Set 31 this morning.  
28 black copper marans and 3 olive eggers.
needed a few new hens and maybe a few roos as coyotes ate my spare bachelors.
I like fall hatching as the hens are usually about ready to lay come spring.
eta: make that 5 OEs and 26 BCMs

 

Pics of my cooler based incubator.

I need to move so I can have me some chickens and fresh eggs.

Very nice looking incubator. Good luck with that hatch.

Awesome looking incubator!  Do you turn the eggs by hand?

Thanks.



This will be my third hatch with it and so far it has been rock solid stable and easy to clean.



Turning is now largely a job for one of my kids... Though I did score a few 4-6rpd motors and plan on cobbling together a sliding tray style turner.

 

Thanks!

 

Not incubating, but I've got a few Silver and Gold Laced Wyandotte chicks hanging out in the brooder on our sun porch right now.

City raised the limit of chicks we could keep in the backyard so we're upping our flock.

May I ask why the incubator vs just setting a few hens on them in a nest?  Is there an advantage?

It's really a matter of control.



I can set as many eggs as I want, when I want and control when they hatch.



Otherwise I would be waiting/hoping for a hen to go broody - or more likely waiting on 2 or 3 to go broody for the size hatch I want.



To "force" one to set is a challenge - to try and sync 2 or 3 isn't happening.



This way I can insure I have one large timed hatch and don't have different aged chicks to deal with in the brooder and grow out pen.



It also means I don't have 2 or 3 hens "offline" for a month or more while they sit.



Plus its cool.  



 

Thanks.  Growing up my dad would just put some eggs in a nest in a milk crate, put a hen on it with a cover.  She'd get the idea.  Of course we didn't have as many chicks at once and it was always just one hen at a time.  

My three hens, Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney, are just layers....no rooster to fertilize the eggs and bother the neighbors.

2 pips this evening...

Hatch is about half done, so far so good!







Some of the fluffed ones in the new kid friendlier brooder:

Hatch looks good!



I never considered doing a fall hatch.  Living in the northeast, by the time the young birds would be ready to go outside, it is getting really cold.



We hatch in mid to late March.  Then by the time they are feathered and ready to go outside ( and we are very happy they are going ), the night time temps are moderate and the transition is easy.



How do your young birds do, going out for the first time in late November or December?

Thanks.



I have an "Ohio" style brooder that I put in the tractor/hoop house.  



It is suspended from the ceiling so it moves when i move the "tractor" and raise it as their tolerance grows.



I don't usually need to leave it in for long as they harden off pretty quickly.



Knock on wood, the Black Copper Marans have done very well in our winters here once well feathered.



 

I don't know what kind of voodoo jinx you put on me, but since I last updated I had two different hens in different tractors go broody on me.  One is an old gal, easily 4 yrs old and the other is right at a year that I hatched last fall.  



The younger one managed to hoard a dozen eggs at the start - and is letting the other girls lay and add to her collection... after a week she's sitting on a pile well over 2 dozen she can barely cover.    

Not to be outdone by grandma hen, who is sitting on a clutch of 4... three of which are ceramic eggs I keep in to discourage pecking  .  She laid the one real egg and refuses to let the other girls in to lay more... their house has a communal box that normally accommodates 3 abreast but she routes all that approach.



I doubt either will be very successful but I'm gonna lay it play out since the brooder is already setup and we're not in an egg production deficit.



I'd be more keen on their success if it weren't for the fact that I just bought another dozen chicks to brood alongside my current hatch.  My better half wanted a more colorful egg basket so I picked up some blue laying Ameraucanas.
 

We hatched about 25 BCM last November.  I have so many running around free right now that I don't know how many days it would take to catch and butcher them all.  We wont do a fall hatch this year, just takes too much work to keep them warm here.

I tried letting my extra roos free range - coyotes solved the "keeping them warm" issue.  



How are your hatch rates with your BCMs?  Mine have improved since I switched to a "dry" incubation but I still don't have the rates I'd like - I lose about 10% at full term.  Not drowned, but no internal pips.



 

That sounds like our hatch rate with golden polish when we used to do them.  Our BCM run about 80% successful, that's out of fertile eggs.  Ours were mostly not pipped either.  The ones that pipped and then died I blame on the kids opening the incubator too much taking chicks out. We just use the cheap Styrofoam incubators.  Will probably switch to a GQF this spring.

Im not sure what you mean by "dry" incubation.

Ive got a couple great Pyrenees for the coyotes.  The one dog is great, the other has to stay tied up and just barks at coyotes or she will kill as many as a coyote would.

I think we'll be getting a couple Pyrenees here in the spring to put in with the sheep.



Dry hatching is essentially adding no or little water during the incubation before day 18.  Here that usually equates to 20-30% humidity with all vents open.  Dark eggs like BCMs get their color from the coating, but the coating also inhibits evaporation.  Most guides advise 50% or greater through the whole cycle, but many have found that to be too high and doesn't allow the coated eggs to shed enough with the result being "drowned" full term chicks.   My last three hatches were "dry" and my rates certainly improved but still not where I'd like them consistently.





 

That certainly makes sense.  I will have to try that next time.  Heck you might have talked me into trying it now just to see!