I did it. I just ordered an incubator :-))

Just now. Just now I filled everything in and hit the order button. I am so pleased with myself.

I know I thought I didn't want a styrofoam incubator but I just bought one. I really like this unit. 1588 Genesis Hova-Bator. It is a fan type forced air which I think is better than still air. Already set up and adjusts itself to the correct temp. So that part is automatic. It does not have a turner but I am always home so I think that will be fine for me. But if I find the do it yourself turning doesn't work, the turner is avaible for another $50.00. The way it is now, it cost me 129.90 plus 11.50 shipping.

I saw what I believe is the same model (as it looks exactly the same with all the same equipment and accesories available) at Strombergs for almost $150.00 so I think I got an excellent price.

Anyone whant to check it out, I hope this link works-
https://www.gqfmfg.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=77#

Congratulations, Rita!! Now the fun begins! Have you decided what kind of eggs to hatch first?

Whopeeeeeee!!! So happy for you!!!

I am sure I can find some eggs on e-bay to try :-)) But no I haven't made any finial decisions. I need to get it here and set up and running. Then there is the small matter of no chicken housing LOL.

They'll be in your house for a while with a heat lamp, a card board box will do. There are some really nice coop kits that are small enough to hold 3 or 4 chickens. Just trying to help LOL

Aha! It has begun. Another convert!

Geeez guys if I was in the country I would have so many its not funny.

But I do intend to keep them in one of those big plastic storage bins they sell at the big box stores as a brooder. I will need to buy a small brooder size waterer and feeder and chick starter. I already have heat lamp bulbs (the red kinds) and the clamp sockets left over from my used to breed Leopard Gecko days. Oh yes, pine shavings and paper towels needed for chicks also.

I have to go see what shape my leftover dog crates are that are in stored in the garage. Left over from my days owning dobermans. The chicks could move to the dog crate when they outgrow the boooder. After that I would have to find homes for them as there is no way I can start off outside in the winter. My idea of using the garage and building shelter there is a project for next spring. I have to have part of the garage floor redone as the rats have been getting in that way. Plus the cinder block walls need some work as there are cracks in the cement between them.

The garage is a mess of gardening supplies and before they can be organised I need to have shelving put up. Then I would like to have a shylight put in as there are no windows for light. There is no power out there either. So all this needs to be taken care of and the garage renovation was always thought of for next year (before the chicken crazies hit). It is simply not in the budget this year. And as I said, I don't want to start off outside in the winter.

So I figgure I could practice hatching but would have to give away those first chickens because of the no housing. Unless two chickens could be kept to live in a dog crate in the house. (still have to give away the rest) But I don't think that would work all winter as they couldn't go outside.

You all are probably rolling on the floor laughing but I REALLY am a city girl and have no idea about keeping chickens. I am sure there are things that are obvious to anyone has kept chickens before that I am totally missing.

It sounds like chickens are really going to change your life! - For the better, of course.

I got notice that my incubator went out Friday shipping by Fed Ex. It is only coming from GA so it should not take long to get here. I can't wait to get it!

I can't wait to see what kind of eggs you load it up with!!

I am thinking I need hatching experience. From all the disclaimers on the e-bay hatching eggs I see that much can (and probably) does go wrong. So I feel that going ahead to get experience hatching is probably more important than what breed I actually get to try my first time.

Brave woman. :)

Well, thanks I guess for calling me brave. But I am not sure why. Because I want to try hatching? Or because I will be trying shipped eggs? Or brave for even thinking about e-bay eggs?

I really have no choice, I either buy started chicks or try hatching. I thought about it all for weeks while it all settled around in my mind. I decided hatching was best but if it doesn't work I can buy the day old chicks in the future. As far as the shipped eggs, that is the only way I could get hatching eggs around here.

And while I don't like to throw my money away, if the shipped eggs don't come to anything, it's not like its some really large amount of money lost. I know that if I am not succesfull at first it will be the old adage to try, try again LOL!

