details please, . looking for someplace other then C.C. Auction.
Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps
- Thread starter Nifty-Chicken
- Start date
details please, . looking for someplace other then C.C. Auction.
Power is finally back on. Chicks are happy they don't have to huddle in a box with hot water bottles for warmth tonight.
I have been toying with an idea of hatching baby chicks this winter, but now I don't know if it is a good idea, with this weather. We do have generator but we would need it for our own heat. Also, I am shopping for an incubator, can you give me good suggestion.
I love my hova bator genesis it's easy peasy. My lg 9200 is touchy. It's hard to keep the temp and humidity right on it. I use several thermometers and a few hydrometers in either case because I'm paranoid about my temp/humidity being off. I adjusted my hova bator by .8*f when I first bought it but I haven't had any issues with it yet.
You should post on the hatching thread about incubators. I got a Hovabator 2362 online. By the time I had it shipped and bought a hygrometer/thermometer to go with it I was into it almost $100. There are less expensive incubators that probably work exactly the same. The Hovabator I bought is a pretty cheaply constructed styrofoam box with a heating element and semi-effective fan. If you are at all mechanically inclined you could probably build a way nicer incubator for a lot less money. In any event, I don't have a lot of free time for building things so I bought one. Once I got the temp regulated I put in 35 eggs from my hens. Seven were infertile, and all 8 of the legbar eggs died for whatever reason. Of the 20 eggs that made it past day 8, all 20 hatched. I didn't get the egg turner, so I turned them by hand. The incubator worked better than I expected based on the reviews I read online. I think the failure/success of using it has a lot to do with user error and not the incubator itself. I did find temperature inconsistencies on different sides of the incubator. If you move your eggs around to different places, this shouldn't be an issue.
As for hatching in the winter, it just depends on how many backup resources you have in case the power goes out. My incubator cooled off to 70 degrees within 1 hour of unplugging it, so they are not well insulated and lose heat quickly. The eggs can cool off for a short period of time and be fine (maybe 12 hours or less) and still hatch. You do need a back up plan or two. We have a generator,but it costs about $20 in fuel to run it for 12 hours. If the power was out for days, it wouldn't be cost effective to keep it going all night just for the incubator. We have a wood stove, but I don't know if there is a way to get it to heat the incubator consistently. You could put hot water bottles in the incubator to try to keep the eggs at 99 degrees. All my neighbors/friends were without power too, so that wasn't an option. My mother lives in the city about an hour away and had power, so I could have taken the incubator to her house. Keeping the humidity correct and turning the eggs would probably be too much for her to manage though. In the end, I am so thankful the power went out after hatching than before. Sustaining the chicks with no power was way easier than trying to manage fragile eggs in an incubator.
I think I've seen some used incubators in your area for sale on Craigslist. You might want to check on there and save a little money while deciding what works best for you.
As for hatching in the winter, it just depends on how many backup resources you have in case the power goes out. My incubator cooled off to 70 degrees within 1 hour of unplugging it, so they are not well insulated and lose heat quickly. The eggs can cool off for a short period of time and be fine (maybe 12 hours or less) and still hatch. You do need a back up plan or two. We have a generator,but it costs about $20 in fuel to run it for 12 hours. If the power was out for days, it wouldn't be cost effective to keep it going all night just for the incubator. We have a wood stove, but I don't know if there is a way to get it to heat the incubator consistently. You could put hot water bottles in the incubator to try to keep the eggs at 99 degrees. All my neighbors/friends were without power too, so that wasn't an option. My mother lives in the city about an hour away and had power, so I could have taken the incubator to her house. Keeping the humidity correct and turning the eggs would probably be too much for her to manage though. In the end, I am so thankful the power went out after hatching than before. Sustaining the chicks with no power was way easier than trying to manage fragile eggs in an incubator.
I think I've seen some used incubators in your area for sale on Craigslist. You might want to check on there and save a little money while deciding what works best for you.
I have the usual styro that i use for a brooder, a older rollX and a Genesis….Of the three the Genesis has been the most reliable….I use a turner since i have an irregular job. I hatch in the basement back room and use thick styro sheets ( like house insulation sheets) around the Genesis like a box to stabilize any temp swings. For me Fall, January thru May hatching fairly successful, summer months something happens and i am not as successful.
I have learned to limit hatching 2 sets in one bator (2 weeks apart) at a time, then cleaning well before starting again.
Once i split a special batch of eggs between a broodie and the bator….toward the end, the broodie permanently left the nest and the eggs were cold…..BROODIE LESSON, even if the eggs are freezing, put them in a bator anyway til several days past the due date…I lost 2 viable chicks because i crack to see how far they came and they were alive, damage done.
I have learned to limit hatching 2 sets in one bator (2 weeks apart) at a time, then cleaning well before starting again.
Once i split a special batch of eggs between a broodie and the bator….toward the end, the broodie permanently left the nest and the eggs were cold…..BROODIE LESSON, even if the eggs are freezing, put them in a bator anyway til several days past the due date…I lost 2 viable chicks because i crack to see how far they came and they were alive, damage done.
Thank you for good advise, we had build an incubator couple of years ago, and it was big failure, due to inconsistent temperatures, I had followed the instruction of how to build it to the book, but never the less it had not worked properly. So, we are toying with the ideas, to buy it or to build it differently this time, with the egg turner and fans.
A couple sea gals were at our Walmart signing stuff and doing photo ops.
My daughter was excited.
But I like to embarrass her from time to time... And the cheerleaders were game. So I sat on their laps.
My kid wanted to kill me! LOVE IT!
My daughter was excited.
But I like to embarrass her from time to time... And the cheerleaders were game. So I sat on their laps.
My kid wanted to kill me! LOVE IT!
hi guys is everyone battening down for the winter months they sure sem to have hit with a vengance this week
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