The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[smarsh]

sorry, fingers crossed

 

[cmom]

I had bought a power pack for starting my car if my battery should ever go dead, and in inverter. The temp on my eggs 2 weeks into incubation got down to 78 degrees. I plugged the inverter into the battery pack and the incubator into the inverter and the temp came back up and held until I got my power back on.

 

[gander007]

I had bought a power pack for starting my car if my battery should ever go dead, and in inverter. The temp on my eggs 2 weeks into incubation got down to 78 degrees. I plugged the inverter into the battery pack and the incubator into the inverter and the temp came back up and held until I got my power back on.

I never thought about that as I have one for my truck and an inverter in the travel trailer now
I'll keep this in mind if I ever have a problem

 

[Fentress]

my hens from Ron Foggel are good broodies had 3 of 4 last year hatch and raise chicks.

That is a good percentage. Do you think that is typical? What time of the year did they go broody and did they go broody within a few weeks of each other or was it spread out?

Thanks

 

[RedRidge]

I had bought a power pack for starting my car if my battery should ever go dead, and in inverter. The temp on my eggs 2 weeks into incubation got down to 78 degrees. I plugged the inverter into the battery pack and the incubator into the inverter and the temp came back up and held until I got my power back on.

And? What was your hatch like?

 

[ronniewayne]

That is a good percentage. Do you think that is typical? What time of the year did they go broody and did they go broody within a few weeks of each other or was it spread out?

Thanks

they went broodie within a month beginning in august . I talked with Ron and he says he has not selected against it so I would think it would be typical. but I free range and I think that has something to do with it because I had a couple of hatchery reds go broody (out of 25 ) and I had 3 of 50 red sex link comets go broodie . which from what others have told me are both rare to brood. my heritage reds all layed a good # of eggs I don't have the time to trapnest but I would say 180 to 200 each 1st year. and back at it strong now . I am in the process of selecting pullets I hatched 150 chicks last year . and still have 60 pullets I am sorting out . the pullets are laying pretty good and I love the size they start later than my hatchery hens but start with a large egg not the tiny ones.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
This was a few years ago, but if I remember correctly I still had around a 85% or better hatch rate. I was quite surprised. I did have some that were late hatchers. I do remember I was worried as day 21 arrived and I had very few hatch so I thought I would probably have a poor hatch but the next day they started breaking out. I did candle some, but at that stage you can tell there is a chick in the egg but likely not see any movement.

 

[cmom]

I originally had the eggs in my cabinet incubator but the inverter wasn't large enough to handle it so I moved the eggs to the styrofoam incubators. After awhile after plugging in the battery pack and inverter I did but towels over the incubators as I didn't know how long it was going to be before the power was restored and I wanted to keep the heat in the incubator as long as possible.

 

[Fentress]

they went broodie within a month beginning in august . I talked with Ron and he says he has not selected against it so I would think it would be typical. but I free range and I think that has something to do with it because I had a couple of hatchery reds go broody (out of 25 ) and I had 3 of 50 red sex link comets go broodie . which from what others have told me are both rare to brood. my heritage reds all layed a good # of eggs I don't have the time to trapnest but I would say 180 to 200 each 1st year. and back at it strong now . I am in the process of selecting pullets I hatched 150 chicks last year . and still have 60 pullets I am sorting out . the pullets are laying pretty good and I love the size they start later than my hatchery hens but start with a large egg not the tiny ones.

I free range as well. Last year about 20% of my hatchery hens went broody and did a good job. I was very surprised and pleased to get that type of hatching experience under my belt when I did not expect it. I did not know that free range could help trigger the broody instinct. You hatch out a lot of chicks, did you use broodies in your breeding program? I would like to attempt a breeding program with in the context of a free range flock and hatch with broodies, the details of which I am still mulling over.

 

[ronniewayne]

I free range as well. Last year about 20% of my hatchery hens went broody and did a good job. I was very surprised and pleased to get that type of hatching experience under my belt when I did not expect it. I did not know that free range could help trigger the broody instinct. You hatch out a lot of chicks, did you use broodies in your breeding program? I would like to attempt a breeding program with in the context of a free range flock and hatch with broodies, the details of which I am still mulling over.

most of my hatching I do with the incubator so I can determine the number and time. I like the broodies because they do all the work and worry I just moniter them a bit lol. not sure the free range triggers broody. just a thought of mine no scientific data for that thought though. I would think it would be very difficult to hatch in large #'s with broodys but if you can make it work on your farm I say go for it