As far as what breed to try there are auctions I am seeing there on e-bay that I just have no interest in having. For instance, I saw one for white Leghorns. I mean I just have no interest, even as a hatching experiment. So there are ones I don't want to try even just to get some learning uder the belt.

Brave to hatch out babies. Chickens are so addictive!

I am fairly attached to my chickens, so it would be difficult for me to give them away or sell them. Maybe I'll get stronger some day.

If I am sucessfull, I will get roosters. Those will always have to go. I know many of you are saying how attached you get to indivual birds. I am really having a very difficult time imagining myself that all fire attached to each indivual. its the entire concept of having them and getting the eggs that appeals to me.

I think of chickens as food. Either they are food as in eating chicken or they make food as in laying eggs. It's just not the same to me as having a cat or dog were I know I get very attached.

I have had birds in flocks before. I did really, really like those birds but in the entirety, not so much as attached to indivuals. Flocks of budgies, flocks of cockateils, flocks of finches. But then I have never had a chicken so this all might change and I get attached to each one, who knows. I will just have to move ahead and see what happens.

They are individuals. I get attached to some and not to others. Some of mine have names and some don't.

Chickens are very individual...and they are big, soft, sometimes cuddly and peer at you as if trying to understand what you are doing and why...it can be a bit unnerving. Even people who regularly butcher them say, never look them in the eye while you are preparing to do it.

I have and have had many different animals as pets and as "livestock". Chickens can be every bit as endearing as a dog or cat although they probably are not as much a part of the family. I could never butcher one.

My incubator is here. The Fed Ex man literally just brought it a minute ago. So happy :-)) I will open it abit later and set it up and going. Right now its just beautiful out and I am working out in the garden.

Make sure to acquire a thermometer/hygrometer and calibrate it. The thermometer that comes with the incubator is inadequate at best and the instructions on filling the water trays are pretty useless.

You can buy a therm/hygormeter at Walmart (boo-hiss) for about $12 but you will need to check it against a known standard and adjust your readings accordingly. For just a few dollars more you can buy a humidor hygrometer/thermometer on Amazon...which are much more finely calibrated.

Don't count on the incubator holding temp/humidity without constant monitoring, although you will want it to be stable before you put the eggs in. My expensive and excellent Suro R-Con was just enough off until I checked it that it ruined the first hatch...but after calibrating it and setting the digital control to the new temp it worked like a charm.

Are chicken eggs so much harder to hatch than reptile eggs? I used to hatch out reptile eggs all the time years ago when I bred Leopard Geckos. Of course I no longer even had any of those incubators anymore.

I just finished up with my outside garden work and was starting to read the directions on my incubator in order to set it up. I know i used to have the sensor thingys that ran inside the incubators for both temps and humidity from my reptile hatching days. I have to do down to the basement and rumage around for them. Been years since I looked for them or used them. If not I will just order a new one. I really didn't realise I needed a humidity sensor although I did figgure I needed a temp sensor to double check the bator one.

Humidity is very important...but not quite as exacting as temp. Just a half degree off over the course of the incubation can really mess the hatch up. And there is a significant difference between the temps required in a still air vs a forced air incubator.

With humidity...the general advice is 50-60% through the incubation, raised to 70% during the hatch. Some people who have naturally high RH in their environment, try something called "dry incubation" where they don't add additional humidity until the hatch, which would not work in a house with central heating or in a naturally dry climate.

But it is critical that the RH be raised during the hatch or the chicks can't break through the membrane and instead become "shrink wrapped" by it and unable to hatch.

I guess I am just going to have to learn as I go. I guess this is were the saying never count your chickens before they hatch came from LOL!

I set up the incubator, added the water were they wanted it that they said to put in and its just started its running now. I haven't had a chance to look for my sensors yet but I just ordered a temp and humidity one that goes inside the incubator that I liked better than those I used to have anyway.

