December Hatch-A-Long 2014

[Purpletie3]

I have one little silkie out playing pool with the other eggs~ One pipped at 3 pm Monday... Day 21 starts at 2 pm for me...Still sitting on my hands!!! And it got soooo cold here that my bator wants to hang at 99.1...98.9... I did log about 4 1/2 hours of sleep!

Anyone else hatching today???

 

[PD-Riverman]

Aggghhhhh!

egg cartons, no egg cartons? I keep going back and forth and can't make up my mind and lockdown will be Wednesday morning. I'm freaking out here thinking about all the little details. Like I was planning on putting that rubber mat (like you use to line your kitchen cabinets with) and I bought the tubing for fish tanks so that I can put it through the holes on the top of the bator to add water while in lockdown then I realized with the mat being on top of the wire I'm going to need to cut holes in it so I will be able to stick the tubing where the water wells are. But in order to know where to cut my holes I'm going to need to have the lid off the incubator for a bit.

And again I still can't decide if I want to put my eggs in the egg cartons to hatch or leave them lying on their sides like they have been. It's a big incubator and I just have a few eggs so I am afraid they will get knocked around quite a bit by hatched chicks.

I've been having to add water every few hours today in order to keep my humidity up (the rain we had last week was so nice for my humidity) so I have a feeling I'm going to be adding water all day during lockdown which makes me so nervous to go to sleep at night and not be adding water for at least 6 hours!! I am going to be a wreck the rest of this week!!

Incubating chicken eggs must be like being pregnant and having a baby because at this point I'm thinking oh my gosh I can never do this again because it's so stressful but I have a feeling once I see those cute little fluffy butts I'm gonna forget about all this craziness and be like oh ya let's do that again!!

Mercy You got me stressed---LOL. Incubating should NOT be stressful, I have 275 eggs in my big incubator right now and I am as calm as can be---lol I know we all are different. ""I"" would just put the eggs on their side--no carton and for sure No Mat under them. I have had 50/60 eggs in a rack and the early hatchers roll them around---But almost 100% of the eggs hatch.

If you do not want them rolling you can cut about 1/4" thick slices off a piece of pvc pipe--probably 1' or 1 1/4" what ever works best for your eggs(reuse them for Many years) put them in your incubator so the eggs will not roll. I would suggest you use rings big enough that the egg is not setting on it---where the eggs has room for a slight movement. If you want you can go to Lowes/Hardware store and buy O-rings to use, you can buy steel round rings, you can go to the dollar store and get some wider rubber bands to use, you can cut some rings out of paper towel tubes(they just do not last for repeat usage) Etc, Etc --LOL. Stop Stressing!!!

OH Edited to add---As far as adding water, you can use a turkey injector thing with a long needle to add water right in the side(below the wire floor) of some styrofoam incubators that have the water slots that come to the edge(drill a hole in the side where needed). The ones that do not you can lay tubing right on the wire floor rack(have the end where needed for the water to go into the reservoirs)--secure with bread ties---drill a hole in the side of the incubator where needed for the tube to stick out a little---use the turkey injector stuck in the tube to add water. So what you do when you are going into lock down is quickly add this tube(s) so you do not have to open the top during lock-down to add water Or try to hit the right spot with a flex straw through a vent hole. Just use a plug to close these holes in the side when not in usage.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I have one little silkie out playing pool with the other eggs~ One pipped at 3 pm Monday... Day 21 starts at 2 pm for me...Still sitting on my hands!!! And it got soooo cold here that my bator wants to hang at 99.1...98.9... I did log about 4 1/2 hours of sleep!

Anyone else hatching today???

You can lay a folded up towel over the top of the incubator or set it down inside a card board box with the top partly open or cut the bottom out of a cardboard box big enough to set over the incubator also leaving the top partly open-------to insulate it some so the temp will get up to normal. Good Luck!!

I hatch every week but not today!

