Here is what the incubator did look like!
It worked pretty well for me last year, but it was no where near perfect. I had temp issues due to the fact that I had to go out 3-5 times a day to turn the eggs,opening the door.. I had humidity issues, b/c I had to go out and add water, but there is not exact science to that, one day it could need water added 3 times and the next day, not at all. Also, the solid door made it impossible for me to see inside without opening the door, and hatch rates are better when the door is closed most of the time. So we made some improvements.
We bought an automatic humidity system that will keep the water level full. Larry added a window to the door and we bought an auto turner. I also reinsulated the doorframe and put new latches on, to seal the door better, keeping heat in. We did all of that yesterday, I cleaned it out, we put it back together, plugged her up and let the temp regulate. The temp is sitting pretty at 100.5 and the humidity around 40%, I will probably close off half of a vent to raise that up a tad tomorrow. It was still staying constant around lunch time today so I grabbed my eggs that have been waiting patiently and headed out to the barn.
Blank slate, yesterday, before the real work began.
In the turner
Closed them up
Then I went to check my chickens, Larry fed them early this morning, but I still wanted to do my rounds to all the coops. Got out to the Rhode Island Red/Barred Rock pen and guess what I found!!!
This is my very first egg. One of the Buff Orphs we got from Ricky laid one the day after we got her, but not since, so I count that one as Ricky's egg, b/c she probably already had it ready and just had to get it out. I hope she goes back to laying soon, moving them sometimes disturbs their cycle and can take up to 2 weeks to start back.
I'm not sure if this egg came from a Rhode Island or a Barred Rock, but I will find out in a few weeks. If it came from the Barred Rock, it will be a black sex linked. This means I will be able to tell male/female as soon as it is hatched. There are several kinds of sexlinked breeds, these were created by hatcheries b/c sexing is a no brainer and they are awesome layers, so they sell great. A black sex link is created when a red rooster is put over a barred rock hen. At the moment I have my rhode island hens in with them also , b/c the wind tore the roof off half of my coop and I had to move them around. So I have my RIR roo and my New Hamp Red Roo in with my RIR hens and my BR hens. The New Hamp is the dominant roo, so it is doubtful the RIR is being allowed to fertilize any eggs, so if a RIR hen is the one laying, I will have a RIR/NewHamp mix. Although people around here don't separate the two much. I'm working on educating these country hicks!LOL!
Anyway, back on subject, back to the bator I ran, after yelling so everyone in the county could hear "BABE, I GOT AN EGG!!"
I put it all by itself, so I will know which one it is when hatching time comes, and b/c I want to see if my roo is fertilizes, I will find that out when I candle on day 9.
Fast forward a few hrs and we tackled another project! The coop now has a roof and nest boxes. We are also going to take the two long pens we have and attach them to the coop as runs, so the chickens can still get plenty of fresh air and sunshine after we enclose the coop. I don't have pictures of that yet, it was a job and a half and it was almost dark when we finished and I was too tired to worry about pictures, and Mikey still wanted to play!
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