who else has eggs cooking???

[CrzyChknLady81]

I have 8 rose comb brown leghorns due on monday and 6 black copper marans due on friday,but i am not counting my chickens before they hatch,i have 2 broodys sitting on them,all is well so far.One thing i noticed is that they are switching nests between bathroom breaks,they will rotate nests,they are both in the same area but have seperate nests?,i hope it wont be a problem when they hatch as there is 4 days between them?. Harvey

They should be fine..sounds like the girls are all in at this point so they should finish them out..generally a hen wont leave at all once eggs start pipping.

 

[1655ot]

Wanted to try and improve on my last hatch of 70%.So I increased the humidity to 40% and sped the fan up for more air flow (oxygen) Well that appears to have been a mistake because I only got 46% with a lot of shrink wrapped chicks because the fan was blowing directly on the hatching tray. Uggh! Hope this helps someone not make the same mistake I did. Next hatch I'm going to relocate the fan and put humidity back where it was.Gotta believe it will be better next time.

 

[CrzyChknLady81]

Wanted to try and improve on my last hatch of 70%.So I increased the humidity to 40% and sped the fan up for more air flow (oxygen) Well that appears to have been a mistake because I only got 46% with a lot of shrink wrapped chicks because the fan was blowing directly on the hatching tray. Uggh! Hope this helps someone not make the same mistake I did. Next hatch I'm going to relocate the fan and put humidity back where it was.Gotta believe it will be better next time.

I've seen where a lot of people have inverted their fan, so that it ducks air towards the ceiling instead of blowing down..I use 2 still air so don't know if this would help you or not..another thing that has helped my hatche's drastically is doing "dry" incubation. I think this would vary widely depending on personal geography but I'm in WV if that helps..I do not add any water at all to my bators until lock down..and I mist my eggs with warm water..I should also mention that I have my incubators set up in a teeny bathroom(maybe 10x4) and that I run a small electric heater in there and will turn the shower on with all hot water during lock down if I need to open the bator and I do it with the heater any time I candle or swap eggs from the incubator to the one I use for hatching.. I can't say that this gets me 100% hatch rates, but even with shipped eggs I generally hit 80-85% easy and have hit 94%

 

[1655ot]

Now that's the kind of hatch rate I'm talking about! I have a homemade cabinet incubator and am very pleased with it so far. I would just like to get higher than 70% hatch with it. I've got rare breed shipped eggs coming and want to hatch as many as I possibly can.
I borrowed a GQF cabinet from a friend a couple years ago and he said to just keep the little quart size water pan full and at 99* and forget it. I followed his instructions the first hatch and got about 80% and seems like I tried to improve the hatch by increasing the humidity but with poor results. I also know the fan in the GQF was blowing toward the door and not down on the eggs. I'm gonna remount it to the back wall and move my hatching tray to the bottom for lockdown and see what happens.

 

[CrzyChknLady81]

I would love to have a cabinet..I'm cleaning out a room in the barn now for the Tolbunt Polish I have in the incubator now..that's how badly I want all these guys to hatch..that they will get their own separate area made just for them..I found some plywood, and 2 different kinds of insulation. ..may see about making myself one

If you run a hatch without a fan, remember to keep your Temps a little higher than with the fan..I try to stay at 101.5

 

[1655ot]

American mom
What kind of incubator and what humidity you running for 98-100% hatch?
I have 12 BR Turkey eggs and 14 barnyard mix eggs going into lockdown Sunday... Decided to hand turn this batch of turkey eggs, so far everything looks much better than when I had them in the turner, no blood rings (lost an average of two every set) and no extra large aircells..  I am thinking they don't do as well for me in the auto turner.   Chicken eggs do fine, have been getting 98-100% hatchrate on those

 

[37 Caddy]

My hatch wasnt as good as i hoped it would be,i did get 4 from 6 black Copper Maran eggs,they are a week old today,seem to be doing fine,my brown leghorns did not fare as well,only got 4 from 9 eggs,1 got out of the nesting box and could not get back in,it had a 6 inch high lip and he couldnt get back in,it was cool in the house then,and 1 more died at night,not sure what happened to him?.So i am left with 6 chicks from 15 eggs,the eggs that did not hatch had rotten yolk in them?.Presently have 12 eggs under another broody,they are brown leghorns,they should hatch in about 2 weeks time,hoping for better results this time,all the eggs i used were from other places as i dont have a rooster and have been using donated eggs.Harvey

 

[AmericanMom]

American mom
What kind of incubator and what humidity you running for 98-100% hatch?
I have 12 BR Turkey eggs and 14 barnyard mix eggs going into lockdown Sunday... Decided to hand turn this batch of turkey eggs, so far everything looks much better than when I had them in the turner, no blood rings (lost an average of two every set) and no extra large aircells.. I am thinking they don't do as well for me in the auto turner. Chicken eggs do fine, have been getting 98-100% hatchrate on those

I have never gotten that good of a hatch rate out of Turkey eggs in the incubator but typically have been getting that with chicken eggs ( that make it to lockdown)

I run 2 hovabators, one is two years old and we bought it as a still air but installed the fan kit, the other is also a Hovabator (new) but has the fan in it already. I do complete dry incubation and then at lockdown shoot for 60-70% humidity, that's easier said then done but I have discovered if I add a jelly jar filled with water and insert a sponge into the jar and put about 1/2 cup water into one of the trays I can maintain that level pretty well. I will add water to keep it there once a day until I see an internal pip, then its hands off.

I also noticed I have not had anymore blood rings since I started hand turning, I like you, averaged one or two with every set
I had been putting my turkey eggs in the turner and suffered around 40-50% hatch rates.. When I started hand turning that hatch rate has jumped to 80-90% I just recently allowed my best broody chicken to incubate 8 turkey eggs and she did a 100% hatch rate... that tells me a lot lol
I currently have 22 turkeys in the incubator, 12 on day 12 and 10 on day 4 or 5 and will be setting more in the second incubator this Sunday, a guy wants me to hatch turkey eggs he is buying and agreed to a no charge rate from me if I get half that hatches

And yes, the chicken eggs do fine in the turner..

 

[1655ot]

Okay it sounds like I need to try the dry hatch method.

 

[theeggcollector]

Got 24 ixworth eggs just started today hurry up 21 days