Anybody setting eggs this weekend? (4-25-15)

[NTBugtraq]

Well, I was thinking that today was day 18, but it turns out its actually day 19...oops. So when I went to put my bater into lockdown, it turned out I have 4 pipped eggs. Took me maybe 5-10 minutes to transfer all the eggs off the turner and onto the floor of the bator, as well as fill up enough water to keep the humidity high for the remaining days. I hope I haven't hurt those four. I was going to recandle, but since I did candle on day 14, I'm fairly confident they're viable. Woot!

 

[FoxyChicken]

THEY'RE HATCHING!!!
Just got home from work and found three empty shells under mom, tried to peek under her and saw another one that looked like it was just coming out of a shell. Didn't see or hear the ones that have hatched already, but they must be under there somewhere!
This is so exciting! We're on day 20

 

[Pywakyt]

Congrats! Post pics when you can! So so so exciting!

 

[NTBugtraq]

I'm hearing chirping! Lolz, I have the bater 25' from my bed, and the brooder 15', should make for an interesting sleep....;-]

 

[FoxyChicken]

This is the only one I've been able to see.... looks like a Welsummer?

 

[NTBugtraq]

Gotta love chick pics!

 

[FoxyChicken]

This one is hard to see because it blends in with mom, a little EE. I saw the Buckeye but it wouldn't keep its face out long enough to get a pic

 

[NTBugtraq]

Well, I was up at 2:00am this morning and 3 chicks have hatched. Two are yellow, and the third is black head to toe (I hope, taking on his BCM father's appearance). My brooder isn't quite ready yet, so I was checking threads about how long the chicks can stay in the bater without food or water. The consensus seems to be that they can stay up to 3 days.

But there was a lot of talk about using damp paper towel balls or sponges to keep the humidity up when the bator is opened, so I just had to experiment. The 3 chicks have pushed all the other eggs (36 of them) off to the sides of the bator. So, I opened the bator, removed the 3 egg shells from the hatched chicks, and moved the other eggs around to give those guys a bit more room, then replaced the cover. Elapsed time less than 1 minute, no sponges, no paper towels. The humidity had dropped from 75% to 38%, and the temp had gone from 100F to 83F. Within 1 minute after putting the cover back on, the humidity was back to 75%, and the temp was 100F again.

Now I am not saying I've caused no harm, but the speed that the Hovabator 1588 recovered suggests to me its unlikely I did...we'll see.

 

[CrazyChickenCat]

I'm so jealous! My BCM's are due today, and I haven't really been able to check viability because the eggs are so dark! No rolling air cells though, and everything that I could see looked normal. No pips yet either Hoping for the best! My Polish are due Sunday and they candled great!

I've got another incubator and a half full of various chicken, duck and guinea eggs

 

[danotoyou2]

Well, I was up at 2:00am this morning and 3 chicks have hatched. Two are yellow, and the third is black head to toe (I hope, taking on his BCM father's appearance). My brooder isn't quite ready yet, so I was checking threads about how long the chicks can stay in the bater without food or water. The consensus seems to be that they can stay up to 3 days.

But there was a lot of talk about using damp paper towel balls or sponges to keep the humidity up when the bator is opened, so I just had to experiment. The 3 chicks have pushed all the other eggs (36 of them) off to the sides of the bator. So, I opened the bator, removed the 3 egg shells from the hatched chicks, and moved the other eggs around to give those guys a bit more room, then replaced the cover. Elapsed time less than 1 minute, no sponges, no paper towels. The humidity had dropped from 75% to 38%, and the temp had gone from 100F to 83F. Within 1 minute after putting the cover back on, the humidity was back to 75%, and the temp was 100F again.

Now I am not saying I've caused no harm, but the speed that the Hovabator 1588 recovered suggests to me its unlikely I did...we'll see.

Exciting times!!

Another thing to consider with humidity during hatch, is that once the eggs start to hatch or get external pips, the moisture from inside the eggs start to raise the overall humidity of the incubator. So it's a lot easier to get back to a nice humid bator once they begin hatching.