Candeling and hatching diary.

[Lacrystol]

Day 22 and I woke up to 17 white leghorn chicks playing soccer with the other 11 eggs. Out of the remaining eggs all but 2 have externally pipped, one is WL and the other is an EExRIR. None of my hybrids have made it out of their shells yet, although there is a ton of unzipping going in. Those shells are THICK! Hopefully they will make it out while I'm at work, not sure how long my rooster will be able to reliably fertilize the hens.

SOCCER, WOW, they don't sound LAZY to me, What activite little buggers. LOL...

 

[sasimpson77]

I'm not giving up but I'm not going to expect a lot either... but I'm going to keep trying.

Today is literally day 21 on set two.

I gotta have some amount of better success than set one to know that I'm learning.

But in other news, my giant shower stall brooder is full of happy, healthy, cheeky babies so there's always that. And I'm getting lots of wonderful eggs from my year old ducks. Set three is doing better so far than set two, and set two did better than set one so there's that.

Just curious, all of you super hatchers, what was your first attempts at hatching with incubators like? Super good, not so good? How did you feel about it and stuff?

I don't consider myself a super hatcher at all but I can tell you how my hatches went if you would like.

Hatch #1 42 eggs 0 hatch 30 made it to hatch along none even pipped
Hatch #2 42 eggs about the same amount made it to lockdown 3 live hatches
Hatch #3 42 eggs to lock down 6 chic ks 3 healthy surviving chicks
Switched to Cabinet incubator
Hatch #4 58 made it to lockdown 48 chicks 47 surviving chicks
Hatch #5 30 eggs to lockdown (very bad air cells and rough lock down) 13 surviving chicks (these chicks had a hard time lost one last night and still have a couple struggling to walk)
Hatch #6 In progress Quail eggs had internal and external pips this morning may have runners this afternoon) Forgot to count the eggs over 30 though.

I really think my issue in the beginning was a temperature issue because I was going off a acurite thermometer which read 3 degrees warmer then it actually was also think the styro bators were not good also I had one batch of eggs where the temperature spiked and killed all 42 eggs that were from day 10 -day 14 was very sad.

 

[Chick CJ]

I'm not giving up but I'm not going to expect a lot either... but I'm going to keep trying.

Today is literally day 21 on set two.

I gotta have some amount of better success than set one to know that I'm learning.

But in other news, my giant shower stall brooder is full of happy, healthy, cheeky babies so there's always that. And I'm getting lots of wonderful eggs from my year old ducks. Set three is doing better so far than set two, and set two did better than set one so there's that.

Just curious, all of you super hatchers, what was your first attempts at hatching with incubators like? Super good, not so good? How did you feel about it and stuff?

Definitely not a super hatcher here, just hatched my first ever with an incubator. I used a Hovabator 1588 because after all the research I did, it seemed to be a good first place to start. (lots of classrooms use these and they are supposed to be pretty foolproof) Temp and humidity were extremely stable throughout the process but I was expecting the humidity to go up quite a bit more than it did at lockdown and it only went up to 55%. It didn't go up further until all the chicks started hatching and then it was up around 72%. I went into "lockdown" with 32 eggs and have 28 hatched. Lost one that pipped and died and three more bantams are still currently in the bator but not sure if they will hatch. The may have gotten too jostled while all the other chicks were hatching. It gets kind of frantic in there! Anyway, I think it was fairly successful.

CJ

 

[Sclark73]

Well here is one of the brooders I just about have finished. It's sitting on my old one from last year, I do have to put legs on it yet or just let it sit on the table.

 

[Chick Phil A]

Now up to 26 of 28 hatched! Will candle the last two later tonight when I move the chicks into the brooder, neither of the remaining eggs has an external pip.

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

Now up to 26 of 28 hatched!  Will candle the last two later tonight when I move the chicks into the brooder, neither of the remaining eggs has an external pip.

Whoot whoot!! Mine went on lockdown this morning.

 

[Sclark73]

Now up to 26 of 28 hatched! Will candle the last two later tonight when I move the chicks into the brooder, neither of the remaining eggs has an external pip.

Wow great job!!

 

[HickoryHollow]

This is day 6 of my first attempt of incubating. I am about to head out and candle them. They are already numbered 1-26. All dark brown eggs so it is hard to see anything up to this point, but I am hoping tonight, I see progress. This really helped me to know some things to look for. Thanks for taking the time to take the pics.
Tim

 

[pinusresinosa]

What's the latest you all wait in lockdown? Just curious.

 

[sasimpson77]

This is day 6 of my first attempt of incubating. I am about to head out and candle them. They are already numbered 1-26. All dark brown eggs so it is hard to see anything up to this point, but I am hoping tonight, I see progress. This really helped me to know some things to look for. Thanks for taking the time to take the pics.
Tim

Ty I am going to try to resume taking pictures soon my next group of photos will consist of what an internal pip looks like candled and an external pip looks like I have leg horn eggs going into lock down on Wed. they are white eggs and I think they will be great to photo, also an external pip and next weekend I will live stream some actual hatches if at all possible