Thursday, March 2, 2017

Nice hatch to start the 2017season!

It's time for a few new chickens on the farm, so I pull the incubator out of the box and turned it on in the non-heated barn.  The incubator warmed up quickly and the humidity alarm sounded even though it's set on 0.  I planned this incubation as a dry incubation and wasn't going to add any water to the water channels.  However, I had to add 2 tablespoons of water 5 times throughout the incubation period because the alarm was sounding at 0 reading and the rest of the time the humidity ranged around 15-20% unless a cold front came through.  On the 19th day I added 4 tablespoons of water to the water channel and the humidity fluctuated between 30-55% through the end of the 21st day.  I never lifted the lid from day 19 through the end of day 21.

Overall a good barnyard mix hatch of 37 chicks from the 48 eggs.  5 eggs were clears and the rest had some development when I candled the eggs on the 19th day as I took them off the egg turner.  If you haven't try the dry incubation method, please give it a try.  I only added  2 tablespoons of water when the humidity alarm was sounding at 0 and this happened when a cold front came through.
4 tablespoons of water on the 19th day!

These chicks are ready for a meal!


2 comments:

  1. Does anyone know what the factory settings for the HU and HD are?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Manual default states HU 18 and HD 11.

    ReplyDelete