April Hatch Thread--Come Join Us!

[LBKS]

Having a bad day. Came home after a few hours away to find the house had warmed up about 10 degrees - went to check on the incubators and found the first one running fine at a stable 100 degrees, but the second one was at 102. Not sure how long it had been that way, but AFAIK that's danger zone for forced air incubators. I opened it up to give them a little cool down and noticed one sitting funny in the (off) turner - so I gave it a gentle push and found it stuck

These guys aren't even in there a day yet and one is sticky?! Tried to gently take it's row turner bit off (after moving all other eggs off the row) so I could take it out of the incubator, but no luck doing that - had to try and take it out whole. If I was a smart woman I'd have taken the whole turner out (with all the eggs) and done it over something other than the bottom of the incubator. Instead - SPLAT - egg guts everywhere. Cleaned up as quickly as I could with vinegar + baking soda for a quick disinfect/cleanup with napkins, but it'll need a cleanup every time I can (so no actually candling until day 10 I guess with this lot - cleaning instead). I couldn't get everything without going longer than I was willing to leave the other guys out of the heat.

For tomorrow I've got a sprayer of pure vinegar ready to go - had to pour by hand and wipe down today

I'm so mad at myself because you know what else I did in my panic? I messed with the temperature dial. Yep. Going to have to sit by that one now until I see where it ended up - guessing I only bumped it 2-4 degrees down to the 90's but who knows for sure with those touchy things.

I could smack myself right now, what was I thinking?

I am not a smart woman. I am glad I didn't mess with the other incubator. Here's hoping the other eggs in #2 are fine. Guess that one was never meant to be a hatcher the way it attracts disasters. On the upside, by the time these guys are ready to hatch (assuming survivors) they can hatch in the other incubator which will be cleaned out from #1's hatches by then. That'll give me a chance to deep clean this one.

[Edited To Add: When #1 goes to lock down I'm going to see if I can get the turner rows off in a pinch - surely they'd make it so you could, right?]

 

[MissBroodyHen]

Well out of 33 eggs set. I've just done candling on day 7! And I have 4 out of 12 left of the shipped eggs! One had red ring mostly caused by a crack, that I attempted to repair. But obviously didn't work! The rest were infertile! That was really bad going! But 4 are still in the bator. So there is some hope! Then I got 3 out of 4 in the bator from my self-blue Cochin bantams (one was infertile!) then 16 out of 17 of my very own mug eggs were fertile. And so I have 23 Left!!! I am so impressed on the percentage of my own flock! That's just awesome!!
Home eggs are totally the way to go!
Well for me this is just great. It's been a roller coaster for the last week. I have a very tempermental incubator and lost my entire lot of 24 eggs last time round to over heating! And that was my first time ever doing this!. So I did not expect to still have this many in there. And did I mention that I got to see them all moving! I have got some way to go with these shipped ones tho. They are very bad air cells are a little on the large size saying that is it possible for them to get a tad smaller at some points cause I drew a line around one and it seems to have gotten smaller. I am doing the dry method totally.english air is very damp and my humidity in the tank is at 28-30% on its own. I have not added any water at all. In fact the other eggs have normal air cells and are not large at all. So does this sound ok?? Someone let me know if you get to read this far. Lol thanks!

 

[PaintedFeathers]

I have 4 eggs in my incubator, one on day 7 (other 2 were duds, i'm contemplating opening this one up too

) one on day 3, one on day 2, and one on day 1. I am not expecting much, but I hope at least one hatches

 

[pogmobum]

Having a bad day.  Came home after a few hours away to find the house had warmed up about 10 degrees - went to check on the incubators and found the first one running fine at a stable 100 degrees, but the second one was at 102.  Not sure how long it had been that way, but AFAIK that's danger zone for forced air incubators.  I opened it up to give them a little cool down and noticed one sitting funny in the (off) turner - so I gave it a gentle push and found it stuck :/  

These guys aren't even in there a day yet and one is sticky?!  Tried to gently take it's row turner bit off (after moving all other eggs off the row) so I could take it out of the incubator, but no luck doing that - had to try and take it out whole.  If I was a smart woman I'd have taken the whole turner out (with all the eggs) and done it over something other than the bottom of the incubator.  Instead - SPLAT - egg guts everywhere.  Cleaned up as quickly as I could with vinegar + baking soda for a quick disinfect/cleanup with napkins, but it'll need a cleanup every time I can (so no actually candling until day 10 I guess with this lot - cleaning instead).  I couldn't get everything without going longer than I was willing to leave the other guys out of the heat.

