Thank you for being honest and optimistic! I've been raising chickens for 10+ years, and I keep seeing people that have been raising them for a year and then go tell everyone else they're doing it wrong. The community needs more realistic and supportive people like you.
I just found your channel. I am hatching eggs for the first time in decades! lol I have olive eggers. And I have been having such a hard time determining if they are still alive! I thought it was my light, or my eyesight! I have never had such a hard time! THANK YOU for stating that olive eggers eggs are hard to see through! I can stop trying to figure out what I am doing wrong! lol
Different perspective on incubation. Personally I think it’s great that you give a different opinion but not straying from what Mother Nature does.I imagine we have got this far from “scientists” evaluating the parameters to which a live hen infuses in order to get results. Hence the incubators. I get the part where the hen is off the nest for sometime. Heaven forbid if the ambient temperature for the day is 80 degrees in her absence. Or the humidity is nowhere near what the experts call for yet she does not fret the situation.
This is a great video, if you think about it, a broody will hatch eggs from multiple chickens that have been laid over multiple days so the ultra scientific method might just be a bid over kill. Thanks for posting.
I love your attitude, took a lot of stress off me. I have babies that are a day or so apart and one that is 5 days apart. I thought I completely messed up now that I’ve hit lock down. I took them off the egg turner and I was going to hope that last egg could hold on long enough for me to reopen and start turning again. Psh according to you I’m perfectly fine turning that bad boy while waiting on these older guys and it’s such a relief lol. Great video. Thank you
My Mother and I hatched chicks in a cardboard box with a drop light when I was a little girl. I've thought it strange how everyone says you have to do this and you have to do that everything has to be perfect I knew it wasn't true. My mother turned them by hand four times a day and sprinkle them with water. As I remember it we only had two that didn't hatch out of two dozen.
i feel like if they were really as fragile as people act like they are, they wouldn't survive without us, but they do as long as the hen is around, and hens aren't as temperamental as most people lol
I'm with you on lockdown - I add more eggs to incubator about every week and never deal with lockdown--they all do fine and I remove the ones that hatch while leaving others to continue incubating. Super video:))
I like your common sense approach. I have been in dry heat of AZ, muggy humid Miami, very cold high altitude areas and I see hens with happy chicks. Yet to see a single hen with an egg roller under one wing and a digital thermometer under the other wing :) I am on my 3rd incubator trial and it has been stressful. I literally lose sleep during days 20-24. I am about to give up. I have tried everything I have learned from CZcams, wash the eggs in Hydrogen Peroxide, flash light test on day 7 and 14 and remove the infertile eggs, follow strict lock down rules, remove the egg roller, check the temp. & humidity 2-3 times/day, and I get 8-10 chicks out of 46-48 eggs. I do autopsy on the non-hatched eggs and almost everyone of them is a chick that looks full grown just didn't break out of the shell and they stink. I have had 2-3 chicks on each try that was stuck with the tip of the beak sticking out of the shell. I guess that means he got shrink wrapped?? Currently, I live in a dry but warm area. Today's temp range is 48-78 with 30% humidity. I am on day 25. From day 20-21, 10 happy healthy chicks. I waited as long as I could then based on some advise from 3 different CZcams experts (who made me believe that if I open the lid during lockdown, I get hit by lightning), I ran the hot water in the shower, had a spray bottle of warm water handy and gingerly walked the incubator to the bathroom, as quickly as I could, removed the 10 live chicks, did the water floating test, removed 4 non-floaters, sprayed the eggs with warm water, topped off the water at the bottom of the incubator and took the incubator back to the barn. NOTHING has happened since then. Today, I am about to go thru the grim task of autopsy again and load up the incubator for another attempt. Any advise? Should I stop washing the eggs in H2O2? I keep the incubator in the Styrofoam box that it came in and wrap it in a blanket even though our temp never drops below 45 and I am envious of all you guys hatching 90-100% of your eggs. I only have 8-9 hens that lay eggs so it takes me about 15 days to collect 48 eggs for the incubator and I keep the eggs in room temperature. Sorry for the looooong comment
This is so encouraging! First time incubating and I was stressing this morning because my incubator was leaking this morning as I was trying to get organized for " lockdown ". I was thinking oh no I'm going to have to be opening it on lockdown and it's not going to work if I open it!! But this seems like it might be a lot less stressful. ❤️
Love this. Hatching my own chicks for the first time. I like working around the rules.. Sometimes it's the best way! Great advice and video. Thank you so much!
