This is sure a pretty picture. It shows the chicken eggs in the front, the turkey eggs in the middle and the geese eggs in the back. It shows the dates I wrote on all the eggs and the hygrometer in the eggs turner. But this is all very impractical. The turkey and goose eggs are too big for the turner and they always fell out. So I had to separate them. And it turns out I think I get better hatch rates from manually turned eggs anyway.
As for incubators, as of December 2011 this is what we have. We have a total of four incubators and they are all the Styrofoam table top kind. One of them we bought brand new and it has a large window on the top thru which to view the eggs. It also has an internal fan to move the air around. The other three all lack fans but are basically the same type incubators. Want to say that three of them also use a wafer chip to regulate temperature. There are about 2 or 3 auto turners for them, but I have only used them once for chicken eggs. As I said, I prefer turning them by hand each day. Helps me keep track of what is going on with the eggs.
I’ve always mixed the eggs however we got them and have done pretty good. I’ve been doing some studying and getting better ideas, and this year I’ll probably mix chicken and turkey eggs, but put the goose eggs in an incubator all by themselves. The goose eggs have special requirements for water and cooling down during incubation, and I’m hoping this will make a big difference in the hatch rate for goose eggs.
We have a shelf that we put all four incubators on and we keep them in a closet in the house. We tried moving them out into a room last year but the temperature fluctuations in the room really played havoc with the hatch. So we moved it back into the closet and plan to keep it there this year. The plan will be to gather eggs and once each week load the incubators.
The geese I will just keep adding eggs to the same one. It wont’ be anywhere near full and adding the new eggs may just be part of the cool down process they need periodically. And besides, there will only be a maximum of 7 eggs each week. And after 10 days or so I will candle them and remove the ones that aren’t developing. So I’m hoping to fit about 4 weeks worth of eggs in it. I may be able to combine the goose eggs with the other eggs during the hatching the last few days. They will all need a high humidity.
For the turkeys I plan to fill an incubator each week. Right now I have 5 hens, and may keep a 6th one and at 7 eggs a week that is a maximum of 42 eggs each week. Even with only 5 hens that is 35 eggs, and I think 35 will fit in the incubator.
The problem is going to be if I’m using one incubator for geese eggs, that leaves me 3 for turkeys eggs, and it takes 4 weeks to hatch, so I’ll come up short one incubator. The one I need to use for hatching.
My son Drew is supposed to help me hook up some fans from old computers to use in the other incubators to move the air in them. That should help some, but doesn’t give me the extra incubator.
I’m toying with the idea of cannibalizing one of them and making a small cabinet incubator. It would have two shelves ( and this meet my need for more space) and the addition of a fan would enable me to use the same heating element and thermostat unit, and it should be satisfactory. For right now it is just an idea. I’ll see how it goes as we get closer. Worst case scenario we go out to the store and purchase a new unit, or I try to borrow one from a friend again.
As for incubators, as of December 2011 this is what we have. We have a total of four incubators and they are all the Styrofoam table top kind. One of them we bought brand new and it has a large window on the top thru which to view the eggs. It also has an internal fan to move the air around. The other three all lack fans but are basically the same type incubators. Want to say that three of them also use a wafer chip to regulate temperature. There are about 2 or 3 auto turners for them, but I have only used them once for chicken eggs. As I said, I prefer turning them by hand each day. Helps me keep track of what is going on with the eggs.
I’ve always mixed the eggs however we got them and have done pretty good. I’ve been doing some studying and getting better ideas, and this year I’ll probably mix chicken and turkey eggs, but put the goose eggs in an incubator all by themselves. The goose eggs have special requirements for water and cooling down during incubation, and I’m hoping this will make a big difference in the hatch rate for goose eggs.
We have a shelf that we put all four incubators on and we keep them in a closet in the house. We tried moving them out into a room last year but the temperature fluctuations in the room really played havoc with the hatch. So we moved it back into the closet and plan to keep it there this year. The plan will be to gather eggs and once each week load the incubators.
The geese I will just keep adding eggs to the same one. It wont’ be anywhere near full and adding the new eggs may just be part of the cool down process they need periodically. And besides, there will only be a maximum of 7 eggs each week. And after 10 days or so I will candle them and remove the ones that aren’t developing. So I’m hoping to fit about 4 weeks worth of eggs in it. I may be able to combine the goose eggs with the other eggs during the hatching the last few days. They will all need a high humidity.
For the turkeys I plan to fill an incubator each week. Right now I have 5 hens, and may keep a 6th one and at 7 eggs a week that is a maximum of 42 eggs each week. Even with only 5 hens that is 35 eggs, and I think 35 will fit in the incubator.
The problem is going to be if I’m using one incubator for geese eggs, that leaves me 3 for turkeys eggs, and it takes 4 weeks to hatch, so I’ll come up short one incubator. The one I need to use for hatching.
My son Drew is supposed to help me hook up some fans from old computers to use in the other incubators to move the air in them. That should help some, but doesn’t give me the extra incubator.
I’m toying with the idea of cannibalizing one of them and making a small cabinet incubator. It would have two shelves ( and this meet my need for more space) and the addition of a fan would enable me to use the same heating element and thermostat unit, and it should be satisfactory. For right now it is just an idea. I’ll see how it goes as we get closer. Worst case scenario we go out to the store and purchase a new unit, or I try to borrow one from a friend again.