8th-annual-byc-new-years-day-2017-hatch-a-long

[Coop de Grass]

Mamma-Angel



Daddy-Blue (on the left)

Gosh! Are you sure they're chickens??? They look like plush toys!

 

[Coop de Grass]

No.....no....no....Power out!!!! Got over 100 eggs and power out for over an hr. Have my sportsman outside in the carport and temp has gone down to 87 degrees in my bator. My nxt lockdown is coming Sat, the 31st , and the 7th. Arrrrgggghhhhh.....hope Power comes back on, covered my bator with some blankets and brought brooder inside covered with more blankets poor chicks all cuddled up. Were 37 degrees outside.

Hoping and praying that your chicks and eggs come through the power failure.

 

[Coop de Grass]

4 clear eggs when I candled last night. All from the same pen. That cockerel had only been in there five days and is young and inexperienced so it's understandable. Still a lot of growing eggs in there.

Congrats on the growing ones!

 

[BlueBaby]

Ok, so here's an update on my 6 Blue and Splash Australorp eggs that I set at 6 PM on Dec. 10th from my own flock:

I candled them late last night before I went to bed, and I have seen movement going on in all 6 of them. They kind of resemble a little bean in a way. Anyways, if they are moving around like that, there is life going on.

 

[lpyrbby]

A couple of things because I have chick rabies and can't completely stop thinking about all things baby at the moment.

I have hatch a batch installed on my phone and it just occurred to me to day that I think I've been reading the "days" wrong. IE: I thought I was candling on day 5 (because the app said day 5 begins) when I was actually only candling on a full day 4. Does that make sense to anyone?

That being said, I'm kinda concerned with some of my air cells. Since I candled again on day 7 (but it was probably only day 6), I marked the air cells. Some haven't changed a whole lot, others seem to have grown significantly. The humidity is staying around the 45-50% mark but it has creeped up to near 60% for a couple of hours and fell to 10% again last night before my husband came to bed in the early morning hours. I'm feeling kinda clueless on how to regulate the air cell growth with the eggs. I've started moving them around a little inside the incubator when I have to add water, but it's not been much at all.

If I add some rice to the bator, in a breathable bag to reduce humidity some for those times it gets too high, would it possibly help to stabilize things? Anytime the humidity gets below about 42%, it starts to drop off pretty quickly. Above that though, it'll stay fairly steady for hours at a time.

Here are a couple of crappy cell phone pics of the variations in the air cells. The first circle was just before I put them in and the second was day 6/7.

 

[BantyChooks]

A couple of things because I have chick rabies and can't completely stop thinking about all things baby at the moment.

I have hatch a batch installed on my phone and it just occurred to me to day that I think I've been reading the "days" wrong. IE: I thought I was candling on day 5 (because the app said day 5 begins) when I was actually only candling on a full day 4. Does that make sense to anyone?

That being said, I'm kinda concerned with some of my air cells. Since I candled again on day 7 (but it was probably only day 6), I marked the air cells. Some haven't changed a whole lot, others seem to have grown significantly. The humidity is staying around the 45-50% mark but it has creeped up to near 60% for a couple of hours and fell to 10% again last night before my husband came to bed in the early morning hours. I'm feeling kinda clueless on how to regulate the air cell growth with the eggs. I've started moving them around a little inside the incubator when I have to add water, but it's not been much at all.

If I add some rice to the bator, in a breathable bag to reduce humidity some for those times it gets too high, would it possibly help to stabilize things? Anytime the humidity gets below about 42%, it starts to drop off pretty quickly. Above that though, it'll stay fairly steady for hours at a time.

Here are a couple of crappy cell phone pics of the variations in the air cells. The first circle was just before I put them in and the second was day 6/7.

Yes, they are off by a day.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Gosh! Are you sure they're chickens??? They look like plush toys!

Lol, I'm positive! You should see them right after a spa treatment! They're REALLY plushy then!

So, we had a girl scout meeting tonight and when i got home, my little lone egg now has a pip! I'm hoping to wake up to a little silkie baby Though, I won't complain if it hatches tonight ; )

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Quote:

No.....no....no....Power out!!!! Got over 100 eggs and power out for over an hr. Have my sportsman outside in the carport and temp has gone down to 87 degrees in my bator. My nxt lockdown is coming Sat, the 31st , and the 7th. Arrrrgggghhhhh.....hope Power comes back on, covered my bator with some blankets and brought brooder inside covered with more blankets poor chicks all cuddled up. Were 37 degrees outside.

I agree with Ron. I've had some serious faux pas with both broody hens and incubating. In the end everything turned out fine. For those who have lost temps in their incubator for an extended amount of time...I looked up my post on the huge mistake my broody made. I'm not certain of the age of the embryos...but they were at the stage where they looked like aliens with tentacles so they were possibly older than day 7 but had not much older.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1084889/5th-annual-cinco-de-mayo-hatchathon/140#post_16975680

And after having broodies and seeing what goes on I tried incorporating a cooling period, something like Ron posted because my broodies would leave their respective nests for long periods of time.

EXCEPT I forgot the incubator off and the lid open on eggs from late morning to early evening the day we did taxes. I just plugged the 'bator back in and made sure temps got back up to normal. Everything was fine this time too. Hope this helps.

 

[junebuggena]

A couple of things because I have chick rabies and can't completely stop thinking about all things baby at the moment.

I have hatch a batch installed on my phone and it just occurred to me to day that I think I've been reading the "days" wrong. IE: I thought I was candling on day 5 (because the app said day 5 begins) when I was actually only candling on a full day 4. Does that make sense to anyone?

That being said, I'm kinda concerned with some of my air cells. Since I candled again on day 7 (but it was probably only day 6), I marked the air cells. Some haven't changed a whole lot, others seem to have grown significantly. The humidity is staying around the 45-50% mark but it has creeped up to near 60% for a couple of hours and fell to 10% again last night before my husband came to bed in the early morning hours. I'm feeling kinda clueless on how to regulate the air cell growth with the eggs. I've started moving them around a little inside the incubator when I have to add water, but it's not been much at all.

If I add some rice to the bator, in a breathable bag to reduce humidity some for those times it gets too high, would it possibly help to stabilize things? Anytime the humidity gets below about 42%, it starts to drop off pretty quickly. Above that though, it'll stay fairly steady for hours at a time.

Here are a couple of crappy cell phone pics of the variations in the air cells. The first circle was just before I put them in and the second was day 6/7.

Regarding humidity, it's surface area, not volume. So adding water to the outer tray in the incuview will raise the humidity up to over 60%, regardless of how much water you pour in there. Even just a tiny bit will get you up to over 50%, because it distributes over so much surface. For more steady humidity, only put water in the inner tray. It won't evaporate as quickly, and it's less surface volume, so you get a lower reading.

 

[lpyrbby]

Regarding humidity, it's surface area, not volume. So adding water to the outer tray in the incuview will raise the humidity up to over 60%, regardless of how much water you pour in there. Even just a tiny bit will get you up to over 50%, because it distributes over so much surface. For more steady humidity, only put water in the inner tray. It won't evaporate as quickly, and it's less surface volume, so you get a lower reading.

I will try that next time we need to fill I started there, but with only a very small amount of water and it didn't take long before I needed to add more. Adding to the outer ring seemed to keep stable for longer so I've stuck with it.