YO GEORGIANS! :)

[carcar80]

another question please for you hatcher peoples...........  

my owners manual says 55-60% humidity during incubation and bump it up to 65% during hatching. I'm thinking that Flower told me when we were talking the day I picked up my egg cartons, that was too high?  So what do y'all usually run yours at? carcar, I KNOW you have good hatch rates, what do you shoot for?

I have my bator plugged in and running, I'll let it get up to temp and see how well it does holding it for the next couple days 

I don't really look at humidity until lockdown- I just take my water out. I think it runs around 30% maybe? Then at lockdown I shoot for 50-higher 50's. If I got to 60% I'd be getting antsy though. Mid 50's was where it settled last hatch and that seemed to work great.

 

[katsdar]

I
I don't have an incubator. Lol! I've been looking at getting an advanced. We have plenty of acreage, but our coop is full. We are getting 15 Marans chicks in the spring. If I had an incubator my husband would divorce me! Lol!

Nope that is when you say but I thought of you when I saw this one and I thought you would like a pair of your own,

It will save money, I can hatch my own and sell them, then they ask several months later, I thought you were going to sell some of the chicks, well I am but I have to see what they turn out like before I can sell them, and aren't they sooooo cute.

Ha Ha, I thought I wouldn't mind driving hours to get chickens, too. But...........it was the drive home that got to me. The forecast was for rain, so I drove my enclosed SUV instead of my pickup truck. Had the crate full of shavings, pdz, etc. My DH was with me, but he's not a chicken lover, and I have yet to hear the last of it. Well, he can stay home next time!

That is the smell of making me happy, you want me happy don't you and your spoiling the pleasure, which equals my happiness,

Well alrighty then ...

I was going to do this but on the out side of the nesting boxes, lift it up to get my eggs but that is cute too. now to locate toilet lids!!!

How u carcar?

Hello buddy phoenix, I'm fine thanks for asking

I picked up a matching set, thermometer and hygrometer at Petco today while we were out and about. Going to get my little bator plugged in and test it within the next week.

as for food coloring in the water, that's ok to do that, it won't effect the chicks to do that.

I have a question for all you hatching gurus, Have you ever started a batch and left home for a few days? I want to start some tuesday or wednesday, but we were planning a weekend trip next weekend and I'm not sure it would be a good idea to leave it unmonitored. I guess I can get one of my daughters to stop in every day and check it. Or I could just put it off a week and add the first few eggs I have dated to the selling carton.

Speaking of which, I was all excited because I got blue eggs two days in a row, now two days without one. Silly girls are just toying with me, in other words, just another typical part f life

I have gotten my 2nd blue egg and one (finally) leghorn egg, from the bunch I brought you from kingheman, speaking of which hasn't been on in a while.

 

[carcar80]

Example: I have no water right now. Just looked and it's at 19%. But I'll bump it up mid-week for another hatch.

HOWEVER... A cabinet I guess is a special thing because every week or so you're getting that humidity jump from a hatch. So that bumps your AVERAGE humidity, which I'm too tired to calculate right now. So you def wouldn't want to run that low in a one-run-at-a-time bator.

Also, what I shoot to GET my humidity to for lockdown is 45%. The hatching itself bumps the other 10%

 

[PapaChaz]

I have gotten my 2nd blue egg and one (finally) leghorn egg, from the bunch I brought you from kingheman, speaking of which hasn't been on in a while.

wow, we've gotten white eggs from those leghorns from the get go!

while I'm thinking about it, how many roosters/hens did you wind up with from the dozen you got from me? were the 2 blue eggs you got from those? my splash pullet from that hatch isn't there yet, neither is the splash rooster from that hatch. The australorp pullets are starting to get red in the face, and the leghorn/am rooster was already crowing and chasing the girls. Funny how different ones mature differently.....does when it was LAID matter or just when it was put in the bator?

 

[SilkieSensation]

I'm from Ohio...and personally, I won't buy from Mt Healthy. That have a very recent history of samonella outbreaks in their hatchery. I like Ideal Poultry out of Texas & Meyer Hatchery out of Ohio.

How recent? I have gotten pretty good reviews about them. I don't want to judge them for one outbreak. But if it has been recent problem or a continuing problem that is definitely Reason for concern

I know of 3 outbreaks in the past 7 years. Most recent was 2014. Like I said, I avoid them!

I have a Hova bator 1588. I don't use the wells at the bottom. Too much humidity. Before you put eggs in the bator, run it for a few days and measure the temp and humidity. I also don't rely on the built in thermometer/hygrometer. I usually put two different ones in there. If I need any water, I use little plastic containers with holes cut in the lids.

