August Hatch along?

[MROO]

Then you'll definitely want to avoid Texas. Not only do we have Tractor Suppy but Atwood's, too. My personal favorite, Denton land and farm, has day olds all the way up to point of lay.
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My children would never let me leave the house!

 

[aliciaplus3]

I am currently hatching almost year round so the temptation of buying chicks is limited
.... unless it's a breed I really want.
I work for our local feed store.... well in the tire shop part.... but if they have an injured or sick baby during chick season I am the one they call. One year I worked in the chick section during chick season, let's just say it's a good thing my husband is Very understanding!
I did have lots of luck getting customers engaged with the babies and had very little trouble finding all the babies homes!
My biggest struggle now is deciding which eggs to hatch, I see a chick in every egg I collect and often wonder what different pairings will produce, so naturally I want to set them all! I seem to be running out of coop space right now, so I am supposed to be cutting down numbers for winter.
oops

 

[ketojenn]

Hi all! Jumping in now and going back to catch up on posts today.
I set 20 shipped eggs on the 10th.
Blue copper marans, cream legbars, and lavender orpingtons

Candled last night and had 8 clear, tossed those. All remaining eggs show life except for three marans. Those are a gamble since I can't see into them.

They are incubating in my homemade cooler bater and I'm hand turning them. Fingers crossed!

 

[MROO]

Update on my broody issue. Tears at our house, tonight. The baby that survived yesterday's vicious attack gave a good, loud peep, this morning when I checked on Pepper (Mama,) so we were very optimistic. Apparently, though, it was injured worse than we realized, probably internally, as it was gone this evening. Poor Pepper looks flat. She's still setting her nest, but she looks awful. I've checked her over and she doesn't seem to be injured. She's just very stressed. She's getting electrolytes tonight again and we'll see how she is in the morning. If she still looks rough, I'll put the rest of the eggs in the incubator and hope for the best. She's more important than unhatched eggs, poor little mama.
If these little birds weren't so endangered, we'd be having chicken for dinner tomorrow - both Miss Piggy AND Captain Cuddles!

 

[Sakai]

MROO- Man that's so stressful. poor mama. I feel bad for her.

Today was candle day. day 8. We had 3 duds 2 early quitters out of 12. So 7 left. The homemade incubator is working well it seems. We weighed them and they all seem to be on par with the moisture loss. Some are 1% behind but I'm not too worried. Now for another long week before the next candle.
I'm trying hard not to feel optimistic. We had 5 live babies at day 18 and then all gone by lockdown. So part of me is like Yay 7 babies. and another part is like...maybe one will survive hatching. maybe.

 

[Amiloo928]

I have 5 days until hatch, which I think puts me at 2 days until lockdown. At Day 12 we had 7 with signs of life, and one dud in the mix.

I have a few questions, as I’ve never used an incubator to hatch eggs before.

Should I candle again to look for signs of life, or leave them be and hope for the best?

Should I remove the dud from the bator? If so, what do you usually do with them? Is it ok to put it into my compost?

On lock down, should I remove the auto turner, or just turn it off? (My bator keeps eggs laying down and rolls them sideways periodically)

What humidity level am I aiming for from lockdown until hatch? (I’ve read differing info, varying from 65%-80%)

Thank you for all the advice!

 

[Pugsabi]

I have 5 days until hatch, which I think puts me at 2 days until lockdown. At Day 12 we had 7 with signs of life, and one dud in the mix.

I have a few questions, as I’ve never used an incubator to hatch eggs before.

Should I candle again to look for signs of life, or leave them be and hope for the best?

Should I remove the dud from the bator? If so, what do you usually do with them? Is it ok to put it into my compost?

On lock down, should I remove the auto turner, or just turn it off? (My bator keeps eggs laying down and rolls them sideways periodically)

What humidity level am I aiming for from lockdown until hatch? (I’ve read differing info, varying from 65%-80%)

Thank you for all the advice!

Congrats! Yes, candle before lockdown and take out any duds and quitters, you don't want any chance of explosion. Yes, you can compost them. It's up to you about removing the auto turner. It's fine if you leave it but it might just be one more thing to clean. Humidity at lockdown depends on a couple of factors. How are your air cells, current humidity levels, etc. Just make sure that whatever level you put it at doesn't cause condensation on the glass, that would make it too high.

 

[Amiloo928]

We candled the eggs again tonight! 5 days to go, and we’ve only lost one out of eight so far! We saw definite movement in seven of the eggs.

Air pockets are all looking perfectly sized except one. It looks a bit smaller than the others. I’m not sure what, if anything, to do about that.

Otherwise everything is looking fantastic and right on schedule for a hatch date of 8/23!

 

[Pugsabi]

We candled the eggs again tonight! 5 days to go, and we’ve only lost one out of eight so far! We saw definite movement in seven of the eggs.

Air pockets are all looking perfectly sized except one. It looks a bit smaller than the others. I’m not sure what, if anything, to do about that.

Otherwise everything is looking fantastic and right on schedule for a hatch date of 8/23!

Awesome! Nothing you can do about the smaller air sack, just keep an eye on it, incase you need to assist.

 

[Sakai]

I have a question.
My eggs are in a carton right now for easy turning. Should we take them out at lockdown and lay them flat? I've seen a few talk about this, some prefer to leave them in the carton. Mostly I worry a hatched chick will knock the eggs around and roll them over.
Also, I already noticed a dip in the air cell. If I were to lay them flat for hatching, would I want that dip facing upward?