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

[wowmanacat]

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That IS great.. I've had great (15 out of 20 shipped hatch) and BAD.. 1/24 (currently waiting for hatch on that 1) and 7/43... I cannot imagine people spending what they do on some of these eggs..

I will not spent more than $2.00 on a dozen eggs, but most of the time they are a mixed lot. Even my WLRC were only $1.25 or so.

 

[wowmanacat]

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I have heard so much bad with shipped eggs that I just get all my eggs at the local auction that is just about every Saturday, so far I have had very good luck with all the ones that I have bought. The 12 that were no good I did not purchase myself.

I really wish we had some auction/swaps, etc near where I live, but I've never heard of any. I've tried searching online and couldn't find anything. The closest we have is a yucky flea market where I'm kind of afraid to buy birds, not to mention they're overpriced. They sell a lot of birds that do an illegal activity that we're not supposed to discuss on BYC there. I've called the sheriff to try to get them shut down/kicked out, but appparently they can claim out loud that the birds are for this purpose as long as they never get caught actually doing that illegal activity. :-(

I happen to be in Ozarks and there is a lot of farm country out here. Almost every county has a auction or sale barn of some kind. This is a big time cow, chicken and turkey area with Butterball, Tyson and god know what else in the area.

 

[Taylorhens]

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I really wish we had some auction/swaps, etc near where I live, but I've never heard of any. I've tried searching online and couldn't find anything. The closest we have is a yucky flea market where I'm kind of afraid to buy birds, not to mention they're overpriced. They sell a lot of birds that do an illegal activity that we're not supposed to discuss on BYC there. I've called the sheriff to try to get them shut down/kicked out, but appparently they can claim out loud that the birds are for this purpose as long as they never get caught actually doing that illegal activity. :-(

I happen to be in Ozarks and there is a lot of farm country out here. Almost every county has a auction or sale barn of some kind. This is a big time cow, chicken and turkey area with Butterball, Tyson and god know what else in the area.

Lots of ranch country here, with a cow or horse auction every weekend, but chickens...nada. Even though I know there are lots of people around here that keep chickens.

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

its hard to find good hatching eggs around here to as most of the people have mixed flocks just for eggs its hard to find just a single breed of chicken up here i am not looking for the show birds i want to have a good dual use bird i dont mind mixing my flock in my coop if i want just eggs but when im ready to breed my birds im going to build some portable chicken tractors and do it so im not mixing up my breeds but i want to try and have a few different kinds of chickens i like the big jersey giants my wife likes the barred rocks but i also like the the older meat birds they had around long before they came out with the cx birds the idea of a all purpose flock is what im trying to build up to

 

[stitch81]

We've had another quitter. This one died in the last day or so. Down to 24 of 26 eggs still going. Day 13 is coming to a close.

Edited: I can't seem to count...lol

 

[Barrdwing]

My incubator has lost its little ever-lovin' mind. Today, within six hours, it dipped to 93.9, and then spiked to 104.4. I'm climbing the walls over here! One of the pea eggs has pipped, and I keep checking on it. Hang in there, kid!

 

[Barrdwing]

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I really want to candle, but I've decided to just wait until the night before lockdown, because last month I lost over half of the eggs between day 10 and hatch. I was not expecting that, and it really got to me, but I know now that it was due to temperature swings in the incubator. So I'll put off candling until the 11th hour, and at least go into lockdown knowing which eggs have movement and which ones are ominously still.

I'd expect that yours will do a lot better--they're supposed to be a lot tougher during this stage of development. But it's rough, isn't it--this waiting! We could do with a pacing-the-floor emoticon for times like these.

 

[stitch81]

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Oh jeez.. Now I am nervous....

 

[m.kitchengirl]

i am supposed to candle the duck eggs for the first time today or tomorrow. i don't even WANT to. they were shipped beautifully from an old friend who has a 95% hatch rate, so if they're not working i'll feel awful.
the incubator seems to have been staying pretty steady, although we had a "cold spell" the last 4 days & (high 40's at night from 70's or more at night the first 2 days they were here.) and it has been dipped to 99 for very brief spells more than it was when it was warm.
i had some chicken eggs in a homemade incubator - gotten locally the same day as the duck eggs -
that was NOT staying at temp very well & moved them into the incubator on saturday out of frustration. i think it will work fine as a hatcher/early brooding box. they are being donated to a farm camp in portland that does out reach to kids all over the state, especially kids who are new americans, so i hope they hatch.
should i wait til day 7 to candle, mostly out of fear of heartache, or is the difference a day makes negligible here?

hope all is well for you all. this has been such a nice thread to check in on, incubator support groups... who knew? its great.

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

well i dont really know alot about duck eggs except it does take longer to hatch them out than it does the chicken eggs so what part of maine are you in because if your eggs dont turn out im shure that if you checked out the maine page you could get another batch of hatching eggs this weekend at the swap meet or you might even beable to get some baby ducks im sure that someone could help you out with some local eggs not shipped ones anyways