I'm sitting on my hands trying not to candle too soon. It's an eye strain trying to see immature veining and the Marans portion wouldn't show this early anyways. Trying to wait until next Sunday!
The new set-up has been running pretty good so far.
Those little Seramas are cute! I've hatched them from shipped eggs once, of 12 I got 6. Not bad at all! Turned out to be 3 pair too, so it was a blessed hatch! LOL
I've changed my ways on helping chicks hatch. I used to be very involved/too involved, leading to issues for later chicks getting shrink wrapped. I don't open the incubator for at least 24-48 hours from first pip unless I spot an issue. I did have to break my rule for removing a string off goo that had wrapped around a leg, if the goo dries/hardens that way it could have been problematic to the leg.
Took awhile for me to learn the part about being patient. When I do have to help, dabbing warm water on the membrane let's me know if enough absorption has occurred for me to proceed without hitting a bleeder. I give them ample time to have that phase done.
Usually though, once a hatch is done and I finally open the lid, the only remaining eggs are those that failed to pip at all. Upon further inspections they had passed before starting to absorb the yolk. So now when going into lockdown, I candle for movement and position them in the incubator based on if I had seen movement or not. For example, movers on the left and quiet ones on the right. If the left side hatches on day 21 and there's nothing from the right side at the end of day 22, then I know that hatch is pretty much done. It works great until an especially perky baby rearranges all of the eggs!
