Eggs in the mail

[Davaroo]

I'll find out what a "water weasel" is & see if they have one @ the little hardware store in Shabbona (6 miles, they open @ 9 or 10).

They wont. Look here at what it is:
http://www.homestead.com/shilala/weasel.html
Its just a water squeezy toy. $1.00 at WalMart. You put the probe of your digitherm into it to simulate an actual egg. Neat, huh?

Oh, and a Dr. Phil moment here - you and hubbub oughta talk about stuff. All that taking for granted is a bummer.​

 

[marie_martin]

Good luck with your hatch. Just remember that when you are new at this, the hatch rates are usually not as good. I just don't want you to get your ecpectations up too high. I hope you do get them all to hatch or at least 75% but just remember, the eggs still had to go through the postal service and even though the temps are good, they don't always handle with care. Good luck with your hatch and keep us posted. And you can get the water weasle, water wiggler at walmart or any dollar store. It is called a few different things. They are usually like .88 cents to a dollar.

Take care,

Marie

 

[TammyD]

Well, I ran by the hdwr store & got new batteries for the sending unit on my digital thermometer & now it appears to be working fine. I made my own water weasel (til I can get a "real" one) by filling 2 baggies 1/2 full with water & squeezing all the air out of them. I put both of them into another baggie & then put the probe of the therm in between the 2 water filled baggies & sealed the outer baggie across the top. I put some water into the channels in the bottom of the incubator & it's currently 91` & increasing (according to the thermometer). I can have the thermometer in the office with me & the sending unit w/the probe in the next room in the incubator.

The eggs arrived very well packed, I guess. Of 18 eggs, there were 3 cracked

. However, that's not bad considering they came by mail. I opened them &, if a red "grain" on 2 of them & a white spot on all 3 yolks were anything to judge by, they were all fertile. According to grocery-store standards, these eggs would be in the "extra large" to "jumbo" category. So, I now have 15 eggs. One was a creamy beige but the majority were dark coffee brown. Overall, I'm pleased with my purchase and will leave positive feedback on ebay for the seller. They're quite pretty to look at

Since they came from OH & spent Tue & Wed in transit I'm guessing they were laid on Monday. So, am I at day 3 or do I start from day 1? Putting them in the incubator was turn #1 for the day so I'll turn them again this evening & before I go to bed.

Thanks!
TammyD

 

[speckledhen]

Red grain? You mean a bloodspot? That has nothing to do with fertility. And hopefully, the ones you will incubate will NOT have a bloodspot because that will not bode well for the survival of the embryo. All yolks have a white spot on them, the blastodisc. If that has a circle around it like a bullseye, then they are fertile.
Hope it goes well for you. It's exciting, isn't it?

 

[TammyD]

OK, here's the latest:
15 out of 18 eggs arrived safely. of the 3 that were cracked 2 had bloodspots & all 3 had "white spots" w/at least 2 of the 3 had "rings" around those spots. moot point - the eggs were cracked.

So, all eggs are in incubator. Trying to keep temp ~100 but stays about 101.5 ambient temp. Afraid to turn it down too much @ a time because I don't want a large temp difference at any one time. (IF I decide to "do" this regularly, I'll be buying a more advanced incubator for easier temp control.)

I rec'd them yesterday (Th) & it took 2 days (Tu & W) to get here. Should today (Fri) be day 3 or day 4 for gestation period tracking?

Going to town today to get a water weasel & a new digital therm (the probe on mine doesn't work so I put the digital receiver unit into the incubator in the meantime) w/probe & a humidity guage to keep in the incubator. Figure to get the toy @ the dollar store & the hardware @ Farm & Fleet.

I understand that newbie hatchers (me

) can have lower hatch rates than more experienced hatchers &/or those using more $$ equipment (I borrowed the manual incuabtor from the kids' old school's science teacher for free

). Actually, if ALL of the eggs hatch I'll be in a pickle! We used to have bantam sized chickens & they take up less space. I'll be keeping these guys in a stall (temporarily retrofitted for chickens until the spring when they can be moved outdoors to an unbuilt-as-of-yet real chicken house) that's 12 x 12 x 6' tall. Dunno how many standard sized chickens can safely/healthily live in a 12x12 space. Ultimately, I'd like to have 6-10 laying hens of brown-egg variety & a couple of blue-egg layers for fun.

