Rcom20 incubator - My first home-hatched chickens

[kenc45]

About a month ago, I purchased an R-Com20 Pro from Bell Labs in Melbourne so that I could hatch my own chickens. This is a 20 egg incubator that is fully automatic - Temp, humidity and auto-rotating. It is a very clever design. It was quite expensive - about $550, so I had high hopes.

Use was easy! Clip off the top, put in a sponge for humidity and clip top back on. Fill up resevoir with water, put in the eggs, press Select until it read chicken and hold down Start for 2 seconds. Bingo - we're off!

I only have to chooks, so I had a friend from work bring some in for me as well. I candled them and chose the freshest (smallest air sack) without any cracks. I set the full 20 eggs. I candled them after the first and second weeks. After the first week I had my doubts - but being my first time I left them all in. After the 2nd week a couple were very obviously different from the rest, so I removed them. I opened them. Two were just like normal eggs, but the third was rotten. Good thing I didn't leave that in the incubator or it would have got very stinky - you could smell it through the shell.

So I had 17 eggs heading for the finish line. I was hoping for at least 50% hatch rate. Chickens have a 21 day incubation period. I thought that meant that afte 21 days they would start to hatch, so I wasn't expecting a chicken to be laying in the incubator with a whole day still to go!!

Being my first lot of chickens, I didn't realise that they look dead when they aren't moving! I thought it was dead - all wet and manky and very still. Then all of a sudden, he was up and struggling out of the egg. Then still. It was amazing to watch. I watched until the first 3 had stuggled out. I was very excited - part of me was scared that it would be a total failure.

I left them in the incubator over night to dry off, then took those 3 out in the morning and put them in a cardboard box brooder. I thought it was quite warm in the room, but they huddled together and into my hand - so they were cold. I put the light down lower in the box (held down with a box of brewing sugar ).

One thing that amazed me was how soon they were pecking at things. Some were pecking at the other birds while they were still half stuck in the egg!

As I write this, 11 have hatched so far. I am hoping for a couple more over night, but won't hold my breath. Sorry it's such a long post - you may be able to tell I'm excited!!

[GaryD]

Hi Ken,

congratulations! It's always a big day when you bring out your first hatch.

For what it's worth, it's probably not a good idea to get opening the incubator too often around hatch time. It let's the humidity out which has the effect of allowing chicks that have pipped to dry out which then requires extra energy (which they don't have much of) to get out of the shell.

I look enviously at the R-COM 20 myself from time to time.

Gary

[kenc45]

Hi Gary,

Yes. Like most things, I guess - there is no substitute for doing it yourself. All the reading I have done didn't explain it nearly as well as seeing it this first time.

Thanks for the advice. I have read that advice from you on other posts, but I guess us 'first time parents' get nervous. Do you leave them in there for the whole hatch period? Or do you take some out after the first day?

I have opened it 3 times. First 3 out, next 6 out, next 2 out (and quickly remove some old shells). No time would have been for more than a minute - knowing that temperature and humidity is critical. Next time I'll leave it at least the full 24 hours (half time).

There is one more hatched in the incubator now - thats 12!! I leave it till the end of the day now, then give up. I figure as the 3 eggs I took out after 2 weeks were no good, that wasn't really the incubator's fault. So it managed 12/17 = 70% Not too bad, I guess.

Image: The chicken in the foreground is the first-hatched from the second picture in my last post. He is still the leader!

I plan to put the next batch on at the end of this week!!

[GaryD]

Hi Ken,

......but I guess us 'first time parents' get nervous.

I have to confess to having done exactly the same thing. The other thing that you hear me counsel against is helping chicks out of the shell......and that's another thing we did, too. Over time, you strive for better results and you learn what works and what doesn't.

While greeting a new hatch always retains a hint of excitement, you'll eventually reach the point where you will let it go the full term and find that you are greeted by an incubator full of milling chicks. It's not unusual when using a small automatic incubator like yours (and assuming healthy parent birds on a good diet) to achieve a 100% hatch.

Gary