The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[speckledhen]

Do any of you here have French Blue Copper Marans? I'm trying to get a handle on their size. I know they are large fowl, of course, but are they lean bodied or just "normal"? They seem rather tall, maybe from their ancestry with the Croad Langshan. I'm asking because it appears that they are due into Cohutta the day after hatch day for my Brahmas. At least those would be a different egg color, sort of.
Tom hurt his back today trying to pull-start a little tiller. Never got it started and now, he's out of commission, again. That is a reminder that I can't take on too much because it may just be me doing it all. Doesn't bode well for getting a bunch of new chicks. Better stick with my original plan of selling off the ones I'm incubating and then going for the combination group of EE pullets and straight run Bantam Cochins. If the Cochins are truly assorted, could be any color in there. I think there are about 9 colors that Privett has, though she said that they are getting them from 3 different hatcheries this year, didn't tell me which hatcheries, but surely, Privett is one of them.

 

[getaclue]

All the Marans (various colors) I've ever seen were normal, not lean bodied. They're a big deal down here, and there are several good breeders.

 

[speckledhen]

Who am I kidding? I can't do it. I'll have to sell the ones in the incubator and just get a few EEs and little Munchkins on April 9. I just saw a Buff Orpington hen inside my fence. Obviously, she isn't mine. I think the next door neighbor has chickens and like his dog, he doesn't keep track of them. So I watched where she went back through and I may be able to patch that area or my own birds could end up following her down the hill and I'd lose some of them or those may bring disease up here. I have no idea where he got them, probably some auction or something.

 

[speckledhen]

Okay, so which do you think is the correct temp? I finally got both Spot Checks operating with new batteries, put the alcohol thermometer in the Genesis. Both Spot Checks are reading about the same and the alcohol one and the Genesis digital read close to each other, averaging 100-100.5.
The Genesis is in the increasing phase in the first pic, goes up and down to average what I set it on, about 100.4. I did that because the Spot Checks, which have been very accurate up until now, as far as I know, were reading under 99*. The Genesis is always cleaned and stored in its original box so I don't know why it would suddenly be reading way off, other than the hygrometer, which has always been 8-10% too low.

So, is my Genesis malfuntioning? Are the Spot Checks reliable any longer? Both have brand new batteries. The household one that I had inside the bator was reading about the same as the Spot Checks, which surprised me, but I took that one out, it not being a true incubator thermometer. Hopefully, you can see the one below is right at 100*.

99* is too low to incubate which is my dilemma. I want that temp 99.5-100*.

 

[getaclue]

I can see the Spot Check on the right, but not the one on the left. Since the Genesis, and the little one inside seem to agree, I think I'd be inclined to trust them. There should be a way to test, and re-calibrate the Genesis.

 

[speckledhen]

I can see the Spot Check on the right, but not the one on the left. Since the Spot Checks, and the little one inside seem to agree, I think I'd be inclined to trust them. There should be a way to test, and re-calibrate the Genesis.

In the first pic, the Spot Check on the left reads 99.1 and in the second pic, 98.9. I'm not sure how to recalibrate a digital unit. I can adjust the settings up or down, but I'm afraid the more I monkey with it, the more likely it is to just be insanely off. Actually, it's the Genesis and the alcohol thermo that more closely agree while both Spot Checks read lower by a degree or so, but they do agree with each other, which is weird if they're malfunctioning. They are quite old, much older than the Genesis, which I got in 2013 after the house fire.

I wonder if this was the cause of my last hatch being not as good as it should have been, though I can't really remember much about it, other than there were way more late deaths than I expected.

 

[getaclue]

You could be right. I didn't realize the Spot Checks were "old". Yes, since the Genesis, and the alcohol thermometer agree, they're probably closer to the real temp. I have a couple of those little alcohol thermometers. While they're inexpensive, and nothing special, mine tend to be very accurate. I use them to confirm my incubator temp, and to adjust the temp in my brooder.

 

[speckledhen]

Thank you, Cheryl, good to know. Yes, those two Spot Checks are fairly old, probably at least ten years old for the oldest one, a couple years newer for the other. At the moment, all of them seem to be within a tight range of each other. I think that happens when the humidity is not too low or too high. Right now, it's around 48%.

 

[speckledhen]

This incubation is going to be a wild ride. Last night, humidity was a tad high, let a tiny bit out, it settled to a good number, then this morning the Genesis read 19% and the analog hygro read 29% , which is closer to correct than the digital one. So, I added some water, of course. The temps are anyone's guess, but the Spot Checks hover between 99 and 99.8, the Genesis floats between 99.9 and 101 and the alcohol thermometer inside sits about 100.5 most all the time. So, will there be any chicks hatch at all? Who the heck knows?
Broodies are DA BOMB and we all know it, but not many can handle 16 extra large eggs.

 

[speckledhen]

Not terrible, eh? Good thing. Even with no heatpump, just using two electric heaters to augment the wood stove, plus whatever heat lamps were in the barn, the electric bill last month for my little 1088 sf house was a whopping $320, highest ever. Should be way less this month since it's been slightly warmer and one of those has been off, wood stove humming along better, heat lamps even for the oldsters can be turned off in the day and no water defrosters have been needed out there.