Approaching first hatch---and super nervous!!

[BantyChooks]

Good luck!!

 

[livhatcher]

1:30 am update: its early on day 18 & I have a couple of wiggling eggs. (!) I've recalculated and gone over & over my timing since the eggs were set & have come to the conclusion that a couple of power outages must have my incubator counter off by a few hours. It should've hit "day 3" at 9:45 pm this Sunday (yesterday) but had not turned by 12:45 when I was turning in. I know Brinsea stops turning when the day goes to 2. I went ahead and manually turned the clock to the 3 day mark at 12:45--not knowing when it would hit overnight. In re-checking the incubator, I spotted 3 eggs that have a little wiggle to them.

As it is Day 18, hour 4---not the end of day 18, though, I went ahead and locked down. Hoping I'm doing the right thing. I just didn't know if it was ok for wiggling eggs to keep turning & jiggling. Most of my gut is telling me that a few hours in either direction is probably not so important, but to be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing.

They are now in a "circle of trust" and I wish them Godspeed!!

 

[Mylied]

1:30 am update: its early on day 18 & I have a couple of wiggling eggs. (!) I've recalculated and gone over & over my timing since the eggs were set & have come to the conclusion that a couple of power outages must have my incubator counter off by a few hours. It should've hit "day 3" at 9:45 pm this Sunday (yesterday) but had not turned by 12:45 when I was turning in. I know Brinsea stops turning when the day goes to 2. I went ahead and manually turned the clock to the 3 day mark at 12:45--not knowing when it would hit overnight. In re-checking the incubator, I spotted 3 eggs that have a little wiggle to them.

As it is Day 18, hour 4---not the end of day 18, though, I went ahead and locked down. Hoping I'm doing the right thing. I just didn't know if it was ok for wiggling eggs to keep turning & jiggling. Most of my gut is telling me that a few hours in either direction is probably not so important, but to be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing.

They are now in a "circle of trust" and I wish them Godspeed!!

You're doing fine. It won't hurt them to be locked down a little early or late. That's cool you're seeing wiggles.

 

[livhatcher]

School hatch update--day 20 there---some pips!!!

We got our first baby!!!

 

[eggbert420]

School hatch update--day 20 there---some pips!!! We got our first baby!!!

Congratulations!

 

[livhatcher]

Congratulations!

Thank you! We have a second--a Bielefelder with another Biel cracking away at his/her egg!

 

[eggbert420]

The students must be very excited. .

 

[livhatcher]

We lost a chick at school--the little white crested black. I'm kind of sad. Figuring out that the teacher is not as meticulous about the incubation and hatch as I would be is what is bothering me most.

 

[livhatcher]

I have been really struggling with how to wrap up this thread. I think the best thing I can say is thank goodness for all of the chicken support group helpers on this site. I made it. The eggs from Florida were a disaster except for 3 cute little silver laced polish:


The crele hatch did great! 6/7 viable at day 18 made it. The last eggtopsy showed organs outside his/her body. It really never had a chance. Here they are!


I was able to talk with the guy who sold me the colored layers, and he offered me some replacement eggs which I thought was nice. I ended up with 2 Isbars (1 splash and 1 black), 2 Bielefelders, and 1 cream legbar roo. They really make me laugh. The Biels were born essentially teenager sized and are HUGE at week 1:

I hatched 15 total and 1 died, so we landed at 14. A friend gave me a silver laced polish female chick that I don't believe to be very good in terms of conformation--not a very nice top knot, but it was sweet of her. I miss hatching already and now have another dozen to set in the morning. They are 6 golden laced polish and 6 white crested blue polish. I'm really excited about these little biddies!!

Thanks for holding my hand, everyone! Liv

 

[Kristi26]

Sounds exciting. Good luck!

I will start you off with one piece of advice. Know and accept that not all the eggs are going to make it. Some might even make it to the very end and still die. It happens. But all the fluffy butts who do make it, make the whole experience worth it. Just do your best and you'll do okay.

This is fantastic advice!