April Hatch Thread--Come Join Us!

[MadamContrary]

Check out James Marie Farms  (BYC member) for very nice meat quail and also "collectibles".   They are in Louisiana. 

Thank you I will look them up!

 

[oesdog]

Just went into lockdown! Whoo hoo! I decided to start a little bit early (about half a day) just to make sure I had enough time to get things right.

I have the Farm Innovator 4200 which has been pretty good so far but once I took the turner out I noticed the metal frame below is really cheap junk. It is rolling up at the corners and popping up at random. Ugh. I tried maneuvering it and so far it is ok but I'm afraid it well pop up and cause the eggs to slam into each other.

The other thing is that the wells down below are SMALL. And nearly impossible to see and fill easily. I didn't have any new unused sponges so I put in a couple new sanitary pads and soaked those as well as filled the wells up. Watched and waited and I'm having one heck of a time getting the heat back up even though I never adjusted the knob and have had no problems with heat up until now. But it just won't go back up so I keep adjusting the knob and watching.

As for the water, well I couldn't get the humidity to go past 50% so I kept adding more, slowly, using a plastic straw inserted in one if the vent holes, and slowly saturating the pads. No increase in humidity. An hour went by so I added more. Suddenly I hear water running out the bottom. Ugh. So the pads are SOAKED, the wells are filled and still not a very high humidity. I took a few out momentarily and put 2 more pads down below but did not saturate them, i just want them to soak up the excess that was running out the bottom. I also put a towel under the incubator.

Still, almost another half hour has gone by and I tried putting one of the air plugs in and that helped a little to get the temp back up to 97 and I'm fidgeting with the control to get it a little higher and the humidity is only 64%.

What now? Do I keep one of the air plugs in? There is no other feasible place to add more water without it running out the bottom. I have approx 30/31 eggs in there. I figure since this is the first day of lockdown I have a little time to get this figured out, but how?

Keggen - I am watching you close as I want to know if your cracked candled egg hatches. - I am for Lockdown Monday so I guess yours should all be hatched and fluffed by then! I hope you manage to sort out the glitches. I just have a small cheep incubator this time round nothing fancy so this is a bit of a test. I only have 4 eggs in mine. I haven;t even got a humidity monitor in it and the temp is simply "set" for chickens. idiot proof I hope? I just have to "fill" the water trough up to full and put the lid on for lockdown. The temp has held pretty much 99.5-100 all the way apart from if the lid was off too long for turning and then it went back up very quick to the correct temp. I am more confident since we candled the cracked egg and found "something" in it. It gives me hope for the none cracked ones though I never candled them. - I was scared I would drop them and as I have lost two and a damaged one I can't afford to lose anymore. Counting the days till lockdown. The waxed egg looks a lot stronger. At least it is sealed if nothing else so even if the chick is dead the bacteria is sealed inside! - I am hoping it is still alive though as it deffinately was when we candled. It will be interesting to hear if you get a live chick from your waxed egg? - The only issue is that the chicken handbook does not state humidity levels - FOR LIZARDS!? I wonder what Lizard lays blue eggs???????

Good luck with the hatch

Oes

 

[MadamContrary]

I would keep them separate until the picked on one is up and moving around.  Then make sure they have enough space. I learned with my first batch of chicks sometimes there is one who just needs more space. I actually took to separating the instigator in these situations... Then as they grow I keep watch. If the bully continues into adulthood, (which I never had happen) but they would be dinner. 
Was this one eating and drinking well?  When did it hatch?
Congrats!  I saw several good replys but I just wanted to add that I have the same incubator. the thermometer and hygrometer read way wrong on mine, so if you have not yet, try a different hygrometer.   Another thing I did was place a plastic cover under the metal grate, directly below the vent hole.  I can use a bendy straw to add water directly to the lid by sticking the straw through the vent hole.

It is nice to see so many people using this incubator! 
I want some of those birds too!  Where did you get your eggs?  I am watching eggs for sale for a while longer as my incubator is full for a while.

An ebay listing. The seller is baxter6962 They were well packaged, every egg arrived in great condition. The only thing is the hens are still young so 2 eggs are bantam sized and 1 was extra extra large. But the price and customer service is great! I paid 19.99 shipped for 10 eggs she sent 12.

 

[LBKS]

The first pipper is the sole blue orphington to make it to lockdown. It appears to be zipping a fair bit vertically rather than around the top so far. Not doing anything by halves, this one. Pip early, pip the long way, then will probably tell the chicks hatching later how back in it's day they had to zip both ways in the snow to hatch.

 

[LBKS]

Somehow double posted, sorry.

 

[LBKS]

I guess this is the worst part of waiting. Maybe I should work from the office so I don't stare a hole through the eggshells! Still seems to be zipping really vertical, wonder if the poor peep will get worn out too fast? :/

 

[Nursiedeer]

The first pipper is the sole blue orphington to make it to lockdown. It appears to be zipping a fair bit vertically rather than around the top so far. Not doing anything by halves, this one. Pip early, pip the long way, then will probably tell the chicks hatching later how back in it's day they had to zip both ways in the snow to hatch.

 

[oesdog]

The first pipper is the sole blue orphington to make it to lockdown. It appears to be zipping a fair bit vertically rather than around the top so far. Not doing anything by halves, this one. Pip early, pip the long way, then will probably tell the chicks hatching later how back in it's day they had to zip both ways in the snow to hatch.

Good luck

Oes

 

[LBKS]

Let's see if the picture attached - chick is out but still is attached to half the egg shell by it's cord. Not sure if that is normal or not, guy is trying to shake it off.

 

[TheCrazyChick]

Well, woke up to 2 more, which appear to be a blue cochin and another buff rock. Grand total of 5 so far. I do believe there will be a few more today, even though it is day 22-23.

Had to throw one egg out as it suddenly developed a green splotch on it. Upon ectopsy it was revealed that it had not developed past the first few days. So hard to tell with these darker brown eggs. Just glad I found it before it exploded. It didn't smell at all, just suddenly looked really ugly.

On a side note, my oldest son told my daughter yesterday that they need to do an intervention. On ME! I calmly explained that just because 5 months ago I had never even HEARD of raising chickens in the city and now have ...

• 2 laying hens
• 7 point-of lay-any-minute-now pullets
• 6 five week olds in the big brooder (I didn't even know what a brooder WAS 6 months ago!)
• 5 newborn hatched chicks
• 21 eggs in lockdown
• 48 eggs set in another incubator
• and 2 dozen eggs waiting for incubator space to open up

... doesn't mean I have an addiction. It just means I have a hobby for the first time in my life that I actually ENJOY!

My daughter is on MY side and my son doesn't exactly reject the eggs I give him! Besides the grandkids LOVE LOVE LOVE the chickens! Okay, done venting and back to egg watch.