First Time Hatching Anyone With Me??

[ItsAZOO32]

Quote:
I THINK one or two might have a silkie gene. "Speck" is my daughters and she has the blue skin and 5 toes of a silkie. She also looks different in the face. They are all mixed breed.

 

[blueducklings]

Wow...you'll get surprise egg colours!!
How cool is that?
I have blue eggs from my blue ducks and white from my brown & white.
Toobad I don't hav a white duck. I saw a greenish egg in the pen of a white duck at the APA chicken show last month.

 

[newport1881]

Hey, you won't believe how much fun this can be. Just got a hovabater incubater last month. Took eggs and decided to hatch them, only colored, as I have plenty of leghorns. My rooster is Americauna and have barred rock, australorp and 1 rhode island red for brown eggs, and 1 Americauna hen. Learned at ten days brown eggs have to be candled in the dark, couldn't even candle the green eggs. With 22 fertile eggs, I hatched 19. Now have 8 out of 12 duck eggs, given to me by the feed mill, just for fun, should be hatching in about another week. After that I plan on hatching about 30 for friends. My chickens produce about 15 eggs a day, so I'm hoping to keep this hatch at about the same time. My temp actually fluctuated 2 to 3 degrees off and on, and I can't measure humidity, just kept water in the base. Chicks didn't seem to mind, hatched on 21 days just like clockwork. OK, maybe a couple at 22 days, probably my fault. Good Luck with your chicks, this is easier that many people make it seem.

 

[blueducklings]

Quote:
With the ducks, you probably want to get measure hte humidity. It needs to be quite a bit wetter than the chickens. They are Waterbirds.
You can get an inexpensive one from Walmart. Under $10 that measures both digitally, or the ones from the pet shop.
Good Luck!!

 

[KZ]

Quote:
I'm getting one too. Have you hatched anything in it yet? I need high humidity for ducks.

Congratulations!

My first hatch from the Sportsman is due this Saturday the 9th. I just moved the eggs to the hatching tray and put a wick in the water tray to increase the humidity. I filled the water tray to the brim so hopefully it won't dry out before the hatch is complete, but it has been going through the water like crazy. One thing about that incubator, it recovers very quickly so if I need to open it and add more water, I should be ok. The temperature barely budges even when I have had it open. I am careful, but it still takes time to remove the trays of eggs, put in water, etc. I think the most it ever dropped was to 98 degrees. Then back to 99.5 in less than a minute once the door is closed. I am hoping for a really good hatch!

 

[latebloomer]

Quote:
I'm getting one too. Have you hatched anything in it yet? I need high humidity for ducks.

Congratulations!

My first hatch from the Sportsman is due this Saturday the 9th. I just moved the eggs to the hatching tray and put a wick in the water tray to increase the humidity. I filled the water tray to the brim so hopefully it won't dry out before the hatch is complete, but it has been going through the water like crazy. One thing about that incubator, it recovers very quickly so if I need to open it and add more water, I should be ok. The temperature barely budges even when I have had it open. I am careful, but it still takes time to remove the trays of eggs, put in water, etc. I think the most it ever dropped was to 98 degrees. Then back to 99.5 in less than a minute once the door is closed. I am hoping for a really good hatch!

what were you using for your previous hatch?

 

[KZ]

Quote:
Congratulations!

My first hatch from the Sportsman is due this Saturday the 9th. I just moved the eggs to the hatching tray and put a wick in the water tray to increase the humidity. I filled the water tray to the brim so hopefully it won't dry out before the hatch is complete, but it has been going through the water like crazy. One thing about that incubator, it recovers very quickly so if I need to open it and add more water, I should be ok. The temperature barely budges even when I have had it open. I am careful, but it still takes time to remove the trays of eggs, put in water, etc. I think the most it ever dropped was to 98 degrees. Then back to 99.5 in less than a minute once the door is closed. I am hoping for a really good hatch!

what were you using for your previous hatch?

I was using a Little Giant still air. I was not happy with it.

 

[luvchicks8]

Day 19 for me and I am also a first timer and nervous as all get up about EVERYTHING!!! Only 3 eggs I have seen "rocking" no movement at all or sounds from any of the other 28

 

[Kelly's Chickens]

Question--How long can you keep eggs before you put them in the incubator? I want to breed my BO rooster with my biggest BO pullet but she only lays about every 3-4 days. I'd like to get a dozen eggs before I put them in the bator. Would I have to hold them too long to do that?

 

[latebloomer]

i heard about a week is fine, after that you start dropping the percentage of eggs that hatch

that being said, i've only tried hatching shipped eggs, and the percentage on those is far lower than on week to ten day old eggs from your own hens....