Little Giant Hatch Along

[bunnibird55]

Congrats to everyone who has successful hatches! It is addictive!
I have started hatching in cut down cartons also to avoid the fear of the first hatched kids kicking around the other eggs too much. My second to last hatch was not in cartons and several died when they were flipped with their pips down. This hatch was much much better with the cartons!

 

[kaitlyn_rae2003]

Yay for all the new chicks in the world! go LG! ha ha ha, I have actually been totally pleased with mine! Once I covered it with a bath towel, I have had no temp fluctuations at all! out of 24 good eggs, I have 15 chicks, 2 pips and 7 eggs on day 21/22! Not bad!! Even my silkies hatched with ease! Good luck to everyone!! Keep the posts coming!

 

[chicknmania]

Quote:
So did the cracked egg hatch? Or not? (I have a cracked one, too....

)

 

[bburn]

Quote:
That is so exciting. How many did you end up with and are they all out?

We post pictures here....just sayin'

 

[kupi99]

I came into work today, and all was silent as I entered the room. "Well, this is good," I thought, "if the humidity dropped over the weekend, at least no one pipped and got stuck." Sure enough, I opened the bator to find the humidity waaaaaaaaaayyyy to low for lockdown, and two silent, still and completely pip free eggs inside. Feeling relieved, I then start filling the water wells, and resoaking the sponge using aquarium tubing.

About 30 min later, I checked the bator and find that my humidity is now much, much to high, closer to 75%. I know some people hatch at that, but I more or less dry incubate, and I've never done lockdown over 65%. So now I had to decide- to either risk my unpipped eggs drowing when they interally pipped (something I'm guessing they haven't done as they weren't moving, or chirping), or risk shrink wrapping as I opened the bator to try and get the humidity back down. Since I didn't have pips, I decided to go ahead and risk the shrink wrapping, and I spent the better part of an hour soaking up some of the water in the wells and on the sponge. I only went through the little window to min. temp and humidity shifts. I finally got back down to a level I'm happy with.

On top of this, my temps at the bottom of bator are much cooler than they were on tops of the eggs in turner. I haven't moved the knob, as I figured a steady temp is better that trying to restablize it. Plus, it's been at that temp the whole time.

It's now almost 2pm, and still nothing. No movement, pips, or anything and we are on day 21. I did count the day I set them as day 1 on accident, so I'm not totally worried or anything, plus I've had plently of late hatches before, but I am feeling anxious. These little guys only have till about 12pm on Wed to hatch, or I'm going to have to cull them, alive or not, as we start Easter break then.

Come on little chickies, come on!

 

[KatGold]

Yikes. I got my eggs about 2 hours ago. The Post Office was supposed to call me when they arrived, but instead they were on a mail truck all morning...and it's a hot day.

I put them in two different nest boxes hoping that a hen would take up residence. If one does, the plan it to pile the rest of the eggs under her.

At some point, if no one starts to set, I will put them in the bator. But how long do I wait? It's 92 degrees here today. The hottest day of the season and about 10 degrees hotter than usual.

For what it's worth, I do have a Buff Orph who was looking a little broody, though I don't know if there are eggs under her. I don't know if she's trying to brood, or is just hot and hiding from the sun in a corner of the hen house. I just shoved three eggs under her hoping this is my big break.

Any advice?? I'm all ears.

 

[pistol123]

Tonight at 8 PM is 1 full day of lock down and day 19, I'm getting very excited about my 22 loittle Silkie eggs....LG all the way and constant temps....

 

[Peepfreak59]

Hi Everyone,
I have a Little Giant bator, and last year I had no luck at all!! I tried 3 different times, and was so picky with watching the temps, humidity, turned the eggs, etc.... So this Spring I decided that I would just try 3 eggs from my girls ( I had previously bought eggs out of state) and set the temp at what two thermoeters said was 99.5. I put water in the canals, and just decided to go for it. I do have A

LOT of temp changes, but I did not adjust, since I knew they were set at 99.5 and due to the room temp would change so did the inside, I rolled eggs when I remembered and made sure humidity was right. And lo and behold I had three chicks in 21 days, all are healthy and doing great, sooooooo I did it again, this time with 6 eggs, so far three have hatched, and three more are peeping thru....Soooo all I can say it stick with it and don't worry so much!!!!

 

[KatGold]

On that note, how do you set the humidity? After putting water in the reservoirs, what else is there?

 

[Peepfreak59]

I bought a thermometer that tells the temp and humidity, and try to keep it at 40-50% and if it is too low add water and too high I open up one of those red portholes and watch the humidity drop, but really for the most part I did not have much problem at all, I just kept hoping for the best!!!