For tomorrow I've got a sprayer of pure vinegar ready to go - had to pour by hand and wipe down today

I'm so mad at myself because you know what else I did in my panic? I messed with the temperature dial.  Yep.  Going to have to sit by that one now until I see where it ended up - guessing I only bumped it 2-4 degrees down to the 90's but who knows for sure with those touchy things.   I could smack myself right now, what was I thinking?

I am not a smart woman.  I am glad I didn't mess with the other incubator.  Here's hoping the other eggs in #2 are fine.  Guess that one was never meant to be a hatcher the way it attracts disasters.  On the upside, by the time these guys are ready to hatch (assuming survivors) they can hatch in the other incubator which will be cleaned out from #1's hatches by then.  That'll give me a chance to deep clean this one.

 
[Edited To Add: When #1 goes to lock down I'm going to see if I can get the turner rows off in a pinch - surely they'd make it so you could, right?]

You poor thing, this stuff happens to everyone i actualy dropped a fertile egg on day 5 of my first ever hatch, i felt sooooo stupid lol the turner should definitly come of, what type of bator do you have?

 

[chickydee64]

still waiting... I take my flashlight to get a good look in the bator and I give it a good 4 time over inspection through the top, resisting all urges to open it every 10-15 min or so...

then I pace outside look at where the broody silkie is and pace back inside... I hae only checked on the progress 2 times since this morning.... I think that is pretty good

and I just lift her belly up a little bet to see if I have more than a pip.... no such luck... I will resist checking her eggs again till tomarrow morning! (I NEED a sitting on your hands icon!....or a pacing back and forth icon!)

I am so happy that I am not alone.You'd think after awhile the urges to camp over the incubator would decrease....but noooooooooooo
I still find myself up without sleep for a few days during lockcown and still facinated at the miracle of hatching..............
Does it ever get better..............hope not........

 

[chickydee64]

I have 4 eggs in my incubator, one on day 7 (other 2 were duds, i'm contemplating opening this one up too

) one on day 3, one on day 2, and one on day 1. I am not expecting much, but I hope at least one hatches

I am a little cofused why you would give up on the egg so early ???????????
I don't even candle till day 11..maybe I have missed something posted earlier.......
Be patient and good luck........

 

[chickydee64]

Miss Broody Hen, I don;t have much advise but am doing dry hatch myself for the first time.
My air cells are so small I am losing them at hatch.
Making me crazy because I am runniing what I thought was low humidity....25 to 35...........
Good luck

 

[MissBroodyHen]

[COLOR=008080]Miss Broody Hen, I don;t have much advise but am doing dry hatch myself for the first time.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=008080]My air cells are so small I am losing them at hatch.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=008080]Making me crazy because I am runniing what I thought was low humidity....25 to 35...........[/COLOR]
[COLOR=008080]Good luck[/COLOR]

Oh. You know the way I was planning on doing it was adding the water at the first pip. I'm just incubating dry. Is that not what you should be doing?

 

[MissBroodyHen]

W

I have 4 eggs in my incubator, one on day 7 (other 2 were duds, i'm contemplating opening this one up too

) one on day 3, one on day 2, and one on day 1. I am not expecting much, but I hope at least one hatches

Why have you set them on staggered days? I have one that I added 12 hours after they all went in. But that should be fine as its a small bantam egg and usually hatch early? Have you ever hatched before?

 

[tommysgirl]

I am only starting !! Day 3 with my little ones.
Though I am not sure what will happen because they are not the right eggs! They are supposed to be Silver grey Dorkings but are blue and Dorkings are supposed to be white? So I think we got a random lucky dip! Anyhow they are in - we had 6 but one was broken in the packing and the other came appart because it was stuck to the packing with the goo of the broken one. So lost two before we started! We will see if anything comes of these? They are due to hatch 25-27th April.

Oes

I am sorry that happened with your eggs. My SGD eggs cam frm BYCer BethBug. She sent me 11 though I paid for 6 and she packed them so beautifully there was no damage. If you go for them again I recommend her. Don't know if she currently has her eggs listed but if she dows she is great to work with. Hope your blue ones hatch!