The Legbar Thread!

[lonnyandrinda]

Here's Hattie, she is 12 weeks old tomorrow. No wattles to speak of. Maybe you can tell if Lucy looks older or younger.

 

[ChicKat]

My Cream Legbar hen was slow to develop wattles too, I think it was only about 1-month or 6-weeks before she began to lay. Someone on this site had done a marvelous photo essay as they took developmental pictures of their pair on a weekly basis and posted. theirs were a bit older than mine and it was great to be able to compare...it may have been CJWaldon or it may have been another member FlamingChickens??? someone from the original legbar thread -- like last March or April .....

 

[cjwaldon]

I think you're referring to my weekly pictures, which I took of my original CLs from GFF. Once they started laying I quit taking pictures. You can view them in my "coop" in my profile.

 

[Flowerbh]

Am suppose to get CL and Isbar hatching eggs as a Christmas present.. they were a surprise. As this is my first time ever to try hatching eggs.....I would not have chosen these expensive eggs as a first time try, but since they are already on their way....I have questions. What is the best "setting" humidity level for CL? The incubator guide says 30-35%, but most threads on BYC say they dry incubate them at 15-20% until the last 3 days. What do you guys say?

 

[lonnyandrinda]

What has worked for ME is to run humidity at 20-30% the first 18 days and then 50-60% the last 3. If you are above 30% humidity for the majority of incubation then you may not get enough liquid to evaporate out of the eggs and they won't have a large enough air cell to hatch well. This is in general, for my other breeds. My last hatch ran a 89% hatch rate which is pretty good for this time of year. Remember fall/winter eggs nearly always have a lower hatch rate. Keep that in mind.

Now I have only hatched 3 sets of CL eggs and one hatch was a complete bust (out of 6 eggs). They were shipped eggs so I think something happened to them in shipping. As you are from GA I'm assuming your CL eggs are coming from Jordan Farm, I hope you are picking them up so you don't have rough shipping to worry about!

The only concern I have for you, as a first time incubator, is keeping the humidity up those last three days. What kind of incubator do you have? The smaller incubators are VERY HARD to keep humidity up this time of year in most climates. If you have an LG style, I would lay kitchen sponges or rags on the floor UNDER the wire, this way if you have trouble with humidity at the end you can just wet them down to increase your moisture surface area. You don't want to have to take all the eggs out and rearrange things on day 19 if you realize too late that you just can't get that humidity up. Also get a water syringe and/or some small clear tubing so you can add warm water through the ventilation holes- the less you open that incubator during lock down the better. And never add cool water, always warm or hot. It will keep the temps from fluctuating and also evaporate quicker to give you a faster increase in your humidity.

 

[Flowerbh]

What has worked for ME is to run humidity at 20-30% the first 18 days and then 50-60% the last 3. If you are above 30% humidity for the majority of incubation then you may not get enough liquid to evaporate out of the eggs and they won't have a large enough air cell to hatch well. This is in general, for my other breeds. My last hatch ran a 89% hatch rate which is pretty good for this time of year. Remember fall/winter eggs nearly always have a lower hatch rate. Keep that in mind.

Now I have only hatched 3 sets of CL eggs and one hatch was a complete bust (out of 6 eggs). They were shipped eggs so I think something happened to them in shipping. As you are from GA I'm assuming your CL eggs are coming from Jordan Farm, I hope you are picking them up so you don't have rough shipping to worry about!

The only concern I have for you, as a first time incubator, is keeping the humidity up those last three days. What kind of incubator do you have? The smaller incubators are VERY HARD to keep humidity up this time of year in most climates. If you have an LG style, I would lay kitchen sponges or rags on the floor UNDER the wire, this way if you have trouble with humidity at the end you can just wet them down to increase your moisture surface area. You don't want to have to take all the eggs out and rearrange things on day 19 if you realize too late that you just can't get that humidity up. Also get a water syringe and/or some small clear tubing so you can add warm water through the ventilation holes- the less you open that incubator during lock down the better. And never add cool water, always warm or hot. It will keep the temps from fluctuating and also evaporate quicker to give you a faster increase in your humidity.

Thanks! My daughter got me a Hova Bator Genesis 1588 for Christmas. It holds 42 eggs. The reviews on it are very good. It is suppose to be almost automatic...everything is suppose to be preset.....Althought the instructions say to fill the 1st water tray at setting and that it should be around 35-45% which I think will be way too high. That is my biggest concern. The other is that the inside thermometer is still saying only 90.5 degrees while the built in one at the top of the unit is saying 99.5-100 degrees.

We don't run a lot of heat in the house so the humidity stays kind of high inside....so I'm pretty sure I can get the humidity high at the end....

