Question Question for Wyandotte or Heritage Chicken Breeders

[Killerbunny]

@Badstart fortunately you can just pluck them with tweezers (they will not be happy) or trim them. I hear you on the rapist roosters - I cull any like that. The rooster will make chucking noises to tell the hen he has found her some food even when he's not going to mate. All of my boys dance/d. First time I saw it I though the young chap was having a fit and then he tripped over the hose! Fortunately folks on here set me straight. Frank & Lucky would also find nice nests for the girls to lay in, croon at the and show them how. Really I think spring will help.

[Ontario Chick]

I have used plastic trays and egg cartons to hatch, mainly because I am a big wimp and had hard time watching the chicks struggle out of the shell.
The egg cartons were far superior to the plastic tray,
Plastic tray

Egg carton

occasionally when there were stragglers, after removing all hatched in to the brooder, I reset the "leftovers" in to a clean tray
BEFORE they pipped and they hatched 24 hours later.

[Kbr42]

Ok, I have some questions @Ontario Chick do you cut holes in the bottom of the egg cartons? Where do you position them in the incubator. Did they require more moisture to reach the 65% humidity for lock down. Did you trim the cartons in any way?

Thanks....

[Ontario Chick]

Yes I punctured holes in bottom of every egg cup of the egg carton.
Very conveniently the incubator fits 3 egg cartons perfectly and with Wyandottes even if I set the maximum 42 by the time they are candled before lock down there is seldom even 36, which allows for cutting the cartons to the number needed.
In the picture it shows 2.5 carton bottoms, which means 30 eggs went in to lockdown and there was a bit of space left on the floor of the incubator. it also shows how I trimmed them.
There seemed to be no difference in humidity requirements.

[Ontario Chick]

@Ontario Chick I don't mean to highjack the post...did you lockdown in eggs cartons? I'm going to be locking down on Saturday and I have a couple of eggs with detached air sacs I was thinking of hatching out in eggs cartons. I was just wondering how to do it.

Cheers

just wondering how is the hatch progressing?

[Reboot]

First attempt with 40 eggs resulted in the 7 surviving chicks and they are ravenous and getting larger by the day. Second attempt ended last Sunday...... good grief, I had 2 survive and a third could barely make it ou of the shell and is more of a hunch back than anything else. This is a bit discouraging but I know I am early and nature will not be rushed so the third batch went in yesterday. If this keeps up I should have a dozen birds by fall at this rate! I've increased my humidity from 45 to 50 - 55% (at least for a week) as that last hatch of 3 chicks had two that seemed glued up. Our home is wood heat and I am thinking rather dry so waiting 4 or 5 days may be dropping moisture levels in the egg prior to starting a hatch.

[Ontario Chick]

When I was going thru my "labor pains" of hatching, I found the ambient temperature and humidity played huge role, when using the styrofoam incubators.
You may want to get one of those cheap thermometer / humidity gage just to see what the actual room temperature and humidity it's amazing how it fluctuates during the day especially if there is any sun in the room.
I found in the end that the only even temperature where I could keep the incubator was in the hallway, where there were no heat registers and no windows.
We also heat with wood, it may not be as dry as you think.

[Kbr42]

@Ontario Chick, funny you should ask! Hatch is happening now. I have 17 eggs in 3 separate cut down egg cartons in my incubator. 4 I don't think are going to do anything..but it cost me nothing to put them in the incubator.

2 have hatched, (Silkies @kenya ) 7 have pipped and will hatch while I'm at work

So far so good. They seem to have an easier time unzipping in the carton.

Thanks for asking!

[baronrenfrew]

GOOD INCUBATOR??? Tell me about it

this is an older thread on the subject of incubators worth a review. I ran hovabators for years (and we heat with wood as well) and found it worked best in an unheated basement and ran it dry- no added moisture - the temp there was a very stable 15 degrees and relatively humid. over the years I hatched muscovy ducks, chickens, pheasants and quail with 80% or better hatch rate.

A friend runs three hova's with ridiculous numbers of birds and she shuts them down in June as the summer humidity makes them too difficult for humidity levels to manage.

We had a debate here about bators and advice - the bottom line - 1. double check electronic thermostats - they could be off 2. its better to run too dry then too wet - if too wet chicks are too big in the shell and hatch rates are way down. 3. hatching in egg cartons (which are disposable when soiled) works better as hatching chicks can push against a stable egg

I ran into a weird issue with my square hova (wafer thermostat) at two weeks when I removed the autoturner - the heat from the autoturner motor was gone and this messed up temps. I learned to leave the turner in and running with the egg racks out and this worked well.

I assume you have a turbo fan so its forced air. I have an old turbofan hova - its an ancient round machine - very ugly - but worked like a charm - that I used as a dedicated hatcher so eggs weren't disturbed on lockdown - that I no longer use - the square hova I partnered with it I sold years ago. If you buy my geese I'll throw this in as well.

[baronrenfrew]

the woodstove means a significant change in room temps and this affects the 'bator. Every "small" incubator has minor temp fluctuations as the heater kicks on and off.

Killerbunny, Ontariochick, and others have now used a commercial hatchery (Brockville?) to hatch eggs - the big unit they run has a very stable humidity and temps as well as uninterruptable power supply. This takes the worry out of hatching and the hatchery has given great results.

If one of those would add their results and the hatchery info here....