THE MOTHER'S DAY HATCH-A-LONG!!!! The last day to join in and set eggs with us is April 28th.

[yinepu]

How do you stand the wait until candling to see if they are good to go, or quitters? The wait on my duck eggs is driving me BATTY, and it's only day 5!

...and to think...I have to go through it all again just three days after the hopeful hatch date when my My Pet Chicken egg assortment comes in

That chicken math....I must be an A+ student by now....

Oh you need emu eggs.. too dark to candle and you don't know if it's even alive unless it wiggles around day 35 or so... 50+ days of incubation depending on temps... lol

 

[mstricer]

I have not been on here for a lot of pages. I hope everyone's hatch is going better then mine. I put 24 in and I think I'm down to 6.

 

[karimw]

On another note. I had two ameracaunas hatch out from the easter hatch. I was told they're pure, which if they aren't that is fine, I'm simply curious. But its suddenly sprouting black feathers that stick up on its head. Looks similar to my polish. What do you guys think. He's the gray one in front and the polish is behind.

They are very cute, but she doesn't look like an Ameraucana to me. No beard or muffs. What color are her feet? Any sort of yellow or green tinge will indicate a mix breed for sure.

i need help, i tried incubating 42 eggs, only 18 hatched. i kept the temp at 100 and humidity stays around 40 to 50 degree until lock down and then i raised it to 70%. what am i doing wrong?

So many factors will affect hatch rates. Were these your eggs or shipped? I keep my humidity between 25 and 35 during incubation and 65+ at lock down with the vents open. If you had a lot of huge chicks that died before they could hatch it may be an indicator that your humidity was too high. With sufficient evaporation a big air cell will develop keeping the chick from getting to big and allowing room to turn around. As the others have said - the air cell and/or weight loss is the best indicator of correct humidity.

 

[yinepu]

I have not been on here for a lot of pages. I hope everyone's hatch is going better then mine. I put 24 in and I think I'm down to 6.

I pulled out several of my BLRW eggs since they were clear (it was depressing.. so I didn't even count the clears *sighs*).. my little mutt eggs in the same bator are doing great though... (didn't include them in this hatch since I wanted to go with JUST shipped eggs for it)

and it looks like I have 6 infertile goose eggs (all from the same breeder.. grrr)
but the muscovy eggs doing great as well as a few of the other goose eggs..

all of these were shipped eggs.. so I know my hatch rates will be spotty

 

[rarely bored]

Darn all the candlers. I tried to candle my pullet eggs...which are olive eggers...and I can barely make out the aircell! This could be a good for me though, cuz I like to candle frequently.

I had this problem with the olive eggs too - could see through the dark brown eggs better than the olive ones... assumed it had to do with the colors in the light. I do hope you have a good hatch this time, kvmommy!

My incubators often run 19-25% for several days at a time.

X2


I use to weigh the eggs and watch the incubator like a hawk... now a days, I toss the eggs in and try to remember to change the tilt 3x's a day, checking the humidity 3 or 4 times before lock down. For the beginner, I'd recommend they weigh the eggs and learn the science behind the hatching, so they can confidently know what they should be freaking out about and what they shouldn't be concerned with.

 

[1hotmoma]

I am continuing to work on what works for me in my bator. I would like to see 80% to 90% hatch rate. I seem to get 100% out of my own eggs. I just received my turkey eggs today. I will be placing them in the bator tonight. I am so looking forward to learning about the turkeys.

 

[lcammack]

We just did our complete candle yesterday, it was day 10 for us. We started with 42 eggs, found one blood ring and two clears. So we are at 39 and have one marked with a question mark, really dark and spotted egg, very hard to see. Looks to have good veining, but we couldn't find the dark spot and couldn't see any movement. We will check this one in a couple more days. All of the others were dancing around so much, my girls were absolutely fascinated (and I have to admit my husband and I were as well). This is our first try so we are thrilled with our numbers. I do understand though that this is still early and we should expect some more quitters or non hatchers. The air cells appeared a tad small so I will be leaving the humidity a little lower for the next few days and recheck on day 14. I really want to avoid them making it all the way to hatch and then drowning, that would be so sad. I do have one question, should we take out the vent plug at some point (we are using a hovabator 1588 with digital display) it only has one, and I am not sure if we take it out or not and when?

