FEBRUARY Hatch-A-Long 2015:Please Read First Post To Join H-A-L

[emvickrey]

First one just hatched. Hatching season in this house has officially begun.

 

[Purpletie3]

Hi all put my 14 eggs in lockdown this morning. Still uncertain if I have twin eggs or not. The one I most suspect to be a twin is really worrying me though. On day 7 it had a normal air cell which I marked. Every since day 14 the air cell has filled in with veining except a small area in the center. I have never seen a egg like this before. I'm afraid if it does hold twins that there will not be enough air for them. The other egg I suspect may have a twin as well looks similar, but with a larger air cell. I guess I find out in a couple days. Best of luck to everyone going into the final days of hatching.

z

Standing by

. Can't wait about this !

 

[ChickenLady2014]

First one just hatched. Hatching season in this house has officially begun.

Woot, woot ~ Good luck

 

[Purpletie3]

OK, help me out here.  I have not weighed my eggs!  SHould I have done this?  Can I still?  I'm on day 5.

I am very curious as to the why and what I should be recording?  I have an amazing food scale I can use.  Thanks!

Never too late to start ,,, I do mine in grams...you are looking for about a 12% weight loss. I draw my air cells that n pencil as well. Especially for lockdown when I can see if they are pipping in the air cell ...or not.

 

[jennianne]

OK, help me out here. I have not weighed my eggs! SHould I have done this? Can I still? I'm on day 5.

I am very curious as to the why and what I should be recording? I have an amazing food scale I can use. Thanks!

This is my first hatch, so I don't know very much. I read about weighing in the manual that came with my incubator and then I looked it up online. There is a long detailed explanation of hatching here at BYC https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101 and two other sites I looked at http://poultrykeeper.com/incubating-and-hatching-eggs/weight-loss-method-forl-incubation and http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/MonitoringEggWeightLoss.html are more geared just to the weight loss method. It took me looking at them all to kind of get the idea.

A lot of people do not weigh, it is not needed technically, I never saw a chicken setting an egg on a scale, lol. I am a bit of a nerd though and wanted a way to check on the eggs in a way I could measure. The egg will lose weight due to evaporation as time goes by. The higher your humidity, the less water loss and vice versa. The idea behind the weight loss method for humidity is that by measuring the weight of the eggs at intervals you can determine the percent water loss and this will help you decide if your humidity is high, low, or just right.

I have one chick that hatched an hour ago in my first ever hatch, so this is just my two cents as far as I understand at this moment, take it for what its worth!

The first link I posted is great and goes through a LOT of information about hatching, I highly recommend it.

Best of luck to you!

 

[jennianne]

First one's out!!!!!!

 

[ChickenLady2014]

First one's out!!!!!!

Yay ~ Congrats!

 

[antyler]

Just went into lock down. 51 eggs made it out of 60 initially set. Monday is hatch day.

 

[Peep_Show]

Got my first EVER pip this morning, I am so excited!

So glad for this nice distraction amid the craziness!

Question for you all, though. I am using a Brinsea Octagon and my pump is running almost constantly since lockdown started. I feel like its trying to humidify my house through the vent in the incubator, which is clearly never gonna happen. I want to keep that vent open for the fluffers so I just have to listen to the pump spin I guess. Next time I may lay a damp sponge down under the tray at lockdown to see if that helps it keep up a little better. Anyone tried using a sponge or something to assist with humidity in a Brinsea? I am so glad I went with Brinsea though because I think another incubator would have had me stressed trying to keep up humidity.

Aw yeah, it's hatch time!

I fill the channels under the egg basket with water at lockdown....even then the humidity pump churns quite a bit. So in answer to your question, yes, it can seem like it's going nonstop.

Just went into lock down. 51 eggs made it out of 60 initially set. Monday is hatch day.

What a pretty collection of eggs!

 

[gogetter]

Yippie for our Friday the 13th hatcher!