Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: babe on March 02, 2008, 18:51
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HI,
I have just purchased an incubator a small one for just six eggs!!!
being a novice myself am experimenting ,its an interest and hopefully next weekend will have a couple of chicks if i have followedthe instructions properly.
I would like to look at more traditional methods,one of my clients at work who is 95 told me her dad used to take a basket gather up a dozen eggs and put then in the bottom grate of fire in the ashes !!,so do we need machines ??
anyhow eggs in the machine turn twice per day until 18 days then leave for three and hatch ?? :lol: :lol:
anyhow eggs in the machine turn twice per day until 18 days then leave for three and hatch ?? :lol: :lol:
twice a day is no good at all, it has to be an odd number for the embryos to survive. what incubator is it?
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Hi
I bought an Octagon 10 and right now am hatching 24 quail eggs, due hopefully to hatch at the weekend.
They take 17/18 days to hatch and the quail are the size of bumble bees when they hatch - but grow at a fast rate.
Will let you know how I get on.
With mine, as quail eggs are so small, I weighed the 24 (in 2 little quail egg boxes), the subtracted the weight of the boxes (20g) then worked out the average weight by dividing by 24.
I am doing a dry incubation to start with, then on the 15th day I will stop the automatic turning in the evening, and fill the water containers - and leave them be to hatch (fingers crossed).
The quail I am hatching are Japanese - a good breed for eggs and meat. I have a little group of 5 at the moment - 1 cock 4 hens - for one breeding group, and I have bought in eggs from Cumbria which I am hatching out and will introduce cockerel/s (depending on how many hens hatch out) from a local breeder to ensure no future eggs will be related.
The average hatch rate of male to female in quail is 65% male so you have to be prepared to cull the males for the pot. They mature at 6/7 weeks.
You can see my quail on my website - under categories in the right hand side - "Chickens and Quail"
Hope this is of interest
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Hey Kooringa!!!! Nice to 'see' you back!!!!!!! How are you???
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Fine thanks - lots been going on whilst I was away (apart from it not 'liking' my log on - so I ended up not bothering :roll: Being Lazy in that department really.
I decided to sign on with a different name - and guess what - today it remembered my old one - so here I am :lol: :lol: :lol:
Thanks for the lovely welcome.
The forum sure has grown since I first joined (one of the very first members then :lol: :lol: :lol: ) Nice to see it has flourished - so much more interesting with lots of people too. I shall be catching up on all the posts each time I log on and get a bit of time.
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anyhow eggs in the machine turn twice per day until 18 days then leave for three and hatch ?? :lol: :lol:
twice a day is no good at all, it has to be an odd number for the embryos to survive. what incubator is it?
Hi thanks for the reply,the incubator is a covatutto eco 7,i have read the instructions and deffo says turn twice !!! never mind ,may have to try again :( all trial and error
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I put 20 eggs into my new incubator 11 days ago, 18 from different ebay suppliers and two of my ow. This is all new to me so fingers crossed.
I put water into the wells in the boittom and it is holding a good temperature with humidity around 50.
I am manual turning with the help of hubby every three hours during the day making sure that there is an odd number of turns.
I have candled the eggs on day seven and again this morning, I am not sure what to do as some appear not to have anything in, do I leave them just in case or do I remove them? Can they explode before hatching date?
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This is a pretty good guide Candling Picture (http://shilala.homestead.com/candling.html) and should give you an idea what to look for. On the 2 pictures of the good eggs, look at the air sack on the left, as incubation progresses this will get slowly larger as incubation progresses and is a good indication of growth. Candle the eggs twice once around day 6-8 and then again around day 16-17. Discard any non fertile eggs or dead embryos especially on the last candling as you don't want stinking mess in the incubator at hatching time.
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This is quite a good guide if you are starting to think about hatching your own eggs
http://www.cd3wd.com/CD3WD_40/LSTOCK/001/agrodoks/34-e-2004_screen.pdf
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I've made a broody unit and been testing temperatures inside for the last day, I have read different suggestions for what to put on the floor, sawdust, paper, kitchen towel. What would you recommend?
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anyhow eggs in the machine turn twice per day until 18 days then leave for three and hatch ?? :lol: :lol:
twice a day is no good at all, it has to be an odd number for the embryos to survive. what incubator is it?
