For me it was about this time of year in 1976 for a 5th grade science fair I helped run an incubator we had 20 gerber jars and opened up an egg each day and put the contents in one of the jars. the Incubator was just basicly two metal feed pans about 18" wide the bottom one had a flat bottom and a light bulb sticking out the side and ridges so the next tray could sit in it and in the bottom of that tray had hardware wire and a domed plastic top with a vent in it and to adjust the temp you opened or closed the vent so if you wanted to turn up the heat you closed the vent so the heat stayed in the incubator and if you wanted to lower the temp you opened it so the air moved out of it faster. we had to turn the eggs ourselves but I can only remember turning a couple of times a day once when we got to school once at lunch and once just as we were leaving school and way to cool and had a live hatch on the thursday just before going on christmas vacation since the fair was on friday before we had the christmas party and I haven't seen an incubator like that one since 1976
um...early 80's...about 83 or 84...march..cuz I was at my Dad's for spring break...he had one of those big round sears or montgomery ward type bators...it was cool...still looking for one...I have found several of the small ones but never a big one lke what he had. I hatch in my class every couple of years...we kinda rotate...I doit then the next year the ag teacher thenusually an elementary class....I am debating on whether or not to do it this year...part of me wants to and another part is being a stick in the mud...guess the stick in the mud will get over it...
June 26, 2010, under ny first broody hen, Buffy. I immediately started researching incubators, just out of interest, bought a Brinsea MiniAdvance online, then finally set some eggs I won in a BYC auction (from Wynette). Olive Eggers. No way, no how did I expect to win that egg auction! 6 out of 7 eggs hatched on Sept. 6th, 2010. And so it begam.....
Dang you want years??? 1969! I won a state science fair with a project called "What is an Embryo?" LOL These days I go to science fairs and just say "HUH?" Waiting for one of the kids to invent my time machine. I need it. I had science encyclopedias and made Argo Starch clay. Cracked eggs carefully the long way and made half eggs. Drew pics of the embryos like the ones in the books and I used 3 store bought eggs for my hatch. I was going to buy a bunch of eggs and open one a day, but couldn't bring myself to do it. I remember my mom telling me they wouldn't hatch, because they had been in the refridgerator. Well guess what? 2 did. One died right away and the other like the next. I didn't know about brooding or anything. I wish I had beem able to find info like these days and keep them alive. I lived in Oakland California. Not exactly farm area. LOL I actually think the eggs came from the Milkman. My mom would order from them too. I remember a lot of people finding chicks in eggs way back then. I hatched those 2 chicks in a shoebox, on cotton. Sat them under my lamp on my night stand. I turned them when I woke up and when i went to bed. No water anywhere, cause I didn't know I needed it. I've had some horrible hatches this year and used incubators, thermometers, hygrometers...........I hatched those 2 with a light. Go figure huh?
Spring of 1950 was my first hatch. The incubator was a round Sears unit that maintained temperature very well. We never worried about humidity-just kept the little water channels filled and misted goose or duck eggs when they were hatching. Marked one side of the egg with an X and the other side with an O. Eggs were turned twice daily with resultant temperature drops. Chicks were removed twice a day with resultant temperature and humidity drops. I broke all of today's "rules" and that thing hatched like a champ. I hatched: ringneck pheasants, bantam and standard chickens, ducks-mallards, mallard derived, muscovies, peafowl, guinea fowl, geese and ornamental pheasants. Back then at 9 years old incubating eggs didn't seem so complicated. One thing I strongly remember: after every hatch, my mother was strongly insistant that the incubator must be disinfected. That farm raised minimally educated German lady had a wealth of common sense.
