The Never Ending Hatching thread! For those of us that hatch all year long!

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: Hi Mrs! Great deal at TSC! I would love tractor units if I had the room. You definately need those brooders and grow out pens!! LOL

 

[Runawaylobster]

Eggs Arriving today .... Yippee...

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Eggs Arriving today .... Yippee...

YAY!!! We have blue and splash americauna being delivered today too!! YAY!!!

 

[Little Wing]

Eggs Arriving today .... Yippee...

YAY!!! We have blue and splash americauna being delivered today too!! YAY!!!

WoooHooo! I hope y'alls eggs arrive in good shape. My bators are pretty much full for a week or so. Gonna try and hit the TSC this weekend and pic up another one. GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[1MrsMagoo]

I'm ready to pull my hair out. my incubator got unplugged. Don't know when either i checked on it around noon and it was down to 80 degrees inside. even though on lock down i candled to see if any movement. saw movement in one plugged it back in. They are due thursday. We'll see. i was hoping all 3 would hatch but with this happening i'm doubtful.

I am really sorry to hear about this, but a lot of folks on here through the years have had similar things happen and still got decent hatch rates: So have hope. At this stage, I usually try to both candle and do a float test. A lot of times I won't see any movement when candling, but will see the movement when I do the float test or vice-versa. So, I have gotten in the habit of doing both if on any suspect eggs.

I am waiting on some Blue and Blue Wheaten Ameraucana and Beltsville turkey eggs that are supposed to hatch today: I have one Ameraucana and one turkey egg pipped externally, so can't open the incubator to check the rest (10 went into lock-down)

Good luck Sweetlil....fingers are crossed

and sending out good hatching vibes to you.

 

[Roxannemc]

What is a frio verifacation therm.Is this an actual brand? If so i need one!

Hello....hope it's okay to join in with you guys!

Hi, my name is Rhonda and I am a hatch-a-holic. I have been staggered hatching pretty much non-stop for two years. I have an addiction and don't want a cure....lol.

Anyway, I have been running 3 incubators (1 Brinsea and 3 foam Little Giants) since mid-December. I have already hatched out 35 chicks and a dozen turkey poults.

I installed a fan kit in one of the Little Giants and it has the turner completely full of German New Hampshires, Dark Cornish, Langshans, and Beltsville Turkey eggs.

The Brinsea is reserved for waterfowl and is housing my first 4 Pomeranian goose eggs (only one goose out of 8 is laying so far) and a couple Runner and Silver Appleyard Duck eggs. These have to be at a slightly lower temperature and after day six get daily cool downs and are misted.

I kept the 3rd Little Giant still air and use it to hatch only. This comes in really handy since I am NOT patient and pretty much put the egg in the incubator as soon as I bring it in from the breeding pens. I even created an Excel spread sheet to help me keep track of what is in there, when it went in, when it is supposed to hatch, and if it is for stock or an order (customer information is in there too). This has helped me out a ton to not get confused and forget to move any eggs. It also lets me track hatch rates for particular breeds or shipments of eggs, price per chick, and income from any sales.

Since Tractor Supply has both the Little Giant incubator and egg turner on sale, I went and got another set (marked each down from $45 to $34.99 till mid-April). I ordered a forced air kit which will be here tomorrow and yet another digital thermometer/hygrometer which got here today (checked it against my frio-temp verification thermometer to see how far off it was...consistently -1 degree under actual temperature).

Good thing I did all this too. Eggs I ordered that weren't supposed to be here for several weeks shipped today. I got a call this afternoon from Frank Reese of Good Shepherd Poultry to let me know he'd shipped my Barred Rock and Cornish hatching eggs: He is a SUPER nice guy by the way. The eggs should be here Thursday.

Tomorrow, I am receiving a dozen White Laced Red Cornish eggs from an exhibition breeder in Florida, and sometime the end of this week I will be getting a dozen German New Hampshires from Oklahoma. I just hope that the other line of exhibition Barred Rock eggs don't get their ship date moved forward or I am going to have to buy ANOTHER set of everything or a cabinet incubator.

Anyway, to sum it up: By this weekend I will have set no less than 48 shipped hatching eggs which will be added to the 60 eggs I already have in...not counting the ones sitting in the still air unit due to hatch tomorrow.

I think it is time for another brooder and juvenile pen just in case I get a decent hatch.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

What is a frio verifacation therm.Is this an actual brand? If so i need one!

Roxannemc:

The one I got is digital and the Frio-temp refers to a class of thermometers that have certified calibrations and are guaranteed to be within .5 degrees +/- to over 130 degrees (come with calibration date, location, and techs name). These are used by oven and fridge/freezer repairmen since they will read from -58 to 392 degrees F and give you precise variance values for the temperature range (Worst is +/- 4 degrees in the most extreme temps it reads, but I will never need that range so don't care). Given how many issues are caused by improper incubation temperatures, I wanted to actually be sure what the temps in my incubators are.

