedFarm]

if my "hatching" box is not ready by a week this coming saturday, I am going to create a wire/mesh "box" that will fit in the top hatching tray.
There is the most clearance on that tray (about the same space and clearance as the hatching area in the bottom)
I am using mesh so I can see what is going on without having to open the door while chicks are pipping.

Too bad you are not closer, i have 8 quail trays i doubt i will use.

What breeds are you hatching this time?

 

[Bettacreek]

Breeds, eh, I'm not 100% sure. I have some barred americanas, some pekin duck eggs, some EE and something that look like serama eggs (are OEGB eggs as small as seramas? Maybe that's what they are?). I also have 30 button quail eggs coming next week and 12 silkie/showgirl eggs. I hope this year goes as well as when I did this two years ago... I sold off eggs/chicks and made enough money back to cover the feed costs of all of my animals. I want a low cost way to raise some meat and eggs to eat. Pekin ducks sound delicious. I'd love to do some cornish x again... maybe if I really do some selling of eggs/chicks I can afford to order a bunch to butcher out, and still pay for the feed with my sales.

ETA: That sounds like a really good idea. Just be careful that they don't have any way to touch the heating wires. The other thing to be careful of is that they don't get caught in the turning thing... I've lost quail chicks (forgot hatching dates) that got caught in the racks of the turners. :/

 

[cashdl]

Just so you know the chicken egg racks hold 96 eggs which is way more than egg cartons hold. If you are using quail racks they can be double stacked also. I bought a ton of pink plastic egg racks because they were cheap. They are way sturdier than using egg cartons. they are dishwasher safe ( and I washed mine) I am as frugal as the next person but this is money well spent. I set a plastic egg rack on top of my incubator and as I collect eggs from the hens I fill up the egg rack, then when I am ready to set the eggs in the incubator for the week, I pick up 48 eggs at a time in a very sturdy holder and load them onto the turning tray. When I am candeling eggs, I take out the whole plastic egg rack and candle each egg at a time then put the whole egg rack back. When I was using egg cartons it was a major pain in the butt, you pull out 1 either 18 pack or 12 pack or if you have cut them down to fit in all the spaces you have to be careful about those also, and at some point the egg cartons are beyond their life span and here hoping you don't find that end when you are picking up a carton full of your eggs to put in the hatcher.

But thats just me. It only takes one batch of dropped eggs before the little tabs on the plastic egg racks where you can grap and hold on tight become very handy.

Lanae.

 

[Bettacreek]

the ones I was looking at only hold 30 per tray, 2 per rack. Where did you find your's at?

 

[cashdl]

I found mine on ebay. They are pink and hold 48 per tray and two trays fit in the shelf. Here is a link to an auction right now for 6 of them. This is the person I got mine from.



Lanae

 

[Bettacreek]

No link! Lol.

 

[cashdl]

Somedays it doesn't pay to get out of bed. Here is the link, sorry. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chick-Maste...&otn=4&po=LVI&ps=63&clkid=8321394324674085157


Lanae

 

[Bettacreek]

Unfortunately those ones won't fit in the incubator. I just remembered Cutlersupply.com and checked their prices... Dirt cheap compared to ebay.