I picked up a matching set, thermometer and hygrometer at Petco today while we were out and about. Going to get my little bator plugged in and test it within the next week.

as for food coloring in the water, that's ok to do that, it won't effect the chicks to do that.

I have a question for all you hatching gurus, Have you ever started a batch and left home for a few days? I want to start some tuesday or wednesday, but we were planning a weekend trip next weekend and I'm not sure it would be a good idea to leave it unmonitored. I guess I can get one of my daughters to stop in every day and check it. Or I could just put it off a week and add the first few eggs I have dated to the selling carton.

Speaking of which, I was all excited because I got blue eggs two days in a row, now two days without one. Silly girls are just toying with me, in other words, just another typical part f life

I hand turn & still skip days to go to swap meets & such. They are fine for a few days without turning.

another question please for you hatcher peoples...........  

my owners manual says 55-60% humidity during incubation and bump it up to 65% during hatching. I'm thinking that Flower told me when we were talking the day I picked up my egg cartons, that was too high?  So what do y'all usually run yours at? carcar, I KNOW you have good hatch rates, what do you shoot for?

I have my bator plugged in and running, I'll let it get up to temp and see how well it does holding it for the next couple days 

Way too high! Below is a list of humidities for still air. Add 5-10% for bators with fans.
Type of Fowl. Incubation. Hatch.
Chicken. 30-45%. 40-55%
Duck, goose, turkey. 40-55%. 50-65%
Quail. 30-40%. 40-50%
Guinea, pheasant. 35-50%. 45-60%

 

[PapaChaz]

Example: I have no water right now. Just looked and it's at 19%. But I'll bump it up mid-week for another hatch.

HOWEVER... A cabinet I guess is a special thing because every week or so you're getting that humidity jump from a hatch. So that bumps your AVERAGE humidity, which I'm too tired to calculate right now. So you def wouldn't want to run that low in a one-run-at-a-time bator.

Also, what I shoot to GET my humidity to for lockdown is 45%. The hatching itself bumps the other 10%

egggggcellent post ma'am!

I'm considering adding a dozen eggs a week, and then when it's time to 'lockdown' for hatching, move them out of the bator and hatch them in a heated tote or something? would that work? so I could hatch a dozen at a time and put more in when those come out?

I'm also starting to look into building a cabinet bator.....gonna see how it goes with this one. Maybe I need to just hatch and sell enough with this one to buy a good one. Although, I really want to move in or build a small storage building and turn it into my 'chicken space' for incubating, hatching and brooding. Insulate it, wire it, put in a few cabinets and a counter and go for it

 

[SilkieSensation]

Example: I have no water right now. Just looked and it's at 19%. But I'll bump it up mid-week for another hatch.


HOWEVER... A cabinet I guess is a special thing because every week or so you're getting that humidity jump from a hatch. So that bumps your AVERAGE humidity, which I'm too tired to calculate right now. So you def wouldn't want to run that low in a one-run-at-a-time bator.


Also, what I shoot to GET my humidity to for lockdown is 45%. The hatching itself bumps the other 10%

egggggcellent post ma'am!

I'm considering adding a dozen eggs a week, and then when it's time to 'lockdown' for hatching, move them out of the bator and hatch them in a heated tote or something? would that work? so I could hatch a dozen at a time and put more in when those come out?

I'm also starting to look into building a cabinet bator.....gonna see how it goes with this one. Maybe I need to just hatch and sell enough with this one to buy a good one. Although, I really want to move in or build a small storage building and turn it into my 'chicken space' for incubating, hatching and brooding. Insulate it, wire it, put in a few cabinets and a counter and go for it

Just a tote with heat will not work very well. You need airflow (lots of vent holes) & a way to keep temp & humidity consistent.

 

[carcar80]

That's what hubby wants to do.. Chicken room. And as long as your humidity and temp will hold and you have good air exchange, you can get as creative as you want!

 

[carcar80]

Papa Chaz, I just sat at the new keyboard for an hour straight. I wanted to see if I could learn to play from a video such as this. It was rough going at first but by gosh, I've got all but the last 30 seconds down pat! So fun!

 

[Flowerbh]

Papa, have you checked out the hatching 101 section in the learning forum here on BYC?

I agree with others. I incubate at 35% and lockdown around 55-60%. I've also read from some 'experts' to leave the air plugs in for the first 10 days and then remove them.