Texas

[oweirdo]

whoo!! 4 hatched

 

[oweirdo]

I have found this concept floating around BYC of the need to "lockdown" to be a myth. I do not "lockdown" my incubators, I get in there when I need to and it has not negatively affected hatch rates. I pull chicks out that aren't even completely dry if I find that they are getting too rowdy in the incubator. The chicks do fine as do the eggs still trying to hatch.

Hens have been hatching eggs for centuries. They do not stick themselves and their eggs inside containers with strictly controlled humidity and temperature levels. And yet, chickens have survived all these years with very little human intervention, as have birds in the wild - without the aid of electricity to run incubators, or heat lamps, or even having people build them fancy houses.

Something to think about as you raise chickens and think you need to baby them so much.

What I am worried about is, My turner is part of the bator, I can unplug it to stop turning or put down a wire floor under the "no turn eggs". but it does take time with the lid off. I guess I'm worried about the 10-15 minutes of getting all the eggs out, putting in the wire, and then putting all the eggs back in. I need to do this so only the eggs that need to turn can turn and the rest can then rest.
The six that just hatched were on the wire floor, and I did have to remove them quickly so they wouldn't fall through the turning floor, worried about the water below and the turner squashing them. Only one got over that way, it did slip through the squares but did not fall all the way in. He hatched overnight, the rest have hatched today, and after a nap I would move them under the heat lamp.
I guess I will have to play it by ear, I dont want to lose any of the next 3 dozen, but I know that it does happen. So i will just do my best and hope for the best!!

 

[bnjrob]

Thank you for sharing that. Twelve of my eggs are shipped and a few have saddle shaped air cells. I've seen what you're talking about on the cartons and that's how I was planning to let the misshapen air cell chicks hatch. I was going too lay the other eggs down but after hearing about your success, I might just hatch the entire batch this way. I also set 2 eggs 2 days later and I wasn't sure on how/if to turn them but if I do it the way you were talking about it will be perfect and easy!

Hope it works for you. I have not hatched eggs that were shipped so don't know how much difference it might make in those eggs that have been "mistreated" by the post office.

I have shipped eggs to a friend and even though the eggs arrived looking ok, nearly every one had their air cells detached. Shipped some more to her and had the same problem as well as that shipment having eggs broken. I swear the post office plays football with the boxes being shipped.

 

[bnjrob]

Plus a hen would keep them fairly stable while hatching not just rolling all over the place.

That was exactly my thought when I heard about hatching eggs in cartons. After seeing eggs rolling themselves all over the incubator for hours and then thinking that a hen would be keeping the eggs in place, I figured that was the best I was going to do to simulate a hen in the incubator. And it worked.

Now if all my stupid broody hens would go broody when I want them to go broody - I would just get rid of the incubator.

 

[bnjrob]

What I am worried about is, My turner is part of the bator, I can unplug it to stop turning or put down a wire floor under the "no turn eggs". but it does take time with the lid off. I guess I'm worried about the 10-15 minutes of getting all the eggs out, putting in the wire, and then putting all the eggs back in. I need to do this so only the eggs that need to turn can turn and the rest can then rest.
The six that just hatched were on the wire floor, and I did have to remove them quickly so they wouldn't fall through the turning floor, worried about the water below and the turner squashing them. Only one got over that way, it did slip through the squares but did not fall all the way in. He hatched overnight, the rest have hatched today, and after a nap I would move them under the heat lamp.
I guess I will have to play it by ear, I dont want to lose any of the next 3 dozen, but I know that it does happen. So i will just do my best and hope for the best!!

That's not much time at all to worry about the lid being off. Hens get off the nest to eat, drink, poop. In fact, there have been some studies regarding cooling eggs periodically to better simulate conditions when eggs are being hatched in a nest. My Brinsea incubator actually has a cooling setting to cool the eggs down periodically.

 

[lovingmyhens]

That was exactly my thought when I heard about hatching eggs in cartons. After seeing eggs rolling themselves all over the incubator for hours and then thinking that a hen would be keeping the eggs in place, I figured that was the best I was going to do to simulate a hen in the incubator. And it worked.

Now if all my stupid broody hens would go broody when I want them to go broody - I would just get rid of the incubator.

 

[hungnguyen]

Quote:
Hello from Austin. I raise the large Oriental games.

 

[hungnguyen]

Quote:
Rac, the rooster is so prettyyyyyyyyyy. How many you raising?

 

[LightningTFarm]

Hello from Deep East Texas! I live just north of Nacogdoches (only a little over a hour from you, Harley!) i don't have any chickens, I have ducks. I can't believe how many hours I spend reading this thread about everybody else's chickens when I don't even have any, but I do enjoy it. I had to go to a conference a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd never catch up!!

I raise Welsh Harlequin and Saxony ducks. Boy, those Saxony eggs are BIG!! I had to order some special egg cartons because their eggs are too big for the ones at Tractor Supply.

Here's a picture of my ducks from this winter, when they were out in the snow. The Saxony boys have grey heads and the girls are a beautiful buff color. The Welsh Harlequin boys have a bottle green head (sort of look like bigger mallards), and the girls are sort of speckled dun colored.

 

[TexasLisa]

Hello from Deep East Texas! I live just north of Nacogdoches (only a little over a hour from you, Harley!) i don't have any chickens, I have ducks. I can't believe how many hours I spend reading this thread about everybody else's chickens when I don't even have any, but I do enjoy it. I had to go to a conference a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd never catch up!!

I raise Welsh Harlequin and Saxony ducks. Boy, those Saxony eggs are BIG!! I had to order some special egg cartons because their eggs are too big for the ones at Tractor Supply.

Here's a picture of my ducks from this winter, when they were out in the snow. The Saxony boys have grey heads and the girls are a beautiful buff color. The Welsh Harlequin boys have a bottle green head (sort of look like bigger mallards), and the girls are sort of speckled dun colored.

Howdy from Rosenberg! Those are mighty fine looking ducks!! No chickens, huh? You realize that might change if you hang around here for very long.

Lisa