The 5th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[angelobutter]

Your eco is digital. That adjustment is for small adjustments of changing for a different breed.

The way it should work is like thisl:

Get local eggs that hatch well like EE eggs.
Use a spot check or Thermo works thermometer to test the temperature. If it reads close to 99.5, you are good to go
Hatch the EE eggs and do not adjust that red peg.
If the eggs hatch on time and the chicks look healthy, leave the adjustment alone.

Adjust up or down based on what the hatch did and use your good thermometers.

My guess is that the thermometers are flaky.

How is it digital? I mean it must digitally adjust itself internally like to a preset temperature, but nothing I can adjust except the peg, there are literally no buttons on it anywhere. (and PEG! thats the word i was looking for haha i thought, knob, dial, switch, thingie? lol)
the two i have working now work fine, you are right though it probably is the thermometer in my other one, I just got a replacement though so I will see if that is the case.
edited because now that i think of it, i had a second thermometer in there and it read the same as the one that comes with the brinsea, so maybe not the thermometer?

 

[angelobutter]

double post

 

[Sally Sunshine]

[Hey Sally, did your electric come back on yet? I have been thinking of you and your incubators all day... I hope they get it fixed soon!/SIZE]

FINALLY! Thank you!! we left everything set up (generator and cords) though as its really blowing, nasty icy and slush now! We didnt even know this was coming!!
Did you see my post on the funny contest thread? ha ha ha

 

[bantiesrule]

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THAT ARE DONATING!!

Thank you everyone who made this happen!!! You guys rock!!! I always look forward to the hatch a longs!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS DONATED TO OUR SICKNESS.... UM ... I MEAN CONTEST.

This is my first year with the hatch a long but it's been very intertaining. There is no way I can keep up with all the posts but I skim through most of them and read Ron's daily updates so I don't think I missed too much. Thanks to all!!!
Now, my total egg count is 7, only 7. I have 6 from my Mille Fleur OEGBs and 1 from my mixed OEGBs, which I'm almost positive is from my favorite little hen so just had to stick it in there. I put them under a broody hen. I think I have another hen that might be thinking of sitting so I'm going to save another 6 to 8 eggs from my Milles to put under her and then I can let everyone free range together again. The milles aren't happy being cooped up and are only giving me 1 egg a day from 4 hens, I keep telling them to lay a bunch and I'll let them out again but I don't think they're listening.

 

[ronott1]

How is it digital? I mean it must digitally adjust itself internally like to a preset temperature, but nothing I can adjust except the peg, there are literally no buttons on it anywhere. (and PEG! thats the word i was looking for haha i thought, knob, dial, switch, thingie? lol)
the two i have working now work fine, you are right though it probably is the thermometer in my other one, I just got a replacement though so I will see if that is the case.
edited because now that i think of it, i had a second thermometer in there and it read the same as the one that comes with the brinsea, so maybe not the thermometer?

The controller is digital as opposed to a mechanical controller filled with fluid. The red knob sets the temperature digitally.

Basically once the thermostat is set in the incubator you do not have to touch it. It is like the rocker switches in the genesis. Those are set at the factory and you are not supposed to mess with them during incubation. The eco was set at 99.5 at the factory too. Most people do not use an accurate thermometer(I know you are trying!) so the incubator is usually more accurate than the thermometer used, which can be off by 10 degrees.

That is why they are hard to get to. It is on purpose. I have been watching these hatch a longs for several years now and have seen the adjustments mess things up a bunch.

Does anyone remember @Mahonri ?

 

[CGinJCMO]

I have my eggs into the incubator (I got 340 messages to go to catch up, and while I'm catching up there'll be a lot more posting I'm sure)

16 BLRW (started them on Thursday so they wouldn't get too old - bought from local breeder so didn't want to take any chances. Plus I hope they'll hatch before the EEs and I'll tag them somehow so I'll know them apart from my EEs. never had BLRW before & don't know how they look as chicks)
Today: Collected from my flock
26 Blue/Green Easter Egger eggs
+9 light cream Easter Egger mix eggs (not sure who lays the cream eggs, likely an AustraWhite - hoping for white chicks and not much greenness to the egg color)
51 TOTAL (biggest setting I've ever done, previous maximum was 41)

Some of those eggs I'll have to manually turn but I expect some of those eggs to die or not even be fertile so this way I will make up the loss. Of course, I may not have many early losses. Last hatch of 41 eggs, only 4 were early losses.

CG

I got two more blue eggs laid today so I added them. They are only a day later than the rest so it should be fine. That brings my total to 53 eggs.
CG

 

[angelobutter]

The controller is digital as opposed to a mechanical controller filled with fluid. The red knob sets the temperature digitally.

Basically once the thermostat is set in the incubator you do not have to touch it. It is like the rocker switches in the genesis. Those are set at the factory and you are not supposed to mess with them during incubation. The eco was set at 99.5 at the factory too. Most people do not use an accurate thermometer(I know you are trying!) so the incubator is usually more accurate than the thermometer used, which can be off by 10 degrees.

That is why they are hard to get to. It is on purpose. I have been watching these hatch a longs for several years now and have seen the adjustments mess things up a bunch.

Does anyone remember @Mahonri ?

ok that makes sense, I am here like.. am i supposed to be seeing buttons somewhere? lol.
I just bought a brinsea spot check and it is of course broken right out of the box, but I also ordered a "liquid in glass" thermometer from brinsea and that one is saying my Rcom20 is right where it should be but my Rcom 50 is too high. should I trust the Rcom to be calibrated properly and not trust the glass thermometer?
I know the brinseas come preset, but the two that were secondhand were all over the place so I HAD to adjust.
I also just bought a thermometer from thermoworks so hopefully that comes soon and I can figure this all out.
(sigh)
well i just had successful hatches in both brinseas, the JN-48 and the Rcom20 so the only untested one is the Rcom50, so hopefully it should work out mostly ok

 

[CGinJCMO]

Can anyone tell me how to do a USPS label for a LIVE chick shipment? It telling me to go to PO but its giving me a discount to do it online, I am so frustrated, do I click hazardous materials to get it to go through? Confused!! thank u!! @SilkieSensation

I just read this today:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/packing-eggs-so-they-can-be-insured

CG

 

[PAchickenlover]

[[COLOR=0000FF]Hey Sally, did your electric come back on yet? I have been thinking of you and your incubators all day... I hope they get it fixed soon![/COLOR]/SIZE]

FINALLY! Thank you!!  we left everything set up (generator and cords) though as its really blowing, nasty icy and slush now!  We didnt even know this was coming!!  
Did you see my post on the funny contest thread?  ha ha ha 

Glad to hear it! It is nasty here too. Almost fell on my dairy air trying to get my late layers eggs tonight. Lol
No, lol I will have to check it out. Oh the meeting date for the Southern York Poultry Club has changed to April 25th. FYI

 

[kodster]

That's right I stole 'em- you just keep walking goose!


I know they don't count for the hatch a long, but I am still super excited to get some goose eggs! I am up to 6 now.

Caption that and enter it in the contest!!! LOL!