MadChickenMama
Songster
***Sorry this is so long***
I am about to get some Serama eggs on Sunday and for over a week now I have been reading everything I can get my hands on about incubating eggs as none of the chickens my sister has are broody. I've read that Seramas can be difficult to incubate and whatnot because they're such a small breed and with that comes issues. So I want to make sure I have all the knowledge I can get.
Unfortunately I cannot get a really good incubator in time. I've looked everywhere nearby and all the stores seem to have the same two kinds and I'll be gone this weekend so ordering one at this point won't do me any good unless I want to spend a pretty penny to have it shipped overnight...which I sometimes think about doing because I could very well be out the money I spend on the eggs if I don't get at least 1 to hatch.
Anyway, if I end up with the common brand of incubator that seems to be sold around here, it is just a still air incubator and it will have a turner in it as well. I've see about the differences in where temp needs to be depending on still air or fan. One thing I saw, however, was an incubator that had a cooling time you could add in. It was on a Brinsea model and I was told by a friend who has been hatching and raising chickens for a while that they have had the best results with a Brinsea.
The video I watched was by a customer just showing how to set the thing up and she said the cooling feature was to simulate when the hen would get up to go eat and whatnot. It makes sense. But I wanted to ask y'all's opinion. Have any of you dealt with an incubator with a cool down feature? Have you ever just done it up so you gave the incubator a cooling period if it didn't have that feature? Have you done both cool down and not? What were your experiences? How was hatch rate compared to how many eggs were fertile?
Also, should I candle at all? After all my reading I would prefer not to handle the eggs almost at all, just to be safe. But is it a good idea to have an idea of how many eggs are fertile? The breeder I'm getting the eggs from says she has a roughly 90% fertility rate from those eggs still in her care through hatching. Based on reviews for her I feel pretty good in trusting her word on that.
Edit: I'm wondering if it makes much of a difference to use the Celsius setting rather than the Fahrenheit setting. Isn't Celsius a bit more accurate?
I am about to get some Serama eggs on Sunday and for over a week now I have been reading everything I can get my hands on about incubating eggs as none of the chickens my sister has are broody. I've read that Seramas can be difficult to incubate and whatnot because they're such a small breed and with that comes issues. So I want to make sure I have all the knowledge I can get.
Unfortunately I cannot get a really good incubator in time. I've looked everywhere nearby and all the stores seem to have the same two kinds and I'll be gone this weekend so ordering one at this point won't do me any good unless I want to spend a pretty penny to have it shipped overnight...which I sometimes think about doing because I could very well be out the money I spend on the eggs if I don't get at least 1 to hatch.
Anyway, if I end up with the common brand of incubator that seems to be sold around here, it is just a still air incubator and it will have a turner in it as well. I've see about the differences in where temp needs to be depending on still air or fan. One thing I saw, however, was an incubator that had a cooling time you could add in. It was on a Brinsea model and I was told by a friend who has been hatching and raising chickens for a while that they have had the best results with a Brinsea.
The video I watched was by a customer just showing how to set the thing up and she said the cooling feature was to simulate when the hen would get up to go eat and whatnot. It makes sense. But I wanted to ask y'all's opinion. Have any of you dealt with an incubator with a cool down feature? Have you ever just done it up so you gave the incubator a cooling period if it didn't have that feature? Have you done both cool down and not? What were your experiences? How was hatch rate compared to how many eggs were fertile?
Also, should I candle at all? After all my reading I would prefer not to handle the eggs almost at all, just to be safe. But is it a good idea to have an idea of how many eggs are fertile? The breeder I'm getting the eggs from says she has a roughly 90% fertility rate from those eggs still in her care through hatching. Based on reviews for her I feel pretty good in trusting her word on that.
Edit: I'm wondering if it makes much of a difference to use the Celsius setting rather than the Fahrenheit setting. Isn't Celsius a bit more accurate?
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Make sure to move the eggs to a new location inside the bator every day to help ensure even development.
