you sound so organized!!Oh, how I wish I'd joined in earlier. This is my very first hatch, I have 9 black Barnevelder eggs in the incubator and they're on day 15. Here's the rundown so far:
I ordered 8 eggs, the seller sent 10. They were really well cushioned and packaged, but the box looked like the post office had played street hockey with it. One egg had a puncture in the shell and was leaking, so it was discarded immediately. The rest were intact, no cracks when candled, but at least 2 had detached air cells that rolled around the shell. I numbered them for tracking purposes, let them sit in an egg carton for 24 hours with the blunt end up, then set them in the incubator.
I'm using a LG styrofoam still air incubator, but modified. I installed a 120mm PC fan (with blue LEDs, so it lights the incubator a bit. Wasn't my first choice, but it was the only one of the salvaged fans that worked perfectly) and I have a small aquarium pump outside of the incubator pumping in fresh air via a piece of airline tubing.
I'm charting everything, noting temps and humidity at each turning, so I guess my OCD actually comes in handy sometimes. It took me a while to get the hang of candling them because they're pretty dark brown, but eggs #1, 3, 5, and 9 developed exactly like the pictures on this forum said they should. I candled again last night and those are moving around and very active.Eggie #7 seemed to be developing at first but last night I couldn't see any movement and the dark area isn't nearly as large as the active babies' eggs. I'm fairly certain that it's not viable, but left it in anyway since I'm definitely not a pro and could be wrong. It has no odor at all, so I just segregated it on the other side of the incubator from the active babies. Eggs 2,4,6,and 8 appear to be completely clear, but again I'm no pro so I'll leave them be unless they give off any sort of odor.
It's kinda funny, the closer it gets to day 21, the more nervous I get. I have my brooder all set up and all that has to be done is turning on the heat lamp a bit ahead of the expected hatch date. The coop is 1/2 done and the run will go up quick since I opted to get a used chain link dog kennel for cheap and modify it with a wrapping of hardware cloth and chicken wire, plus screening over the top with the same to keep our resident hawks out. I made a feeder and waterer for the chicks out of clean plastic bottles and food containers, the waterer is a plastic drink bottle (cleaned and bleached first) with a chicken nipple screwed into the lid, then the whole thing stuck into a plastic mesh fruit bag so that I can hang it in the brooder. I've leak-tested it, no drips but I still plan to put a small shallow dish under it to keep it from wetting the bedding.
*whew* That was longer than I planned but I think I've covered everything. Any glaring problems or mistakes, or anything else I need to do or not do? I'd happily accept any pointers or tips!
welcome,
hows the humidity?
