Eggs are here :)Paganbirds and MagsC's hatching thread!!UpdateMarch16!

[Paganbird]

I put containers with spones in the bottom tray. I always have sponges & water in front of the fan, but I add the bottom sponges when I have a lockdown.
I have tubing running onto the sponges so I can fill the water without opening the door.
When I run the 'bator and hatcher separately, I keep the temp at about 97-98 degrees. The slightly lower temp helps the humidity stay up. Then, I only have to have the water/sponges by the fan.

ETA: I prefer to use a separate hatcher, but the cabinet hatcher is heavy & would need to be moved down stairs. No matter how careful I am, hatching still makes a mess. It puts all that "down dust" in the 'bator & the shells end up in the bottom under the tray no matter how many layers of shelf liner I put down.
At hatch time, it is easier, but there's more clean-up at the end. I guess it's just a matter of personal preference.
Since I'm only doing a couple batches, I'll just clean it all out when these hatches are over. Normally, I would wait until the end of the season (fall) to take the 'bator outside for cleaning, disinfecting, and some fresh air & sunshine. I just clean the metal trays & egg trays before setting each new batch. (They can go through the dishwasher.)

 

[MagsC]

Yay!!!! Today I got three of my four packages I was expecting.

Silkie/sizzles and button quail from Paganbird, silkies from oberhaslikid (sp?) and salmon faverolle crosses with three purebred salmon faverolles from Cloverleaf. That made my day.
I dont want to set them until the ones from chickenlittle32 get here as I dont wish to stagger the hatch.
They ALL arrived here safely, none broken.
LOL, and wrapped well!!! It took me a while to carefully unwrap each egg.
I am on later, I crashed last night and slept too late so it backed up everything else I had to get done today. (Though I was up at 5 to turn eggs and take dogs outside.) Moving kind of slow but happy I am at least mobile!!
I just turned eggs for the second time today and now have misted and cooling off the duck eggs.
Ooooo....a cabinet hatcher!!! Now thats a hatching addicts dream.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

Oh yeah, I was going to say, in Cloverleafs batch of eggs, I got another color, light green,lol!! I have most of the rainbow now except for the really dark maran type eggs.

 

[Paganbird]

LOL!!!
I bet you had a fun time unwrapping the button eggs!
(Sorry!)
Did I send you enough?
LOL!

 

[MagsC]

Yes and Yes!

I didnt mind unwrapping the button eggs,(it took me a while

) you sent me plenty,lol. THANK YOU (and thank you to everyone else as well)
My daughter isnt home yet but she is going to be excited about these little button eggs, the silkie/sizzles and the silkie eggs.
Another thing, everyone sent me extra eggs! I never expect it, but its always a very nice surprise.

 

[MagsC]

Going to be setting the new eggs tomorrow or tomorrow evening provided the other eggs get here.
So far so good with the eggs currently incubating. Out of curiousity, I went ahead and candled Phoenix's four eggs again, they all still look great.

Over the weekend I plan on candling everything one more time and tossing what I absolutely KNOW isnt viable.
My daughter came home from school and as predicted, fell in love with the little button quail eggs!! I think even more so than the silkie/sizzle and silkie eggs but she is happy about those as well.
Hers will go into the incubator with my eggs.(The new incubator I got set up) We had thought about doing them separately but I have a couple glitches to get worked out with my other incubators, so its all about the room,lol.

 

[MagsC]

Well, the other package has not made it here yet so I am going to put these into the incubator. If it gets here tomorrow, they will only be a day or so behind.
Havent checked my calendar yet, but if I am right, our first chicken hatch of 2010 will be happening in about a week!

 

[Paganbird]

I have 11 eggs due today, but as I predicted, they have done NOTHING yet. I think they're waiting for tomorrow. I'll be gone most of the day, so they can all hatch while I'm not here.

The only thing exciting today is that I was able to get another outlet for selling my eggs. I've got to drop off a few dozen for a local store to "trial" sell. I'm hoping it works out well. Last month was the very first time we broke even with chicken expenses. It's rather nice for the ladies to pay their own way. I could get used to it!
I have 2 more sets of eggs coming, then no more hatching until summer.

At least not until they come out & test the flock this year.

 

[MagsC]

Maybe they will hatch tonight???

Congrats on the outlet for selling more eggs!!
I will be hatching chicken eggs now and then concentrating on the pre-sales as they come in. The chukar eggs arent going to come in for another couple weeks or so because he says the weather is supposed to turn really crappy. Thats fine, I can concentrate on what I have now, it will give me more time to focus on those eggs when they come in because these will HOPEFULLY be hatched.
Also, good luck on your NPIP certification!

 

[Paganbird]

Day 22 and not a single pip yet.

The waiting wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have the issues with the bloodrings earlier. Now I'm worried that they aren't going to hatch. I've never had a 0% hatch rate. I hope they hurry up and at least pip so that I know they're alive in there!

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
IM on day 22 too:-( 2 chicks out of 25 so far my temp got to 94 degrees and would not go up for at least 12 hours at lockdown..So Im sure that screwed it all up