Hi thanks for the reply,the incubator is a covatutto eco 7,i have read the instructions and deffo says turn twice !!! never mind ,may have to try again :( all trial and error
how successful were you with the covatutto. I have the 6 egg with no temp or humidity gauge and have been unsuccessful twice mind you I purchased eggs of ebay and fertility was about 50% all dead in shell and I turned the eggs every 8 hrs for 18 days.
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Hi
I have 6 eggs in a covatutto. I borrowed it off a friend and she's hatched 4 so far out of it.
I've bought the eggs off Ebay from the same supplier as my friend. All 6 are fertile and I'm turning them 5 times a day.
My friend lent me a themometre to keep inside which shows the temperature and humidity so I'm able to check that all is ok. I suggest you get one of these.
Fingers crossed and I'll have me some babies next week. :D
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Hi
I have 6 eggs in a covatutto. I borrowed it off a friend and she's hatched 4 so far out of it.
I've bought the eggs off Ebay from the same supplier as my friend. All 6 are fertile and I'm turning them 5 times a day.
My friend lent me a themometre to keep inside which shows the temperature and humidity so I'm able to check that all is ok. I suggest you get one of these.
Fingers crossed and I'll have me some babies next week. :D
I followed the instructions which said turn the eggs twice a day until day 18 your advice of 5 times seems a more realistic amount remembering how often the hen shuffles the eggs around her. Ill take your advice regarding the thermometre Many thanks :)
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jjjjjj
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Well I'm delighted to let you know that 4 of the 6 eggs in my covatuto hatched. I'm chuffed to bits with the results. Here's some pics.
(http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii246/Fifitrix1/100_2088.jpg)
(http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii246/Fifitrix1/100_2095.jpg)
(http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii246/Fifitrix1/100_2132.jpg)
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Well done you :D
I remember my first time with an incubator many years ago. I had set 120 pheasant eggs in a polyhatch and turned them manually several times a day. I had a really good hatch and fussed around like a new dad. After a day when the chicks had dried it was time to move them under a heat lamp and begin rearing. The silly thing was I thought if I lift the incubator lid I could transfer the chicks into a box to move them to the shed. Little did I think that they would be away like greyhounds as soon as the lid was lifted. They were behind the rayburn, under the work surfaces you name it. Needless to say it only happened once :lol:
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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: LMAO :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Can anyone tell me what the humidity and temps should be for chicken eggs around days 19 to 21?
I have some eggs in the incubator and yesterday (day 20) I was getting lots of eggs wobbling ( I assume this is pipping starting) but today nothing.
I have read that pipping starts on day 19, is this correct in your experiences?
Very stress and confused!
Thanks for any advice
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According to my Katie Thear book it says days 19-21 temp should be 99f and humidity 75%
I've never done Chickens in the incky only ducks : :?
So not really much help sorry :( Will keep fingers crossed for you :)
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Thanks for your reply vember,
I have the same book, my incubator is automatic and on the 19th day it dropped the temp to 37.1 and upped the humidity to 63%, I tried to manually up it to 70% but would only go as far as 65%?
Who is right, who is wrong?
You can see why I’m stressed and confused
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Had the same problem when I tried increasing the humidity to 75% for my ducks but it would only go as high as 70%.
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I’ve put some water in were the eggs are to try and manually up the humidity,
How successful were you with the humidity at 70% ?
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10 0f 13 in the last hatch but I did try keeping it a little higher with a small bowl of water in the corner.
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Great minds eh!
well i have 15 fertile eggs in, so we will see how many hatch.
Thanks
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:lol:
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good luck PW...thinking of you....
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Paddywack - any news?
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will my chickens be able to hatch their eggs alone or will they neglect them?
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Hi joshwain
If your chickens are broody they will sit and hatch eggs
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k, thanks.
Are they often broody or will they abandon eggs most of the time?
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Josh a lot of that depends on the breed of the birds plus the individual hen. Some breeds like the Silkie, Cochin and Old English Games are famous for going broody while the production birds like the Leghorns and the egg laying crosses tend not to go broody.
What kind of birds do you have?
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I'm thinking of incubating some eggs as part of a school project. i've had hens for 3 years now but never hatched my own.
How does everyone go about vaccinations for salmonella etc - is it contained within Chick crumb or do you have to do it yourself?
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hi peanut, unless you are going into hatching on a large scale, its just too costly to vaccinate. doses are sold in batches of 1000.
im sure grannie will be about soon and she knows best about this i think