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

[Barrdwing]

A third peachick hatched this afternoon; compared to chicken chicks, those peas come out of the eggs like they're jet-propelled! I'm a little worried about how I keep bouncing the humidity up and down in there: up at a pip, down once the chick is out. I think I've added and removed the same 3/4 cup of water three times!

But I candled seven chicken eggs last night, and the air cells are the size they're supposed to be, so I guess it's OK.

I had a mid-stage quitter on one of the chicken eggs, and I think one of the pea eggs is a late quitter. The other six chicken eggs looked good, kicking and lively. I'll be candling again on Sunday evening to get a full census prior to lockdown.

 

[chickenboy10]

i have a batch of golden duckwing welsummers and buff orps in the bator right now

 

[lebentier]

so today i came home and decided to candle my 3 questionables again, even though i just candled yesterday. good thing i did! one of them was oozing out from 6 or 7 places. funny thing is, there wasn't any bad smell at all. i put my nose right to the egg and maybe there was the faintest odor like cooked egg. a little discharge was on the egg turner and one other egg so i wiped it off as best i could. discharge was clear with a yellow/brownish tint to it. i put the bad egg right in a ziplock and in the trash. did i do the right thing? is there anything else i should do? later if i feel brave maybe i will crack open the egg without opening the ziplock.

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

Just got back into town and candled my eggs. I was excited to see movement in most of them! I did lose 3 more though...one was an early quitter, and the others just never developed. So I started with 15 eggs, and now I have 11. There are still two marans I'm unsure about, but the others all look great. Lockdown for me is Thursday morning.

 

[Mmmatt13]

2/3 of the way done and 4 days til lockdown here! Still haven't candled, still debating on if I will or not...

 

[Barrdwing]

Quote:
I think you definitely did the right thing. I'm fairly certain that a healthy egg won't ooze, so pulling that egg was a wise choice. It was probably just a mid-stage quitter that was starting to decay and losing membrane integrity. Thank goodness there's no bad smell--at least the egg didn't fail because of bacterial invasion. Your nose will tell you if bacteria start to grow in the incubator; if it starts to stink, that's very worrisome. I'll keep my fingers crossed that that doesn't happen, though.

 

[LilyD]

Time to get the brooder ready we go into lockdown tonight!! So exciting.

 

[lebentier]

Quote:
soooo jealous! not til tuesday for me.

 

[stitch81]

Quote:
YAY!!! I ended up setting up another "hatcher" but didn't add water. I was up 5+ times last night because my incubator was spiking terribly. I ended up taking the eggs out of the incubator and putting them in the hatcher. I candled a couple this morning and everything was fine, those little guys are pretty much out of room to move. The temps have been staying nice and consistent with no spikes. I added just a bit of water to get the humidity to 35%. I'll probably put them in lockdown and up the humidity on Sunday night as that will be the end of day 18 for me.

Also, the duck eggs that are in the other hatcher still have not pipped. Since it was completely guessing by candling what day they were on when the momma died, we figure we must have been a couple days off in our estimate. I was worried this morning and quickly pulled one out to candle, and it looks like a bill is in the air cell. I quickly got him back in. I guess it's a waiting game now. Was wondering though, once they pip into the air cell, don't you usually hear peeping? I don't hear anything yet, but he was moving around in there.

 

[stitch81]

One of the duck eggs has pipped!