To let brood or incubate...that is the Q..WORDY :/

[SoCalChicky]

Yikes! I have been so thankful my broodies are first timers and are doing wonderfully! The silky chick I bought to be my broody turned into a rooster 8 months later when I heard a kitten meow of a crow lol..and my two broodies are a Marans and a mutt (RIR x white chicken) so I'm pleasantly surprised! Happy for your experience and to update I ended up moving the baby when mama #2 jumped out of the coop (3 feet up) and the baby ran all over looking for her. I gave her to the foster hen and she took it in perfectly. Broody #1 was frantic for about 2 minutes and then went back and sat on her eggs! Shes been there for hours! Phew!

 

[SoCalChicky]

Sooo I can't wait a few days for my bator to perfect or buy another hygrometer bc my fertile eggs have already been sitting around for 7 days (I know I've heard they can be viable for 21 days but I'm not willing to risk it!) so...

I turned the bator on for a couple hours with wooden eggs, put the thermometer on top and got it to 100. I used he hygrometer and it was reading like 85% but hubby said its all off so I'm just putting the water in the "P" and praying. So I put the 25 eggs in (75* inside the house) and they've been in there for an hour and the temp reads 85-90 on two diff thermometers. Should I have put all of them in there and then gotten it to 100* or will it get up there even with the eggs now and I should just wait?

 

[Farmer Viola]

Quote:

Yikes! I have been so thankful my broodies are first timers and are doing wonderfully! The silky chick I bought to be my broody turned into a rooster 8 months later when I heard a kitten meow of a crow lol..and my two broodies are a Marans and a mutt (RIR x white chicken) so I'm pleasantly surprised! Happy for your experience and to update I ended up moving the baby when mama #2 jumped out of the coop (3 feet up) and the baby ran all over looking for her. I gave her to the foster hen and she took it in perfectly. Broody #1 was frantic for about 2 minutes and then went back and sat on her eggs! Shes been there for hours! Phew!

Yeah! Glad that went smoothly

Sooo I can't wait a few days for my bator to perfect or buy another hygrometer bc my fertile eggs have already been sitting around for 7 days (I know I've heard they can be viable for 21 days but I'm not willing to risk it!) so...

I turned the bator on for a couple hours with wooden eggs, put the thermometer on top and got it to 100. I used he hygrometer and it was reading like 85% but hubby said its all off so I'm just putting the water in the "P" and praying. So I put the 25 eggs in (75* inside the house) and they've been in there for an hour and the temp reads 85-90 on two diff thermometers. Should I have put all of them in there and then gotten it to 100* or will it get up there even with the eggs now and I should just wait?

I personally use the dry incubation method, which is not adding any water at all until day 19, when you increase it to 65%. The eggs evaporate and create their own humidity - by having high humidity, you slow down the water loss.

It is normal for the temperature in the incubator to go down after adding eggs, adding water will ALSO make the temperature go down, but it will even back out. The eggs are basically full of liquid at this point, so they are similar to adding water, and since they were at 75 they will lower the temperature until their internal temperature gets up to 99.5. Do not adjust the thermostat, just wait.

I have had eggs sweat before, little beads of egg white come out of the egg pores and harden on the shell. Those eggs never hatched, not sure if it was related. I put them in without heating them up slowly. Now, I spend about 8 hours slowly raising them from 70-75 - 80 - 90 degrees -- then I place them in the 100 degree incubator. I use a space heater in a small bathroom, or just bringing them closer to the woodstove (our heat source).

 

[mimiywan]

Is it stressful for the Silkie? Also, when can you start them as brooders? I have an incubator but it can only hold 24 eggs and I do not want to wait to get all the chicks going since I am going to rehome most of them before May. Thanks