Day 12 of incubation... air cell too small....?

[chickens really]

Hi, also I wanted to say and not knocking anyone else....@WVduckchick has been a total life saver for my Babies......Follow her advise and your luck with the hatch will rise......I tortured her for days and if you question her advise she never gets mad!.....lol.....
Great helper, knows her eggs!......

Cheers!

 

[WVduckchick]

You're only about an hour and half south of me, so I suspect our humidity levels can't be too far apart. I read a few people's post about this, but they never said where they lived, so I just assumed it was something like Florida. I'll have to try this next time, it sounds so much less stressful. Do you candle for air cells and make adjustments if it doesn't seem right or do you simply let it be? Can we hatch eggs with our humidity levels in the summer here? Or would we even want to hatch to in the summer, since people aren't typically buying chicks in the fall? What do professed "hatch-aholics" do with their winter chicks?

I let my broodys hatch all summer, and I did a few incubator batches too. My most recent set hatched on Dec 1st and 2nd, partially in my incubator, partially by a broody.

I have 19 in 2 incubators right now, locked down last night, should hatch Friday-ish.

 

[WVduckchick]

Hi, also I wanted to say and not knocking anyone else....@WVduckchick has been a total life saver for my Babies......Follow her advise and your luck with the hatch will rise......I tortured her for days and if you question her advise she never gets mad!.....lol.....
Great helper, knows her eggs!......

Cheers!

Aww shucks... you are too kind.

Hope little Bouncer and the babies are doing well now!

 

[chickens really]

Quote: As I said, I made mistakes....You tossed the good eggs I think?.......Oh well...We learn as we go......Really listen to WVduckchick, she is fantastic..........I have a mirror hung for my little Duckling Bouncer, he loves himself....Plus we play with him when he is awake.....


Best of luck........

 

[chickens really]

Quote: Yes, everyone is fantastic.......Bouncer runs laps behind me..........

 

[Des R]

And I love your rationalization of another incubator. You've got the bug for sure!

An extra also comes in handy to use as a hatcher for staggered sets

And yes again, different breeds, egg sizes, shell conditions... those all make slight differences when incubating, and should be considered when setting eggs. I've tried to hatch simple golden comet mutt eggs with several different mixed hatches, and they never seem to finish. Shells too dark and thick, they don't lose as much moisture as the others do.

Don't apologize for the book! I love all the information. Maybe that's why I love this site... like minded people, hahaha!

I'm so glad you told me this, not only for this hatch, but I am expecting some Welsumme & Black Copper Marans chicks in May and plan on keeping a BCM rooster, that's about as dark as they get (for chicken eggs at least). I hoping to breed him back to my cream legbars for a darker olive egg. That will complete the egg colors in my egg basket.

I've had the bug since the first day I picked up the box from the post office! It only took me a year to get up to 20 birds... 27 by May. Thankfully my husband also has the bug, even though he won't admit it... but he bought the incubator for me as a Christmas gift. I just wanted humane eggs... I had no idea they'd be such fun PETS! Completely hooked.

 

[Des R]

I would love to add ducks... maybe one day... sigh.

 

[WVduckchick]

Don't apologize for the book! I love all the information. Maybe that's why I love this site... like minded people, hahaha!

I'm so glad you told me this, not only for this hatch, but I am expecting some Welsumme & Black Copper Marans chicks in May and plan on keeping a BCM rooster, that's about as dark as they get (for chicken eggs at least). I hoping to breed him back to my cream legbars for a darker olive egg. That will complete the egg colors in my egg basket.

I've had the bug since the first day I picked up the box from the post office! It only took me a year to get up to 20 birds... 27 by May. Thankfully my husband also has the bug, even though he won't admit it... but he bought the incubator for me as a Christmas gift. I just wanted humane eggs... I had no idea they'd be such fun PETS! Completely hooked.

I've not hatched either of those, but I have several friends who have, and they swear by absolutely no water for them. As low on humidity as possible. Of course, still watch air cells, but those dark eggs are tough!

One friend even hatched BCM's without adding any water in the last 3 days either! (I wouldn't necessarily advise this!!) but she said the breeder that she got the eggs from said "trust me, no water".... and she had a great hatch. BUT... that was in Louisiana, humid. Another friend in SC hatches them at 25%, then 60-70% for last 3 days.

Oh, and if you want to do dark eggs, find the best, highest lumens flashlight you can find. I have a Mini-mag lite, I think its 325 lumens. The higher you can find the better. And with fresh batteries, it will make a world of difference in candling.

Here's what I did to mine. Just a piece of craft foam with a hole cut in it, taped around the flashlight.

 

[WVduckchick]

I forgot it was a candling pic that got this whole thing started. Yours looks good!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

You're only about an hour and half south of me, so I suspect our humidity levels can't be too far apart. I read a few people's post about this, but they never said where they lived, so I just assumed it was something like Florida. I'll have to try this next time, it sounds so much less stressful. Do you candle for air cells and make adjustments if it doesn't seem right or do you simply let it be? Can we hatch eggs with our humidity levels in the summer here? Or would we even want to hatch to in the summer, since people aren't typically buying chicks in the fall? What do professed "hatch-aholics" do with their winter chicks?

Yes, I candle and let that guide me but so far I've found that dry or near dry works (for me) for all the chickens (bantam and large fowl), but not for guineas. I hatch guineas through September but I think I stopped hatching chicks around the end of July or maybe August. I don't hatch chicks near as much as I do guineas because I sell guineas but the chicks I hatch are primarily for my own flock or to satisfy a broody.

With the chicks that I just hatched, I really used a "set it and forget it" approach with my Tractor Supply Farm Innovators incubator and it worked out perfectly. These were backyard mix / olive eggers and I only spent $2 on the dozen so I wasn't overly invested, compared to some of the shipped eggs I had last year, and that made it easier to just leave them alone lol. Well, I didn't have to assist, there was no dry membranes or wet sticky goo, and overall it was a success.

Actually, now I recall that when the wells were perfectly dry it was at 16% so I did put water in one of the smallest wells and that had it around 20%. I have four eggs that are due this weekend also in there so at "lockdown" I only upped it to about 45% because the other eggs still had a lot to lose.