5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[Blarneyeggs]

I set my eggs last night at 9:15. The genesis is loaded with 4 lavender orphingtons, 5 Wheaten marans, 4 lavender ameracaunas, 3 delawares, 3 leg horns, 6 silkies, 2 welsummers, and two others.

Awesome to see all these Orpingtons being hatched, Woo Hoo!

@Bantambury: your picture seemed to be lacking something crucial.....eggs? Best rule of thumb: if there is any space left in the bator, You NEED more eggs. Better hatch rates, you know.

@MsLadyHawke, you forgot to give an 'All of the Above' option....perhaps Mrs. Canoe is a kick-boxing, raccoon eating ninja who goes by the alias Wisher....

 

[michaelf]

Good morning to you also. Everyone have a happy happy happy Friday !!

 

[Blarneyeggs]

So, is it the 16th yet, so I can candle?

No?

How bout now?

No?

Now?

You are crackin me up!

I set last Friday, I sneaked a lil candling in yesterday and today... And it's just making me crazy. I thought I saw veining in my BBS Orps yesterday, but saw NONE today.....I simply can NOT face MsLadyHawke if I have yet another hatch that produces no SPLASH .

 

[Gardeningmama]

​

 

[Blarneyeggs]

I can't find the discussion in this thread regarding temps at different levels for the Genesis HB 1588.  Can someone help me out with this?
At about 15 hrs after set there are three temp readings.  This temp reading has held consistent for 6 hrs.
Digital reading via probe set at wire mesh level = 101
Thermometer set on turning tray = 100
1588 digital reader = 100.1

Two questions:
Is there really going to be a temperature discrepancy of an entire degree from the top to bottom?
Is this temp too high?

First time hatchers over here - thanks so much for all the hand-holding!

My Genesis is right at 99...lil lower than I'd like but I can't seem to move the temp up AND I'm hopeful. Here's a link for ya:

http://www.gqfmfg.com/pdf/1588 genesis tuv.pdf

http://homesteadapps.com/app/free/hatchchart/hatchturnscheentry.php


@roostereggs, yes, it's normal to stress about everything, at least for me.

 

[OHfarmerswife]

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[roostereggs]

Lol, do you mean the black rectangle? That's my thermometer/hydrometer. Or if you mean the little probe hanging down, that's actually the temp probe to the super accurate reptile thermometer that regulates my temperature.

All of it...makes me think of a small apartment with fridge, TV, stereo, LOL! (My Brinsea is packed...would love to have that space in my bator! (But buying a Brinsea 40 could have been dangerous!) This would have been my husband------>

A year ago I never even thought I would have chickens...now here I am addicted! And I guess a Brinsea 40 would have given me space to pack it FULL. How do you control yourself and not pack that bator to the gills???

I see space in there for a BUNK BED!

 

[SilkieSensation]

They will look something like this...but lots more of them...lol

I am soo excited.. hoping they come today! Love, love, those Olive colors!! And, it looks like there are some blue/green in there too. What are the white ones? Do you have leghorns? I love me some leghorns!

I only have 1 hen who lays pure white. She is a black sumatra. Her babies will likely lay very pale blue or green. The largest cream colored eggs are from mt tetra tint, which is a leghorn cross. My head roo is an ameraucana/white leghorn (a super blue) so there will be lots of blue genes being passed on. The other 2 roos are an olive egger & a cream legbar.

 

[tadpole98]

just got 18 eggs set last night, just waiting for the other 10 :/ Both packages got lost in the mail so i might not be hatching on new years

 

[ChickenCanoe]

so for the last 24 hours + my incubator has been going between 99.4 and 100.1 degrees according to the incubator "control panel" and the humidity has been between 44% and 48%. i went to walmart tonight and got one of those temp hydrometer things (i have a hydrometer coming in the mail that hasnt shipped ) and when i put the walmart thing in it now says that my humidity is at 53% while the incubator says 40% the three thermometers are agreeing on 99 degrees. Should i change anything? i have the vent plug out and the room is 30% humidity. its been about an hour since i put the different hydrometer in. maybe im being too paranoid...

I think it's time for you to relax. Sounds like everything is working perfectly for you.

ok......we got our hydrometer good....I think....all day it said 70, so then I took out an air vent plug, and it went down, then I took out another, and it says its perfect!
is it ok to leave these two out ron? I know you said you do this...but didn't know how it would affect them if their temp and humidity has been good all day....



another thing. went to home depot and got a hydrometer.....that one is saying 47%, my actual incubator one saying 60%......I DONT KNOW WHICH TO TRUST!!!!!

