Beginner's Hatch-A-Long

[wolfandfinch]

thanks for the warm welcome! No one will know about my doing this "illegally" unless I mess up and don't get the roosters out before they start crowing I just need to make sure I get them out of here fast enough, and I haven't got a complete plan for that yet. I will probably end up taking a bunch to auction and just hoping the 7 I keep are definitely pullets.

That hatch story sounded horrible! I'm so sorry it was so harrowing. Now I am worried I won't be around as much for the kids' hatch since it's in the school. The teacher has done this before but it was forever ago so she doesn't know what to do.

Any tips? Our day 21 will be a Monday. I'll be able to go in first thing at 9am and then again from lunch time on. The Tuesday after I work the full day. Day 23 I could be there several times a day as I work from home. EEK!

I will be bringing them home the Friday after they hatch.

Also I didn't get to see much when I candled. The room was so bright. I'll bring a blanket to hide under next time, which will be next Friday.

 

[Mamahumecky]

oo my backyard mixes are any combination of these
- Speckled Sussex
- Dominique
- Blue-laced Red Wyandottes
- Ameraucana
which is cool they are all appearing that they are going to hatch so i'm excited.

 

[ivyrash]

Day 14 for me. Started out with 18 frizzle bantam cochin of which one was rotten early, three never really started growing so that makes 14 left and I am not sure about one of those at this point.

Of three silver duck wing eggs, one died in the egg, it had eyes and a beak but it was dead for sure so two of those left

20 americana cross eggs with blue shells are too dark to see much so I have no idea, they will probably all hatch cause they haven't been messed with at all.

What do you do if the air sack doesn't seem to be growing like it should? I have put very little water in at all but it is so humid right now it is impossible to take it out. Any ideas?

 

[sarasweatman]

Day 14 for me. Started out with 18 frizzle bantam cochin of which one was rotten early, three never really started growing so that makes 14 left and I am not sure about one of those at this point.

Of three silver duck wing eggs, one died in the egg, it had eyes and a beak but it was dead for sure so two of those left

20 americana cross eggs with blue shells are too dark to see much so I have no idea, they will probably all hatch cause they haven't been messed with at all.

What do you do if the air sack doesn't seem to be growing like it should? I have put very little water in at all but it is so humid right now it is impossible to take it out. Any ideas?

You can run a dehumidifier if you have one.

 

[ivyrash]

You can run a dehumidifier if you have one.

Nope, don't have one.

 

[FFAChickenFan]

So, I'm running my eggs in an incubator thats been used many times successfully by a family friend, but I recently bought a thermometer (Taylor Indoor) to measure temp and Humidity- just to be safe- and now it seems like I'm not getting the temperature I should be (i'm not entirely sure of the reliability of the thermometer, even though its brand new). Should I be worried if its been reading about 98.5 instead of the 100 degrees that the incubator assures it will electronically maintain? Theres a sticker and everything on the incubator window that states thermometers should not be trusted, and that the incubator has been fine tuned to keep a steady 100 degrees, but I'm still a little nervous.

Also, as a guess effort, I put a warm jar of water into the incubator with the hopes that it will help boost the temp a bit.

Thoughts? Everything else seems to be going normally, although i wont candle for the first time until thursday.

 

[dutchbunny83]

Last chick just hatched.
The only blue french copper maran that hatched, so very happy to get this little one.
Total hatch was 12 (6 from an online order of 18, 5 from an online order of 12, and 1 from an online order of 4)
Not great results, but could be worse.....
Had no choice but to go to mail order eggs for the ones we wanted.
Fingers crossed there's some good hens in there, I really don't need roos.....

 

[ivyrash]

So, I'm running my eggs in an incubator thats been used many times successfully by a family friend, but I recently bought a thermometer (Taylor Indoor) to measure temp and Humidity- just to be safe- and now it seems like I'm not getting the temperature I should be (i'm not entirely sure of the reliability of the thermometer, even though its brand new). Should I be worried if its been reading about 98.5 instead of the 100 degrees that the incubator assures it will electronically maintain? Theres a sticker and everything on the incubator window that states thermometers should not be trusted, and that the incubator has been fine tuned to keep a steady 100 degrees, but I'm still a little nervous.

Also, as a guess effort, I put a warm jar of water into the incubator with the hopes that it will help boost the temp a bit.

Thoughts? Everything else seems to be going normally, although i wont candle for the first time until thursday.

did you calibrate any of the thermometers?

 

[FFAChickenFan]

did you calibrate any of the thermometers?

No, I didnt want to mess with it because it was brand new. I'm not sure how I would calibrate this, either.

 

[ivyrash]

I'm not sure what to tell you. I have used several different thermometers to try to maintain good temps. The best thing to do is calibrate to make sure it is doing what it is supposed to. You can use a glass of ice water and put the probe in and see if it reads 32. I don't know how you would calibrate if there is no probe.