I've just set my first batch of 20 eggs here in Malaysia where the ambient humidity is 80 to 90 percent which I worried about but my farmer friend says they will be just fine as his broody hens are hatching all the time
Thank you for the honesty. I made my own incubator and just turned the eggs a few times a day. Just as the hen would if she went in there and shuffled them around. My 1st egg hatched 2 days ago the 2nd has pipped as of 4 hours ago and is chirping and pipping as i type. I take the eggs out, talk to them and hold them for a few and put them back. Ive kept the humidity at 35 to 37 % and they are doing great. I daye each egg and wait for its hatching date. The first chick is doing great, eating and drinking just fine and moves around what i called the "starter bin" just fine. It is a tote with food water and the warming light at one end so she may freely go where she feels comfortable. In doing this myself, i just wanted to replicate what works best as if the hen hatched them herself. So yes i appreciate your take on this and agree with all you have said 100%
Thank you so much for your attainable content. Too many put things into a very strict and narrow way of doing things and I've always been of the mind that there is grace in a folk method.
Thanks for the comment about the olive eggers i thought i was going blind or something going on day 12 fingers crossed!! Also always wondered about adding eggs hatched on different days i dont have many hens and takes a few days for me to fill a large incubator thanks for the info!!!
finally somebody who gets it some people take hatching way to serious when its not so glad i saw this video its the first one i ever saw who understands the process
Thank you for being honest and optimistic! I've been raising chickens for 10+ years, and I keep seeing people that have been raising them for a year and then go tell everyone else they're doing it wrong. The community needs more realistic and supportive people like you.
I just found your channel. I am hatching eggs for the first time in decades! lol I have olive eggers. And I have been having such a hard time determining if they are still alive! I thought it was my light, or my eyesight! I have never had such a hard time! THANK YOU for stating that olive eggers eggs are hard to see through! I can stop trying to figure out what I am doing wrong! lol
Different perspective on incubation. Personally I think it’s great that you give a different opinion but not straying from what Mother Nature does.I imagine we have got this far from “scientists” evaluating the parameters to which a live hen infuses in order to get results. Hence the incubators. I get the part where the hen is off the nest for sometime. Heaven forbid if the ambient temperature for the day is 80 degrees in her absence. Or the humidity is nowhere near what the experts call for yet she does not fret the situation.
This is a great video, if you think about it, a broody will hatch eggs from multiple chickens that have been laid over multiple days so the ultra scientific method might just be a bid over kill. Thanks for posting.
I love your attitude, took a lot of stress off me. I have babies that are a day or so apart and one that is 5 days apart. I thought I completely messed up now that I’ve hit lock down. I took them off the egg turner and I was going to hope that last egg could hold on long enough for me to reopen and start turning again. Psh according to you I’m perfectly fine turning that bad boy while waiting on these older guys and it’s such a relief lol. Great video. Thank you
My Mother and I hatched chicks in a cardboard box with a drop light when I was a little girl. I've thought it strange how everyone says you have to do this and you have to do that everything has to be perfect I knew it wasn't true. My mother turned them by hand four times a day and sprinkle them with water. As I remember it we only had two that didn't hatch out of two dozen.
