Yah It was funny... LOLOLO.. The camera was down in the garge
just my luck... It will be their tomorrow .... Came on babys Hatch!!!! I will call you tomorrow..
Tracey
17 Eggys
All eggys didn't make it !!!
Tracey
Don't feel bad about the eggs not hatching. I can save a dying fawn or a starved baby rabbit, but can't for the life of me to get eggs to hatch in my incubator. The best I'v ever gotten is about a 10% hatch rate. This year, I tried twice and zip both times.
Well i've tryed twice one silkie egg and then 17 more egg that where given to me from a sweet friend here on the forum ..
Tracey
Tracey, I am really pleased with the chicks I got from Ideal. They only have a $20 minimum, the cost of shipping is included in the cost of the chicks except for a very small airmail charge. I think that was 20 cents per chicke or something like that. And you can pick out exactly what you want - hens, breeds, etc.
The do also have a small charge for every separate breed so it would be cheaper to get one or two or three types. And they will include a bunch of roosters free for warmth if you don't order at least 15. But I got 11 very nice chickens for about $35 and all of them were healthy. A lot of the extra expense was because I only got one or two of each breed.
If I had it to do over again, I'd just go ahead and order more hens and not have to worry about finding homes for a flock of roosters.
BTW, I looked to see if I could find anything the other night that would say when they hatched after starting to peep. No luck on that but a couple of the pages said not to open the incubator at all after day 19. One page said to use sponges to keep the humidity high. Maybe this will help next time.
I agree with Hart, Ideal was good to me. Everyone is alive and happy today! As far as incubating, there as so many different things that can happen. The most important thing is to leave them alone. Turn them, quickly and put the lid back on. One reason for them peeping and trying to get out and not getting there is low humidity. There is page I found once when I was looking into incubating my own, I will find it and post a link later, it shows the possible causes. Eggs are delicate and need to be the same humidity (higher at the end) and temp.
I just noticed that your thermometer wasn't on top of your eggs, with the still air incubator (like mine too) you lay the thermometer on top of the eggs to get the correct 101 temp, according to the instructions that came with mine anyways. Still looking for that chart, I will find it though! Chickens are very delicate, read my new post.
Ok heres some that are good
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/exthatch.htm this in is about incubating
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/trouble.htm this is a chart of what the problem is and what the cause could be
I'm sorry you didn't have better luck Tracey !!! There are so many things that can go wrong, you just never know.
I agree about ordering chicks....and Ideal is having a special right now you might want to check out. I ordered both from Ideal and Cacklehatchery this spring and am well pleased with both. On several of my breeds I did get them sexed and ordered just pullets and that worked out very well.
Julie
Tracey as I said to you on the phone, Just Chalk it all up to learning experience. Like everone says its a hard thing to learn but incubators take skill and sometimes we lose a lot of eggs! If you want to keep going with the incu, you will have to make sure that thermostat is working correctly . I on the other hand feel like ordering your chicks from one of the hatcheries is the best thing next to having a Mama Hen do the job!
Good luck on the next time! Dont give up! Where theres a will there is always a way!
I just got off the phone with a lady in town and she is getting rid off all adults chickens for $2.00 a Peice And one Barred Rock
Rooster for $8.00. Then she has 2 Old English Bantmans for $4.00 each.
Well what should I do??
Should I get them????
Tracey
Tracey you said you needed a Rooster!!!! It seems that this is the thing you have been waiting for! Since you already have3 Barred Rock Hens, I would get the Rooster and let nature take its coarse! Good Luck!
I'd go over and get as many as strike your fancy ( okay, so for me that would be all of them, lol!)
Run.........................
Remember to post pics of the new flock members
Julie =0)
OK
have to get the roost saturday..
So....I'm asking this being green and all! lol
If you hear peeping & such in the eggs.....and they don't start pecking their way out.....why not "crack" the eggs and open it??
I'm sure there's a reason why.....I'm just curious! :)
The temp was to hi and all had fried..
The reason you should not help a chick out of the shell is that if it isn't strong enough to get out, it isn't strong enough to survive. Anyone who has helped a chick out and it died anyways knows it. Mind you some do make it. Most people are like me, softies, and help the chick out. I had a guinea keet that was stuck, I helped him out, he didn't make it, less than a week later he couldn't stand anymore and I had to send him home to that great roost in the sky. Its sad but I had to try.
Thats the reason sad but true
I've helped some out that have done fine, but I normally wait too late to help them and have them make it. Typically if they can't get out on their own there is a reason as in they are too weak to survive.
Secondly you have to be extremely careful because the yolk sak is attached to the chick and if it rips the chick can and will bleed to death.
Julie
I'm going saturday to get my rooster!!!!
The first time I hatched chicks, I helped one out and he did bleed out and die. Seeing all that blood after I "helped" him, made me feel
awful. I still wonder, if I would have just let nature do it, if he would be still alive and grown now. I think he was doing fine on his own, but I didn't know any better and thought I was helping. Found out that nature really dosen't need or want 'my' help. Imagine that ! :) dumb grin.
It's also a good idea to get a Hygrometer - it's basicaly a Humidity 'reader'. That changes very quickly once it runs out of water. I have a fan in my incubator, but I usually have to cover part of the water tray or the humidity will be too high.
I also noticed that your taking the cover completely off. That also will change the humidity as well as the temperature. When I add water or turn the eggs, I just lift the front part up, hold it up with one hand and add the water or turn the eggs with the other hand. That way most of the heat and the humidity are 'held' in.
When I first got my incubator I ran it for a couple days to figure out how much of the water tray had to be covered in order to get the correct humidity. I covered part with a piece of tin foil. I put it between the water tray and the screen piece.
According to my info and it works very well for me the humidity for the first 18 days should be 50-55% relative humidity and about 60-65% for the last 3 days.