The Old Folks Home

[Sswanee48]

I don't see where I can delete so I edited. From now on I won't say anything. I seem to get the wrong person

 

[ronott1]

My fans never blow directly at the eggs. In styros the wind hits the top and disperses to the sides.

In my cabinet bators it pulls hot air to the floor and then rises up

.



We added shelves to this one to hatch with. It had an invcuvue thermostats - my only non stc 1000 bator.

My post was for retrofitting a still air hova bator with a fan. The thermostat will not work in those of the air flow is going the wrong way. It might work just fine if using a different setup though.

 

[bamadude]

Im gonna buy a cabinet bator in May.

 

[tnspursfan09]

tnspurfan, I set 12 eggs in a hovabator and hatched 10 out of them. They are six and a half weeks old and doing great. I have better luck every time I use it. Of course it helped that they were all fertile eggs too. One chick was premature and it was my fault that that one was lost.

I've only hatched eggs from my flock. I usually have three roosters so it's a toss-up, but works for me. This spring I'll be hatching from the BR and Australorp chicks that I got last spring as well as my mixed girls. (LH, BO and production reds)

 

[CanuckBock]

What do you guys think? Anyone else dealt with this?
I posted this with the coffee gang but thought I would re-post here

I was just curious and thought I would ask my coffee buddies.

Has any of you ever had a she switch to a he?
I know it's rare but can happen. I ask because I think I have that happening to one of my definitely "she" Aussies.
She is behaving more and more like a "he" every day, attitude and all, and has stopped laying. She is otherwise perfectly healthy.

Of course I would get the "odd ball". I mean really. Who remembers the first time I bought 2 pullet Aussies from a breeder that turned out to be 2 very sick roos?
Then I try again, determined to get my Aussie girls and I buy 5 sexed Aussie chicks from Cackle Hatchery last spring, gladly paying A LOT for the special packing to make sure they arrived in good shape (which they did) only to find out that pretty soon that one was a roo anyway!

Did someone put a curse on me or is some poultry fairy determined that I am supposed to have an Aussie roo and making sure that comes to pass
one way or the other????

ETA-
Ok, for those who are curious, here is a good article on sex changing hens

http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/spontaneous-sex-reversal-hen-just-become-rooster/

Nope, the changing gender is NOT rare...what is rare is people that keep poultry long enough to get old enough for the left ovary to quit and the female to revert to a male because the one ovary ceases to function. Very common, in OLD birds...sadly, not so many keeping birds alive for any length of time...thru choice or the inability to keep them safe from ending their lives prematurely. They want birds to be productive, so once they quit producing eggs...their life ends for many poultry birds, eh.

For those of us, obvious weirdo's (Rick speaks of one fellow that pastured every single milk cow he ever had...he figured she gave the best of her years to his family, the least he could do was provide her with a happy long life AFTER giving her all)...that have had years upon years of ZERO predation and like retired birds to live out their full lives in comfy luxury...all sorts of females here quit being girls and put on boy's feathers. To me it is merely a "change of life" in poultry and fully expected.

Story outta Dave Holderread's Raising Ducks book, page 215 talks about Tiny Tina that was his favourite boyhood duck. Basically when SHE turned seven years old (most meat ducks get to live seven WEEKS, never mind seven months, let alone seven YEARS), was laying smaller and smaller eggs, stopped, moulted into male plumage with the classic drake curl feathers...and he renamed her a him name, Tiny Tim. Quasimoto was a gorgeous crimpled up Rouen duck that showed us what going girl to boy was...loved her so much!

I have no issues with advice that any of you give, but there are a few people that keep posting misinformation about hatching as well as some other things.

-Kathy

The biggest Internet myth is this LOCKDOWN...hilarious to sobering...imho it keeps on living because it keeps the idiots out of the incubators...that in itself can be a good thing in many instances.

I stood with my ONLY competition at that last sanctioned show we entered...both of us realizing that the only bantam ducks present were all ours...except for one duck...it was frightening...truly!

