Sebastopol Baby Pics Page 6!

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

I got my eggs from the same seller in Oklahoma. I'm curious to see what you guys get because mine never started forming.

I'm sure it was shipping. But that woman is Super Nice!! Love her! She even sent me a printed off hatching record that she uses.

i'm so sorry to hear your eggs didn't make it. Yes, she is super nice, and i can tell she really cares for her geese and packs those eggs so carefully. You never know what really happens to them during shipping. But my postal carrier brought that box up to my door like it was fragile glass. Just hope everyone else along the way did the same.

i'm singing lullabies to those eggs every time i turn them and telling them their big brothers and sisters are waiting for them. i'm going to candle on Saturday, which is when i am due to start the misting and cooling. i sure hope there is someone in there!

 

[Oregon Blues]

Pete lives in England, where the humidity is fairly high. Humidity in the incubator will be affected by the humidity of the air in the room. If you are in a dry area of California, your hatching conditions will be different and you might have to add humidity to your incubator. Since those are expensive eggs, I suggest you follow Pete's advice about the size of the air cell.

Many people do not want their incubating eggs to be washed, so most sellers will send them unwashed. If you want washed eggs, you can wash them. I think there have been enough studies that show that washed eggs hatch. I wouldn't want all that muck in my incubator.

I have to admit, I would have at least wiped those eggs off while the mud was still mucky. But I would not have washed them before shipping. Even though my birds have clean nesting areas, they carry mud in on their feet and it gets onto the eggs. I believe my birds are healthier for being outdoors with lots of sunshine and exercise, so I don't close them in to keep the eggs clean.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

So, Oregon Blues, what range of humidity would you recommend for the first 26 days then the last days? Right now the humidity seems to be holding between 20-30%. Going out today to get another thermometer/hygrometer as i'm not happy with two of the ones i have. i have three in there now. i'm in the Sacramento Valley and we are unseasonably warm this winter, hanging in the high 60's.

 

[littledear]

Yes I won the auction and paid a small fortune for the eggs. I hope they are fertil and develop for me. If not I found a woman taking orders from Eurieka Springs AR which is about two hours away and I will try to buy from her and drive up to her place. She is on BYC and has her eggs posted. I have started to weigh all of my eggs and figure for moisture loss like Pete has suggested. I can't wait until they arrive to set them.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Yes I won the auction and paid a small fortune for the eggs. I hope they are fertil and develop for me. If not I found a woman taking orders from Eurieka Springs AR which is about two hours away and I will try to buy from her and drive up to her place. She is on BYC and has her eggs posted. I have started to weigh all of my eggs and figure for moisture loss like Pete has suggested. I can't wait until they arrive to set them.

Mine were pretty expensive, too. i should have waited a bit because she is continuing to list and i think i could have saved some money. But, i was so anxious to hatch some babies. i'm going to candle and weigh them either tomorrow or Saturday, when i start the cooling and misting. i sure hope i see some veins in there!

Good luck with your eggs and let me know how it goes. i really would have rather just bought goslings. Even though i've hatched lot's of chickens, i've only tried waterfowl once, duck eggs, and was not very successful. Just got one baby with a deformed top bill. So i clearly was not doing something right.

 

[littledear]

I received my eggs today so they will sit until tomorrow afternoon before I place them in the incubator. The seller in OK has 6 eggs up for auction at $90 plus shipping now on e-bay. The lady in AR has Holerread's Sebbies and hers are $10 an egg plus shipping. She has her eggs listed here on BYC. If my shipped eggs don't develop I will buy some more from the AR lady is she hasn't sold out. I hope you have good luck with your eggs. I will keep you posted on what happens to my eggs.

 

[pete55]

Hi - if eggs are very dirty then I do wash them in slightly warm water to remove the excess. The Golden Rule for setting the correct humidity for YOUR eggs and location is to weigh them as soon as possible and over the incubation period aim for a total 16% weight loss. A good starting humidity is 50% but we find we incubate dry at around 35% throughout incubation and only increase to 70% once pipped.

All eggs are marked for turning, coded for parents (or breed), dated for day laid and the weight in grammes. Here's an example of a Buff African egg we collected yesterday - we'll store it until we have approx 6 to set.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Uh oh, sounds like my humidity is too low at 30%. i did weigh them when i got them. They have been in the incubator for 6 days now. i'll take them out and weigh them in a bit. Sounds like i want to see 4-5% weight loss? Will be starting the misting and cooling today, too. Hope i didn't mess things up.

 

[pete55]

Dont worry too much. At Day 7 they should have lost 3-4% of their original weight. If thats correct then leave the humidity, if its a higher percentage of weight loss then increase your humidity to decrease the rate of moisture loss in the following week. By Day 6-7 you can often see an early embryo developing

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Hi Pete - Thank you so much for your continuing assistance. i sure need it! The eggs went into the incubator on the 19th in the afternoon, so we are about 6 days out. i took everyone out and weighed them. They have all lost between 2-3%. The smallest eggs has lost the least amount. They range in weight from 161-213 grams. i candled and could see a red dot in all of them, like in your avatar picture. i think i saw veins in some of them. But some of the eggs had been so dirty, that even though they were washed, there were still so many marks on the eggs it was hard to see. i don't have a very good candler.

So, i think my humidity is about right, right? i honestly don't have any water in the troughs, it's just holding at around 30% in there all by itself. Oh, i also switched positions of the eggs, in case one side is warmer than the other. i'm feeling pretty positive here.