Filling the incubator 6-3-2011 Join me for my 1st attempt?

[stitch_b]

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I just put mine in today...well half of them anyway. I came home to a box and missed delivery pickup slip. I still haven't got it exactly figured out how in the same day you can miss a delivery and get a package...from the same driver. But whatever, the five I got today were all in excellent shape and packed perfectly. Hopefully the others will be ok until I get off work tomorrow.
Everything seems to be going good as far as incubation goes. The only hiccough so far was I did my mock up/test on my incubator without the egg turner in. I just went down to check and it added about 3 degrees to the temp. I got it all adjusted though so hopefully smooth sailing from here on!
Good luck everyone!

 

[Taylorhens]

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Welcome, gvntofly05!

I'm also doing dry hatch. Here north of Dallas, my humidity has ranged from 38% to 43%. I figure that's fine for days 1-18. I will up it at lockdown. I also have marans, along with some bantam cochins. I was supposed to have sizzle silkies, but there was a mixup with the eggs. :-(

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

well i came home tonight to find out we had a power outage im not sure how long it was out but the temp in my bator was down to 95 its back up to where it should be now i had gone out tonight to the local short track races at most the power could have been out for is 4 hrs cause thats how long we were gone i hope it didnt hurt them much but im guessing that it might have only been out for a hr or so we had a lot of lightin in the area but didnt get any rain till about a hr before we got home and it was over in a short time so im hopeing that it didnt hurt them

 

[lebentier]

i came home to a spike of 104. hope i didn't bake them. crud!

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

well i just lost one of my eggs i just finished trying to candle it couldnt see much of anything it was one of the brown ones i was tacking the cover off my incubator and droped the egg it cracked bad and was leaking so me and my wife broke it open and we could see that it was starting to do something so im leaving the cover on till lock down now ill candle them at day 18 just before the lock down and see if ive got to get rid of any then

 

[stitch81]

Ouch, sorry to hear that Hudson. I've got a couple eggs that I am worried about at the moment. I posted a thread about it "Discoloration on the shell" here in Incubating & Hatching to show what I am seeing. I have 2 that are showing the discoloration, I don't know if is is looking discolored because of the development inside the egg, and the shell being porous?... I just don't know. And because of the way the shell is, I am not sure there is development.

Anyway, I am still getting up a couple times a night to check on the incubator. I had a temp spike of 106 on day 2 (middle of the night), so I just don't trust it now, even though the temps have been fine since then... paranoid I guess. We are finishing day 7, starting on day 8 today. I've been grabbing a couple eggs at random each day to check development. So far everything looks good, just the 6 with shells that are hard to see into.

I'm playing around with another 10 gallon tank at the moment. The one I am using for the incubator has a crack on the bottom, so I can't let water spill over to the bottom of the tank. I think I'm going to set up another tank the same way I did this one, only one that doesn't have a cracked bottom, so I can experiment with what it will take to get the humidity up to 70% for lockdown. I've also taken a lamp socket and attached a dimmer to it, and will be playing with that to get the temp just right, so that the lid can remain on during lockdown. Right now, my light is open a bit, to allow the excess heat to escape.

 

[Taylorhens]

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Stitch, didn't you set your eggs last Friday (June 3)? Or did you set on Thursday?

How are you counting your days? Because I thought I read that you don't count the day you set, so that would make Saturday, June 4 Day One, and would make today DaySix.

I'd like to make sure I'm counting days right so I know when to bump the humidity and go into lockdown!

 

[gvntofly05]

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Thanks! So far I am loving the dry hatch. It's nice not having to worry about the water going dry or adding water! Sorry about the mix-up on your eggs. I'm sure you were disappointed.

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95 deg isn't that bad of a drop, they should be fine. Remember the eggs were most likely still much warmer than the bator air temp. It takes a few hours for the internal temp of the eggs to change.

Also sorry about the dropped egg

When I candle I place the eggs I am candling into an egg carton. I take them to the darkest room of the house and bring them back in it. I can then set the carton next to the incubator and open it with both hands free. I do this even if I am candling just 1 egg.

Just a little extra insurance!

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Hopefully you caught it in time. Candle in a few days and check for movement!

For those, like Stitch, that are worrying through the night about temp spikes this is what I have done. I got a probe thermometer for cooking meat. It has an alarm on it and I set the alarm for 102 deg. If at any time I get a spike in temp I am alerted to it right away. The beeping is very loud and wakes me if I am sleeping. I no longer check the temp constantly, I do still glance at it if I walk past the bator.

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

well im just glad these arent expencive shipped eggs they are just a bunch of mutt eggs from a mixed flock for a first time try or id be alot more upset i am upset about dropping it anyways but at least it wasent something that id paid alot for i got 2 dozen of them from a older farmer down the road from me told him i just wanted some eggs i could try to hatch out so he gave me them for a buck a dozen i was just going to give this batch away to the grand kids when they were old enuff to come out of the brooder but if they dont make it ill go out and try again i can get some black australorp eggs from a relitive for 2 bucks a dozen or she said she could just fill my incubaitor for half of what ever hatched out she said she is thinking about getting rid or her rooster cause hes starting to try to eat the eggs and she doesent know why but she said hes been getting a egg from the nest about every 3 days shes caught him doing it but she wants to make shure shes got a replacement for him before she does get rid of himcause he does do a real good job looking after the flock

 

[Mmmatt13]

It's amazing how much we fuss over these little eggs, isn't it?