People have lost the ability to judge when or when not to intervene and in exhibition quality bantam ducks...Call ducks and even long neckers like Runners and Dutch Hookbills, it takes a practised skill to know when to leave them be and when to intervene. Factor in the concept that to help a bird out of an egg is to make an entire strain weak when we humans decide that exhibition traits like short wide bills, huge round heads and tiny roundy bods, short necks or over long ones (compared to Nature's perfect duck the Mallard) are wanted and we expect these monstrosities of Nature to hatch out on their own...yeh, get right on that, eh.

Things like lavender make it more difficult for the birds to get out of their egg prisons...sometimes because birds are simplistic creatures, they should have never hatched out...they are weak from the start and you see people leaping tall buildings to SAVE these doomed weaklings. Yes, I love birds too and adore letting my guard drop and enjoying all they can be to enrich both my life and theirs but I also have a good portion of reality mixed into my perspectives. I don't want one weakling to survive to make fifty more of the same...and only make my life and theirs miserable. Quality of life enjoyment has to be factored in. Not every bird that hatches should live...we take on the responsibility and duty of care of that particular animal/bird when we let them procreate. WE are their god and we are their protector and life ender or extender. Everyone has their own opinion of this and animals and birds are property under the law...for us humans to do with as we please (past cruelty or abuse of course!).

Coddle one weakling, breed from that, coddle many more. You choose your own future fate in most cases.

​

In this hatch I see bantam and standard chicken eggs hatching (funny thing over the years, the bantams are the first to hatch, like the smaller eggs are kept warmer or some such thing, but the Booteds are always the first ones busting out compared to our standard sized Chants, eh!), there's medium sized duck eggs and large sized duck eggs in the side holder thar. The covered trays are where the current hatched ones go plus ones pipping.

And yeh, that's a felt marker I use...in many different colours too...no dang pencil, my old hands won't cooperate much and I will poke a pencil thru the shell...yeh...FELT MARKER--most often the brand is Sharpie (nfi)... what I do is test and test and test the poor birds here from DAY one...if they survive moi, they are strong... Good to go. I want birds that THRIVE under my conditions. Not a whole buncha weaklings that can't make it under my care or lack there of. Now I don't ABUSE my dependents, y'all need to get that part...but I don't cuddle and coddle and create a line of cripples that if I sneeze they all die of heart attacks or grow out to have busted limbs. We can leave those practices for the commercial factory farmers to do...feed antibiotic feeds so they can get them to market weights and out to the masses' tables for consumption or pump out swiller eggs with nothing left of themselves after the fact. We like to see seven and eight year old birds here, living the good life, healthy and happy...living on clean air, water and good food enjoying squishing mud between their toes and webbers and chasing bugs, sleeping in the shade and soaking up the sunshine. Living REAL.

I do not want a bunch of barely able to make it birds here...I want birds that thrive and survive despite me and all my failures. I have that tough love attitude, that if you are so weak and snivelling...up and die already and get it over with thanks! Sounds heartless and cruel but after over 45 years of this attitude, you guessed, it...we have really healthy, happy, thriving birds. Not this sick ward crippled up mess. This said, I have to be EXTRA diligent about what I brought home...because if any cripples did thrive it was always Rick's best interest to make the best facilities ever...we have one whole house and coop dedicated to some non-painful cataract chickens...seven years old now and still living the good life in a safe and protective environment, where obviously, they thrive and prosper in.

I believe that every one of us that breeds birds, that allow lives to happen, that we should show due diligence in knowing when to end a life (pain or suffering, no quality of an existence) and when to help a life live long and happy. Just because ONE bird quits laying, I do not have the heart to thwack their heads off...I guess because I too am old but still manage to have value past my prime and supposedly productive expiry date. LMBO

​

Middle tray is fulla turk eggs, bottom tray is standard sized Chanteclers, top tray is bantam chooks.

