Confessions of a Nervous Nellie

[hippiehen]

I have wanted an incubator for a couple years now and this spring I was finally able to buy one! So I'm incubating for the first time and I have been a nervous wreck about it... and I think it's only going to get worse! I did tons of research, bought a good bator, 3 thermometers, humidity is right - I know I'm doing ok but I'm such a nervous Nellie!

I do have one unanswered question and I saw this post somewhere before but I can't seem to find it again. When you incubate eggs, exactly what day do you count as day one? The day you set them or at the first 24 hour mark? I want to be sure I go in to lockdown at just the right time. I set the eggs at noon on the 23rd, do I need to go into lockdown at noon on the 18th day or just anytime? I'm too scared to candle them... I don't want to touch anything! I have a habit of breaking things!

AND! To make matters worse, I have two hens and a duck all sitting on eggs and thiers and mine are all due to hatch within 5 days of each other!!

Gah!! I'm such a basketcase! I had to move one hen to the broodie house, currently occupied by an EE with 4 chicks, the other hen is ok where she is so far but the duck has her nest out in the field in the salt grass so we had to rig up and fence with hot wire and 2 live traps to be safe! Plus I have a guard dog! And I still get up with the spotlight every time the dog barks to make sure nothing is bothering Pennie!!

IS IT MID APRIL YET?????

Broody 1

Broody 2

Broody 3

 

[CCourson05]

The first day is the day after you set... So your hatch date is 21 days from the day you set... The same day of the week as you set them.

 

[mychookschick]

Wow! Sounds like fun! LOL... I have only had ONE broody so far and I only got ONE chick from her! LOL! I hope for more broodies in the spring and I'm going to ask for an incubator for my birthday! I probably won't get it, but I want one sooo bad!

I wish you luck with your hatch! I can imagine how nervous (sp?) you must be! I'm sure all will come out well and you will have lots of chicks and ducklings running around!

 

[kaitlyn_rae2003]

Hi and congrats on all your broodies! I am nervous too!! this is my first time with hatching anything! I have 29 in the inubator, and 6 or 7 under a first time broody hen. YIKES She went broody on friday, and I set my eggs saturday at 6pm.

my latest issues are whether or not to move my broody hen, and if so, where, i have only 1 heated coop and i am in NH and no one here has learned spring has sprung...its still freezing. AND I think i have porous eggs, which really stinks. I need all the help i can get to begin with! Time will tell I guess.

 

[gryeyes]

Average chicken egg incubation is 21 days. Look at it this way:
Day 1 is the first full day of incubation, so it's the day AFTER you set the eggs. For an example, look at the month of May in a 2011 calendar - say you set your eggs on Sunday the 1st. Monday May 2nd is Day 1. The 21st day after that is the 22nd of May, a Sunday, which is the same day of the week you set the eggs. The day you set the eggs is basically Day 0.

Notice that Day 21 is the same day of the week as day 0.

You lock down the 'bator on day 18, and days 19, 20 and 21 are the three days of "lock down" for an AVERAGE hatch. Average means "most" but it also means some chicks hatch before then and some hatch afterwards.