New to Incubating, need some help/advice

[crazysilkielady1]

This is my 2nd time incubating silkie eggs. These eggs are even more precious, because a week ago the hens that laid these got eaten by a predator. Very traumatic. My first go round didn't go well. I have a hovabator 1602 I think the model is. When I took the egg turner out, my temp dropped and I looked the next morning and it was at 94. I panicked a little and turned the temp up.. and the next morning they were at 110. Pretty sure that killed that batch. Very sad. So I was hoping everything would go well this go round, especially since these are so precious.

So I've been reading on the forums and trying to figure out where exactly I should be. I have candled the eggs, but not sure if I can tell if they are alive or not... I started them late in the evening so I read it should be 24 hours to count 1 day. I have on my calendar that today is day 17, but I'm pretty sure I'm on day 16... I didn't write down on my calendar the day and time I put them in the incubator. I did mark their air sacs today. I have not been doing that. My humidity seems kind of high. it was at 65 or so.... I know it's supposed to be higher for them to hatch. I saw a diagram of how the air sacs should be progressing. I've only tried to candle a few times, and have made my at home candler here using a card board piece with a hole, put that on top of a coffee can with bottom cut out, and then propped on top of a light. I haven't seen any movement... but it still seems hard to see anyways. I can make out the air sacs. Should the air sacs be on top? Should I move them so that they are? I have the pointy ends up. The turner is on, and it does have a fan. I've had a very good steady temp of 99.5 to 100. No temp adjusting problems so far... I've had 2 thermometers in there so far, and just added one today with humidity. I will take some pics of the eggs of my attempt to candle to post. Should I empty out the water that's in there in order to increase air sacs. the eggs seem very dark. Half of them are silkie and the other half are my easter egger/silkie mix. The EE eggs are harder to see through cause of the color.

I can't find that diagram that I found earlier in these threads to show where the air sac should be, and I can't tell if what I think is the air sac really is. I see people putting an x on the eggs, but don't really understand what that is for..

 

[crazysilkielady1]

Egg 1-3 I saw the babies move!!! Eeek! Egg 4 looks like it stopped? I didn't see movement in it. Then 5-9 I can't tell cause they are so dark. Her eggs were always pretty hard.

 

[crazysilkielady1]

10 is only 10 days in. I found it the day my hens got murdered. . So I figured I'd at least try.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Oh man. My condolences on your adult chickens. Heartbreaking loss

As for your hatch you've got a few things going (wrong end up, high humidity) so I'll leave it to the more experienced hatchers to guide you from here. But I will add a bit of hope. After 3 terrible hatches (my first attempts) I'm convinced some chicks are just intrinsically stronger and more inclined to hatch than others. I had one hatch each time despite me doing everything wrong. It's too bad you have to dial in your incubation skills with sentimental eggs. But they've developed so far. I'm sure you'll hatch something I too have some Silkie EE mixes. Lovely little birds. I'm hoping mine go broody next spring.

I'll keep and eye on this thread. Please post updates, good or bad.

 

[Chickie Momma]

I am attempting my first Silkie incubation/hatch very soon. I'm excited and scared. My Silkie pair only ever had 2 successful hatches. I have the eggs to my Broody EE after 13 days and she finished them for Daisy. Daisy isn't very good at sitting her nest. Twice she or the Roo stomped the eggs and killed babies. This is why I am so scared...

 

[Leaguinea]

Switch the eggs around, large end up.
Try to lower the humidity until lockdown. It should be between 30 - 40% depending.
Also a tip for candling: The darker the room, the more you can see. Try candling after dark with all the other lights in the room shut off.

 

[Chickie Momma]

Thank you so much for the advice! It is truly appreciated! I learned about candling the first few go rounds the "natural" way of hatching .... under mama hen. It's truly amazing how fast they start developing. Seeing the heartbeat on day 4 is so cool! I candled prob too much twice a week, but I didn't want her sitting on dead eggs. I also found that the little LED flashlights work real well for candling.
Thanks!

 

[crazysilkielady1]

Switch the eggs around, large end up.
Try to lower the humidity until lockdown. It should be between 30 - 40% depending.
Also a tip for candling: The darker the room, the more you can see. Try candling after dark with all the other lights in the room shut off.

Ok I have turned them down. I am trying to get the humidity down. I've got it to 40% so far. I couldn't wait to look till dark. Lol. I might try one more time before I go to bed on the bigger eggs

 

[crazysilkielady1]

Switch the eggs around, large end up.
Try to lower the humidity until lockdown. It should be between 30 - 40% depending.
Also a tip for candling: The darker the room, the more you can see. Try candling after dark with all the other lights in the room shut off.

So should I increase the humidity for lockdown? It's supposed to be tomorrow.

 

[Leaguinea]

So should I increase the humidity for lockdown? It's supposed to be tomorrow.

Hmm, that's a hard one.
The humidity has been a bit high during the incubation period. Personally I would hold off increasing it until I saw external pips. and then I would try to keep it around 65%.