setting eggs tomorrow.... 3-21-12 who wants to join? - Page 16

I see a pip.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything else quiet. Sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gloria Jean

Final candling and lockdown was this morning, only 2 looked like duds, but the Marans eggs are so dark it's hard to see...

I went to turn my day 8 eggs this evening after getting home from visiting family all day.  As we were closing up the incubator (my husband and I do this together, he lifts the lid and I turn the carton of eggs so that we can do it as quickly as humanly possible) I heard peeping.  I looked down, and saw a small hole in one of the brown eggs with a tiny fragment of shell on the floor next to it!  I know probably nothing will happen until morning, but it's so exciting!

 Oh my goodness!! I can't believe that you two have pips  in your eggs already! Crazy set the day after me, and Aina set the same day (or is it vice versa?).

I just spent 15 minutes staring at my eggs. I didn't hear anything, and didn't see any movement. I know that all 6 were alive and well 24 hours ago though.  Frankly, I don't WANT pips until after I get them to the preschool in the morning. I'd kind of freak out and be trying to figure out how to transport them if there was a pip. 

Well, final candeling is complete, temperature at 99.8 degrees and 82% humidity.  We are now on lockdown!  Heard one chirping faintly as we spread the eggs out on the hatching shelf of the incubator.  Hoping they will fare better this time!  14 eggs left, but they all look good.  Could see a tiny bit of movement.  Hoping to hatch some New Hampshires, and some more black sex links. 

We have chicks!   Checked one more time before bed and two more brown eggs and one green egg had pipped.  Woke up this morning to two not-quite-dry chicks in the incubator and at least one more green egg pipped.  Hopefully they'll be dry by the time it's time to turn the day 9 eggs and we can move them to the brooder.  The first egg we had noticed doesn't seem to have progressed at all overnight, so now I get to start worrying about that one.  But I will not be able to "help" and from what I've read it's best not to.  The thing that concerns me most is that the pip seems to be towards the small end of the egg, but it made it all the way through the shell so I'm hoping that isn't an issue.

Sphinx, you're right we did set the same day.  Although I set mine in the morning and you set yours in the afternoon.

here's the better of the two pictures I snapped this morning.  When I checked on the eggs at 4am and found the two chicks I went ahead and plugged in my heat lamp to get the brooder all warmed up.  When we got up again an hour and a half later, the room was totally dark.  At first I thought the socket had blown or something, which would be disastrous since the heat lamp is currently plugged into the same socket as the incubator.  But upon closer inspection, my bulb blew!  So I'm off to the store to get a new bulb at lunch (along with chick starter, I didn't want to "count my chickens before they hatched" so I hadn't gotten any yet).  At least I can upgrade to a red bulb now without feeling like I'm wasting money.

Everyone is so lucky being in lockdown and having chicks hatching! I still have another 6 days to go on my duck eggs till hatch day. Keep the pictures coming!

I heard some cheeping this morning, and just looked to see a couple rocking, and one tiny pip.  Won't be long now!!!