First Pip! *UPDATE w/PICS* 7 Hatched!

[AccidentalFarm]

Well the 7th chick just hatched about 2 minutes ago- everyone so far is doing great!

Aran- I have a mixture of eggs. Some came from my own flock (WCB Polish) and some came from a friend (mixed breed) and I bought some from eggbid. So far only mine and my friends eggs have hatched. No signs of anything from any of the shipped eggs. Maybe the shipping was just too rough on them.

Of the shipped eggs- there are Ameraucana, Araucana and Buff Orps. I am sooo hoping that I'll get a few of them to hatch. I'd love to have Araucana's.

The mixed breed chicks that have hatched are really fun - it's a guessing game as to what is going to come out of the shell. There have been blacks, creams, and some that resemble ameraucana's (w/o the green legs). The eggs ranged in color from white to blue/greens to beige and dark brown.

Here's the little Polish 'talking' to the baby trying to hatch:

 

[bayouchica]

Oh how sweet.

That's sooo cool... got me thinking about blowing the dust off of my 'bater.
keep us posted.... hoping many more hatch for ya.

Miriam

 

[Freebie]

Awesome pictures. That was way cool, I know I have a mystery chick I got from the Amish guy. Congrats on the hatch!!

 

[AccidentalFarm]

And here are a few 'fluffy butt' pics of the new arrivals:

The only one i'm sure of the breed on is the WCB Polish because it came from my flock- the others were all from a friends flock and could be pure or mixed. I'm curious about the little black chick with yellow speckles in the back of the second photo and the brownish chick in the front of the third photo- do they look like anything in particular to you?

Looks like a couple of Buff Orps and a couple of EE's are in there as well.

 

[aran]

fantastic job AF...is that a homemade incubator or a store bought one?

 

[AccidentalFarm]

I incubated in a Hovabator w/fan and turner. Hatched in an LG still air. I have a homemade bator, but didn't want to trust it with my first attempt at hatching.

 

[aran]

you are not filling me with confidence here AF! I only have the homemade bator...so hopefully ( fingers crossed) it will work...i just checked it--> 112F and 72%humidity!!!!!!!!!! guess i will have to adjust a few things

 

[AccidentalFarm]

HaHa! Sorry Aran! I think that a homemade bator will work fine, now that I've gone through the whole process...sorry I didn't clarify that before. I mainly got the hova for the turner and I ended up with the LG for a great price from a BYC member- or else I would have used the homemade one at least for a hatcher.

Anyhow- incubating is not such a difficult thing and I do think that I will use my homemade model next time. I plan to make a few mods on the homemade one now that I know what I did and didn't like about the two I used. The main thing I'm changing is to have a huge viewing window!!

I've not had a single shipped egg hatch so I'm glad I had a few local eggs to try- I would have thought the entire process was a bust!

 

[aran]

hmmm..what kind of shipped ones again? Im getting some silkie eggs from one of our co-members here at byc. Awesome looking birds on their website. Im not expecting to get all the eggs to hatch obviously but I am hoping for at least 50% hatch rate.

I just adjusted the bator and put in a few ventilation holes which I can close and open with tape as needed...it worked too --> it dropped the humidity from 75 to 50%.
There are two digital thermometer/hydrometers in there at the moment--> one says 102.3F with 42% humidity and the other says 104.2 with 50%humidity. I guess I will turn the light source down a little and try and get readings between 99F on one and 101F on the other. I have just added a slightly larger water container to bring he humidity up to closer to 60%

I think this will work . I have looked at the bought incubators online and in the store and apart from the way the fan is installed and the automatic egg turner and the fancy packaging I think at least in concept and basic design the homemade one is similar.

What things did you not like which you are going to change apart from the window size? Mine is 16x12inches-->plexiglass. ( thankfully after putting in the ventilation holes the window is not fogging up any more.)