Anyone HATCHING?!?!? Newbie's and addicts WELCOME!!!! Hatch Calendar page 1!!!!

[aaggjg]

Cali Chick good luck with your hatch!! It is so fun... I've already set another clutch of eggs and my chicks are 11 days old

addicting is an understatement!!!! I love the idea of drinking tons of water to make yourself get up in the night!!! I have an overactive mind so if I think/worry about it before I go to sleep I will wake up all night long.

I think I am going to candle a few today just to see if anything is going on.... I'm on Day 5. One of my boxes of shipped eggs looked like it had been drop kicked from NY to LA!!! 4 eggs broke even though they were really well packed. Then the feed store I went to gave me a dozen free silkie eggs !!! OMG I live in the CITY!!! I'm trying to talk everyone I know into getting chickens!!!

My chicks played a game of touch football with some watermelon yesterday which was hilarious! It is amazing how much bigger and more active they are in 1 week!!

Keep us posted!

 

[silkymom1986]

Cali Chick good luck with your hatch!! It is so fun... I've already set another clutch of eggs and my chicks are 11 days old

addicting is an understatement!!!! I love the idea of drinking tons of water to make yourself get up in the night!!! I have an overactive mind so if I think/worry about it before I go to sleep I will wake up all night long.

I think I am going to candle a few today just to see if anything is going on.... I'm on Day 5. One of my boxes of shipped eggs looked like it had been drop kicked from NY to LA!!! 4 eggs broke even though they were really well packed. Then the feed store I went to gave me a dozen free silkie eggs !!! OMG I live in the CITY!!! I'm trying to talk everyone I know into getting chickens!!!

My chicks played a game of touch football with some watermelon yesterday which was hilarious! It is amazing how much bigger and more active they are in 1 week!!

Keep us posted!

your so right it is an understatement!!! When my last hatch was done I already had my new eggs sitting and waiting to go in the bator, lol

Sorry about your eggs be roughed up, getting a dozen free silkie eggs would make me feel better any day, lol. Oh they grow so fast!!

 

[kathyinmo]

I am on a recruiting mission (to win a prize) .

Please join the annual Mahonri Easter Hatch, and go to this thread and tell them I recruited you.

 

[silkymom1986]

I am on a recruiting mission (to win a prize) .

Please join the annual Mahonri Easter Hatch, and go to this thread and tell them I recruited you.

I have already signed up for that hatch so I don't think it will count or I would, sorry.

 

[CALI CHICK]

When they get that far along it's hard to see movement because of exactly what you said, this chick is filling up most of the egg and all you can see is the airsack. I always do my last candling before I go into lockdown to get rid of any laste quitters, I try to only candle 3 times during the whole incubation process to prevent getting germs on them. First time around 5-7 days, second around day 14, then before lockdown. Sounds to me like your good to go if the airsacks are all about the same size. Good luck!!!

And here's some good hatch vibes for your eggs!!!

SilkyMom, thank you for your encouraging words. Do you think the aircells should be the same size (per the sentence I've highlighted)? Only about 4 seem to be "textbook" size compared to diagrams. The other 6 are actually lopsided, seem a little big or crooked and/or wavy around the shell??? I've read lots of posts of others having these issues with shipped eggs. Fortunately, many people said they still hatched, so I'm holding out for these little chickies! Do you think it would make any difference (or hurt) to begin increasing humidity today (day 17) or just wait until tomorrow at lockdown? Thank you

 

[CALI CHICK]

Cali Chick good luck with your hatch!! It is so fun... I've already set another clutch of eggs and my chicks are 11 days old

addicting is an understatement!!!! I love the idea of drinking tons of water to make yourself get up in the night!!! I have an overactive mind so if I think/worry about it before I go to sleep I will wake up all night long.

I think I am going to candle a few today just to see if anything is going on.... I'm on Day 5. One of my boxes of shipped eggs looked like it had been drop kicked from NY to LA!!! 4 eggs broke even though they were really well packed. Then the feed store I went to gave me a dozen free silkie eggs !!! OMG I live in the CITY!!! I'm trying to talk everyone I know into getting chickens!!!

My chicks played a game of touch football with some watermelon yesterday which was hilarious! It is amazing how much bigger and more active they are in 1 week!!

Keep us posted!

aag,
That's too bad that your shipped eggs had a bad trip. I agree with SilkyMom that getting free eggs would make me feel lots better-especially Silkies. I paid $30 for a dozen that were shipped all the way from Georgia to California. The sweet lady sent me 16 and I'm down to 10.

It really is a gamble to buy shipped eggs. My eggs made it in one day (coast to coast) and they were all in perfect shape.

My zoning here in Sacramento County allows me to have chickens, but not roosters. I'm seriously looking for a house with different zoning and hoping to move by May - LOL!

 

[silkymom1986]

Quote:

No I didn't mean they all need to look the exact same, I have some side ways some in the right spot, so far the hatch I'm on 8 are out!

So I think your fine. Shipped eggs are always harder than hatching your own, because you don't know what the PO does. You'll still have some hatch but the ratio goes down with shipped eggs. If your incubator takes a while to get the humididty up it wouldn't hurt to start tonight, but my R-com get's up in like 5 minutes so it depends on how well you know your bator, lol.

 

[CALI CHICK]

No I didn't mean they all need to look the exact same, I have some side ways some in the right spot, so far the hatch I'm on 8 are out!

So I think your fine. Shipped eggs are always harder than hatching your own, because you don't know what the PO does. You'll still have some hatch but the ratio goes down with shipped eggs. If your incubator takes a while to get the humididty up it wouldn't hurt to start tonight, but my R-com get's up in like 5 minutes so it depends on how well you know your bator, lol.

Congratulations on your 8 babies. Were some of those from eggs with lopsided aircells? just curious.

Haha-this is my first time incubating with a borrowed incubator! Plus, I'm moving them to a different "borrowed" incubator tomorrow for lockdown! Uh-oh! I don't know much that's for sure!

I could increase the humidity in the Brower or just put them in the HovaBator tomorrow with the higher humidity?? I guess I was wondering if increasing the humidity at this point would help decrease the aircell a little?

 

[silkymom1986]

Quote:

Yea a few of them were. If you think the aircells are too big it won't hurt to increase the humidity now in the brower then still move them tomorrow to the hovabator if it holds humidity better and you already have it ready to go.

 

[Tressa27884]

Hi Tressa, welcome to the thread!!! And be for warned incubating is a major addiction, but a good one,

What kind of incubator are you using? If you haven't already you should go ahead and set it up so you can get the temp and humidity stable so when your eggs arrive it's ready. When I get shipped eggs I usually let them sit for a while to get to room temp before I put them in the bator and I don't start turning them for 24 hours. Good luck and feel free to ask any questions you might have!!

I set up the incubator today, eggs are being shipped tomorrow. I borrowed a Little Giant Still Air incubator. It doesn't have a way to control humidity as far as I can see. My cousin has used it to hatch doves and quail, so I'm hoping I'll be successful as well. Is there something I can buy to measure humidity? What temperature do I start at? I'm planning to print out th calendar. I am very excited. I hope it's not too addicting. I can't have many more chickens than I all ready have. I have 10 LF hens, 2 LF roos, and two bantam hens......