Moisture in the Incubator

The turkey eggs are about to hit day 21 in the incubator.  That means it's time to stop rotating them.

We've been keeping them at about 100° F and 50% humidity.
These are the guidelines we've gotten from a few different sources.  One of our friends, who have been very successful, said they don't worry about the humidity at all.  They don't have a hygrometer in their incubator even. 
Their success speaks for it self, but I decided to mind the humidity none the less.  My last (unsuccessful) run of eggs I had a hard time maintaining the humidity. 
This time I patched a lot of the holes with black electrical tape.  By using it at the bottom in particular, I was able to keep the moisture level up.  I also avoided the mess from missing the water channels. 
As with most Styrofoam incubators, mine has water channels.  Getting the water into them is not easy when you have an automatic egg turner.  Last time I seemed to get more into the base with its drainage holes and in turn lost that water all over the wooden filing cabinet in the mancave.  I also covered some of the upper holes.

In short, my veteran incubator friends are secure with "set it, forget it".  Me, I'm the nervous type.  I like seeing my temp/humidity levels every time I go to my desk. 
Below is the hygrometer we got from amazon to complete our incubator.
It's cheap, but pretty accurate.  I like the min/max function also.  It tells me how its been while I wasn't watching.

More tomorrow!  I'll let you know how the candling goes.

New Additions

Well, since our last post a lot has happened!
We now have 6 adult Rhode Island Reds and 4 Bantams!  We're still building the final coop, so for now they've taken to Karen's butterfly bush.  It is definitely more interesting now!

More to follow!

Good Reading!

I've been focusing on the chickens lately, and a friend of ours who farms on a larger scale than us recommended this book.

"The Small Scale Poultry Flock"
by Harvey Ussery

This is the EVERYTHING about "it" book for chickens.  from hatching, through feeding and on to cooking...




Thanks for letting us borrow it John!  Our copy is on the way from Amazon now.

Henny Penny gets broody

Yesterday as I went to collect our usual tribute from Henny, I found that she was still setting on her egg!  
Well,  she gave me a look that told me she was not releasing this egg.   So I let her be and decided, "good for her. "
However,  later we heard a terrible ruckus.   Apparently our Franken - birds dislodged her from her perch!   She was upset to put it mildly.   Well, this morning I brought her egg into the incubator.  
We already have the turkey eggs in there,  but I figure the needed conditions aren't too different.
Here goes nothing!