Eggs set on 2/11! Who needs a hatch buddy?

[alaskanchickens]

it's hard to deal with! Especially since the Marans were the breed my 10yo daughter chose to hatch for homeschool. She researched and looked at a ton of different breeds and kept going back to them. I found a breeder and ordered knowing the hatch rate would be lower, they did an awesome job packaging and put in a heat pack but it was just too long of a trip and too rough. She has a couple tears every time I remove an egg. 11 more days though and I can see chicks moving in a few eggs so I'm trying to stay positive that she'll have 1 or 2 hatch!

 

[jphendrix]

You may end up with more, because the maran eggs are really hard to see into. I am not worrying to much about not being able to see anything in mine cause they are so dark. As long as I can see that they are dark in there. I wouldn't worry to much, as long as you see that it's dark in there! Next time try to find someone closer and maybe you'll have a better hatch.

 

[redhen689]

I just found this thread.
I set 12 Swedish Flower Hen eggs on 2/11.
Long story, but when I decided to go ahead and start them, I had only 9 eggs, and wanted to set 12, so I added 3 that had been in the fridge for 5 days. Believe it or not, those 3 look great. I did have 2 clear and 1 early quitter. The rest look pretty good.

I am using an insulated box that DD and I made into an incubator when she was in 2nd grade, That was 13 years ago! She had to come up with some type of experiment. She didn't want to do anything that would potentially kill the chicks, so we divided the incubator in 2. Those near the light were kept at a temperature of as close to 101 (38.3) as we could get. Those further from the light were kept as close as 99 (37.2) as we could get. We had some type of baffle in between the 2 groups. The eggs kept at 101 hatched a day earlier than those at 99.

Someone posted a question on how to tilt eggs. I have my eggs in an egg carton, and just tilt the whole carton one way and then the other. YOu can prop it up with something. It only takes a couple seconds for me to shift the eggs from one side to the other.

 

[alaskanchickens]

I just found this thread.
I set 12 Swedish Flower Hen eggs on 2/11.
Long story, but when I decided to go ahead and start them, I had only 9 eggs, and wanted to set 12, so I added 3 that had been in the fridge for 5 days. Believe it or not, those 3 look great. I did have 2 clear and 1 early quitter. The rest look pretty good.

I am using an insulated box that DD and I made into an incubator when she was in 2nd grade, That was 13 years ago! She had to come up with some type of experiment. She didn't want to do anything that would potentially kill the chicks, so we divided the incubator in 2. Those near the light were kept at a temperature of as close to 101 (38.3) as we could get. Those further from the light were kept as close as 99 (37.2) as we could get. We had some type of baffle in between the 2 groups. The eggs kept at 101 hatched a day earlier than those at 99.

Someone posted a question on how to tilt eggs. I have my eggs in an egg carton, and just tilt the whole carton one way and then the other. YOu can prop it up with something. It only takes a couple seconds for me to shift the eggs from one side to the other.

I was trying at first to tilt the eggs in the carton lol. Found out pretty quickly to put something under the side to tilt the whole thing!

You may end up with more, because the maran eggs are really hard to see into. I am not worrying to much about not being able to see anything in mine cause they are so dark. As long as I can see that they are dark in there. I wouldn't worry to much, as long as you see that it's dark in there! Next time try to find someone closer and maybe you'll have a better hatch.

I'm just leaving them alone. I'll candle again Friday to make sure the darkness in each egg is roughly the same, should be about the whole egg at that point right(day14)? I'm looking for more in the state but Alaska is pretty sparse on BCM's.

 

[jphendrix]

I just found this thread.
I set 12 Swedish Flower Hen eggs on 2/11.
Long story, but when I decided to go ahead and start them, I had only 9 eggs, and wanted to set 12, so I added 3 that had been in the fridge for 5 days. Believe it or not, those 3 look great. I did have 2 clear and 1 early quitter. The rest look pretty good.

I am using an insulated box that DD and I made into an incubator when she was in 2nd grade, That was 13 years ago! She had to come up with some type of experiment. She didn't want to do anything that would potentially kill the chicks, so we divided the incubator in 2. Those near the light were kept at a temperature of as close to 101 (38.3) as we could get. Those further from the light were kept as close as 99 (37.2) as we could get. We had some type of baffle in between the 2 groups. The eggs kept at 101 hatched a day earlier than those at 99.

Someone posted a question on how to tilt eggs. I have my eggs in an egg carton, and just tilt the whole carton one way and then the other. YOu can prop it up with something. It only takes a couple seconds for me to shift the eggs from one side to the other.

Awesome! I love experiments! I have heard of people hatching eggs out of the fridge, until this year I didn't think you could do that, but you learn something new everyday. We have the same hatch day then!

That is a great idea, but as mentioned above if its not to heave you could tilt the whole thing and not have to even open the bator to tilt them.
I didn't get to candle my eggs last night to much going on. I bought a greenhouse and some containers and am trying to grow fodder to reduce my feed costs. Keeping my fingers crossed that it works out! I am going to take my eggs one by one to the bathroom with no window and candle them today! Hoping that I don't have any quiters. I candled on day 10 and took out 6.
I am so eggcited for all of us can't wait till hatch day to see what we all get!

 

[jphendrix]

I was trying at first to tilt the eggs in the carton lol. Found out pretty quickly to put something under the side to tilt the whole thing!

I'm just leaving them alone. I'll candle again Friday to make sure the darkness in each egg is roughly the same, should be about the whole egg at that point right(day14)? I'm looking for more in the state but Alaska is pretty sparse on BCM's.

That's a good idea! By day 14 most of it should be dark, but they do still have a little bit of growing to do, so you may still have a little bit of lightness at the bottom of the egg.
I am sure, never been to Alaska, but I do know that you have a lot of space between towns and where people actually live.

 

[raisinemright]

Just found this thread, I set 9 Birchen Marans on 2/7 and locked them down yesterday, I also have a staggered hatch with 7/7 RIR and BPR's. They were set Friday night. Hope they do good with the staggered hatching. This was my salut ion sense I don't have a second bator.

 

[redhen689]

I candled mine last night. I have had times in the past where I can see the embryo wiggling around, but I'm not seeing this time around which has me a little nervous, but things look good in 8 of the eggs, with the chicks filing much of the eggs. (Pointy end of eggs are still clear as they shoud be.)
When candeling one of the eggs, I saw some dark spots that have me concerned. I think that chick may have died sometime in the past couple of days. I will keep a close eye on that egg.

About opening the incubator to turn the eggs, I'm not concerned about that because:
1. Broody hens get off the nest a couple of times a day to eat and poop.
2. Some new incubators actually have a daily cooling phase to mimic the hen getting off of the eggs.

 

[raisinemright]

I candled mine before lock down, they all looked good, last week I tossed a dud that left me with 8 Marans. They all showed good growth before lock down. Although they are very hard go candle it can be done lol. Should have some peeps by Friday, fingers crossed!

 

[jphendrix]

Just found this thread, I set 9 Birchen Marans on 2/7 and locked them down yesterday, I also have a staggered hatch with 7/7 RIR and BPR's. They were set Friday night. Hope they do good with the staggered hatching. This was my salut ion sense I don't have a second bator.

YaY! want to see pics when they hatch

I just bought another LG it's the new design so I can do staggared hatches. I'll have one for the first 18 days and then I'll have the other I use as a hatcher! Took some talking to hubby but I won LOL!