 

[aidensmomma]

Hatching will get less stressful each time...if you figure out that the chicks know what they're doing

I am on day 23 and one of my Maran eggs is zipping as I type which I am SUPER excited for. i am SO grateful for this forum because I would've given up on that egg if it hadn't been for a reply someone wrote mentioning the length of time for dark eggs was longer in their experience. (Whoever that was, THANK YOU THANK YOU!

)
And yes, just like pregnancy, you stress a little less each time because you figure out babies have been birthing and eggs have been hatching for many many years and your stress is not going to make a difference!!! Good luck to everyone, my final count is as follows: out of 18 eggs I had 7 clear, 2 undeveloped, 2 still in the incubator, probably undeveloped, 3 light Brahmas, 2 RIR, 1 Dominique, and 1 FBC Maran. Brings my happy little backyard flock to 23 furry babies Happy Tuesday!

 

[PD-Riverman]

the length of time for dark eggs was longer in their experience.

Glad you are having a good hatch!!!

Just some info on "my" experience----As most of you know I hatch 100's and hundreds of eggs per month. The Black copper/cuckoo Marans etc hatch in the same time as my white leghorns. Alot of the silkies I hatch usually hatch a little earlier---but not all.

 

[Debs55]

Good luck to those of you hatching today!

I still only have 2 chicks out. Not exactly sure what went wrong with incubator #1. I am going to let it run a few more days just in case there are any really late ones. Then I am taking the parts out of it and doing another cooler bator cause it is way easier to keep humidity in the one cooler bator I have

Lockdown for incubator #2 was last night. I had to pull a few marans eggs that didn't even have air cells and I only have 3 splash silkie eggs left which were the ones I was really looking forward to. I do have 6 sizzle eggs left though so maybe I will get some good colors to work with

 

[Purpletie3]

Good luck to those of you hatching today!

I still only have 2 chicks out. Not exactly sure what went wrong with incubator #1. I am going to let it run a few more days just in case there are any really late ones. Then I am taking the parts out of it and doing another cooler bator cause it is way easier to keep humidity in the one cooler bator I have

Lockdown for incubator #2 was last night. I had to pull a few marans eggs that didn't even have air cells and I only have 3 splash silkie eggs left which were the ones I was really looking forward to. I do have 6 sizzle eggs left though so maybe I will get some good colors to work with

Sorry about your first incubator. Hope the splash and sizzle come out great!!!! I am super excited about my hatch....My sizzles are trying to hatch now...one is out yesterday and pip yesterday and two pip this am out of 6. No splash action (6 left) yet but day 21 for me starts at 2 pm...

 

[ChickenLady2014]

Hatching will get less stressful each time...if you figure out that the chicks know what they're doing   I am on day 23 and one of my Maran eggs is zipping as I type which I am SUPER excited for.  i am SO grateful for this forum because I would've given up on that egg if it hadn't been for a reply someone wrote mentioning the length of time for dark eggs was longer in their experience. (Whoever that was, THANK YOU THANK YOU! )
And yes, just like pregnancy, you stress a little less each time because you figure out babies have been birthing and eggs have been hatching for many many years and your stress is not going to make a difference!!! Good luck to everyone, my final count is as follows:  out of 18 eggs I had 7 clear, 2 undeveloped, 2 still in the incubator, probably undeveloped, 3 light Brahmas, 2 RIR, 1 Dominique, and 1 FBC Maran.  Brings my happy little backyard flock to 23 furry babies   Happy Tuesday!

Congrats on the new fuzzy butts, pictures please.....

 

[LindaB220]

I'm not pulling anything. I'm just wondering about the air cell. I never marked them so I'm wondering.

And I don't plan on touching them again until day 7, unless everyone thinks that later is better. I was just curious. Never done this before.

That's what I do. I can never see good enough to do any markings so I just leave them alone unless they are clear. You can tell those.

 

[Debs55]

Sorry about your first incubator. Hope the splash and sizzle come out great!!!! I am super excited about my hatch....My sizzles are trying to hatch now...one is out yesterday and pip yesterday and two pip this am out of 6. No splash action (6 left) yet but day 21 for me starts at 2 pm...

oh yay thats exciting!