The 6th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[Wisher1000]

On candling, I know it's weird, but I only candle on about day 18 and toss the ones I know will not hatch. I have had good results doing it this way, but understand the desire to know how many are developing before then. I only need to make room in the hatcher for the chicks to roll around once they are out. If I can't tell for sure that there is a wiggling chick in there, I leave it as long as it passes the sniff test.

 

[KYTinpusher]

I have the Brinsea Ecoglow brooder and though it is a PITBehind to take apart and clean, I love how it works. I think the chicks feather out faster because after the first couple of days they are out where it is cool more and only go under the heat plate to warm up or sleep. Usually within a week, most are sleeping out the front or on top.

The Premier large heat plate is on my wish list.

 

[sunshinechick83]

I just added 1 more egg. My son saw our light brahama lay a few minutes ago, snatched the egg and asked me to put it in.

So we are up to 21. We may add a couple more if bantams lat today.

 

[coop410silkies]

Yesterday I convinced my SS to lay one more egg, and I set it this morning. The total number of eggs I set for this 6th Annual BYC Easter HAL is 69.

 

[schmije]

I set 30 eggs. They are 4 white, 10 medium brown, 6 light brown, 6 green, and 4 olive eggs. They'll all be barnyard mixes, since all of my roos are mixes. My girls are BO, RIR, Production Red, BR, EE, Australorp, White Leghorn, Java, as well as a bunch of mixed breeds.

 

[chickadoodles]

I just set my eggs at 12:07. EE's and Welsummer, Chantecler and Andalusian.

 

[Junibutt]

For those reading this post--not directed at HugHess but a general audience post:

If a person does not have an extra meat thermometer with a probe(I could not give mine up for a month) The Brinsea Sport check will cost about the same and it has a probe. It is .1 accurate for temperature too.

We can go out and buy a lot of general purpose things that will work. Incubating is common enough now that we do not need to do that though. We can buy equipment and accessories that are made for incubating--They often work better for that purpose too. Incubator warehouse is a great source as well as the GQF store and Brinsea direct. Another example is candling. We can buy a $40.00 flashlight from amazon or walmart(some are less expensive but not as good) but the brinsea occuview candlers are made for candling and do not cost that much more. I have had mine for more than two years. If it were a regular flashlight someone in my family would have broken it or lost it by now.

I have made candling videos using by occuview high intensity--even with marans eggs--and you can see stuff with it!

This is from last year:

Hi @ronott1 I use the Brinsea last year and the results were good but not as great as I had expected. This year I purchased one from Maficfly and it works a lot better than Brinsea in terms of light intensity. At 17.99 its not too bad. There are only 2 cons I see:

a) Does not work with batteries. So if you have a power outage problem then not good for you
b) If you want to keep your hands free while examining the egg, thats not possible like in Brinsea.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KCKNYCY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[calientepocket]

I just added 1 more egg. My son got saw our light brahama lay a few minutes ago, snatched the egg and asked me to put it in.

So we are up to 21. We may add a couple more if bantams lat today.

How long after starting the incubator is it safe to ad more eggs?? I'm still holding onto hope that my cream legbars will lay me an egg!!

 

[KYTinpusher]

The covers that Premier has for their heat plates are a great idea. For those who use the EcoGlows or don't have covers - I cover mine with Glad Press n' Seal. Makes clean-up much easier.

 

[Myfourladies]

Total number of eggs set here is 12. Hoping to get some beautiful grey chicks for a friends Easter Egger.