I'm setting eggs tonight 2/2/12, any hatching buddies out there wanna join me?

[nickie]

Final tally is 17 babies. Everyone who made it to lockdown is here.

 

[blueberrychickens]

Nickie, that is awesome!!! I have 2 pips & I hear peeping!!!! I am so excitied!!!

 

[nickie]

I spent all day yesterday getting nothing done around the house, hunched over in the understair cubby watching. My back hurts and my legs are sore from how I was standing. The best part is each of my kids got to watch an egg hatch. My son is calling it his chick and named it Rocky Rhodes (he may have seen Chicken Run a few times).

Everyone is now in the brooder, fluffy and moving around.

 

[blueberrychickens]

I set up the brooder last night & found out the light I have isn't strong enough to keep the brooder warm, it was only getting up to 80. The last time I had the brooder set up it was June, big difference with setting it up in Feb. Guess I need to hit the hardware store & get a bigger bulb!
Glad I have some time to get it fixed!

 

[bantam cochin connoisseur]

When you are at the hardware store you might also consider getting a dual bulb set up you can just screw right into the existing socket that allows for two bulbs. This would require two bulbs of a smaller wattage though. The advantage is if you only have one bulb you can lose all your chicks when the bulb goes out if you don't detect it right away. If you have two bulbs and one fails the chicks will still have some warmth until you determine that a bulb needs to be replaced.

 

[Janie1968]

Ok, this is just CRAZY!!! As I'm candling, drawing out the air sac, putting an x on the "top" side of the egg this morning (because today is lockdown) I notice that one of my turkeys has PIPPED!!!

And at least a couple others look like they've busted into the air sac. These guys should be waiting until Sunday to hatch and maybe doing a sneak preview on Saturday. But THURSDAY???

Just strange... I never had any temperature spikes during the first 17 days... temp was fairly steady around 99.5 with an occasional bit of a bump to 100.

Here's the part that I have a tough time with in the hatching process (this is my second hatch). First is when the chicks come out and the other eggs end up getting rolled (I thought about putting the eggs in an egg carton, but someone on our site had a chick die because of the egg carton, so I'm uneasy about using them). Second is when the older chicks run over newly hatched chicks (this time I also have close to a dozen turkey eggs in there). Third is when the humidity spikes to 90% and all the vents are open but the humidity doesn't significantly drop (last time I had 21 chicks hatch, this time I have about 38 eggs in the bator). Hatched chicks don't fluff out because it's so moist in there. Last time I started pulling them out when there were too many running around and yes I did have shrink wrap issues and ended up helping 3 chicks out due to that problem.

Advice?

 

[BooBear]

Goodmorning Everybody!
1 Silkies hatched yesterday and 2 zipping, 2 pipped when I had to leave for work.
Will get pics when I get home this evening.

I got the Brinsea heater to use this time around as it is supposed to be safer than bulbs.

 

[LilyD]

Day 19 starts at 1pm today so still nothing as far as pips or moving. Eggs are going great and humidity is up to 63 right now. I won't let it get below 60 just to be safe. I have put tubing into each of the water channels on my hovabator so I can add water with a dropper rather than opening the lid. Now I just get to stare at the incubator and dream of fuzzy butts hehe.

Congrats for all of you who have started hatching already. I am totally envious. Please post pictures. It's so much fun to see other peoples hatches.

 

[joei1977]

lol. i know the feeling. i was so sad last night when none of mine had pipped. i was like well honey, we aren't going to have any babies out of this batch. (which was extra depressing, cause i went yesterday and spent a crap load of money for a new brooder setup to raise them in). this morning when i got up though i had a pleasant surprise waiting for me. the eggs are finally starting to pip. YAY! we will have babies soon.

 

[joei1977]

stay calm, and be patient. i know it isn't easy. but it will happen. i had to hand hatch the last batch of babies i got. there was a humidity issue that stopped them from being able to come out. but i had to wait till they pipped on their own. and made sure to let them come out on their own. hope i hear from you later today that you have a whole big batch of babies to tell us about.