 

[KPenley]

Best wishes on your hatch Flowerbh! What a special gift!
I use a thermometer and hydrometer that I bought at the pet store. They seem more reliable than the ones that come with the incubators. My hygrometer tested out at 76% for the salt test which is pretty close! I have the same incubator as you and it's been running steady at 99.5 degrees and between 28 and 35% humidity on the dry incubation method. I may need to lower the humidity somehow though....any ideas Rinda? We're running the heat, but the incubator is in my closet to avoid drafts (and to hide it from the kids). The local breeder told me to raise to 50% at lockdown since the chicks release so much moisture while hatching. Hoping for a couple Christmas Silkies for the kiddos (This is my "cheap eggs" incubation run before I get going with precious CLB eggs next year, of course anything seems cheap compared to specialty eggs, you know?

).

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I am not familiar with that particular incubator, I only have the styrofoam LG and now my sweet sportsman 1502!

The LG is backup only now.

But I will say I found the little thermometers that come with the incubators are very unreliable, and I had a bad problem with the mercury constantly separating and leaving a bit at the top, so I was always guessing anyway! You can "calibrate" a thermometer using a glass of crushed ice water- put it in a ziploc bag then down in the ice water away from the sides of the glass, then see what number it stabilizes at (should be 32 degrees). Then you know how far "off" your thermometer is for future measurements (ex: some thermometers you may always have to add 1 degree to when you read the temp). After you have a mercury thermometer calibrated you can run it side by side with a digital one and get a good idea for which one is more accurate. I went with a digital one that reads temp and humidity, and after running a few hatches have decided for my 1502 the right temp for this thermometer is 100.5. At 95.5 my hatches were 1 day late, at 101-101.5 my hatches were about 12 hours early. It just takes some trial and error. "Right" temp is whatever it takes to get a hatch at day 21 on the dot.

As for humidity... if you leave your hygrometer in the room with the eggs, what does it read? It will be nearly impossible to lower the humidity lower than the room humidity. But if the room is still lower, you can decrease humidity in the incubator by increasing the ventilation. Don't know if you incubator has holes you can open or close.

Also, where is the inside thermometer at? You need to read the temp at the top of the eggs, so raise it up on something and see what it reads then.


ETA: If the mercury has separated you can recombine it by putting it in a ziploc bag and then dipping it into a pan of just boiled water. Make sure you take it out as soon as the mercury gets to the top and recombines or you risk it breaking.

 

[LAFreewayChickens]

If anyone wants to help sex my ambiguous day-old CL chick please click over to the thread I started in the "What sex or breed is this" forum:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/729142/help-sex-my-ambiguous-cream-legbar-day-old

It has no head spot, but also lacks clearly defined chipmunk stripes. I'm thinking boy (and not breeding stock either way), but would love your expert opinions.

 

[Flowerbh]

I am not familiar with that particular incubator, I only have the styrofoam LG and now my sweet sportsman 1502!

The LG is backup only now.

But I will say I found the little thermometers that come with the incubators are very unreliable, and I had a bad problem with the mercury constantly separating and leaving a bit at the top, so I was always guessing anyway! You can "calibrate" a thermometer using a glass of crushed ice water- put it in a ziploc bag then down in the ice water away from the sides of the glass, then see what number it stabilizes at (should be 32 degrees). Then you know how far "off" your thermometer is for future measurements (ex: some thermometers you may always have to add 1 degree to when you read the temp). After you have a mercury thermometer calibrated you can run it side by side with a digital one and get a good idea for which one is more accurate. I went with a digital one that reads temp and humidity, and after running a few hatches have decided for my 1502 the right temp for this thermometer is 100.5. At 95.5 my hatches were 1 day late, at 101-101.5 my hatches were about 12 hours early. It just takes some trial and error. "Right" temp is whatever it takes to get a hatch at day 21 on the dot.

As for humidity... if you leave your hygrometer in the room with the eggs, what does it read? It will be nearly impossible to lower the humidity lower than the room humidity. But if the room is still lower, you can decrease humidity in the incubator by increasing the ventilation. Don't know if you incubator has holes you can open or close.

Also, where is the inside thermometer at? You need to read the temp at the top of the eggs, so raise it up on something and see what it reads then.


ETA: If the mercury has separated you can recombine it by putting it in a ziploc bag and then dipping it into a pan of just boiled water. Make sure you take it out as soon as the mercury gets to the top and recombines or you risk it breaking.

The inside thermometer, I just laid on top of the turner and have been moving it around inside to see if there are hot spots, etc. It seems warmer by the motor to the turner...but still is only saying 90 degrees. I have heard you can lower humidity by adding raw rice inside. Right now, without eggs, the humidity is staying around 24-26%. I will try to pick up a new thermometer/hydometer tonight when I am in town for my Birthday dinner with kids!! Yea! Just mainly worried about the big difference between the combo thermometer inside the incubator and the one on top of the machine. Richard Jordon is emailing me tonight with his recommendations. Will see what he says.