Final (I think) tally from my first hatch:
Started with 30 eggs, but cut back to 27 at day 9 or 10 when two were clear and the third was just a blood ring. Hatching started Wednesday night and ended (I think) sometime early this morning while we slept.
22 chicks made it (I ended up helping two of them out, and hope I don't regret it)
3 died after pipping (side note: pigs really WILL eat anything)
2 duds (as far as I know; I'm leaving them in the 'bator until this afternoon to make sure)
22 out of 27 in a first try works for me.
What I found worked well was to leave them in the incubator long enough for them to start walking around good, then move them to the "staging room", a Rubbermaid container with paper towels on the floor and a 250W heat lamp overhead, to dry out. The humidity went off the scale in the incubator, even with all the plugs out, and no one would dry out. After they were dry, happy little peepers, they went to the brooder in the garage and got their beaks dipped in sugar water.
Here are the pictures. The father is a Rhode Island Red (picture) and the mothers are Buff Orpingtons, Plymouth Barred Rocks, and Black Jersey Giants.
Started with 30 eggs, but cut back to 27 at day 9 or 10 when two were clear and the third was just a blood ring. Hatching started Wednesday night and ended (I think) sometime early this morning while we slept.
22 chicks made it (I ended up helping two of them out, and hope I don't regret it)
3 died after pipping (side note: pigs really WILL eat anything)
2 duds (as far as I know; I'm leaving them in the 'bator until this afternoon to make sure)
22 out of 27 in a first try works for me.
What I found worked well was to leave them in the incubator long enough for them to start walking around good, then move them to the "staging room", a Rubbermaid container with paper towels on the floor and a 250W heat lamp overhead, to dry out. The humidity went off the scale in the incubator, even with all the plugs out, and no one would dry out. After they were dry, happy little peepers, they went to the brooder in the garage and got their beaks dipped in sugar water.
Here are the pictures. The father is a Rhode Island Red (picture) and the mothers are Buff Orpingtons, Plymouth Barred Rocks, and Black Jersey Giants.
