Diary for my second shipped egg hatch due 8th oct 2015

Well here we go again!

Last year I tried hatching for the first time with eggs shipped from a breeder on the other side of the country. Hatch rate was one from the dozen I bought, three getting broken in transit. Hopefully this year I will have a better success rate and end up with a little blue and a little black Australorp to add to our flock.

My eggs were posted Monday and arrived today (Friday) a little worse for wear.




Four eggs were totally smashed.

Three eggs had smashed egg goo all over them - I blotted them gently with some paper towel and put them in my borrowed incubator

Five eggs were clean and in one piece. - have put them under my broody silkie.

Shame some got smashed

Hopefully it won't affect the eggs in your incubator!

I had a hen go broody the other day so I've got babies due on the 9th of October

Got up this morning and the bleep incubator was 38.3 so good chance they are all ruined now. I've brought it back down but will have to wait till the weekend to candle and see if they are any good still.

So my best bet now is the five eggs under penny.

Hope you have better luck with yours lol

appps said:

Got up this morning and the bleep incubator was 38.3 so good chance they are all ruined now. I've brought it back down but will have to wait till the weekend to candle and see if they are any good still.

So my best bet now is the five eggs under penny.

Hope you have better luck with yours lol

Click to expand...

Oh no!! Fingers crossed that at least some of them will be okay!

Penny sounds like a fantastic broody, so as long as the eggs weren't damaged during travel, hopefully all 5 of hers will hatch... and they won't all be roosters!

Amen to that lol

I am going to follow this thread cause I am about to try and hatch eggs for the first time with my broody hen! Very helpful to read about others' experiences. Hope everyone's hatches go well.

DAY 7

Still struggling with the incubator (did I mention it's a janoel JN8-48). The temperature has continued to climb. When I started the CA calibration was -6 over the last week I've had to keep adjusting it till now it's at +2. I can't imagine why it keeps changing. There is no way anything would ever hatch without the external digital hygrometer I'm also using. The incubator has been telling me nothing's changed all this time.

On a positive I've got the humidity stable.

Penny is still happily sitting on her five eggs. She comes out most but not all mornings for a feed, but I'm not concerned, she knows what she is doing
I've now changed her food to a mix of half layer feed, half chick starter. The extra protien won't hurt her at the moment and she isn't laying so doesn't need the calcium. When the chicks hatch (fingers crossed) I'll change to just 100% chick starter. I swapped her over gently like that because every time I've changed feeds abruptly the chooks have ended up with diareah.

Trying to decide now if I can make myself wait till Sunday and day 9 to candle the incubator eggs or if I'll cave and take a peek tonight.

I'm going to leave Penny's eggs till day 12 when there will be so much black in the egg if there is a chick growing I will know for sure which to leave and which to dispose of.

Shame about the incubator! At least it sounds like Penny is doing a good job! Hopefully when you candle the eggs you'll find lots of chicks growing!!

I hope so . The kids have blocked the study door moving stuff to play on the wii so I've managed to put off candling for another day

How many have you got under your girl?