Hi nice to meet you

[Guest]

Hi everyone.
I am new to this board and to chickens.

I am incubating my first eggs right now.
I have 18 Ameraucana eggs and 9 mutt eggs from my boyfirends uncles farm.

I am not sure if my first shipment of eggs will hatch they were pretty beat up when they arrived.  They were so bad the shipper sent me 6 more free.  So my first batch are due April 1st and the rest are due April 6th.

I may be looking for some more eggs to incubate if these don\'t go well.

Anyways just wanted to introduce myself, and let you know how excited I am about my new barnyard hobby as my boyfriend calls it.

Oh if any of you have advice on candling these blue eggs please pass it on cause I am finding it very difficult.  

[Guest]

I am new too. I don\'t have chickens --just a wannabe. Welcome. Deb

[John]

I bought a candler from Culter\'s this year.  I only used it to candle my first setting to see if all the breeding pens were producing feritle eggs.  It worked well on the bantam eggs, but I still had problems with some of the darker large fowl eggs.
http://www.cutlersupply.com/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=2084164.30669*Yp0hg&p_id=0392&xm=on&ppinc=display

[bantamhill]

That is the candler I have . . . it works very well. Depending on how you incubate the eggs you will see different things when you candle. If the eggs are on their side you will see the embryo very easily on the side of the eggs. If you incubate using a tray you have to look for blood vessels coming down from the air sac.

My neighbor uses the float method which works well. Put egg temperature water in a container of some sort and put the egg in . . . if it floats \"there\'s nothin\' but air\" if it sinks you have a viable embryo. This works after day 14.

Michael

Michael

[Guest]

Hi there Rocky (newbie here,too!) Best of luck to you on your hatch!!  I may end up going that route,too, as I have been searching hi & low for some wheaten Ameraucanas, but don\'t have the space for a whole bunch more! I am afraid the incubator would get toppled by my 3 year old at the very last moment and I\'ll end up w/ scrambled chickys!!!  

[bantamhill]

I have a two-year old and a three-year old and they get used to the chicken stuff after awhile. What type of incubator do you have?

Michael

[Guest]

Hi everyone thanks for responding.

I just finished my second hatch.  I did not get any chicks from my first one.
I got 9 from my second hatch but 3 died.
They are almost 3 weeks old now.

I am looking for eggs for my 3rd hatch.  

My incubator is old think it\'s hand made looks like a cabinet. I know it\'s been incubating for over 20 years as I hatch start dates written on the outside as far back as the 1980\'s before that I don\'t know.

[Guest]

My incubator is old think it\'s hand made looks like a cabinet. I know it\'s been incubating for over 20 years as I hatch start dates written on the outside as far back as the 1980\'s before that I don\'t know.

Hello Rocky,
Welcome aboard! I don\'t have any hatching eggs available for this year but I did want to comment about your incubator. As long as it is well taken care of it should last several lifetimes. If you give it a good scrub down with bleach water, 10 parts water to 1 part bleach, you shouldn\'t have too many problems with bacteria. Some people \'fumigate\' their bators several weeks prior to firing them up for hatching season. I haven\'t had to yet but if my hatching percentages start to decline I will certainly do it. You can get the supplies you need through most hatchery catalogs. If the interior of the cabinet appears to be a little \"rough\" or worn out, you can give it a light sanding with some 220 grit sandpaper and recoat it with a high quality paint or marine grade varithane. As for the \"working\" components, every single part can be replaced at a fraction of the cost of replacing the entire unit.

If you don\'t mind the suggestions, I have a few \"tried and true\" bits of information I\'d like to share with you. In my experience, I\'ve found that it is extremely helpful to have an extra \"thermostat wafer\" in my file cabinet just in case one should go out during a set or hatch. In my mind\'s eye, it\'s the cheapest insurance policy one can have, lol. Regarding thermometers, make sure they\'re calibrated prior to \"each\" hatching season and if you plan to hatch over an extended period of time, recalibrate them after every other hatch or so just to make sure they\'re working properly. After purchasing a dedicated hatching unit from Dickey\'s, I\'ve also learned the virtues of using electronic thermometer-hygrometers. So I\'m putting them in all my incubators and hatchers at the end of this year. That said, I\'ll only be using my dial thermometers as back-up units next year just in case the batteries go out in the electronic ones. BTW, I vaccuum out my electronic thermometer/hygrometer after every hatch so the dander doesn\'t mess them up.

As for candling the \"darkest\" of eggs, I\'m beginning to think that any light strong enough to shine through would end up cooking them, lol. The candler I have illuminates some pretty dark eggs but on the darkest of my Ameraucana eggs I can\'t even tell there\'s a light on them! In those cases I just hope for the best and keep an eye on them for \"sweating\". Any egg that sweats in the bator is sure to \"blow up\" at any time and will certainly contaminate other eggs.

Best of luck on your hunt for hatching eggs!
Dan

[Guest]

Thanks for all the info.

I still have not found any hatching eggs.  I have a couple of people i can fall back on but hoping to have an assortment of different so there will be less inbreeding in the future. and also some different colors.

I only got 9 from 48 eggs and 3 died.  But I found out some interesting info.  My dear sweet boyfriend with a heart of gold and good intentions, after the chicks started hatching he was opening the bator every half an hour to check their progress,  and with that old cabinet bator if you open the door that\'s like opening one whole side, all that heat and humidity loss.  Anyways out of 56 chicken eggs and 4 geese eggs I got 15 chicks and 2 geese.  Not very good.  The last 3 were tough hatches too, they were so dry.  So next time I\'m putting a sign on the bator. \"For each time you open this bator I\'m not cooking for a week\"  I\'m an excellant cook and he likes to eat so this should work.  

I like that old bator but it sure is hard to clean.
Thanks again.

[Guest]

I use those new flourescent bulbs that can be screwed into a normal light socket. I took a used one gallon tin can drilled a half inch hole and a wood plug for the open end. I use one of the 100 watt equivalent flourescent bulb, notice I did not say 100 watt incandescent bulb, and a light socket. This arrangement allows me to candle my Cuckoo Marans eggs and have on occasion been able to watch heartbeat.

My $0.02

Greg

[Guest]

I tried using a cardboard box with a round hole cut in it and a 200-watt light bulb inside. Absolutely no good. Besides being very hot, I cracked open the first 3 eggs that appeared to not be any good and each of them turned out to have a perfectly developing little chick inside. It was tragic and sad.
I tried using a small-size flashlight and it worked great! It doesn\'t heat up like an enclosed light source. It\'s very convenient and portable and you only have to hold it to the egg for a couple seconds to be able to see well enough.
Best wishes.