ATTENTION NEWBIES TO INCUBATING

[HickoryHollow]

I am still here routing for your chicks!
Sorry if I don't answer everyone's individual questions, I have been swamped of late, almost all these questions that popped up are addressed in the hatching 101 article.

And I am sorry Tim for the messaging, my hughesnet has been terrible in the evenings, I have a feeling they cant keep up with the amount of ppl they sell too! Its pure frustration because that's when I get so many messages and have to respond! So again, I apologize, I tried my best to answer but copy pasting links and such wasnt my friend at all!!


You have averaged that wide range as best you could without running two bators, you may have some issues on some, but with those numbers its to be expected. I am curious about your candles, did you have some very porous eggs? if so which breed? you may wish to run them separate for future, and perhaps add some calcium and vits to see if you can fix porous eggs, sometimes its a breed thing though.

When you remove chicks, inspect the insides of the empty shells and let us see them, along with looking at the chicks hocks, if they are red and if you can tell which eggs they came out of, you probably cant if you have them all together in the hatcher. Baskets in the hatcher are good, not only to separate breeds, but to help you figure out incubation techniques, example, you could put all the CODE REDS in a basket and so forth. Then you can check chick quality and eggshell analysis. which can tell you alot of things you can do to help with next hatch.

Hi Sally, no problem on the internet issue. Where I live we also can get satellite only. We have Wild Blue Exceed. I am really happy with it. The speed is great, and though the band width is limited to 10 gigs per month, I have never reached it, even with the youtube stuff I do. The only problem is if it is storming, we sometimes loos connection.

As for the eggs, I am pretty optimistic. I think there are 3 "code reds" that lost too much weight, but the air cells aren't that bad. It will be interesting to see what happens. Tomorrow is day 21. I am taking a vacation day to "enjoy the moment". lol.....hope for the best! I will be doing a thorough eggtopsy and evaluation on each and every egg in the end, shells, embryo and all. Lots of photos, which may be too graphic for some people. I think it is really important as part of the learning experience though.

You were a huge help through this hatch and I feel like I really learned allot. I guess the next couple of days will decide if I learned it right or wasn't paying attention in class! lol

Thanks Sally,
Tim

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: Well if you were paying attention to my "special duck" hatch you will note that I go for alot more weight loss than 13% even in my chicken eggs. I will have to start weighing my chicken eggs for a set and see what weight loss my eye is hatching chicken eggs, perhaps have DH weigh them so I dont know what they are and not let it effect "my eye". Like I said I haven't weighed those since I started incubating and I have a feeling after weighing these duck eggs, I go for more weight loss and have successful hatches with perfect chicks and clean empty shells. We realized that I do more weight loss because everyone else always had messy stuff in the shells after hatch and I always had clean shells, humidity plays a very important roll for chick health obviously. But you need to get it down pat before you start worrying about chick quality, I sell chicks so its VERY important to me I sell only the best I hatch, so each chick is extremely important to me. Keep hatching your own and you can master it in short order once you comprehend what that chick is doing in there, read read read the hatching 101 article and all its links to support its info, the links are PRICELESS! Also reading through the last few months of the diary thread should give you better understanding as well.

I am on day 18 and I have moved them into the cooler, HOWEVER I havent upped humidity yet because I see no drawdown and CCL tend to not loose weight like other breeds so I will candle often and watch for draw down, and only up it at that point.

So we are in the end hatching buddies! Ok well I hatch weekly but still! lol

 

[Cowpoke]

I think it is fixed now. It is video of an egg dancing....let me know if you see it now. Thanks!

Hi Tim, It is fixed and is so cool! Thanks and Good Luck with the Hatch!

 

[HickoryHollow]

Well if you were paying attention to my "special duck" hatch you will note that I go for alot more weight loss than 13% even in my chicken eggs. I will have to start weighing my chicken eggs for a set and see what weight loss my eye is hatching chicken eggs, perhaps have DH weigh them so I dont know what they are and not let it effect "my eye". Like I said I haven't weighed those since I started incubating and I have a feeling after weighing these duck eggs, I go for more weight loss and have successful hatches with perfect chicks and clean empty shells. We realized that I do more weight loss because everyone else always had messy stuff in the shells after hatch and I always had clean shells, humidity plays a very important roll for chick health obviously. But you need to get it down pat before you start worrying about chick quality, I sell chicks so its VERY important to me I sell only the best I hatch, so each chick is extremely important to me. Keep hatching your own and you can master it in short order once you comprehend what that chick is doing in there, read read read the hatching 101 article and all its links to support its info, the links are PRICELESS! Also reading through the last few months of the diary thread should give you better understanding as well.

I am on day 18 and I have moved them into the cooler, HOWEVER I havent upped humidity yet because I see no drawdown and CCL tend to not loose weight like other breeds so I will candle often and watch for draw down, and only up it at that point.

So we are in the end hatching buddies! Ok well I hatch weekly but still! lol

Sally......well guess what? I have another turning tray full in the bator I built that go into lock-down next Wednesday evening, due next Saturday (the 24th). I am using the farm innovators as a hatcher, and my cabinet incubator as a setter...... So....I guess for now, I am hatching weekly too! lol

 

[Dawnrenae]

Here she is. I didn't kill her.
Happy tears and joy.

When I left for work, I had two internal pips, and one external. I thought I killed the first external by bumping her, but, alas, she made it.

 

[HickoryHollow]

Here she is. I didn't kill her.
Happy tears and joy.

When I left for work, I had two internal pips, and one external. I thought I killed the first external by bumping her, but, alas, she made it.

 

[HickoryHollow]

HOLLY SMOKES!!!!!!!
We have rockin', rollin', pippin', zippin' and HATCHIN' going on in Hickory Hollow! Day 20! 3 hatched. One of them was #40 and I can't see the numbers on the other 2. Two more are pipped, #13 and #35. Kinda early, but look healthy, active, strong and the first is almost fluffy already!

 

[Dawnrenae]

HOLLY SMOKES!!!!!!! We have rockin', rollin', pippin', zippin' and HATCHIN' going on in Hickory Hollow! Day 20! 3 hatched. One of them was #40 and I can't see the numbers on the other 2. Two more are pipped, #13 and #35. Kinda early, but look healthy, active, strong and the first is almost fluffy already! e e

Omg, how EXCITING!!!

 

[HickoryHollow]

Still only 3 hatched, but pips in eggs 3, 4, 7, 10, 13, 30, and 35! Finely #10 pipped. She was the one doing all the wiggling last night that I took the video of.

 

[luvmypets]

Yayy were having fun at farmtop too!