3 hatch despite desaster

[Penny Hen]

My incubator has a week to go but I had some Lemon Cuckoo Marans and some Americanas in a friends incubator. Disaster struck. She came home to find that for unknown reasons the temperature had plunged to 65˚ F. (My best guess is a temporary power outage.) All of her eggs died and all of mine but 3 of the Americanas lived. So I want to give a shout out to

6-AMERICANA/EASTER EGGERS--CHICKEN EGGS--FOR HATCHING
Member id sylverfire08

on Ebay for having some VERY, VERY good eggs!

 

[kazoo1111]

Thanks what color are there legs

 

[Penny Hen]

Thanks what color are there legs

Not sure my friend sent me the pictures on her cell phone this morning. I haven't been able to get over there yet. They look dark on the tops and lighter on the bottom though.

 

[Penny Hen]

Well I just had to do emergency repairs on my incubator. The thing shocked the #3^^ out of me when I touched the can the thermostat is mounted to. Fortunately, the dehydrator and the fan is on a separate line so I left it running while if fixed the wiring for the lights. The dehydrator generates most of my heat the light just takes it the rest of the way. I think that eventually I will buy a commercial incubator and use this one as a hatcher. I removed one of the lights that I had quit using anyway because it got things too hot. Originally I had thought to use 2 lights but the heat wouldn't stabilize and I put the dehydrator base in and turned off one of the lights (old lamp switch). I think I had some sloppy wiring in the the second light that let me get shocked so I took it out.. Haven't brought myself to touch the thermostat again to see if I still get shocked though.

By this time the temp had dropped to 83˚ F so I put the lid down and I'm getting a cup of coffee while the temp comes up again. I checked some of the eggs and found that one of the ones I had waxed smelled so it's out of there now. I will open it up probably tomorrow after the rains stop so I don't smell up the house. It was one of the mixed bantam eggs. I still need to seal some places with some expanding foam so that I can get the humidity up to 80% for the lockdown.

The eggs feel different than they did at first. I don't know if that means anything but the weight inside the egg is distributed differently now. They may have just dried out some but I am hoping it means there are chicks inside.