August Hatch-A-Long

[WendyF]

LOL..me too!!   tomorrow is day 21 with 3 eggs in the bator!

I picked up 4 bantam babies I am going to sneak under my poor broody Peep that lost her baby. She is still sitting and calling for her baby so I am hoping she accepts them and FINALLY gets to ba a momma

Oh, I hope she loves the babies. I've read many stories of a hen adopting babies of others, so maybe she will find just what she needs in them. Does Peep have any other eggs under her still? I hope your day 21 brings you 3 little surprises!

 

[WendyF]

I  never heard of heat sinks? I have the eggs, a thermometer, a sponge and the eggs. The sponge is currently dry as I am using the dry method in hatching and only adding water if humidity goes below 30%.


But adding rock or water with lide will help regulate the temp? The day temp is perfect, the night temp I am worried about getting too low.

When I was doing the test run on my homemade styrofoam incubator my temp was fluctuating up to 4 degrees a day until I added 2 mason jars filled with water & with lids on & 1 sterilized rock a bit bigger than my hand. Now if temp fluctuates it's 1 degree or less. The heat sinks really helped me! I had 15 store bought 'dummy' eggs in before & after the addition of the heat sinks.

 

[WendyF]

 The staggered hatch thing was a crazy idea on my part. WHY did I put just two eggs in to hatch at one point? One was a twin egg, one of the twins pipped the wrong end, neither of them made it  Do twins ever make it? The other chick is so small next to the week old chicks! 

 4 Due out tomorrow

 a dozen or so due out in a week

 and then more a few days after that and then some in three weeks. 

Lol you have your hands full! Are your chicks being nice to the tiny new baby?

 

[kada6305]

I have 2 mason jars in there right now so we will see. It usually stays 100-102. It got really warm in the house today and got up to 104 fir a few minutes so I cooled them down and got it regulated to 100 again. I will defiantly buy a incubator next time, but this is just a test hatch to see if we can actually butcher them.

When I was doing the test run on my homemade styrofoam incubator my temp was fluctuating up to 4 degrees a day until I added 2 mason jars filled with water & with lids on & 1 sterilized rock a bit bigger than my hand. Now if temp fluctuates it's 1 degree or less. The heat sinks really helped me! I had 15 store bought 'dummy' eggs in before & after the addition of the heat sinks.

 

[WendyF]

The eggs I am incubating are shipped and only 8 out of 27 didn't develop

WOW! Congratulations!

 

[darajosami]

A jar or two of water or rocks will hold heat at the right temp so it makes the incubator temp more stable. Especially If you have to open it to turn eggs, or overnight, the heat sinks will help it stay at temp more easily.

What size rocks? I also have trouble keeping the heat during the night. I lose 3 degrees

 

[Dispatch273]

Ok, so I candled my eggs lastnight(day 13 a day early LOL) and it looks like I only have 4 out of 20 that were iffy....BUT I did notice that one of the other eggs that has been going strong since day one seems to have twins inside? The egg is noticeably bigger than the other eggs and I can see two black dots bouncing around in there......I have no idea what breed of chicken they are from. Is there any way that if they are twins even one of them will survive? It seems unlikely that they will both hatch but if at least one makes it I'll be happy. I do find it funny that I have twin boys and now I may have twin chicks!!!!

 

[HugHess]

Congratulations on your viable eggs Dispatch! I just watched YouTube videos, yesterday morning as a matter of fact, especially where one woman assisted two sets of twins. So, though rare, it does happen! So 'egg'-cited for you. Hopefully those videos can help in some way get you across that finish line.
Will definitely look forward to seeing how all your hard work paid off.
Best wishes for a happy healthy hatch!

 

[Bryce243]

That's pretty good for shipped eggs, I have had awful luck with shipped eggs myself.  What breed are they?

10 of them are americuana, 2 of them are white eggs that I don't know what breed, and 7 of them are brown eggs that I also don't know what breed they are.

 

[darajosami]

At the moment I have moved the incubator to my room and i put it in a Styrofoam box as i was concerned the box it came in want allowing enough air to circulate, but it makes it so big. Will it be safe to put it in the cardboard box it came in with the foam surrounding it or will it not allow enough air to circulate when I have eggs in it? The instructions say to use the packaging box and foam but as you can see with the picture below it doesn't exactly allow much air around and at night I have to close it up with a book on it (to keep t closed) to keep the temperature at 47.5C.