I have seen egg candlers for sale. But as I understand it a really good flashlight will do. Not that I have anything but the cheepo disposible flashlights. Not sure if it would do me any good to try for candleing eggs as I intend to go for colored egg breeds. Dark eggs and colored appeal to me.

If you are going to do dark eggs...I would definitely go for the candler...the "cool light" ones are not expensive. I've tried to use a flashlight and toilet roll, but with dark eggs it can be difficult to see much. You can also make a candler with a flower pot...go on line and there are a lot of ideas.

Blue eggs are just very difficult to see through. The pigment saturates the egg shell and makes it very opaque.

Ok, I just ordered one of those non expensive cool light egg candelers. I hope I have everthing I need now.

You sound a lot better prepared than I ever was. I started into chickens when one of the kids gave me three day-old chicks for mothers' day. Sort of the opposite of "build it and they will come". You've done all the research and equipment collecting in advance - what a concept!

Next I will have to get the equipment needed for baby chicks. Like a feeder and waterer. And feed :-)) I do try to be organized. Its just not aways possible LOL!

Don't buy the feed too early...it does lose nutrional value over time.

Oh...you might want to have some new sponges on hand...they can be used to help keep the RH up. The only evaporation with standing water is from the surface and it is not always enough. With sponges you have greater surface area and it is easy to adjust the RH by adding or removing sponges. You can either put them in the bottom under the screen, or prop them up on the side. Always use warm water to dampen them (also in the water compartments), since cool water will absorb a lot of heat up as it warms and drop the incubator temp.

I know this thread is a bit old, but I just came across it and thought I'd pipe in. The best thing I did with my Hova just like the one you ordered was to thread a length of aquarium tubing through the vent in the top, down through the wiring under the turner (you did get the egg turner didn't you???? -- if not get one), and into the water trough at the bottom. Then every day you can use a syringe and add water without ever lifting the top off the 'bator.

Although shipped eggs can be tricky (I've had several 0% hatches from shipped eggs; I've also gotten 11 roos in a hatch), keeping the incubating environment as stable as possible helps a lot.

During the last three days of the incubating -- when you need to raise the humidity way way up -- you absolutely cannot open the top, so the tube method of refilling becomes doubly important then.

Good luck.


Susan

Really excellent advice! Do use warm water though.

Oops, I just went back and read your original post. You really really really will want a turner. For one thing if you don't have a turner, you do have to take the top off the bator every time you want to turn the eggs, which has to be done multiple times every day, and every time you open the bator the temp and the humidity drops.

The more eggs you have in the bator the longer the top is off while you turn them. And, keeping track of which ones have been turned and which ones haven't???? IMHO you will have enough to keep you occupied without trying to do what a mama chicken does instinctively and constantly....

Susan

Landperson, what kind of chickens do you raise?

We will see how it goes. Not ready to even think about a turner. And I just put water in since I have to open the top anyway.

Sounds like you have a great variety, Landperson. Would love to see some pictures.

I wish I were better with my camera. I have spent so much time getting lousy pictures that I have pretty much given it up when it comes to the chickens. They just do not understand "now, sit still for a minute...." :-)))) I'm guessing my camera could do much better if I would just be patient with it, but patience is not one of my virtues....

Susan

I recently purchased a camera, and know now what that means. With my digital camera, I click and it takes a picture a few seconds later, which makes it even more frustrating.

I decided to go for the two incubator approach. One for the actual incubation before lockdown and another to transfer the eggs to for the last three days and the actual hatching. So I bought the Brower Top Hatch, which was one of the earlier incubators I was looking at before I bought the Genesis 1588 that I am currently using.

So now I will not have to actually wait if I want to get more eggs until the incubator is empty. I can set them just about anytime as I only need a window of afew days for hatch, not the three weeks for the entire thing.

I can then also quite obsessing about weather my first set of eggs are good or not and should I keep them or wait until hatch date. I can just wait and see.

Geez, who knew this chicken business was so complicated. No wonder people just order chicks.

Yup.