This shot shows mix of waterfowl and landfowl eggs. ​

I hatch continuously after I fire up Buster the Bator...turkeys, ducks (heavy to bantam sized), pheasants, (chickens bantam & standard)...continuously during the week (weekends are my run wild with my spouse, so no sets for Sats and Suns--we're off doing loser laps in the trucks). Eggs hatching, eggs setting, the only humidity is a tray on the top shelf and if or when I remember, some distilled water on the eggs about to hatch. I sort them out by the ones hatching and place the pipped ones in covered hinged egg boxes so the hatched ones do not hinder the ones not hatching. I remove the hatched ones out to grocery store bin brooders into turkeys, bantam ducks, bigger ducks, bantam chickens and standard chickens (pheasants with the larger chooks).

When its time to candle eggs I set a week ago, out the trays go, one at a time...I will toss any clears, any ones that are obviously dead (so far, never had an explosion in the bator--yuck!). I don't do no cool down on purpose bit obviously some eggs get cooled with I open the door to top the top tray with water, and when a tray is candled and when I am adding eggs to be hatched.

I use to set the eggs inside cartons I cut holes in, now I just pile them in there. I also hold eggs for hatching in big old wire egg baskets, no tipping them one way and back...jest stored in the garage which is cooler than outside temps in the summer. I only bank up eggs for when I am waiting to set Buster for hatching, so that is one big hatch day, after that, I like a few birds every day during the week...I go in to the hatch house and sort out the ones pipping to the small boxes, take ones ready to be in the brooder bins...set eggs I collect to hatch that day, again, marked with the non-toxic felt pens.

This is suppose to be fun, we are suppose to be producing healthy strong birds that suit US and our situations. The day it gets too complex is the day I say, forget that. I got better things to do than make this UNfun.

​

I have more issues and concerns with young stocks getting overwhelmed by a bigger bird ... so the segregation is more about waterfowl in small and large, landfowl as in chickens in large and small and turks in one bin by themselves ---past colour preferences, turks are pretty kewl about accepting younger fellow turks.

Heritage turkey poults of various ages...see those snugglers up the back corner??? Sweet!

Im gonna buy a cabinet bator in May.

I tried the styrafoam, a new one ONCE...can't give it a true review here without cussing. I got near the hatch date and kept having to turn the temp down and it was going up and up and yeh, cooked the entire setting...blew my mind! With Buster (sportsman high velocity fanned, meant for Emus), I plug the boy in, put water in his tray, set the eggs and walk away to run silly about the place here--having fun. Add more water, candle eggs, wait for three weeks to start removing chickens, another week, turks and ducks. Easy peasy, your life as a hatcher will take on a whole new meaning...the meaning of having to use self-control because they do such a fine job at what they were designed to do...hatch birds!

​

Sportsmen (nfi) have easily replaceable parts. One fella I know has used his for, 30 years and only changed out wafers...stunned and stupid is what all the other 'bators feel like (you cannot adequately sterilize the styra foam...each hatch just contaminates it that much more)...my opinion, of course!

Artificially incubated hatch rates should be about 75 percent or more and under fifty percent is considered poor...a hen hatches roughly 89% of her set eggs. Expect at minimum, seven percent of your day olds to die before maturity...birds are simple creatures and some should not have hatched as they were messed up and doomed not to thrive from the get go. Nutrition and genetics play a big role. Minute differences in feeds for each species are paramount...I don't buy into that one food for all concept. Greens, bugs, proteins, trace elements...waterfowl does not prefer to live in a jungle and landfowl does not happily visit the swamp--your birds should POP outta the shells full of vim and vigour...over 14 hours of natural daylight for male fertility...you hatch in the off seasons from what the wild birds are doing in YOUR area, you are bucking Nature. Here most wilds are hatching round about June and such...everything nicks from the feeds readily available to the weather. I only see people needing to hatch say in January if you are showing in fall shows, large fowl birds and want a bigger specimen. Hatch eggs from two year olds, by them just being this age, proves disease resistance, fertility, vigour and you can judge things like twisted feather (a proper suit of feathers is not jest a show thing--good insulation to heat and cold, inclement weather means less wasted feed for the bird to feel well enough to be productive and make more of the same, eh) and know which are the best birds by looking AT THEM in their peak prime...not guessing what a juvenile bird will produce. Make more of the same from ones you SEE are the ones you want and have history on...the ones that up and die before two years of age...glad they are long gone, thanks. I don't want those kinds. I want to see quick decent moults--feathers on and off and back into production, ones that thrived thru stressors like moulting, surviving winter and wet springs, summer's heat and fall's cold snaps...survived breeding and egg production, would put decent meat on your plate in culls you decided were not quite near enough to make more from. Raised young and did it well, birds with temperaments that make me adore them, not wonder why I have them. When you love going to visit with them, you need to have more of these lovelies to enrichen your life.

