Hands on hatching and help

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Leaguinea said:
no peeping.
My last run they hatched out 3 days early (reading 99.9 - 100.0) (only 3 out of 13 hatched) so I lowered the temp (99.0) this time around and I put a secondary thermometer in that reads 99.9 - 100.1
I am running it dry and it is staying between 29% - 38% mostly about 30 - 32.
I don't get what I am doing wrong. So confused and disappointed.
Click to expand...
Don't worry about the no peeping, they can't peep unless they have internally pipped.
 
Okay here is a "stupid blonde" moment for me...
So after I candled the eggs last night and freaked out that there was no movement and they looked really dark I had a lightbulb moment (pun intended) I changed the battery in my candling flashlight.:old Wow that light shone really bright after that.
Note to self: make sure candling light is actually working properly prior to freaking out and posting on BYC.
I re-candled and detected movement :yesss: so I am keeping my fingers crossed:fl for another week.
Very embarrassed. Thanks to everyone that took the time to respond to my post. I an thankful for this site and the support of everyone here.
 
Leaguinea said:
Okay here is a "stupid blonde" moment for me...
So after I candled the eggs last night and freaked out that there was no movement and they looked really dark I had a lightbulb moment (pun intended) I changed the battery in my candling flashlight.:old Wow that light shone really bright after that.
Note to self: make sure candling light is actually working properly prior to freaking out and posting on BYC.
I re-candled and detected movement :yesss: so I am keeping my fingers crossed:fl for another week.
Very embarrassed. Thanks to everyone that took the time to respond to my post. I an thankful for this site and the support of everyone here.
Click to expand...
:clap
 
Leaguinea said:
Okay here is a "stupid blonde" moment for me...
So after I candled the eggs last night and freaked out that there was no movement and they looked really dark I had a lightbulb moment (pun intended) I changed the battery in my candling flashlight.:old Wow that light shone really bright after that.
Note to self: make sure candling light is actually working properly prior to freaking out and posting on BYC.
I re-candled and detected movement :yesss: so I am keeping my fingers crossed:fl for another week.
Very embarrassed. Thanks to everyone that took the time to respond to my post. I an thankful for this site and the support of everyone here.
Click to expand...
What day are you on?
 
Leaguinea said:
Okay here is a "stupid blonde" moment for me...
So after I candled the eggs last night and freaked out that there was no movement and they looked really dark I had a lightbulb moment (pun intended) I changed the battery in my candling flashlight.:old Wow that light shone really bright after that.
Note to self: make sure candling light is actually working properly prior to freaking out and posting on BYC.
I re-candled and detected movement :yesss: so I am keeping my fingers crossed:fl for another week.
Very embarrassed. Thanks to everyone that took the time to respond to my post. I an thankful for this site and the support of everyone here.
Click to expand...

Let he (she) who hath not doneth something equally "duh" casteth the first stone. I spent half a day complaining that my incubator wasn't getting warm. Um, plug it in, stupid. <sigh>
 
Okay so I have a question and figured this would be the place to ask because "Hands on Hatching" is people who have had to assist hatches.

So my first pip happened Monday afternoon day 24 (4 days early!) I quickly and efficiently did lockdown of all viable eggs, discarded all the others.
Raised humidity to 68%. (at times it went up to 72%)
The first 2 keets hatched out on there own 1st one on Tuesday shortly after 12 am (day 25) and the second one around 4 am Tuesday morning. The 3rd egg which pipped a little after the other 2 on Monday afternoon had made no further progress by Tuesday 6 am so opened the bater a tiny bit and shone the candling light into his pip and as I was afraid of; the membrane was stuck to him and he couldn't do the whole zipper thingy.
Now during incubation the humidity was kept in the 30s (32%-38%) but some of these eggs had been stored in my basement for longer than the recommended time. (does this cause an excessive loss of moisture to the egg? should I have incubated at a higher moisture?)
also the inside membranes were like tissue paper (white and dry) and I had to oil them and dampen them to get them off.
In total I had 7 eggs hatch and I had to assist 5 of those.

I would appreciate your thoughts and ideas on this.
 
Leaguinea said:
Okay so I have a question and figured this would be the place to ask because "Hands on Hatching" is people who have had to assist hatches.

So my first pip happened Monday afternoon day 24 (4 days early!) I quickly and efficiently did lockdown of all viable eggs, discarded all the others.
Raised humidity to 68%. (at times it went up to 72%)
The first 2 keets hatched out on there own 1st one on Tuesday shortly after 12 am (day 25) and the second one around 4 am Tuesday morning. The 3rd egg which pipped a little after the other 2 on Monday afternoon had made no further progress by Tuesday 6 am so opened the bater a tiny bit and shone the candling light into his pip and as I was afraid of; the membrane was stuck to him and he couldn't do the whole zipper thingy.
Now during incubation the humidity was kept in the 30s (32%-38%) but some of these eggs had been stored in my basement for longer than the recommended time. (does this cause an excessive loss of moisture to the egg? should I have incubated at a higher moisture?)
also the inside membranes were like tissue paper (white and dry) and I had to oil them and dampen them to get them off.
In total I had 7 eggs hatch and I had to assist 5 of those.

I would appreciate your thoughts and ideas on this.
Click to expand...
It is really hard to say if humidity or temperatures caused hatch problems. The age of the eggs(extra time in storage) causes a lot of stress that will lead to hatch problems.

Early hatching by 4 days would be an indication of temps being too high in the incubator. Try lowering the temperature by .5 of a degree for the next hatch. Keep humidity closer to 40% for the first part of incubation. 65 yo 70% should be good for lockdown.
Congrats on the hatch!
 
Hi there, hatchers! I'm not quite in need of help (yet!) but I find myself in an unexpected situation and I won't be surprised if I need to get hands-on in the coming days. (Plus I'd be delighted to get any comments, constructive criticism and/or cheerleading that may be available.)

This was one of the first threads I read on this forum, and I worked through it end-to-end in fascination... and made a very sensible plan to start with a small number of adult birds and ease in gradually to the whole hatching thing at a later date. However, life had other plans, and I found myself unexpectedly in receipt of the amazingly generous gift of 36 Marans eggs for hatching - so - sensible plan out the window, incubator acquired, and eggs set this morning.

The incubator is a Brinsea Octagon 40, non-digital, and without the auto-turner. I bought a reptile thermometer and a hygrometer as backup. Humidity-wise what I've read suggests that 35% would be ideal for Marans, and I was surprised to find that despite our lovely rainy climate (Ireland) and the humidity outside, it was about 17% after I set it up dry, so I filled 2 of 4 wells and it's been holding between 28 and 35%. The built-in thermometer reads about one degree (C) lower than the reptile one, so I'm using the reptile one as the main guide since it's closer to the eggs and hopefully more accurate. I'm aiming for 37.5 degrees (99.5F) on it, and this is the bit I'm most nervous about, I really hope I haven't somehow cooked them already! From what I've read hotter is more dangerous than cooler so I hope I'm doing the right thing by them here.

I tried candling last night but couldn't see any air cells, I'm guessing due to a combination of inexperience, dark Marans shells, and maybe freshness - the eggs were laid on the 12th and 13th so less than a week old at the time. I did weigh them all and make notes so hopefully I can track weight loss if I continue to be unable to see what's going on inside.

Well, I guess I'll stop here for the moment, apologies for any rambling, I tend to get wordy when I'm nervous! Would love to hear if I'm making any obvious mistakes, hopefully before it's too late to recover :)
 

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