Third time is a charm with this hatch-a-long participant.
My first attempt at hatching eggs led to two drowned chicks and a 'bator full of unfertiles - I think the eggs were handled incorrectly prior to pickup. Plus I had the humidity too high.
I ordered four dozen shipped purebred eggs for attempt number two, and a faulty thermometer led to eggs getting too hot, and none hatched.
So I bought a dozen eating eggs from a local flock, and augmented those 12 with some eggs from two hens I bought that had been with a rooster, and put 18 into the incubator with two old fashioned glass thermometers, that agreed on the temp so I felt comfortable with the heat issue.
I went with a mostly dry hatch, adding a squirt of water from a baster every few days or so, and at lockdown put paper towels in under the wire mesh to hold moisture for the final few days.
Well, I now have a half dozen live babies in the brooder, and ten eggs still doing nothing in the 'bator.
I'll give these 10 another day, as this is still just day 22 and they may still be viable, but then I'll recandle and do an egg-topsy to determine when they quit.
Most were brown eggs but I really wanted the two green eggs to hatch, and eventually add some variety to my egg basket. No luck.
Maybe the Americaunas will be fashionably late and hatch today.
After two disastrous attempts, it was great to wake up on Sunday to the sound of the hatching chicks moving around on the wire, and chirping to their hatchmates to join them outside the egg. Even a less than 50% result is good, compared to the previous two total failures.
Now we wait to see if therre are a proportionate number of hens in this little hatch. Can't keep the roosters as town ordinance and neighbors have had their say earlier this spring, and my roos had to go.
I wish I had a broody hen out in the coop - I'd slip these babies under her at night and let her do the rest.