Stress in any amount for any reason (from running out of water, to weather changes, to night time temperatures from day to night even, never mind to being picked on) lowers a beast or bird's ability to resist getting ill; two causes of illness are indirect (stress which lowers resistance to disease) &/or direct which causes the disease. Diseases are simply anything that causes a being to not be healthy with normal body functions. The happier you can keep your fowls, the more prosperous your endeavours will be.

Rick always figured that if he could make the birds happy, they would want to replicate...the parents would want to make more of themselves to enjoy the happy conditions here. Part of the proof you have happiness is the ease with which the next generation occurs. As the human in the equation, it is up to us to say when enough is enough happiness...because too many of a good thing, well that is a whole other dilemma unto itself. When all you do is empty and fill pans, clean pens, and try to stop overcrowding issues...the never stopping to smell the flowers you made becomes quite tedious...yeh, that becomes more of the four letter word WORK over hobby and JOYS...keep it simple, keep it real, keep on having FUN!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[bamadude]

Anybody have any recomendations for a good cabinet incubator? The sportsman has excellent reviews. I need one that is idiot proof, durable, and has a good price. Thanks in advance

 

[ozexpat]

My post was for retrofitting a still air hova bator with a fan. The thermostat will not work in those of the air flow is going the wrong way. It might work just fine if using a different setup though.the fans in my

the fans in my retro fitted 1602N are blowing the wind up

the purchased fan kits are designed that way

http://incubatorwarehouse.com/fan-kit-install

 

[Arielle]

I guess Im just really, really frustrated with myself for not being able to accomplish the type of hatch rates that I need. Misplaced anger I guess.
I have more people wanting chicks than I can supply. Its just frustrating. Sorry for my rant.

Dude, WHen I figured out the hatchrates from so so many people was horrid, I was terrified to hatch. AND I was determined to figure out what was going wrong for first time hatchers. HUMIDITY was the number one problem. I then talked to CHooksCHIck and read her page on hatching using the LG, and I jumped into hatching. About 50% hatch rate using my own chicken and turkey eggs.

I had to learn my incubator, my climate, my thermometers . . .. and keeep very detailed notes like the big hatcheries do. DOnt go by memory, look at 24 hours of data every night to see if temps are sliding up or down, or if the humidity is moving.

I have an LG and it really requires a moderate temperature to function correctly. When summer hits and a heat wave is soaring the outside temps upward, I know my LG is beyond capacity and needs help with more venting to keep temps on target.

My ducks are still better at hatching muscovy than I am-- usually 100%. My number of muscovy hens reflects how many like to go broody and sit and sit and sit. Amazing girls.

So. . . .I understand your frustration . . . .get anotebook and start writing. ANd start analysing. We can help you think things out.

( When dry hatching in winter, sometimes a bit of water needs to be added; in summer a fan often helps to dry the eggs = proper loss of moisture from those eggs!!! On schedule at 7, 10, and 18; sometimes upping the moisture can be delayed if necessary until first external pip if they have not lost enough moisture.)

Keep at it!!!

 

[Beer can]

Anybody have any recomendations for a good cabinet incubator? The sportsman has excellent reviews. I need one that is idiot proof, durable, and has a good price. Thanks in advance

http://www.metzerfarms.com/BuckeyeIncubators.cfm?CustID=3551786

 

[ozexpat]

I'm interested! Take and post pics please. I am using two different types of bators now.

We bought the thermostat Oz now can you tell me how to hook it up please?

I have a few peking duck eggs going in the hatcher Sat. so wish me luck.

here is a home edited diagram just use 110 instead of 220 - i use mains voltage case fans