27th or 28th May hatch, looking for buddies

[natchlaly]

Thanks for the kind words Lightfoote I am keeping everything crossed never mind the fingers. Blood pressure is finally stablizing after 3 beers x Is now dark enough to have a quick candle so will know for sure within the next half hour if things are fubared or not x wish me luck

 

[natchlaly]

There is a God

just candled 5 of the 18 eggs and saw movement in 4 of them

the other one has a really thick shell so keeping

for that one too. Gonna candle all of them on day 14 (20/5) and will post the results. Panic over for now until the next crisis boy trhis hatch is definately keeping me on my toes

 

[Lightfoote]

Quote:
Natchlaly, that is teriffic news...don't even worry about the candling...things will be all right, you'll see! You may not get 100% hatch rate, but your eggs will be fine overall - I have confidence. Thanks for sharing this update with us!

 

[GeoKan]

Quote:
Lightfoote this is awesome. Well done Sir. I really like the drawer you put there. What a great idea. I wish I had a table saw like that. Man, that looks like a stable piece of machinery.

I use to have a waterbed many moons ago. I remember those heating pads. They do put out the heat as I recall.

Will you be putting some kind of light in the cabinet? I suppose you could just shine a flashlight in the top.

Very well done. I would be proud of that. I don't think the chicks care what it looks like. Mine is functional. I didn't make it to look pretty.

When will you get it up and running?

 

[GeoKan]

Quote:
Oh my gosh Natchlaly! You are having some tough luck during this hatch.

I'm so happy they are still kicking in there! Keep you chin up! Perhaps the worst is behind you now.

 

[GeoKan]

After catching up on your news, I'll share some of my candling pics with you. Not great results. I had to pitch 7 BCM eggs tonight. There just wasn't anything in there. Six just weren't fertile, and one had a blood ring. I'm down to 28 out of 36 eggs at day 10. Some of the BCM eggs were still questionable. So, I just put them back in and hope for the best.

Here's what most of the BCM eggs looked like that I discarded.

This BCM egg shows definite viability. The dark mass is a good sign.

This BCM egg is questionable. I'm not sure what this means. It's fairly clear with a dark mass and I don't know if that line on the left is a vein or what — so, I left it in.

I'm not sure if this BCM egg has a vein or is a blood ring. I left it in the incubator.

All my 11 Lakenvelder eggs are viable. I saw massive movement in the few I candled. I'm pretty sure these will all hatch if I can keep the incubator going like it is now.

Some of my BCM eggs were so opaque I couldn't hardly see the air sac. I left those in as well.

 

[natchlaly]

GeoKan I am sry t hear that your candling did not go as you had hoped

that all of the eggs that you have left in there will

And I am definately hoping that a can avoid another crisis

Dont think I can take much more this hatch and stay sane

 

[natchlaly]

That is one impressive bator lightfoote wish I had the time and the skill to build one like that

 

[Lightfoote]

Quote:
Lightfoote this is awesome. Well done Sir. I really like the drawer you put there. What a great idea. I wish I had a table saw like that. Man, that looks like a stable piece of machinery.

I use to have a waterbed many moons ago. I remember those heating pads. They do put out the heat as I recall.

Will you be putting some kind of light in the cabinet? I suppose you could just shine a flashlight in the top.

Very well done. I would be proud of that. I don't think the chicks care what it looks like. Mine is functional. I didn't make it to look pretty.

When will you get it up and running?

I am test running it right now. It seems to hold a fairly stable temperature. Tomorrow I'll see how it functions with an open container of water on the cabinet floor below the hatching drawer, and I may go to a computer peripherals shop to see if I can find a pc fan for lightly forced air circulation.

 

[Lightfoote]

Quote:
Thanks for the compliment, natch! Before I ever drilled a hole or anything else, I drew out the concept on a couple of small sheets of graph paper...great stuff, that! Helps one get things to scale, and helps the look of something to be more proportional.

Frankly when I look at it, although I am proud of it in a way, the principal thing I like (other than the fact that it actually turned out ok, and seems to work) is that I was able to re-use so much material...so many pallets, wood scraps and pieces cast aside on loading docks behind warehouses that found new purpose.

Yeah, the miserly skinflint in me definitely loves that aspect! LOL! As far as the time factor - well, if one has the proper tools, that wasn't too much - a couple of hours a day (not every day, mind you) here and there over the course of a week and 4 - 6 dedicated hours on a Saturday. Truthfully, it would have been finished far sooner but for the fact that I currently have no inside "workshop" space, so all the work was done on my outdoor backyard patio with deference to the (very rainy) weather. That meant getting my hand tools, table saw, and compound mitre saw in and out of my small shed at the beginning and end of every work session...

As far as skill, well if you can wield a straight edge and a square, use a tape to "measure twice and cut once" you're practically golden. I just stood in front of the power tools looking pretty and letting them do the labour and now I take the credit...heh-heh-heh!