i feel like if they were really as fragile as people act like they are, they wouldn't survive without us, but they do as long as the hen is around, and hens aren't as temperamental as most people lol
I'm with you on lockdown - I add more eggs to incubator about every week and never deal with lockdown--they all do fine and I remove the ones that hatch while leaving others to continue incubating. Super video:))
I like your common sense approach. I have been in dry heat of AZ, muggy humid Miami, very cold high altitude areas and I see hens with happy chicks. Yet to see a single hen with an egg roller under one wing and a digital thermometer under the other wing :) I am on my 3rd incubator trial and it has been stressful. I literally lose sleep during days 20-24. I am about to give up. I have tried everything I have learned from CZcams, wash the eggs in Hydrogen Peroxide, flash light test on day 7 and 14 and remove the infertile eggs, follow strict lock down rules, remove the egg roller, check the temp. & humidity 2-3 times/day, and I get 8-10 chicks out of 46-48 eggs. I do autopsy on the non-hatched eggs and almost everyone of them is a chick that looks full grown just didn't break out of the shell and they stink. I have had 2-3 chicks on each try that was stuck with the tip of the beak sticking out of the shell. I guess that means he got shrink wrapped?? Currently, I live in a dry but warm area. Today's temp range is 48-78 with 30% humidity. I am on day 25. From day 20-21, 10 happy healthy chicks. I waited as long as I could then based on some advise from 3 different CZcams experts (who made me believe that if I open the lid during lockdown, I get hit by lightning), I ran the hot water in the shower, had a spray bottle of warm water handy and gingerly walked the incubator to the bathroom, as quickly as I could, removed the 10 live chicks, did the water floating test, removed 4 non-floaters, sprayed the eggs with warm water, topped off the water at the bottom of the incubator and took the incubator back to the barn. NOTHING has happened since then. Today, I am about to go thru the grim task of autopsy again and load up the incubator for another attempt. Any advise? Should I stop washing the eggs in H2O2? I keep the incubator in the Styrofoam box that it came in and wrap it in a blanket even though our temp never drops below 45 and I am envious of all you guys hatching 90-100% of your eggs. I only have 8-9 hens that lay eggs so it takes me about 15 days to collect 48 eggs for the incubator and I keep the eggs in room temperature. Sorry for the looooong comment
This is so encouraging! First time incubating and I was stressing this morning because my incubator was leaking this morning as I was trying to get organized for " lockdown ". I was thinking oh no I'm going to have to be opening it on lockdown and it's not going to work if I open it!! But this seems like it might be a lot less stressful. ❤️
Love this. Hatching my own chicks for the first time. I like working around the rules.. Sometimes it's the best way! Great advice and video. Thank you so much!
I've just set my first batch of 20 eggs here in Malaysia where the ambient humidity is 80 to 90 percent which I worried about but my farmer friend says they will be just fine as his broody hens are hatching all the time
Thank you for the honesty. I made my own incubator and just turned the eggs a few times a day. Just as the hen would if she went in there and shuffled them around. My 1st egg hatched 2 days ago the 2nd has pipped as of 4 hours ago and is chirping and pipping as i type. I take the eggs out, talk to them and hold them for a few and put them back. Ive kept the humidity at 35 to 37 % and they are doing great. I daye each egg and wait for its hatching date. The first chick is doing great, eating and drinking just fine and moves around what i called the "starter bin" just fine. It is a tote with food water and the warming light at one end so she may freely go where she feels comfortable. In doing this myself, i just wanted to replicate what works best as if the hen hatched them herself. So yes i appreciate your take on this and agree with all you have said 100%
Thank you so much for your attainable content. Too many put things into a very strict and narrow way of doing things and I've always been of the mind that there is grace in a folk method.
Thank you this mama Z on dad's profile. We just set eggs last night Jan 30 2023. So excited thank you
Thanks for the comment about the olive eggers i thought i was going blind or something going on day 12 fingers crossed!! Also always wondered about adding eggs hatched on different days i dont have many hens and takes a few days for me to fill a large incubator thanks for the info!!!
hi! just curious what incubator you use? thanks, and thanks for this video, it has helped me on my hatching journey <3
So glad to have found you!! Great video, great information.
finally somebody who gets it some people take hatching way to serious when its not so glad i saw this video its the first one i ever saw who understands the process
A big thank you for this encouragement!!