I have the incubator stabilizing right now for a test batch before I order my REAL eggs - BLRW, BCM and some frizzled EE. I"m reading how to do this properly - good lord, and now my head is spinning. I've hatched a zillion button quail before just for fun... here's how.
#1 - Drag LG incubator out of storage, set on freezer in damp basement and turn on. Stick walmart digital thermometer in, keep turning knob until temp is around 100.
#2 - clean out quail cages. take ALL eggs from all cages and put in the bator. Who cares how much poop is on them or how long they've been in there...
#3 - turn eggs maybe once or twice a day. Adjust temperature knob 3 times daily. Move incubator to get to food in freezer.
#3 - replace batteries in thermometer, panic over 104 degrees. Eh, keep going and see what happens, wonder how long the tray has been dry????
#4 - hummm, its been close to a month, eggs should be hatching soon.
#5 - Celebrate over 90% hatch rate, wonder what to do with 30 quail....
They quail was a fun experiment that I repeated successfully several times. I didn't care how many hatched, just wanted to see what would happen. Some days they didn't get turned, other days maybe 3 times. HUGE temperature fluctuations and no mind to the humidity. Ok, maybe not quite this bad, but a lot was done incorrectly. I"m stressed about mail-ordering expensive eggs for fancy chickens and want as many as possible to hatch (hence the test-run) - not sure if I want to do them in the cartons, hand turn, buy an automatic turner (bator is at my parents - I'm there daily but there'd be about a 15 hour stretch w/out being turned), yada yada yada - oy! Remind me again that this is FUN and that an egg is just a chicken waiting to hatch! Anyone else psyc themselves out like this?
#1 - Drag LG incubator out of storage, set on freezer in damp basement and turn on. Stick walmart digital thermometer in, keep turning knob until temp is around 100.
#2 - clean out quail cages. take ALL eggs from all cages and put in the bator. Who cares how much poop is on them or how long they've been in there...
#3 - turn eggs maybe once or twice a day. Adjust temperature knob 3 times daily. Move incubator to get to food in freezer.
#3 - replace batteries in thermometer, panic over 104 degrees. Eh, keep going and see what happens, wonder how long the tray has been dry????
#4 - hummm, its been close to a month, eggs should be hatching soon.
#5 - Celebrate over 90% hatch rate, wonder what to do with 30 quail....
They quail was a fun experiment that I repeated successfully several times. I didn't care how many hatched, just wanted to see what would happen. Some days they didn't get turned, other days maybe 3 times. HUGE temperature fluctuations and no mind to the humidity. Ok, maybe not quite this bad, but a lot was done incorrectly. I"m stressed about mail-ordering expensive eggs for fancy chickens and want as many as possible to hatch (hence the test-run) - not sure if I want to do them in the cartons, hand turn, buy an automatic turner (bator is at my parents - I'm there daily but there'd be about a 15 hour stretch w/out being turned), yada yada yada - oy! Remind me again that this is FUN and that an egg is just a chicken waiting to hatch! Anyone else psyc themselves out like this?
