February 2023 hatch-a-long

[LhickenChicken]

WOOOHOOO! How many days to hatch?

 

[Kikilu]

WOOOHOOO! How many days to hatch?

18 more days…..I may have bought a wifi camera to watch over them at work haha. It’s still early so trying to keep expectations in check. Step-daughter is pretty excited too

 

[junior67]

Day 3 candling - could clearly see veining on 8 eggs! Pretty excited. 2 eggs too dark to see.
Picture brightness and contrast adjusted to show better.

Woohoo!!!!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Okay, I'll jump in with you folks! I just set 27 eggs last night in my brand-new IncuView incubator
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GS9ZSOK?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
....it's a long story about how I had to modify this thing to get some control of consistent temperature, and I'm still tweaking how to keep humidity where I want it, but I think we're ready to give it a go.
I made a foam box to insulate the unit, drilled 2 extra holes in the lid for ventilation (added plugs, too), and added a protective cover for the turner motor. I won't go into all the gory details about how I struggled to get the numbers right, let's just say it has taken me two weeks of tweaking. I even had to make test logs to isolate the variables and fix them.
Anyway.... My first hatch date of the year is Feb. 4th! I'll brood them in the basement for a week or two, then they'll go to the nursery/brooder coop with a mama heating pad and heat lamp to get through the last two weeks of February and into March.
I'm planning four hatches like this, if all goes well.

My flock are barnyard mutts, a mixture of BPR, RIR, Australorp, and the genetic remnants of one Easter Egger and a Leghorn hen I had for a short time. Doesn't matter to me - they're all good dual-purpose birds (except the Leghorn, but oh the eggs!).

Just checking in with an update on my February 4th hatch - we are on Day 14 now -
ONE WEEK TO GO!
I haven't candled since Day 5 I think, and had one suspected quitter at that time. Confirmed tonight, it hadn't developed past about Day 3 or 4. All of the remaining 26 chicks are progressing nicely! What's really cool is that of 27 eggs I put in the 'bator, all 27 were fertilized. Way to go, boys!

For the first time, I've marked the air cell positions and size on all of the eggs (all normal position and shape, whew) AND I've been weighing them with my brand-new handy-dandy digital food scale. All of them have lost about the same amount of weight since I last checked, and they are within 0.05 ounces of target for this date (on average overall).

My new (self-modified) IncuView incubator appears to be a workhorse. It holds temps between 99.3-99.7 degrees consistently. Humidity fluctuates depending on how much water is in there, but I'm adding 55-60 ml twice a day and it's keeping between 40-50% with all 3 vent holes open.

Anyway, I'm getting excited as lockdown and hatch dates are coming close!

 

[AUChickenGal]

Day 3 candling shows definite veining in most of the Ameraucana eggs. The Marans eggs and even my own “regular” brown eggs are too dark to see much of anything in yet. Hopefully I’ll be able to make better guesses about viability in a few days.

 

[lilwanderer]

Just checking in with an update on my February 4th hatch - we are on Day 14 now -
ONE WEEK TO GO!
I haven't candled since Day 5 I think, and had one suspected quitter at that time. Confirmed tonight, it hadn't developed past about Day 3 or 4. All of the remaining 26 chicks are progressing nicely! What's really cool is that of 27 eggs I put in the 'bator, all 27 were fertilized. Way to go, boys!

For the first time, I've marked the air cell positions and size on all of the eggs (all normal position and shape, whew) AND I've been weighing them with my brand-new handy-dandy digital food scale. All of them have lost about the same amount of weight since I last checked, and they are within 0.05 ounces of target for this date (on average overall).

My new (self-modified) IncuView incubator appears to be a workhorse. It holds temps between 99.3-99.7 degrees consistently. Humidity fluctuates depending on how much water is in there, but I'm adding 55-60 ml twice a day and it's keeping between 40-50% with all 3 vent holes open.

Anyway, I'm getting excited as lockdown and hatch dates are coming close!

Ours should hatch all around the same time- Hatching buddies! I think a lot of y'all are around the same day as us, definitely excited. From day 19 on ill be checking for a little ones, as usually when i hatch eggs especially unders hen they hatch early, one time a bantam egg hatched on day 18. But I don't think thats uncommon. Anyways, yay!
I candled mine on day 10/11 i believe, 4 out of the 5 seem to be doing well, still unsure about the dark blue ee egg, i tried looking at while it was real dark to see if it would light up more but the egg is just too thick- Been like that since day 3.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I just wanted you show you all my thread on candling dark eggs and what to look for.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/helping-candle-dark-eggs.1362626/

 

[AUChickenGal]

Thank you, @BirdsBeesTrees! I'm going to check that thread out now.

 

[LhickenChicken]

Just checking in with an update on my February 4th hatch - we are on Day 14 now -
ONE WEEK TO GO!
I haven't candled since Day 5 I think, and had one suspected quitter at that time. Confirmed tonight, it hadn't developed past about Day 3 or 4. All of the remaining 26 chicks are progressing nicely! What's really cool is that of 27 eggs I put in the 'bator, all 27 were fertilized. Way to go, boys!

For the first time, I've marked the air cell positions and size on all of the eggs (all normal position and shape, whew) AND I've been weighing them with my brand-new handy-dandy digital food scale. All of them have lost about the same amount of weight since I last checked, and they are within 0.05 ounces of target for this date (on average overall).

My new (self-modified) IncuView incubator appears to be a workhorse. It holds temps between 99.3-99.7 degrees consistently. Humidity fluctuates depending on how much water is in there, but I'm adding 55-60 ml twice a day and it's keeping between 40-50% with all 3 vent holes open.

Anyway, I'm getting excited as lockdown and hatch dates are coming close!

I have 8 more days to hatch! if you haven't read it before, I put 28 eggs in there and out of those I have 2 quitters. Rest are developing very well. ALL of the eggs that are in the incubator are developing (and fertile) and I'm going to start working on a brooder box.Glad to hear that your incubator is working for you!

 

[LhickenChicken]

Also did you know that the first person that the chicks see they will follow them around like they will do to the mama?