First timer - starting my first batch Sept 15

[jennibos]

Couldn't wait any longer...had to candle today.....after quitters and clear. I'm left with 3 D'Uccle, 3 polish chamois and 8 Wheaton Marans....roll on roll on, (can't tell with the maran eggs as too dark) My brinsea octagon advance is doing nicely. Temperature is a constant 37.5 Doing dry humidity at mo and its 34 degrees humidity. Will add water at lockdown stage only. So excited.

 

[donsmit5]

I candled tonight, I had 7 clear and 32 moving around. I will candle again at lockdown on Thursday night 10/4. My temperature is staying steady on 99.5, humidity is staying around 45 to 50%. Has anyone else candled their eggs? How is it going? Everyone have a great time watching over their incubators.

 

[seventreesfarm]

My humidity went from 44 to 31 today. Kind of strange, but opening the bator to add more water gives me an excuse to look at the one egg left that looks like it has a blood ring.

We started with 27 eggs (15 of them shipped) and only had to cull 2 so far. Very exciting!

 

[gladahmae]

woke up to low humidity this morning as well! and 101.8deg. I turned the thermostat down, added a bunch of water, and I'm going to check on it again in a little bit once it's had a chance to (hopefully) stabilize. One week until hatch day for me! I'm super excited!!!!! Gotta get a bigger brooder set up for the 3wk-olds that are in the brooder right now, and get the coop cleaned out so we can put them out there in about 2 more weeks. I'm debating between using the kiddie pool again or modifying the dog kennel for more security since one of our dogs killed a pullet yesterday.

 

[cynthia12573]

Had to make room for another batch of eggs that came yesterday( Crele Polish and Croad Langshan) so we had to candle! All shipped eggs: Little Giant w/fan&turner
D'uccle=15 shipped/ 10 frisky chicks inside
Silkie=15 shipped/ 10 growing so far
Just set today 14 Crele Polish and 1 Croad Langshan!
The girls and I just oooohed and aaaawed over the baby D'uccles', we could see their tiny feet! So precious they were just kicking around and playing! Hopefully, I got them hooked!

 

[4hchickmama]

Candled last night. Out of 12 d'Anvers eggs, I have 9 that are developing appropriately. 2 were not fertile and 1 seems not quite right. I also have an air cell that is really odd and off to the side. Any ideas on what to do about this?

Also....had to clean out the other incubator that the ducks hatched. YIKES! They sure make a mess compared to the chickens.

 

[seventreesfarm]

woke up to low humidity this morning as well!  and 101.8deg.  I turned the thermostat down, added a bunch of water, and I'm going to check on it again in a little bit once it's had a chance to (hopefully) stabilize.  One week until hatch day for me!  I'm super excited!!!!!  Gotta get a bigger brooder set up for the 3wk-olds that are in the brooder right now, and get the coop cleaned out so we can put them out there in about 2 more weeks.  I'm debating between using the kiddie pool again or modifying the dog kennel for more security since one of our dogs killed a pullet yesterday. 

Our first coop (when silly us thought we'd only have a small flock) is just right as a brooder. It's fully insulated and easy to modify as they grow. We're adding a pullet run so we don't have to just toss the youngsters in with the laying flock. So I'm looking forward to hatch day so I can move the little peepers out where we can watch them more easily.

My temps were down this morning, as was humidity, even after adding water last night. I'm going to add a sponge and Saran Wrap the seam if its still low when I get home from work.

 

[gladahmae]

eeeek! came home from town and the temp was still up at 102! took the lid off for about 2min, turned the heat down MORE and now it's wait and see again for the temp to stabilize. I wonder if the wafer in the thermostat is starting to go bad.....

 

[cynthia12573]

Wow, quite a spike Gladahmae! In the first 24 hours of my incubator with the eggs in, it got to 101. They seemed to have faired well though being how many I have cooking happily at the moment. Being you are a week from lock down that's even scarier! I bought an old or appears to be an old hova-bator thermal off Craigslist a few days ago and it is holding temp very well. Either it has been around quite awhile or they were just careless with it's aesthetics, either or, it is ugly and seems to work great despite it's age...for now. I am using that one for lockdown, while the other eggs continue to cook in the new incubator. I have read that the little thermal unit does go bad, but I don't know how long it takes for it to go bad. I did price them online for $14.00 on one site, don't remember which one, I am sure they are everywhere though. Hope they all enjoyed the heat spike instead of it being detrimental! Time will tell for now though. I wrapped my incubator with an old pair of pajamas around the seam a few days ago and it has worked miracles with stabilizing temp and humidity. Almost hands free again except to add water. It seemed like I was having to hover over that thing day and night like a new born baby just to keep temp in check, before I wrapped it.

 

[LuvinChickens]

Had a power outage for 5 hours last night, but this morning I saw 5-6 eggs wiggle before I left to do school. 3 days from hatch date.