Anyone setting eggs tomorrow (13th March, EDD Apr 3rd)

[chkinut]

scbatz33...i'm glad u scolded me! i needed it! i've been candling every day! i keep telling myself to stop, but i never do. now, after reading your post....i'm gonna leave them alone till day 18! i'm on day 10 now. most look pretty good. i have 9 eggs, and only one looks questionable. and the other 8, some move more than others. but i don't feel like i should cull the questionable one. i'll just wait. but when u candle at day 18, i bet u can't see a THING cuz they're taking up the whole egg. it's just so cute to see them moving around in there! my eggs are almost halfway there!

 

[scbatz33]

It is fun to see them moving around, no doubt. But you risk them not making it if you keep fiddling with them. You run into drowing, mispossitioning, and shrink wrap issues. It's heart breaking to watch them struggle to survive and know if you had just left them alone they wouldn't be having problems.

How many posts a day do we see of "my baby is stuck to the shell" or "Help no pips on day 23" or "I cooked my chicks"? Or this one today "I'm an idiot! I cracked an egg open and there was a live chick inside!" If you look back you will see the majority of these "uh oh" problems are because people refuse to leave the eggs alone and let nature do it's thing.
I've been there, done that. I candled all the time. I couldn't leave the eggs alone when I first started. And I caused my chicks a ton of stress and myself a lot of heart ache because of my meddling. It's amazing that 21 days can seem to take FOREVER, but keep telling yourself that leaving them alone means you will have chicks to enjoy for a lot longer than 21 days.

Day 10, day 18 - that's it. Don't do anything more than add water. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad or point fingers. We are human, we are curious and we ALL have a hard time just waiting. I am HORRIBLE at being patient! But, remember, those little babies depend on you being patient. They NEED you to be patient.

 

[loopy12]

But I was only a little bit naughty. I've candled only twice, and each time only did 4 or 5 at random as a learning thing. I have 34 in there - no way am I going to candle them all every night even if I wanted to!
I was going to do them all tonight with my new flashlight but decided to wait until day 10 because I only have 2 white eggs.

I haven't been overcandling.
I have been obsessing over the thermometer though so will take hand smacking for that instead.

 

[clothdiaperingmom]

Quote:
Good to read. Thanks. I started out only candling on day 10 then day 17.

Then I read somewhere on here that if the hen can get off the eggs to eat, drink, poop for 30 mins a day, then its ok to do a quick daily candling.
And I had been getting to the point of candling everyday (though my 1st non hatching hatch I only did the 2 times).

So thats it. Im done. Though I can say that I have learned alot from all the candlings and can tell alot sooner now if it is developing.

Thanks again

 

[scbatz33]

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chicks.html
This is a good article about using a broody hen to "naturally" hach eggs. Yes it does mention the hen will leave the nest daily " She will likely get off the nest once a day for a few minutes to eat, drink, defecate, take a dust bath or exercise."

But it also says this..."The less you handle the eggs, the better. If you want to inspect and candle the eggs to check on their progress (or lack of), resist the temptation of doing it too often. On the other hand, you don't want to have rotten eggs that could create health and safety problems if they crack open. A good compromise is to candle all the eggs at the same time between seventh and tenth day of the incubation process."

And this...."Don't use this method unless you are content to hatch a limited number of eggs and are willing to make a greater risk of a failed hatch. Most standard size hens that go broody can easily cover 12 to 15 eggs. Large hens of large breeds may be able to cover as many as 20. The more eggs under a hen, the greater the risk that some eggs won't be covered effectively and consistantly enough to hatch. In addition, although most hens will be Hortonesque in their faithfulness, some may give up on the eggs altogether or at least leave the nest for too long at the wrong time for a very successful hatch. "

And most importantly, this...."If the chicks have not all hatched after a couple of days, the mother hen will start to ignore the remaining eggs as she gets up and moves about to care for the chicks. Although I have contemplated moving them to an incubator or placing the eggs another broody hen, I have yet to have found a viable egg among any a hen has abandoned. Candling may reveal that an chick never developed. Unfortunately only cracking open the egg will show you if there is an embryo that just didn't make it."

Broody hens don't get emotionally attached to the chicks that don't hatch. It's apples and oranges.....We can't help but be attached and feel guilty if things go wrong - especially once we realize it was our fault. With the incubators, we are attempting to recreate a scenario of hatching and rearing chicks as the mother hen would do. It's not perfect, but it does work. It actually can work better than the way it's done by the hen. And, it works best if we are as "hands off" as absolutely possible.

The long and short is we can all do our chicken rearing any old way we want to do it. Personally, I've made tons of mistakes as I've tried to figure this hatching thing out. I'm just trying to share what I've learned.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Get this and you will never obsess over temperature again. I found that I incubated my eggs last time at 97 degrees because my thermometer is off by 2 degrees.
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Digital-Inc...IC&otn=20&po=&ps=63&clkid=8629201000958729981

 

[loopy12]

Got one...

Arrived yesterday

I now have 4 thermometers, 2 hygrometers, incubator, turning rack, and a new flashlight...and in my panic over unsettled tems over the first few days I blew the budget and bought a second incubator :blush:...ugh...
These are fast becoming the most expensive chicks in the world

I'd better hatch eggs regularly or they'll be trouble with DH

 

[loopy12]

Candling day!

Will do it later when its dark.

all is well...

 

[raimnel]

I'm gonna candle ALL eggs tonight, I candled random ones twice now.

it's day 9 at our set time today right? So my offical day ten is 2morrow 9:30 am. But who cares close enough right!

 

[loopy12]

Oh I dunno...the whole counting days things is so confusing.
I'm on day ten. In the middle of the tenth day. I counted the saturday as day 1 not day 0 as I set at 7am and was told pre-noon its day 1, afternoon its day 0.
Day ten will be complete 7am tomorrow.

I'm just say eggs are due to hatch easter weekend now - that covers all possibilities and saves on frustration on day 21 I think

I guess for lockdown I will lockdown on the evening of the 18th day before I go to bed so eggs will have the last 12 hours of day 18 then day 19, 20 and 21 in lockdown.
Its all very confusing.

Now I have my Brinsea thermometer I think temps have been running a little on the low side, so they may come on day 22 anyway. Will have to wait and see...

Anyway, good luck for the big candling session!
I will report back when I've done mine