 

[yinepu]

I had this problem with the olive eggs too - could see through the dark brown eggs better than the olive ones... assumed it had to do with the colors in the light. I do hope you have a good hatch this time, kvmommy!
X2


I use to weigh the eggs and watch the incubator like a hawk... now a days, I toss the eggs in and try to remember to change the tilt 3x's a day, checking the humidity 3 or 4 times before lock down. For the beginner, I'd recommend they weigh the eggs and learn the science behind the hatching, so they can confidently know what they should be freaking out about and what they shouldn't be concerned with.

I weigh goose, muscovy and emu eggs.. the rest I just toss in any let them do their thing.. if people saw my bators and how little I mess with them they would probably want to shoot me.. especially considering how so many people fuss over every little thing and end up with bad hatch rates


lol.. some days I feel like I need to hand out cups of tea and start a relaxation meditation (especially for the overly stressed out newbies to hatching.. )

 

[yinepu]

We just did our complete candle yesterday, it was day 10 for us. We started with 42 eggs, found one blood ring and two clears. So we are at 39 and have one marked with a question mark, really dark and spotted egg, very hard to see. Looks to have good veining, but we couldn't find the dark spot and couldn't see any movement. We will check this one in a couple more days. All of the others were dancing around so much, my girls were absolutely fascinated (and I have to admit my husband and I were as well). This is our first try so we are thrilled with our numbers. I do understand though that this is still early and we should expect some more quitters or non hatchers. The air cells appeared a tad small so I will be leaving the humidity a little lower for the next few days and recheck on day 14. I really want to avoid them making it all the way to hatch and then drowning, that would be so sad. I do have one question, should we take out the vent plug at some point (we are using a hovabator 1588 with digital display) it only has one, and I am not sure if we take it out or not and when?

I always tell people to make sure that the vents are completely OPEN at hatch.. carbon dioxide poisoning will kill hatching chicks in their shells pretty quickly.. and i believe it's one of the main causes of late chick death

you're actually better off with the humidity a little low with plenty of oxygen than super high humidity and no fresh air (since as chicks hatch they will raise the humidity naturally.. but if they have no air to breathe it is pretty much a disaster waiting to happen)

 

[jandrusrn]

Out of 30 eggs only 12 are growing. I've lost a couple even though they were indeed growing.

My younger eggs I have 11/18 growing. 4 Blue quail, 4 Quail, 2 MF/Por and 1 Silver quail. (day 6)

This is my day 10 candling for my first shippped eggs, Out of 12 -

3 Porcelain Clear since day 1.
1 porcelain quitter... pictured below.
1 MF questionable bloodring/quitter.
2 Porcelain thriving! Yay. 5 Millie Thriving.

So we have 7 of 12 still working on it! Very pleased with that! Sad about losing some though all the same...

Here is a picture I took of one of the quitters, so if anyone else needs to know what it looks like for their own education, if youre a first timer like me. The dark lines are actually red, showing blood ring and the clearly formed embryo has stopped growing as you can compared to its thriving sibbling in the next photo.

I can't tell you how happy I am to see (and a bunch depressed) these pictures. I'm waiting to candle tonight... night 14 for my shipped, English BBS Orpington eggs... the start of this whole beautiful process. I have done a quick peek at a few and I'm just sure I've got mostly "quitters".

Just really sad about it. I know I should have waited to get more eggs.... but I'm so excited to have more hens, and be a chicken mommy... I got some Whole Foods/TJs fertile eggs for an experiment-ish to see how they do. **sigh**

Patience.....

Thanks for the pictures! Much appreciated. Jane