August Silkie Hatch-A-Long!

[StepfordCuckoos]

Today I put some shipped silkie eggs into the incubator (Model 4250 Pro Series Incubator) after letting them sit for about 24 hours. Ordered 12, received 18. 11 have gone into the incubator and 7 were taken to our broody silkies outside. 4 were put under our black silkie, Inkie and 3 were put under our paint named Oinky. The two are broody so we thought why not. Inky is a superbly great mom and has adopted a ton of chicks. She's such a good mama. When I put the eggs under her she'd already been sitting on two of her own (or Oinky's, hard to tell) for a few days. We really want her to hatch these eggs right around the time our incubator eggs are supposed to hatch so I moved the two she had been sitting on and put them with Oinky. Not too worried about all of those eggs because when our silkie girls go broody they are broooody (as opposed to our Frost White Legbar who decided at day 18 that she no longer wanted to be a mom).

I am however nervous about the incubator eggs. We've never incubated eggs before and I'm really, really hoping we get a few chicks from the eggs. Def not expecting all of them to hatch. A bit nervous about the temperature because my hydrometer and the incubator temp are different. I also have them incubating in my bathroom and I don't know if I should steer clear of showering in that bathroom until they hatch or if it should be okay. The bathroom isn't super tiny so they aren't near the shower itself.

 

[Chickeria]

Fingers crossed for all your eggs (under Inkie and Oinky and in the incubator)
Did you calibrate the incubator's thermometer and hygrometer?
I'm not sure about showering in the bathroom with the incubator, I'm sorry.

 

[StepfordCuckoos]

The eggs under Oinky (just 2 now) are doing very well!! They are getting close to hatching, I think. I'm a bit worried about the eggs under Inky. Not sure if they are developing. I checked the eggs in the incubator and you can definitely see veins/development. With Inky's eggs I'm not sure much.

 

[Chickeria]

The eggs under Oinky (just 2 now) are doing very well!! They are getting close to hatching, I think. I'm a bit worried about the eggs under Inky. Not sure if they are developing. I checked the eggs in the incubator and you can definitely see veins/development. With Inky's eggs I'm not sure much.

Awesome that Oinky's eggs are doing so well and the eggs in the incubator are developing! I hope Inky's eggs are doing well, too - does she still have all the four of her eggs?
Fingers crossed for all of them

 

[StepfordCuckoos]

Awesome that Oinky's eggs are doing so well and the eggs in the incubator are developing! I hope Inky's eggs are doing well, too - does she still have all the four of her eggs?
Fingers crossed for all of them

Thank you!!
I actually moved all of the ordered eggs (that were under Oinky) to be under Inky. I noticed that Oinky's eggs were far more developed than I initially thought. I'm going to give the eggs under Inky a few more days before I really start to worry about the ones that don't appear to be developing.

 

[StepfordCuckoos]

Not so happy update. I checked on the eggs last night and the two under Oinky were missing. Those two were not the shipped eggs (they are her eggs- or our other silkie's eggs). I was so excited to babies from our silkies and they were very close to hatching. We believe a snake may have gotten in and ate them. That's the only thing we can think of. Today I went out and bought some stuff to repel snakes, so hopefully that helps.

 

[StepfordCuckoos]

We are also about to get a very large storm here. I am hoping we don't lose power. If we do, I'm not sure what to do about our incubator

 

[Chickeria]

Not so happy update. I checked on the eggs last night and the two under Oinky were missing. Those two were not the shipped eggs (they are her eggs- or our other silkie's eggs). I was so excited to babies from our silkies and they were very close to hatching. We believe a snake may have gotten in and ate them. That's the only thing we can think of. Today I went out and bought some stuff to repel snakes, so hopefully that helps.

Oh no - I'm so sorry. That's so sad.
Hopefully the repellant helps

We are also about to get a very large storm here. I am hoping we don't lose power. If we do, I'm not sure what to do about our incubator

Fingers crossed you get well over the storm and aren't going to lose power
There are threads where people had to bridge time without power while incubating - I remember one where a one hour drive had to be bridged, but I know a power lose can be much longer. Perhaps you could put the eggs from the incubator under Oinky if there will be a power failure (if she is still broody)?

 

[StepfordCuckoos]

Oh no - I'm so sorry. That's so sad.
Hopefully the repellant helps


Fingers crossed you get well over the storm and aren't going to lose power
There are threads where people had to bridge time without power while incubating - I remember one where a one hour drive had to be bridged, but I know a power lose can be much longer. Perhaps you could put the eggs from the incubator under Oinky if there will be a power failure (if she is still broody)?

Yes, she's still broody. I went and checked on her this morning and she had actually gotten out of her nesting box, and rolled an egg that was next to the box (I suspected it was rotten and planned to throw it out but forgot last night) out in front of her nesting box and was sitting on it D: It was so sad. I did take that one away and give her one of Inky's eggs.

If I lose power and take the incubator eggs out and place them under her, can I put them back in the incubator once the power comes back? Or do you think that would be a bad idea?

 

[Chickeria]

Yes, she's still broody. I went and checked on her this morning and she had actually gotten out of her nesting box, and rolled an egg that was next to the box (I suspected it was rotten and planned to throw it out but forgot last night) out in front of her nesting box and was sitting on it D: It was so sad. I did take that one away and give her one of Inky's eggs.

If I lose power and take the incubator eggs out and place them under her, can I put them back in the incubator once the power comes back? Or do you think that would be a bad idea?

Awww Oinky is so determined
I'm sorry, I'm not experienced enough to know for sure, but I guess it wouldn't be a problem to place the eggs under her and then put them back in the incubator when the power ccomes back and the incubator runs long enough to have the right temperature and humidity back.
I recommend to ask your question in the incubation-theme area, so more experienced people than me can give advice.