*CHICKS are HERE!!!* Egg Candling Pics: Progression Though Incubation

[silkiechicken]

Thanks for the comments and congrats on all your hatches! Glad it is a useful thread. To answer the humidity question, I do not check my humidity. I just fill the tray in the bottom till full, let it run dry for a day, fill it up and repeat. On the last three days, I make sure it is always full. If the air cells are growing too fast or two slow, I adjust from there. I find temp more important.

 

[roxysmydog]

I put 21 black copper marans eggs into the incubator last Wednesday. I have an automatic egg turner so the only time I have opened the lid was to add more water. The humidity has been staying around 55% and then one night when I came home from work it dropped down to 43% so I figured it was time to add more water. Other than that, the temp has seemed to be a consistent 100 degrees. It's my first time so not sure how this will turn out but hoping for the best!

 

[lualshannon]

Thanks for the comments and congrats on all your hatches! Glad it is a useful thread. To answer the humidity question, I do not check my humidity. I just fill the tray in the bottom till full, let it run dry for a day, fill it up and repeat. On the last three days, I make sure it is always full. If the air cells are growing too fast or two slow, I adjust from there. I find temp more important. 

Your thread is very helpful! I recommended to several people, and they were quite thankful. Next time I will try your humidity technique.

 

[zippy722]

I have just read through all 65 pages of this thread. Wow, so much wonderful info. Thanks to SilkieChicken and all who have contributed over the years.

I bought eggs (for several different breeds) and had them shipped in since I don't have a productive rooster. I put 17 eggs under a broody hen (Louise), and 5 in the incubator. I candled the bator eggs on day 7 and made some notes, noting 1 was probably good, 1 was probably bad, and 3 iffy's. I decided to candle again last night on day 10, and thanks to the education here, I was able to determine one was definitely bad. Pulled it out. Saw movement in two of the remaining eggs. Talk about FREAKKY!! Loved seeing it. I want to keep candling. But the funny thing was today, I happen to witness Louise leave the nest, and I saw something white come off of her, as she (a black australorp) got to the outside run (about 20-30 ft from the nest). I didn't have the right shoes on to go into the run and check, but it sort of looked like an egg. When I got back home, I was able to inspect it, and sure enough, she had carried one of the nest eggs out of the nest, presumably under a wing, for quite a distance. When I looked at it, and did an eggtopsy on it and the one I pulled from the incubator, it turned out they were of the same breed, and both had black gooey blobs in the eggs. Turns out Louise is able to keep her nest clean (Mother Nature is so awesome!), and I am too thanks to the help from all of you. Louise's chicks are due on 11/7 and mine on 11/9. I'm figuring Louise will have a better hatch rate than I will. Hoping that I get several hens out of all of these. Because they were shipped, I'm expecting a lower hatch rate anyway. CAN.NOT.WAIT.FOR.ALL.OF.THE.CHICKS.!!!

 

[silkiechicken]

Your thread is very helpful! I recommended to several people, and they were quite thankful. Next time I will try your humidity technique.

I just wanted to note that in the PNW, the relative humidity in the house is between 50-80 year round, this might make a difference because I know my cali cousins have had single digit humidity levels! Unheard of here and might affect how well it works.

 

[lualshannon]

I just wanted to note that in the PNW, the relative humidity in the house is between 50-80 year round, this might make a difference because I know my cali cousins have had single digit humidity levels! Unheard of here and might affect how well it works. 

Thank you! I will take humidity level difference between our palaces into consideration. Save for the rainy season, our nudity is quite low rest of the year. This year, late spring to early summer had terrible difficulty raising it. I think if I thought of adding water manually as you do, would have solve the problem.

I believe, every thread should have a link to yours..

Lual

 

[lualshannon]

Thank you! I will take humidity level difference between our palaces into consideration. Save for the rainy season, our nudity is quite low rest of the year. This year, late spring to early summer had terrible difficulty raising it. I think if I thought of adding water manually as you do, would have solve the problem.

I believe, every thread should have a link to yours..

Lual

OMG! How embarrassing to make such terrible spelling mistake as I did in the above post, which was sent from my iPhone, which is difficult to type on. I have meant to say: places rather than palaces, and humidity instead of nudity.

Lual

 

[poultryqueen157]

Lol mine look lile 100 hrs

 

[scopechick]

This thread is SO helpful-- now I feel I know what to look for and will come back to review when the eggs arrive!

 

[highaltitudehen]

I'm on day 10 with the incubator at a constant 99.5 degrees, but it doesn't have a fan. I just read (above) that the temps should be higher if you don't have a fan. Hopefully things will turn out okay anyway!