The 7th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-A-Long!

[Saris]

I have 2 pips in my bantam Phoenix eggs!!!

 

[Farmer Viola]

I have 2 pips in my bantam Phoenix eggs!!!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Quote:

@Wickedchicken6 can I see the fan you are using? It may be too large for the area your incubating in. Also I LOVE the idea of the pudding cups like that!!! Do you have more pic of the install of them and what are the holders you have the cups in? Would love to add to the helpful links for humidity. Such adorable chickies!!

@Sally Sunshine I found your post again...lol. Whew!

The fan in question is most definitely too large for the my small styro bator...lol. I call it the cyclone 6000. It's a 6 inch USB/120v convertible fan from Walmart. I bought 3 of them last year for the bator (overkill I know.) I didn't have access to a computer fan and the making of my incubator was time sensitive with the eggs from the my predated hens being 2.5 weeks old when I was making it last year. I've raised several bunches of stagger hatched chicks with this bator and can hold perfect humidity with this fan.

Is there any reason I shouldn't be using that much air other than it blowing chick fuzz all over inside the incubator??



PVC racks.

Stacked with pudding cups for lockdown.

Stacked with eggs at start of hatch.

I think if your getting stuck it may in fact be the fan, its a great fan for sure! perhaps a dimmer switch would work for hatching.
Or try a higher humidity, but lowering fan cfm is less harmful than too much humidity at hatch.
I haven't had a problem with the fan and humidity so far other than my original hygrometers being off...lol. I just found out how badly they were out.

I'm super late to the party with this but here is the incubator I'm now using when it was parts.
It's the largest clear sterilite container the store carried. (It was also on a GREAT sale!)
It has a flat bottom and flat side for ease of cleaning. Ease of cleaning and capacity is what I was going for with this incubator.




This is what I ended up with. This pic was taken part way through the HAL. I don't have one of the light sockets mounted. I put a towel under the container since it's on the cold metal of the dryer. The white behind is a small length of paper towel I taped to the side and back. I originally was planning on covering it with a towel...but so far I've found it has ben keeping steady temps despite being right under a window and beside a drafty door...lol. The far back corner where the fan is shows cooler temps...so I will have to rectify that. Otherwise it's been performing better than I expected.




This is the incubator tonight. I'm experimenting with humidity above the chicks in this one.
I still have two eggs from the end of February developing and eggs from early March.

I will add this build to the incu thread bators list, How much variance in temps do you have?

The variance was a couple of degrees difference right by the fan. Temp was even everywhere else.

BUT I've discovered I can fit 8 stacked trays (4 each end) instead of just 3 trays, one level. So I'll be reconfiguring the incubator and moving the lights and fan to mid back to accommodate for the levels of trays. I'll see how that works. I'm just waiting for this hatch to get done.

 

[generaldsherman]

Not sure if any others are going to hatch by themselves. I pulled out an egg that was rocking around at the same time my Dominique was and carefully cracked the top. (No motion/pips even though I heard tapping yesterday evening) That was the toughest egg ever! I even had problems. The poor little thing just gulped in air like "hallelujah I can breath!" Placed it back in the incubator; we'll see what happens by morning.
Given the hard egg shells, what about the others? How long should I wait? Saw them rolling around this afternoon but no pips

 

[ronott1]

Not sure if any others are going to hatch by themselves. I pulled out an egg that was rocking around at the same time my Dominique was and carefully cracked the top. (No motion/pips even though I heard tapping yesterday evening) That was the toughest egg ever! I even had problems. The poor little thing just gulped in air like "hallelujah I can breath!" Placed it back in the incubator; we'll see what happens by morning.
Given the hard egg shells, what about the others? How long should I wait? Saw them rolling around this afternoon but no pips

hard eggs should be fine. The one you cracked open may have been missing the egg tooth. I have had that happen--including on the NYD Hatch a long.

 

[generaldsherman]

hard eggs should be fine. The one you cracked open may have been missing the egg tooth. I have had that happen--including on the NYD Hatch a long.

cone to think of it, I think I did notice a lack of egg tooth. Crossing fingers for the others tgen?; will wait until at least Sunday on them (day 23). Thanks I feel a bit better

 

[wesgef9]

I don't have pips yet but I sure do have peeping.

 

[chickadeeNSC]

Update : 9 lavender ameraucana chicks made it! Hatched a few days ago. This was by far the hardest hatch I've done...

My 1 EE egg is doing great and set to hatch on Sunday! Should be a pip tomorrow, I'm Eggcited!!!

I had to have 1 egg for the actual hatchathon lol.. good thing it's done awesome.

 

[acemario]

Ok! Hatch completed. I had 6 hatch, but one died after hatching. So now I have 5 Speckled Sussex chicks enjoying their new pad.

 

[Cynthia12]

Nice Ace, did you see my photos? If not..since they are back a ways, go to the Idaho/Utah thread in f/b.

Are you hatching again?