Day 17 -- Buttons Running Amok In The Hatcher

[Peacerose]

I've got a lovely hatch happening. What a delight after a sad and difficult week! Thank God! I looked at the eggs about 6:30pm. Nothing. Added a sponge and the only therm/hygro I could find today. When I checked again around 10pm, the place was seething with chicks -- peeping loudly.

The hatcher is a second hovabator I got on ebay. It arrived in time for lockdown with these eggs.

Used the upright hatching method for the first time. Looks like I'll be using it again! I counted 13 out of 24 hatched so far.

I'm especially desperate for some female buttons. Right now I have 2 hens and 7 roos.

It's very windy in a certain part of the house.

 

[Caribear]

Congratulations on the little fuzzies! So cute!

I noticed you hatch upright in a carton, do you find you have better luck with that? I have been thinking about doing it that way since the babies that hatch stir up the pipping eggs so badly. Do you have a turner in your incubator? How do you prepare the carton for hatching? Sorry for all the questions. I would really like to improve my hatch rate and am thinking this may help a lot.

Thanks!

 

[Peacerose]

Decided to use the upright hatching method because I thought it would help improve my hatch rate. It seemed like my eggs weren't drying out inside before hatching and then the chicks would drown inside.

Plus the problem of the first hatched chicks playing soccer with the other eggs! I've been reading Moby's posts and got learned about upright from him.

All you have to do to get the carton ready is poke the "sticking up part" of the carton with a pocket knife and wiggle it around to open a hole. If you look real close at the picture you can see where I poked the holes.

I have a turner in my incubator (still air hovabator), so now that I am using a second hovabator as a hatcher, don't have to stop the turner and remove it. I just move the eggs for lockdown to the second hovabator. Right now there are several small batched of eggs in the turner and it is convenient to divide them by putting each batch in a seperate rack of the turner.

And a special update: One more chick hatched this morning, so we're up to 14/24.