Tis Time for a March 2020 Hatch-a-long!

[FortCluck]

Too right. Man, I wish I could just breed my own.

I got my cockerel on accident and the rooster was given to me for free by someone at a swap. It was just pure luck for me in both instances.

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

Too right. Man, I wish I could just breed my own.

Yeah this is one of the many reasons I’m hatching out all the babies I need to eventually breed my own too. I just got my last adult chickens that I’ll ever get last week and hopefully in the next month or so won’t be buying anymore shipped eggs either. All the things that can go wrong scare me.

 

[smfarman]

I agree, just stick to channel A for the first 18 days. It's humid where I live too, I'm just inland of Savannah Georgia and it's a sauna in the summer, lol. I do usually have my central air running which dries out the air in my house a lot though. I have two Nurture Right 360s and oddly enough even verifying it against a secondary hygrometer the humidity usually runs around 45% in one incubator and 50% in the other by filling channel A. I've had 100% hatches out of both of them though and the fan runs quite high. I do the same in my IncuView, it usually runs about 45% for the first 18 days just filling the outer water ring. It's been a little while since I used one of my styrofoam incubators but in the same exact room as the other incubators I do run the humidity lower, I would say about an average of 10% lower. I do increase humidity to about 65% for hatch regardless of the incubator and I personally have had great results with this. I think you'll find that the NR360 offers a much better hatching experience than your last incubator. Good luck!!

Right now the NR360 is running between 43 and 44% I'll wait until 2pm to see where it is at then, it's been running about 24 hours now, thank you for all your help

 

[two j farm]

I decided to go with the mesh bags for hatch. Im in lockdown with a pip in a duck eggs

 

[hysop]

Air cells are growing especially on the brown eggs. They’re looking more accurate than the white eggs. I wonder if it’s because the white eggs are a bit larger.

My hubby went and got me 5 females and 1 male Americanas (aka Easter Eggers*) from TSC. He said hopefully the workers will let people know the straight runs from that section are now all male. He picked the last females. Someone else got there before him and got a few females as well. I cleaned their pasty butts and sure enough I saw 5 vents and 1 male part.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I'm sorry I don't remember what you've said you use. A hovabator? What plastic incubator do you use? And it's the styrofoam that gives you better results?

@julskinka I started keeping documents last year on my hatches in my controlled environment chicken room if you were wondering about the differences with incubators. I'm keeping even more notes on my hatches this year but you seem to like the little details like I do, lol. I'm primarily using the Nurture Right 360s & IncuView because they are my preference.

I do not soften the blow on my hatch rate because I want to know exactly what I'm getting from each breeder and incubator so all of the early quitters/blood rings/etc. are included in the final percentage. I do not count eggs that are infertile but I still make note of the starting number of eggs and the infertile for my information to the breeder and for myself.

So here is last year with the incubators that were in use. Please note that part of what I was monitoring is that here in the summer heat in Georgia the weather appears to have a significant effect on hatch rate. I will be able to confirm that this year. It's been a long commitment on my part to determine when the best times for hatch are in a hot climate and to be honest I'll probably drag this out a 3rd year just to be sure, lol. Collecting eggs when the weather was cooled by "poor rainy weather" it actually gave me much better hatch rates through the hottest months here simply because it was cooler outside for the hens and less heat stress. Anywho...the fun part! The numbers!

...I took out the turkeys, geese, peacocks, and quail so it's less confusing. lol

3/1/19: 80% (started with 22, 8 infertile, 3 quitters, 11 live chicks) Version 2 Nurture Right incubator

3/31/19: 100% (started with 22, 4 infertile, No quitters, 18 live chicks) Version 2 Nurture Right incubator

4/23-4/25/19: 82% (started with 44, 11 infertile, 6 quitters, 27 live chicks) Version 2 & 3 Nurture Right incubators

5/14/19: 100% (started with 11, No infertile, No quitters, 11 live chicks) Version 3 Nurture Right incubator (started eggs in Little Giant)

5/16/19: 70% (started with 20, No infertile, 6 quitters (1 was a late loss), 14 live chicks) Version 2 Nurture Right incubator

6/21/19-6/22/19: 64% (started with 33, 11 infertile, 8 quitters (2 were late losses), 14 live chicks) Version 2 & 3 Nurture Right 360 incubators (4 Mottled Orpington chicks died days after hatching, suspect genetic defect in breeding flock)

7/5/19: 100% (started with 4, 2 infertile, 0 quitters, 2 live chicks) Version 3 Nurture Right (finished last few days for lockdown and hatch in Little Giant)

7/16/19: 59% (started with 28, 1 infertile, 11 quitters, 16 live chicks) Version 2 & 3 Nurture Right 360 incubators

8/12/19: 57% (started with 14, 7 infertile, 3 quitters, 4 live chicks) IncuView incubator

8/31/19: 88% SHIPPED EGGS (started with 15, 7 infertile, 1 quitter, 7 live chicks) Version 3 Nurture Right

2/18/20: 90% (started with 10, No infertile, 1 quitters, 9 live chicks) Version 2 Nurture Right incubator
(1 Late embryo death, on hatch day, I believe due to large vaulted skull)

2/19/20: 100% (started with 12, 2 infertile, No quitters, 10 live chicks) Version 3 Nurture Right incubator

 

[julskinka]

I have 2 Nurture Right 360s, and IncuView, a Brinsea Mini II Advance (that I haven't used yet), a Hovabator 1602N, and I have had a Little Giant (old model with the hand dial), Farm Innovators 4250, and I have experience with the yellow top China-bator (but China-bator wasn't in my chicken room under the identical conditions, it was at a local friend's house).

I think that's all of them, lol, I know I have a problem. I definitely have a preference for the plastic incubators based on great hatching experiences, ease of use and cleaning.

Hehe you're like a one-woman product testing facility.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Hehe you're like a one-woman product testing facility.

It's the darn truth!

 

[julskinka]

Yeah this is one of the many reasons I’m hatching out all the babies I need to eventually breed my own too. I just got my last adult chickens that I’ll ever get last week and hopefully in the next month or so won’t be buying anymore shipped eggs either. All the things that can go wrong scare me.

In my case it's an instance of not having enough land to meet my town's standards for roosters or a large flock. You have to hit 5 acres. If I could do everything over again, I wouldn't have moved here haha. Still plotting my escape some days. . .

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Still plotting my escape some days. . .

lol, Me too, I keep eyeing the mountains in North Georgia.