*WOW* Thanks hubby...now what?

[turtleblossom]

My husband supprised me with an incubator and egg turner today! Now all I have to do is read some articles on hatching eggs, pick some breeds to hatch, find some good breeders to buy from, set up the brooder in the garage (again)... oh dear...I just finished a chicken project (not that I'm complaining)! But am I ready for something like this? I know about all the things that can go wrong, and I'm afraid I have a cheaper, less reliable kind of incubator (Little Giant Still Air Incubator from TSC). If I have a very low hatch rate, or defective chicks that must be delt with, I don't think this will be a regular part of my chicken habbit. Of course, if things go the other way I am in trouble then too. I will hatch more and more chicks untill my hubby leaves me and I end up being the wierd "chicken lady" down the street.
Ok I'm done ranting (sorry-just excited), on to some questions:
Do I have a cheap incubator? Specifically what should I watch out for?
Anyone know where to get some nice Wellsummers and Barnevelders? I am more interested in type than egg color or production.

 

[speckledhen]

Nice hubby! For Welsummers, try mothergoose (Christie). Great fertility and hatch rate.

 

[seminolewind]

Hi, welcome to incubatorhood. I would put the incubator in a spare room, or in a room where the temps don't fluxuate much, even a basement.
Cheap incubator? No, just some incubators give you the opportunity to be more involved.
I had that incubator and found I was getting alot of temp fluxuation from the big window. I then LOOSELY laid bubble wrap on top of it, and solved that problem.
Have fun! I would start out with double the amount of eggs you want chicks from. Traveling eggs have lower hatch rates. Except Speckledhen's. With hers I got more chicks per eggs. Good luck

 

[wyldehorses]

I have the same incubators, and about 150 chicks running around! And sounds lie a few more just made it into the world... I only get about 1/2 of the fertile eggs to hatch, but I get better each time. Walmart had a hygrometer for around ten bucks. It was in the hardware section. Set it up and let it run for a while to make sure the temp doesn't fluctuate, and monitor your humidty, and you will be divorced in no time!

After you get it set up, I'll bring some eggs for you to hatch. I don't have any on your list, but have lots of others. It'll be cheap practice for when you get the eggs you want.

And if you ever get eggs you really want to hatch, there is a guy in Taylorsville, with a sportsman, andhe charges $1.00 an egg to incubate. If you have small amounts, it may be cheaper than electricity, and more reliable. He also has a feed store and great prices!

Yolonda

 

[flock-mama]

Quote:

 

[ezbird]

Ok, that's funny.

 

[Chickndaddy]

I believe allen wranch (Carla) has some Barnevelders...

 

[conny63malies]

The best thing to do is to set your bator up in the basement or in a room with north or north estern exposure, this way you get the least temperature flux's. Maybe you can also set it into a big enough(3-4in space on each side) cardboard box to hekp level the temps.
I have a "cheap" incubator so to speak. Its a GQF 1602N with a turner. That handturning is a novelty that wears off quickly.

 

[Mycookoonest]

I have that bator and it's worked WONDERFUL! For extra humidity I put a little dixie cup along the side filled with water. When the turner is in there it's just too hard to find the right space between the turner and the channels on the bottom. I've gotten the wrong channels and it's gone all over the counter!

I recommend setting it up a few days before you expect to get your eggs. This way you can work out the "bugs" before the eggs are in there. Once I got mine to the right temp it's been fine. I haven't really had to adjust it.

For temp and humidity, I used the oregon scientific temp and humidity guage... I'm sure you can find something like this. But I like the display outside of the bator so I don't have to go searching...

http://www.amazon.com/Oregon-Scient...1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1214913452&sr=8-1

 

[MrsCountryChick]

Quote:
This is what I use to add water to my incubator. The straw is 11 3/4 inches long that came from a plastic collectors cup. (the kind you get filled with Pepsi or whatever soda at amusement parks or the zoo). The medicine syringe comes from the baby isle of a Dollar Store, costing only a $1.00 Just measure the warm water in a liquid measuring cup, then I slowly suck up 2 tsp at a time & add in, by removing only a vent plug. This way you can easily direct the straw where you want the water to go & inject the water into the straw thru the medicine syringe. The syringe end fits perfectly into the straw, & with no drips to drop in the vent hole onto any eggs. For me not even any change in the incubator temp at all

Some people have said they use the same baby medicine syringe but inject the water into plastic tubing that they use instead of a rigid straw. They wiggle the tubing around thru their vent hole around their egg turner to get the water where they want it, then inject the water. The tubing is the kind found for aquarium air pumps. Clear & rather soft so it's movable to wiggle around. You could always place the tubing in place thru a vent hole & have it already ready when you need it. Just lightly cover the vent hole with the tubing in it with tape so air doesn't escape if you don't want the vent open. Hope this helps