Anybody setting today 9-20-09? Or close to it? Newbie Hatcher here!

[FluffyColor]

Hi everyone-I'd like to join you.I have eleven health food store Nature's Yoke "FREE ROAMING" eggs-went on Lockdown yesterday @ 7:40 pm.I saw rockers yesterday,and today,they atre storing up thier energy to get out.

 

[faerielady]

I'm supposed to candle tonight... anybody else get kinda hesitant about candling?

 

[JestersEye]

I've candled twice so far (on my first batch of eggs). Just hold the eggs firmly and move slowly, to prevent butterfingers. I haven't had any problems, and it's very rewarding to see how things are progressing!

 

[faerielady]

I candled tonight... don't know quite how good I was at it

I started with 12 pyncheon bantam eggs and 10 LF silver laced cochins. I removed three pyncheon eggs and one of the cochin eggs. After I did so, I broke them open to check.

One of the pyncheon bantam eggs had a definite blood ring, supported when I cracked it open. Two of them appear to have been infertile after I broke those open. The cochin egg also had a blood ring.

That leaves me with 9 pyncheon eggs and 9 SL cochins.

Oh, there are several with question marks, including two cochin eggs that are so porous they look like disco balls.

 

[Laurieks]

One of the 10 Brabanters I'm incubating now was super blotchy (I didn't know that meant porous until I read it here) when it arrived.
They got to 104 on day 2 for a while, so might all be dead =[ but I'm giving them until day 13, tomorrow, to show some change.

 

[SweetMotherOfMars]

Hope your little guys are okay, Laurie.

This is turning out to be the experimental hatch. We have the original 4 eggs we put in on the morning of the 19th, 10 "free range" eggs from the co-op (in on the 25th), and 6 more eggs from the farmers' market (early on the 26th).

We candled all of them tonight.
Day 12 for G, H, I, & J. G has definite veins; H is a dancer

; I is a question mark -- can't really see veining, no movement, but some dark spots (keeping this one on smell-check); and poor little J, just too dark and too small to see.

Day 6 for the store eggs. Surprisingly 6 have good veins and a couple dancers.

There are 3 that I think are clear, but I'll wait on (the only two white eggs are in this group). The last one we couldn't really tell one way or the other. Didn't look like the clears, but didn't see any definite veins.

Day 5 for K-P All showed nice veining (and a couple of little swimmers) except for M (Mudpie if you ask dd, McNugget if you ask my mom). We put a ? on it and put her back.

~0~

We were really pleased with the store eggs! I had to try it after reading the forums. One thread quoted an oldtimer who said the refrigerated ones tended to hatch out males, so we'll attempt to keep track.

After a night of reading I decided to put most of the eggs into a permanently slanted carton. (Turning by spinning the eggs half a turn, point stays down.)

I also started marking the air cell location so I'll have a front row seat at lockdown.

So, final score:
Out of 20 eggs
13 veined, some with swimmers/dancers
4 can't tell
3 probably clear

 

[JestersEye]

Last night was the start of day 18 for my son's eggs. We took out the turner, refilled the water bin, and started the "lockdown" phase! Now, just waiting to see who pips first...

 

[Laurieks]

I candled last night with the new candler from JPS distributors, and have 3 wigglers!

3 eggs are dark with a 'saddle' shaped air space, and no visible movement. The humidity was down to 30% yikes! now back to 55%.
The fancy candler is less bright than the flashlight I was using before, but gets a better seal. My friend uses a rubber bicycle handlebar sleeve over a mini maglite and it works great.
4 eggs are mostly clear-I opened one (the one that was wet on arrival with no visible crack and definitely not condensation) and it smells, with runny yolk stuck to the big end and a few old veins.
Waiting to open the rest til I can get before & after pics.
Lockdown begins on Saturday!
Still pondering the King Suro 20 ($300 with shipping), the R-com digital 20 ($400 /w ship), or the Brinsea ($200 /w ship). If I actually sell chicks in the future, the extra $ for the next one up may pay for itself. Feedback anyone?

 

[JestersEye]

How long should it take for a chick to pip, once you can hear cheeping from inside the egg???

We had an incubator failure today that caused the temp to drop in the "ready to hatch" 'bator! The lightbulb blew out, and the hygrometer read 88 degrees before I noticed. (Glad I was home when it happened or it woulda got down much lower.)

We moved the eggs to the other 'bator, and placed the eggs on the bottom under the egg tray holding the 6-day gestation eggs.

I could hear some cheeping from at least 2 of the 13 eggs, so I hope the brief cold spell didn't harm them too much. Now, I have even more reason to be a nervous momma hen, waiting and praying for a successful hatch!!!

 

[SweetMotherOfMars]

Keep us posted JE. Hopefully the eggs will think of that as Momma's Last Run to the feeder and hatch out normally.