Adventure into building an incubator and hatching!

[chickentrack]

good ideas

 

[gimmie birdies]

I have 2 hatch (one rhode Is./splash maran mix, and one splash/silky/bantam americana ) they came out black, and about 4 peeping eggs- I have chicks hatching all the way til next mon. but I arranged the incubator to open with small opening at the top so it won't effect the rest of the hatch.

 

[Kyochan]

Wow, so many! Lol. Well I candles again last night. 5 have obvious little babies in them. All moving and looking good but only 2 have air sacs that I can see. Waiting until Tuesday (day ten) before I start worrying though. And the one I thought was infertile still has no baby but it does have a light shadow and a blood ring. Will pull it on Tuesday

 

[gimmie birdies]

now I have 3 hatched and 3 pipped eggs.

 

[Kyochan]

You are making me so jealous!! I can't wait to see how many of mine hatch though I'm a nervous wreck.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I put them in on diff days so I will have'm a bit spaced out. I thing 2 will have the poofs on head like mom, (silky) and they have the extra toes. one of the hatched (maran/RIR mix) was the RIR's first egg, so the egg was like a bantam, and the chick is too. I hope she stays small. she is really cute.

 

[gimmie birdies]

one of my pipped eggs seems like a quitter, last night I brought in a broody hen to talk to the eggs and to encourage them to hatch. this morning one pipped egg was not under her. but when I picked it up, it was peeping. so I popped it in the incubator. 10hrs. later, I checked the pip hole and no peep or moving and I poked it with my finger through the hole, and it didn't move. I took off the outer casing there was no blood, still moist like it should have hatched, I massaged it and told it not to quit, it wasn't all absorbed in the bottom of egg part, still alittle pulsing going on, I kept the egg on the bottom area and put her back in incubator. we will see, I am not holding my breath. darn! it was a blondie too.

 

[Kyochan]

Cliff hanger! What happened with it. Did she make it?

 

[rachmickmurphy]

yes did it make it birdie ? you are right about styros drowning chicks. i get great dry hatch results in a still air one though. you raised an interestesting point the humidity in the room it is in is very important and i didnt see an info in kyochans well tabled records. i had a wooden homemade one(now it the nursery where everyone gets their feet) to solve the night time temp drop hubby fitted a double lamp. the two globes we used for our space are 60w and 40w hubby is telling me (oops could of posted different in different thread) as it was a still air too the temp was measured at the level at the top of the egg. good luck with your build kyochan

 

[Kyochan]

The humidity in my room is very low. Under 15% I believe but I only tracked it for two days testing my gauges. I'm actually back to struggling to get the humidity up again. Its been hovering at about 37% because the pads had to come out. Its a tiny incubator and the only place for them was on the wall behind the eggs. I thought I got them far enough away but during the night struggle with the temps the pads got cool and transferred that coolness to the eggs closest to it. So I removed them.

Now I'm trying to figure out something to get the humidity up at lockdown. I've got some ideas so ill let you know how they go.

What concerns me right now is that (day 9) I saw no air sacs in 4 eggs and a faint one in 1 egg but its not clear though it is a slightly lighter area. However, all the eggs have a big open space near the pointy end that I'm thinking are malformed air sacs. The eggs were lain on their sides with the fat end elevated for days 1-5 and when I first noticed the spaces I started stand them up with the pointy side down hoping everything would shift its self right but the air space (?) Is still at the bottom and along one side (about half up the egg) while the squirming babies are positioned at the fat end with their heads facing away from the air space(?).

I'm going to try and get pictures tonight (day 10) but my camera sucks. Not sure what to do to prevent the little ones from drowning when they pip.