Strangely, what I found is that the least expensive hygrometer/thermometer combo I own (was 10 something from Amazon) is also the most accurate. The most expensive one is the least accurate (reads high by 2.5 degrees). Also, I was correct that my Brinsea's little digital brain had gone cuckoo. When set at 100 degrees, it was only heating to 96 in all locations inside (checked at all 4 corners and the center), which would explain why none of the first goose eggs I put in did anything: I was about to blame the goose. So, I did a factory reset (unplugged it and held down OK when it was plugged back in) and that helped a lot. Now it is only off by 1 degree: The digital display reads 1 degree higher than the actual inside temperature.

They also have analog ones available (glass thermometer with the jar base) but most of the ones I found are in Celsius. I purchased mine from Amazon and got the last one...here is a link to the product page.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0069TI2VU/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i00
Here is what it looks like:



The glass bottle is filled with a substance that holds heat in a way very similar to liquids, which in my opinion would replicate an egg. You leave it in until the temperature stops going up, or is shifting back and forth between two very close values for several minutes.

These tend to be a bit pricey: The one I got was $83.00, but will be worth every penny if it improves my hatches now that I am dealing with higher cost eggs.

Oh, I also picked up two 300 Lumen mini flashlights made by Cree: These are extremely bright and under $9.00 on Amazon. My 220 Lumen tactical LED light I used for candling got dropped and broke, so I needed a replacement. I am also waiting on one of this company's 900 lumen lights, which will be here next week (It was under $13). Hopefully it works well for the thick Ameraucana and dark brown or olive eggs.

 

[tadpole98]

Quote: haha we had some, two actually, it took me FOREVER to convince my dad to let me buy a couple. He said no, i dont want any weird things, only productive hens. then the day before we went to heartland to buy them, he let his absolute favorite and only daughter to buy some!! he fell in love and now hes telling me we MUST get more.

 

[Roxannemc]

Roxannemc:

The one I got is digital and the Frio-temp refers to a class of thermometers that have certified calibrations and are guaranteed to be within .5 degrees +/- to over 130 degrees (come with calibration date, location, and techs name). These are used by oven and fridge/freezer repairmen since they will read from -58 to 392 degrees F and give you precise variance values for the temperature range (Worst is +/- 4 degrees in the most extreme temps it reads, but I will never need that range so don't care). Given how many issues are caused by improper incubation temperatures, I wanted to actually be sure what the temps in my incubators are.

Strangely, what I found is that the least expensive hygrometer/thermometer combo I own (was 10 something from Amazon) is also the most accurate. The most expensive one is the least accurate (reads high by 2.5 degrees). Also, I was correct that my Brinsea's little digital brain had gone cuckoo. When set at 100 degrees, it was only heating to 96 in all locations inside (checked at all 4 corners and the center), which would explain why none of the first goose eggs I put in did anything: I was about to blame the goose. So, I did a factory reset (unplugged it and held down OK when it was plugged back in) and that helped a lot. Now it is only off by 1 degree: The digital display reads 1 degree higher than the actual inside temperature.

They also have analog ones available (glass thermometer with the jar base) but most of the ones I found are in Celsius. I purchased mine from Amazon and got the last one...here is a link to the product page.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0069TI2VU/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i00
Here is what it looks like:



The glass bottle is filled with a substance that holds heat in a way very similar to liquids, which in my opinion would replicate an egg. You leave it in until the temperature stops going up, or is shifting back and forth between two very close values for several minutes.

These tend to be a bit pricey: The one I got was $83.00, but will be worth every penny if it improves my hatches now that I am dealing with higher cost eggs.

Oh, I also picked up two 300 Lumen mini flashlights made by Cree: These are extremely bright and under $9.00 on Amazon. My 220 Lumen tactical LED light I used for candling got dropped and broke, so I needed a replacement. I am also waiting on one of this company's 900 lumen lights, which will be here next week (It was under $13). Hopefully it works well for the thick Ameraucana and dark brown or olive eggs.

Thanks for all the info..

So the Frio you bought was $10 on ebay if i understand you correctly?
II just bought a box of scientific therms glass putting one in each corner of the bator( enroute ) ...hope it works well but yours sound really fool proof.
Might get it too!! HAHA
Cant have too many things taking your bator temp reading!!
I have a 200 lumen flash light now which works pretty well..as my eggs are brown so hardto see into
Ahh the humidity. I have cigar hygrometer coming too hope its ok .Saw how to calibrate it on youtube using salt..
Above is that the price willh the digital them or bottle only that just checks your digital therm?

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Thanks for all the info..

So the Frio you bought was $10 on ebay if i understand you correctly?
II just bought a box of scientific therms glass putting one in each corner of the bator( enroute ) ...hope it works well but yours sound really fool proof.
Might get it too!! HAHA
Cant have too many things taking your bator temp reading!!
I have a 200 lumen flash light now which works pretty well..as my eggs are brown so hardto see into
Ahh the humidity. I have cigar hygrometer coming too hope its ok .Saw how to calibrate it on youtube using salt..
Above is that the price willh the digital them or bottle only that just checks your digital therm?

I wish. No, the Frio was $83.00 on Amazon. The $10 was the digital hygrometer/thermometer combo from Amazon that is closest to dead on. I got the fan kit to upgrade the little giant from still air to forced air on eBay.