Im starting this thread just to document what happens with my first ever incubation. I have already made MANY mistakes which i will list out. First mistake, took the VERY early eggs from my hens. Like egg #3 and up … eggs one and two: i used to check fertility - i have 3 hens.. so 6 eggs.. 5 out of 6 were fertile.
So i started out with 8 eggs in the incubator. This is my second mistake, my incubator is a cheap POS i got from amazon … so one of the eggs broke - because it got wedged between the side wall and the roller. This was on day 3 or 4 so i used it as an opportunity to see what was happening inside. You could see the cells from the blastoderm were about the size of a quarter. I WISH i took a photo of this before i disposed of the egg… dumb mistake. Today is day 8. I have 3 Welsummer eggs and 4 EE eggs. all of the welsummers show a defined air sac. One of the EEs you can barely see the air sac and the other EE eggs you dont see anything at all besucase the pigmentation is so thick..the light doesnt penetrate. im hopeful that the EE eggs are doing their thing. another baffling thing has been trying to keep the humidity in the right zone… i read somewhere 45% - 60% is good and then 70% for lock down? My humidity fluctuates wildly.. and i notice in the mornings… the temperature is often a lot cooler than it is during the day. It’s goes down to 35C. I have it programmed to stay around 38.1C so im not sure why the temperature is getting so low except that the whole house is cooling in the night? The “oldest“ egg was 10 days old before it went into the incubator. Most of the eggs were still warm from laying when i brought them into the house. They sat in an egg carton pointy side down until i had 8 eggs. It took 10 days To accumulate 8 eggs. * now they are laying more regularly - if this hatch fails. I’ll be able to gather more eggs. I will also upgrade to a better incubator. Although i feel like now i am able to keep the temp and humidity more stable After a frustrating beginning. I can only imagine that egg temperatures fluctuate in the wild when hens leave the nest … and leave the clutch .. i know they aren’t supposed to but THEY DO.
So i started out with 8 eggs in the incubator. This is my second mistake, my incubator is a cheap POS i got from amazon … so one of the eggs broke - because it got wedged between the side wall and the roller. This was on day 3 or 4 so i used it as an opportunity to see what was happening inside. You could see the cells from the blastoderm were about the size of a quarter. I WISH i took a photo of this before i disposed of the egg… dumb mistake. Today is day 8. I have 3 Welsummer eggs and 4 EE eggs. all of the welsummers show a defined air sac. One of the EEs you can barely see the air sac and the other EE eggs you dont see anything at all besucase the pigmentation is so thick..the light doesnt penetrate. im hopeful that the EE eggs are doing their thing. another baffling thing has been trying to keep the humidity in the right zone… i read somewhere 45% - 60% is good and then 70% for lock down? My humidity fluctuates wildly.. and i notice in the mornings… the temperature is often a lot cooler than it is during the day. It’s goes down to 35C. I have it programmed to stay around 38.1C so im not sure why the temperature is getting so low except that the whole house is cooling in the night? The “oldest“ egg was 10 days old before it went into the incubator. Most of the eggs were still warm from laying when i brought them into the house. They sat in an egg carton pointy side down until i had 8 eggs. It took 10 days To accumulate 8 eggs. * now they are laying more regularly - if this hatch fails. I’ll be able to gather more eggs. I will also upgrade to a better incubator. Although i feel like now i am able to keep the temp and humidity more stable After a frustrating beginning. I can only imagine that egg temperatures fluctuate in the wild when hens leave the nest … and leave the clutch .. i know they aren’t supposed to but THEY DO.
