day 21 and still nothing :-(

[mandymoo]

this waiting is killing me lol!

halfway through day 21 now, and no rocking,no peeping...nothing

my humidity's pretty level at 70-71% this isn't too high is it? i don't want to close the air vents at all cos i know the chicks will need more oxygen as they're hatching

anybody else out there watching and waiting on their babies arriving? the hours are going by unbelievably slowly!

 

[dejavoodoo114]

I know exactly what you are going through! This was our first year trying to hatch eggs and we went through this the first THREE times with NO success at all. Talk about disappointing! We switched to the dry hatch method this last time, we have an old redwood incubator, and we had chicks hatching from day 20 to day 23. A total of 25 hatched all told. Turns out our humidity was too high through the whole process and particularly at the end when we brought it to 60-70%. If you don't have luck this time, open them up and if they are formed then you drowned them like we did. Look up the dry hatch method.
Keep in mind I am new to this. Hopefully someone more experienced will chime in. Also, under no circumstances should you open the door from day 19 - 23ish. Somehow we missed that important tidbit...
Good Luck!

 

[mandymoo]

thanks...it's nerve racking isn't it!

i had my humidity at around 40% for the first 18 days then upped it to 70%

i'm not sure if dry incubation would work for me as i'm in the UK and we don't have humid weather...just rain and cold most of the time lol!

i am trying so hard not to keep going in the room where the bator is, but i can't! i'm looking in there every half hour!!

 

[mandymoo]

yaay!!

3 pips this morning! halfway through day 21, and i was just checking the humidity at 8am UK time, and saw 3 teeny tiny pips!

put the radio in the room with them to keep them company lol!

i'm absolutely buzzing!! was honestly convinced i'd done something wrong, especially as i checked my duck eggs in the other bator, and they were all dead apart from 1. mind you, when i got them, all their air sacs were really mushed up and floating/breaking up all over the place,so i wasn't holding out much hope

but hey! i got 3 pips on my chicken eggs!! sooo excited!!

 

[redneckchickens]

We are hatching our first batch too! we are just about colpleting day 20 .. tomorrow is day 21! the eggs have been rocking and i heard peeping for the first time this evening! must be getting close to see external pipping

 

[chickenlife01]

I am too hatching! Day 21 and so far 7 chicks! Yay! Chicken people. LOL.

 

[mandymoo]

aw i've got 4 up to now, day 22, and another's just started to pip!

 

[redneckchickens]

2 hatched so far one more has external pipped

 

[mandymoo]

it's so exciting isn't it lol! i'm in and out of their room,as if i'm on a piece of elastic!

i've got 5 hatched now,and another one pipped about an hour ago

the last one that hatched tho can't hold her head up properly yet,and she's got something stuck to her bottom! think it might be a little piece of dried yolk...didn't help that one of the chicks in the incubator thinks she has to help them hatch! she keeps pecking at the shells and pulling pieces off! so i think this last chick hatched a little early before it was ready,thanks to an impatient sibling lol!

 

[deejeff442]

your killin me. i am also a 1st timer .i have 10 eggs in there and on day 19 for me. i have a few i put in 2 days after the first 7 so i figure to take them off the turner tomorrow. looks like you all are having fun.