August Hatch-A-Long!

[roostersandhens]

My hens 3 chicks are so cute and little! I'll get some more pictures later!

 

[nohbudi]

He's moving around a little. Panting occasionally, but quieter than last night. I'm hoping a few more start to move out, but so far no activity.

 

[ggladd]

your not alone!! I'm so nuts I've got all the incubators full and a bunch of eggs coming next week!!

All the incubators? I only have one nut it has 3 racks that hold up to 140 eggs each. Its gonna be a longvtime before i need another one.

 

[Bantamlover124]

We put about two tablespoons of water in when we first started the incubator up and set the eggs. No water after that until lockdown. The humidity from days 1-18 was between 25-30 percent. After lockdown, we have added only a teaspoon of water at the time to keep th humidity between 65-70 percent. So far, no sticky chicks, quick transitions from zipping to hatching, and very little left in the bottom of the shell. I am super happy with this method! 31 went into lockdown last night, and 9 have hatched already. 8 more have pipped!

That seems like a good idea! I always do it the regular way- then again this time I am hand turning them 5 times a day, every 3 hours starting at 8, do you think I will get a good percentage? Last few hatches had bad luck, as I told gladd yesterday, my 2nd to last batch before this I got nothing, not hand turned, mechanically turned and the temp. Was about 111 degrees, because our thermometer was way off.... And the last batch a storm came through taking the power and two of my 4 embryos with it. Then another chick died ( We turned it too long) and then we had one chick left and it hatched

 

[Bantamlover124]

He's moving around a little. Panting occasionally, but quieter than last night. I'm hoping a few more start to move out, but so far no activity.

I hope more hatch, have you candle lighted them?

 

[nohbudi]

Yep, the last day before lock down I removed all eggs that were off. I had a few that looked really good, surprisingly, he was not in one of them..

 

[Roxannemc]

I'm here to bug you all again.

I bought a cheap water heater thermostat and installed in my homemade styro bator. Works great but I'm worried about the temperature constantly fluctuating. The thermostat kicks the heater off at about 102 and it kicks back on at about 96. The heating /cooling periods are only about 2 minutes long. Will the eggs still hatch? From my thinking they should be about the average temperature of the incubator inside since they heat/cool slower than air so the inside is hopefully around 99. I can't imagine this hatch will be any worse than the last one where I didn't have the thermostat and the temperature would skyrocket to 106 and drop to 95.

had 7 of 23 make it to lockdown and 2 of 7 hatch.... Any advice?

And loving the babies! Keep the pics coming! I'll try to post some of my 2 tomorrow.

I could be wrong but i think if it fluctuates that quickly the eggs dont get a chance to cool off or get too hot so maybe it balances at about 99-100 You should be ok but hatch day will tell!!

That is the exact reason I bought a Genesis1588 with the auto temp gauge
The stress of it being at 99.5 for 2weeks then one day you get up its 104 or something
.Couldn't take it
They do vary less if they are in a room with no circulating air/drafts .I finally put mine in a large closet with A large gap for plenty of air circulation It really helped even my temps out .Didn't think it would had read it on here and amazingly it did but still ilike the geneisis for even temps However i would also test the temp with another good thermometer as I found after a few months mine were off 99.5 by then Had to ajust them to what I wanted good thing is they HOLD at whatever you set them at no messing around all the time

Now I am thinking about a Brinsea as everyone who s on here and uses one and has one seems to get REALLY good hatches.
Anyone know someone who doesnt with a Brinsea. Love to really get an accurate count of hatched eggs versus set eggs form Brinsea
.

 

[epmchickens]

your not alone!! I'm so nuts I've got all the incubators full and a bunch of eggs coming next week!!

Lol. I have never had little chicks this late in the year so it will be interesting. I'm in pa so it doesn't get too cold until after thanksgiving....usually. how late is too late? I know myself so I will probably hatch quail as long as I'm getting eggs but I think the chicken eggs I just set will be it for this year.

 

[Marynash88]

We have one more to hatch! XD

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10151803844326291

 

[jnjmanning]

Thanks. I am very hopful as well. This is going to be a very long 3 weeks. This is a pic of the new bater.

Looks a lot like mine!

This was an old bathroom vanity. I incubate in the bottom and hatch in the drawers. Out of 3 hatches (all shipped eggs) I got 11/12.....15/21.....6/9.