Virginia

[choptank330]

Do you add water for the first 18 days ? Or is that what it's at without water?

 

[Flowerbh]

Do you add water for the first 18 days ? Or is that what it's at without water?

It depends on your room environment. It depends on if it is winter or summer and if you use air conditioner or the heater, etc. Trust me, your room environment can make or break your hatching! If you need to add water to make it 35-45 % humidity, do it. Some people actually have to add dry rice to their incubator because they have too much natural humidity in their rooms! Set up your incubator and do a test week. When I have to add humidity, I don't add it to the 'wells'. That makes it like 80% for me. I go to the store and buy some baby food in those little plastic rectangular containers. Then I cut a small square in the lid. Fill it with water and put it on the edge of the incubator. It fits just perfectly between the turner and the side of the incubator. Check the humidity. Sometimes, if it is too high, just put a piece of tape over part of the square you cut in the lid. Keep adjusting it until you get it just right! At certain times of the year, say when the heater is running in my house, the room humidity is lower, therefore, the incubator humidity will be lower, then I add two of those little food containers with water in them.

I highly suggest you buy a separate hygrometer/thermometer. I need count on just the built in one. Get a digital one. You can find some good ones at Amazon.

Another thing I do, it on days 18-hatch, I put a folded up piece of paper towel under the air hole in the top of the incubator. (You should pull out the red plug at day 10) I also put a folded paper towel in the corner where the cord from the turner is. That way, I can add water to the incubator without lifting the lid. Just pour some warm water in the holes onto the paper towels. It helps keep the humidity up at 65%

The test run is crucial for success, IMO. Everybody's home has a different environment. Everybody has to do something different to get the correct humidity/temperature. Good Luck! It is sooooo much fun to hatch chicks! You may want to go to the Incubators Anonymous thread and check out what others say!

 

[choptank330]

@Flowerbh

Thank you so much !! That is so helpful. One last question. Does the probe thing work ? From like incubator warehouse? It got good reviews just asking.

 

[Flowerbh]

@Flowerbh

Thank you so much !! That is so helpful. One last question. Does the probe thing work ? From like incubator warehouse? It got good reviews just asking.

If you are talking about the kind that has a probe that hangs down inside the incubator and has the reader on the outside, I have never used one, but, I have heard they are good. You just need to make sure you have the probe part at the level of the eggs.

 

[choptank330]

Perfect!!! Thank you so much for your response. I love hatching. I had gotten the brinsea mini eco for like 30 off ebay and I love it. But it's just not big enough. So I've decided on the hova.

 

[cindynkidsd]

Cane sisters----really? Oh I was so looking forward to some pretty blue or green eggs. I'll try to check closer to see who's laying what. When it's warm again that is...above 30. Lol

 

[chickeneer45]

Anyone selling silkie pullets or chicks right now? I live in Mechanicsville and am in search of a few. Thanks.

 

[riane'smimi]

What color silkies are you looking for ? I have some still under lights and I live in Gordonsville Va

 

[Cknldy]

I thought about getting more silkies AFTER the poultry barn is built. Right now I have separate coops that I keep building every time I get more chickens or a different breed. After 2 winters I just want a winter poultry barn to make it all easier! Then I wouldn't worry about more sensitive chickens like silkies in the winter because they could have their own well protected space in the barn. Even IN the coop IN the feed shed with a 3 sided roost area and lots of shavings Con had his feet freeze and I don't want that to happen again. The dead skin is finally starting to fall off showing nice flexible new skin. He now has more flexibility in his toes and feather shafts are coming back in on the top of the least affected foot. But at 8 weeks old there is no sign of waddles or a comb so Con may just be Consuela after all!

 

[pysankigirl]

Minor rant: feel free to skip to the end…

The building complex where I work is an industrial park for about 5000 people. This morning we all received notice that the parking lots would not be open until 10am and no one was supposed to come to work until then. I know they want to plow the parking lots but having all 5000 people arrive at the same time is idiotic. There is only one way in so traffic backs up at that light a ridiculous amount and this morning someone spun out on the hill in and took that one way in down to one lane. Traffic was backed up for a mile in all directions.

What they need to do is have a set order in which they plow the parking lots for the different buildings and stagger the arrival times based on that order.

If this was the first time they’d had this happen I could see it, but this happens every time. This time, though, I heard that the county police have gotten involved and demanded that a solution be figured out. The backup doesn’t just affect the employees here. It shuts down the one road into town from the north.

thanks for listening, now I feel better, getting that off my chest.