The Official Ameraucana Forum > Housing, Health & Hatching
The first setting of the hatching season
John W Blehm:
I'm using a cabinet setter incubator with 3 racks, so with chicken eggs that hatch every 21 days I set eggs weekly with 96 eggs per rack. Since I know not all the eggs in the 1st setting will be fertile and I have not one, but three empty racks to start with I decided to fill all three. For this 1st setting of the year I usually collect eggs for two weeks, but collected for three weeks this time to make sure I had enough eggs to fill the incubator. This past Monday I sat 288 eggs. Next Monday when I'm ready to put in my 2nd setting I'll candle the eggs that have been incubating and toss those that haven't started developing. If that doesn't free up the room I need for my 2nd & 3rd settings to go in I'll toss out started eggs with the poorest color, shape, size, etc.
Suki:
Lucky you. I use a Brinsea 21 egg incubator :-)
Mike Gilbert:
That is a lot of eggs to set at one time unless you plan to sell chicks again. Which varieties would you say are your best layers this time of year in both LF and bantams?
John W Blehm:
With the birds on 16 hours of light/day most are popping out an egg most on days. The bantam silver hen just laid her 1st egg of the season on Tuesday. She is about 3 years old now and one of the few hens I have. The best layers are the pullets from my LF buff outcross and crossbreed coops. They're putting out 6 to 7 eggs a week per pullet. Even most of the bantam pullets in individual coops are laying 5 to 6 eggs per week. In two or three months, when the artificial lighting is stopped they can take a break.
It was a lot to set, but only 98 of them will make it to the hatcher. That should give me good hatch rate of the best of the best eggs. I figured it doesn't cost any more to operate the setter whether I only fill one rack or all 3 and so I'm taking advantage of it.
John W Blehm:
--- Quote from: Mike Gilbert on January 25, 2022, 07:08:54 PM ---I can't believe how much better they lay now that I have the light timer in the coop. I'm only giving them 15 hours. The Ameraucanas are outlaying the Chanteclers.
--- End quote ---
Mine are also on 15 hours of bright "warm" (on the Kelvin scale) LED light to duplicate daylight, but also I have a low watt LED in the barn that comes on about a half hour early to mimic "dawn" and it goes out about a half hour after the full light goes out to give them a period of "dusk". The ideal is to not shock or stress the birds in the morning by going from total darkness to bright daylight and by offering a little night light before it is time for lights out at night gives the birds time to get a bedtime snack and find the roost before for the night.
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