Simulated Natural Nest Incubation~Experiment #1 So it begins....

[foxvalleyfarm]

Good luck Bee!

 

[Beekissed]

Good luck Bee!

Thank you!! How's your regular incubation doing?

 

[theawesomechick]

Best of luck!

Go eggie babies go!

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

Thank you!! How's your regular incubation doing? 

Well the very first catch w that should be due tomorrow never did anything. So my first group is due next Thursday. Im working out how to use my box Bator as a hatcher. So far no luck. I can't get the tells right. They are either too high or too low. Idk what to do. I also cracked the eggs from my box.

 

[aussie pete]

i mark size of air cell on egg with pencil, when i candle, so i can see if air cell if growing at the approx rite rate .
when air cell dips/slopes to one side about day 18 ,i mark on largest edge & place so that is upper most when i stop turning, to ensure chic has the best /largest air space for internal pip

 

[Beekissed]

i mark size of air cell on egg with pencil, when i candle, so i can see if air cell if growing at the approx rite rate .
when air cell dips/slopes to one side about day 18 ,i mark on largest edge & place so that is upper most when i stop turning, to ensure chic has the best /largest air space for internal pip

Thank you, Pete! I really like this method better than the whole humidity thing. Suits my style. As for weighing...unfortunately, the only thing I have here that could weigh eggs that precisely is a fish scale. When you first weigh them, is there a target range they should all weigh? And also at the end?

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Ah.... some times I can be very dense.... sorry.

deb

 

[aussie pete]

Thank you, Pete! I really like this method better than the whole humidity thing. Suits my style. As for weighing...unfortunately, the only thing I have here that could weigh eggs that precisely is a fish scale. When you first weigh them, is there a target range they should all weigh? And also at the end?

i u mean a fish scale that has a hook on the end ,u can use that ,putting all the eggs in a bag .

i'm lucky my hens eggs r generally all similar size ,but range would be about 58 to 65 grams each

don't worry too much about individual egg weight.
just weigh all eggs together in bag ,calculate 15%of that to get weight loss required for end weight
i'd weight again about day 14 to track

so say 20 eggs weight approx 1200 g ,15 % = 180 g - day 14 weight total approx 2/3 of weight loss required = 120 g ,so total weight for 20 eggs day 14 = approx 1080g

egg cell size visually is simplest way to gauge ,egg weight is just another tool

 

[Lacy Blues]

This all makes so much sense to me! Just how much humidity is a hen adding to the nest during incubation beyond her own body respiration and the humidity from the soils...if she is even on soil? I think I'd like to do dry all the way through and see what happens...it would take such a load off my mind and certainly simplify things a good bit...and I do love simple!

So, air cells should be one third of the egg at time of hatch? Mine were most definitely not that big and I think your assessment of it, Pete, explains why those chicks couldn't get out...they were enormous and had huge abdomens from absorbing all that yolk.

Dry, natural hatch it is!

Dry hatch doesn't mean "no humidity." I tried that for this last hatch (starting at about day 4) and I had started weighing my eggs, for the first time ever. I had no humidity for 2 days. My eggs lost so much weight in that time that if I had continued that route, I wouldn't have any babies right now. So, for the rest of the incubation time, I tried to keep the humidity around 50% just to keep them from drying too much. I did well (weighing every 3 days to track the progress) and kept them from losing too much more. I didn't figure out the percentage lost, I was aiming for 13% loss but I was probably closer to 15 or 18% over the 21 days. And with the humidity that high throughout the two weeks after my near fatal mistake, I didn't increase the humidity for the final 3 days.

 

[Beekissed]

Okay....officially confused. Pete adds no humidity to his hatches and they come out fine, but Lacy says no humidity caused too much egg weight loss and would have resulted in a loss of the hatch. Tell me a true thing here, guys....can I do the entire hatch without adding humidity or not?

Lacy, are you doing still air incubation? I'm assuming that is what Pete is doing with his dry hatch?