If you can keep the humidity and temp correct, then the more ventilation the better.

Do you suggest the ovaview candler? I need to get one, but don't want one too pricey.

How much did that cost?

Someone gave me a good tip. Get a cheap but powerful LED flashlight with multiple lamps. Take the lens out and the egg sets lower, it works like a champ.

Itsbob, my hubby would be so unhappy if I even thought of snagging his pampered chef stuff. I would keep that hidden from your wife if I were you. Great idea though.

My wife is always asking me where her stuff is cause she assumes it's outside. I was using her colander to sprout grains and seeds. I bought a plastic one but the holes were too big to hold wheat and flax. So I traded her for the wire mesh one. She likes the plastic one better for pasta.
Win - win.

ok......we got our hydrometer good....I think....all day it said 70, so then I took out an air vent plug, and it went down, then I took out another, and it says its perfect!
is it ok to leave these two out ron? I know you said you do this...but didn't know how it would affect them if their temp and humidity has been good all day....



another thing. just went to home depot and got a hydrometer.....that one is saying 47%, my actual incubator one saying 60%......I DONT KNOW WHICH TO TRUST!!!!!

I thought I had my hydrometer going good, all this time I was trusting my reference one!

I sit the hygrometer outside. an hour later I go to Accuweather, punch in my zip code and see what they're reporting for the humidity and compare.
That's close enough for government work.

I don't have an actual egg candler but what are some homeade ways I can make one? and it has to hold smaller eggs too

See above about removing the lens on an LED flashlight. Just buy the size that works.

ChickenCanoe, that is one heck of a great story - I already wanted Penedesencas, now I want them even more!

Ready for another good story about Penes?
I had an old LG someone gave me. The Styrofoam was corroded so wouldn't seal well. The windows were missing. I just bought a couple small pieces of glass and glued them on. I repaired the mating edges with some water putty.
When my first Penedesencas started laying, I set 30 eggs once the pullets started laying good size eggs. No matter what I did the temperature wouldn't stabilize. It kept swinging from 82 to 108. After about 5 days I gave up figuring they cooked. I had a couple hens go broody so I put fresh eggs under them.
I got busy and completely brain farted on the incubator. A couple weeks later I went into the basement to get some feed and I heard some noise.
I kept rustling around and the noise didn't stop. I thought "those mice sure are brave making so much noise with me down here".
I went to investigate and

there were 2 chicks running around the incubator. It was day 22. Wild temperature swings and eggs not turned after day 5 and they hatched anyway.
I thought these are super birds. It was one cockerel and one pullet. I leg banded them so I could tell them from those that hatched under the broodies.
Wouldn't you know it, they lost their leg bands.
I was thinking I could develop a super race of chickens that would hatch no matter how bad I screwed up incubation.

This was the batch of eggs.

Thanks. Yet another thing I drove the wife crazy with chicken stuff lol I built it in living room so sawdust on floor and banging hammer. Cant let her get unmad before I get my ducks lol. Then again all I have to do is keep a steady flow of chicks in the house and she's never happy. She hates them inside.

I never brood chicks in the house. I always say that the dust wouldn't have a chance to kill me, my wife would have already done so.
I have to get my automatic doors finished.
She's pretty upset about having to get home by dusk every day to lock up.

Ron, I've lost a link that you posted (somewhere, sometime in the last month). It was to a wonderful in-depth article on incubation that answered just about every question. Can you re-post it please? I find myself worrying non-stop. Being able to double check against that article would be nice.
Thank you!

maybe these will help

http://www.natureform.com/kb/newArticles/12.html

http://www.natureform.com/kb/newArticles/4.html

http://www.natureform.com/kb/newArticles/8.html

http://www.brinsea.com/pdffiles/what is egg candling.pdf

http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/poweroff.html

http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/storage.html

http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/preseason.html


Quote:

Gah I did it again! Overslept. Having 38 eggs in the incubator, chicks in the brooder in the garage, and the adult chickens, getting ready to leave for the day takes an extra half hour for tending.

Happy Friday everyone!

I have 7 different groups of chickens. It wasn't so bad till the weather got real cold and I had to shut down the automatic water systems.
I'm also feeding fermented feed which takes longer.
If I hustle, I can still get done in well under an hour.