My kids have been thru the "egg unit" at school (they use the chicken's eggs as part of their sex ed program - it's a parochial school) & they've both done the whole embryology unit in 4H. My daughter has suggested candling the eggs to see if they're fertile. If I remember correctly, they can be candled @ 8 days, right? And, to do that I need a flashlight & shine it up thru the eggshell to see any shadow of developing chick?????

Question for later on (as in, after the hatch). Can I use shredded paper in the nest boxes as bedding? I shred all of my old/unused office paper & the newspapers & junk mail already. It'd be nice to have a "renewable & cheap" bedding resource if it's safe to use????

Keep the info & advice & suggestions coming. Thanks!

Oh, Dr. Phil, we've been married too long (18 yrs) to start discussing everything now.

It (usually) works for us that we each do our own thing & then we do things together. The really BIG & IMPORTANT stuff we do talk about (kids' stuff, new cars, stuff that will impact each other in a big way) but we leave the "impacts mostly just me" stuff as independent decisions. We're both too independent to be able to stand having to clear everything with each other. It'd make us both crazy

Thanks for the concern, tho ,it's nice of you.

TammyD

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

If you put the eggs in yesterday AM, then today is day 2 (yesterday was day 1).. if you put the eggs in yesterday PM, then today is day 1.

I rec'd my eggs on Tuesday. I know, the waiting STINKS! I did try candling my eggs.. 'course, I'm a newbie (first batch ever) and I can't tell what I'm looking at un but.. it's still fun. I don't have a whole lot of hope for my batch <other than the fact that this is my first, and in a homemade 'bator>, because most of them had loose aircells in them. But we'll see! I hear ya about low hatchrate being ok. I'm just looking for 2 out of the 10 eggs. Actually, if ANYONE hatches happy and healthy I'll do the chicken dance (I do know how! My mom is French Canadian and they have it at EVERY wedding!). And keeping 10 chicks in the house over the winter might be more than my sweet, loving dh will be able to handle!

As for your dh, there is something to be said for that. Mine tries to be supportive, but there are some things he *tries* to put his foot down on. Like.. I REALLY want a goat. Had some as a kid and LOVE LOVE them. Dh hates the whole idea and says no goats. That'll be one of the things I wait to buy until AFTER he's put another $200 into his Chevy Nova.

I'm learning (thirty some-odd years into my life) the value of timing. And as long as you and your husband are happy, and aren't harboring horrid resentments against each other, I say you are fine. (You could be like my bil and sil instead.. they are pretty immature. Every fight they have they decide to <not kidding here> "break up". And yes.. they ARE married, so I don't think they can even still use that term!)

Meghan

 

[speckledhen]

Tammy, you don't count any days till you put the eggs in the incubator .If you put them in early in the morning, you could count that as day one, otherwise, the next day would be Day One. You can candle at 8 days or 10 days, but for someone with no candling experience, I'd wait till 7 or 8 days to allow enough development to see something definitive. You need an LED flashlight or a slide projector type like I use. A regular flashlight may not be bright enough to see, especially if the eggs are a med brown.
I don't know about shredded paper, but I suppose you could use it in the nests. I wouldn't use it necessarily as bedding, though. I think itd stay too wet.

 

[TammyD]

Thanks for the count definition. I put them in about 10:00 yesterday a.m. so I'm going to count yesterday as day 1.

I just got a digi-therm/hygrometer combo @ PetsMart & it's still coming to temp in the incubator. The 1st one reads 100.6 & the temp on the new one reads 97 so they're coming closer. The hygrometer is reading about 69% so far. What's the ideal humidity in a still-air incubator?

We have led flashlights so we'll wait til day 10 to candle. The eggs are (mostly) DARK brown (just what I wanted

)

I'm going thru my brain now trying to figure out where I'll put the chicks. I could (& probably will) put them in the basement. The cats & dogs aren't allowed down there so they'll be safer there than anywhere. And, the temp is pretty constant, too. (funny - we bought this old farm house & 2 owners ago the people KEPT chickens IN the house - like, they LIVED in the basement all the time. these little fluffs will only be indoors til they're old enough to go outdoors into the barn. I have to run the dehumdifier constantly or it starts to smell kinda like chickens in my laundry room

)

When we had chicks before we used a big dog crate & put cardboard up around the walls of it tokeep out the drafts. I could set a reflecting lamp on the cage top w/o fear of starting a fire & I used a red heat lamp for the night time & just put them on timers. That way the chicks had 12 hrs of sun/12 hrs of dark constantly. They did pretty well.

TammyD