11th Annual Easter Hatch a Long 2020

[Chickakeyta]

Set 14 chicken eggs. 2 were infertile. Out of the 12, 11 have hatched. One has not pipped yet. 7 in the brooder. 4 waiting to fluff up more before going in.

 

[bonz4bon]

I'd put it in a cup. Make sure to give it some hydration too.

Like a coffee cup

 

[bonz4bon]

Like a coffee cup

Thank You cup works well for now.

 

[MROO]

View attachment 2083096

First chick (ever) hatched from my own flock. Yay!

AWWWWWW! Despite the mess we're living in ... Life - especially NEW life ... is good!

 

[MROO]

I hope they do surprise you!

We have an EXTERNAL PIP! And I thought I'd lost them all! Fingers crossed for a safe hatch of at least ONE!

 

[kelseyk]

Day 18...lockdown (Finally! Lol!). Candled 14 eggs and all had grown since I candled on day 14 (includes my wax patches egg). I decided to take my meat thermometer out of the Hatcher and only leave the Govee in....already had eggs in there and was complete fumble fingers and dropped it on one of the Copper Marans eggs and cracked the shell. No blood. Did a quick wax patch on it. Heat spiked for about 30 minutes so I adjusted the temp down and then it plumeted...so now adjusting it back up. Hopefully it will level out here soon. Ended up putting a 2nd bowl of hot water in the hatcher (2 bowls of water and full wells now) and I can still only get an average of around 66% humidity. Hopefully that will be enough.

 

[hysop]

I have passed my 50% hatch rate mark for this hatch. 8 of 15 have hatched and more are externally pipped.

One ended up being white which tells me 2 weeks was not enough time for my White Leghorn’s sperm to die.

 

[CindyinSD]

Day 18...lockdown (Finally! Lol!). Candled 14 eggs and all had grown since I candled on day 14 (includes my wax patches egg). I decided to take my meat thermometer out of the Hatcher and only leave the Govee in....already had eggs in there and was complete fumble fingers and dropped it on one of the Copper Marans eggs and cracked the shell. No blood. Did a quick wax patch on it. Heat spiked for about 30 minutes so I adjusted the temp down and then it plumeted...so now adjusting it back up. Hopefully it will level out here soon. Ended up putting a 2nd bowl of hot water in the hatcher (2 bowls of water and full wells now) and I can still only get an average of around 66% humidity. Hopefully that will be enough.

Whenever you open your incubator it will try to compensate by turning the heat on full. Then it spikes and it turns off the heat. Eventually it gets back to an even keel. During all this see-sawing, the temp inside the eggs (where it matters) stays relatively stable. You can get remote thermometers where the probe is inside a fake egg designed to simulate a real egg. Unfortunately they can't be calibrated (or mine can't, at any rate). Nevertheless, they do show how much more stable temp can be on the inside of the egg.

I've seen advice to leave the incubator alone for an hour after opening it. I rotate my eggs to different spots in the incubator every day and get those wild swings. It's no more harmful than mama hen getting up for food, water & broody-poo.

Your humidity will be just fine. It will most likely go up when the babies begin to hatch. They're pretty soggy from being encased in egg stuff. Best of luck!

 

[hysop]

This egg has been like this for a few hours. Should I open that hole?

 

[hysop]

All my eggs have externally pipped so I’m hoping I can go to bed with all of them hatched but that would mean no more than 2 hrs