First timer - starting my first batch Sept 15

[gladahmae]

Lockdown starts TODAY here!

I'm SOOOO happy that we'll have more than 5 out of 29 making it this far this time as well! I haven't done a final candle yet, but I think we're going to have 12-16 that *should* be fully developed. We changed out the thermostat last night since we kept turning the incubator down, but it would go down to 98.3 and then creep back up to 102. New wafer is now in, and things have stabilized.

This time around humidity is holding a lot more steady for us, so I'm hoping that simply having both of the water resivoirs full will get the humidity up where it should be. If it doesn't, we ran tubing through the lid on 2 sides, caulked the hole so there's no air leak around the tubing, and I'll put baby food jars with a sponge in. That way, we can add water as needed without cracking the lid. Whoever had the incubator before us already did the same thing with tubing to the 2 bottom resivoirs (one tube for each) so we *should* be good to go this time.

I think I'm going to hatch in a carton this time since we definately had 'bowling balls' last time. I'm also going to line the bottom of the incubator with shelf liner again. We did that last time and it made clean-up a breeze! No picking bits of egg shell out of everything!

 

[seventreesfarm]

I'm planning to top up the water wells and add sponges in jars or trays, with tubing from the vent holes, so I can add water. The shelf liner is a great idea! I'd better find or buy some right away.

Still haven't decided about hatching in cartons or not. Guess I'd better make up my mind soon

 

[4hchickmama]

Soooo I had a brief moment of stupidity last night. For some odd reason I thought that my eggs were due to hatch weds and so I put the eggs on lockdown last night. About 5 min after, I realized my mistake and put everything back in the auto turner and removed my sponges and some of the excess water in the wells. -sigh- Lets hope that my blunder didn't mess anything up.

 

[superjjf]

Watching mine from work:

ustream.tv/channel/superjjf

Thursday at Lunchtime is 21 Days

 

[dwegg]

Good luck everyone...I had lockdown last night...although I am using a broody for the very first time and it is killing me that I don't know what is happening under there...but it will be fun to see my very first momma hen with her chicks...

But I think I prefer the bator as I can see them hatch and monitor their progress...I have 12 in there now due next week so something else to look forward to...

I will keep y'all posted...

 

[clameramseyc]

I don't have anything to check humidity so I've been winging it. I've just been adding water daily as it keeps evaporating most days - so I'm sure the humidity is likely to be low. Also have brown eggs and have never candled with no tools for such so again been just waiting and hoping things would work out. But this evening I found my incubator had allowed the temperature to drop down to near 80 degrees and unfortunately I don't know how long it had been that way as I had been gone and unable to check it since last night (so it could have been up to 18-20 hours possibly - of course it might have been much shorter time also just no way to know). Not sure why because it had been keeping the temperature fairly close to 100 (98-101 probably) for 2 weeks. This is a still air incubator (Little Giant) that I got used [supposedly had only been used one time by a teacher for a school project]. I barely bumped the thermostat knob and it kicked back on and heated back up to 100. I guess at this point I'll just keep plugging along for another week and hope they didn't all die. But this definitely is discouraging after it appeared that it was working fine to this point and that at least I could be ignorantly optimistic that I might get several chicks in another week.

 

[seventreesfarm]

Watching mine from work:

ustream.tv/channel/superjjf

Thursday at Lunchtime is 21 Days

Too cool! That is definitely on my to do list.

 

[seventreesfarm]

I don't have anything to check humidity so I've been winging it. I've just been adding water daily as it keeps evaporating most days - so I'm sure the humidity is likely to be low. Also have brown eggs and have never candled with no tools for such so again been just waiting and hoping things would work out. But this evening I found my incubator had allowed the temperature to drop down to near 80 degrees and unfortunately I don't know how long it had been that way as I had been gone and unable to check it since last night (so it could have been up to 18-20 hours possibly - of course it might have been much shorter time also just no way to know). Not sure why because it had been keeping the temperature fairly close to 100 (98-101 probably) for 2 weeks. This is a still air incubator (Little Giant) that I got used [supposedly had only been used one time by a teacher for a school project]. I barely bumped the thermostat knob and it kicked back on and heated back up to 100. I guess at this point I'll just keep plugging along for another week and hope they didn't all die. But this definitely is discouraging after it appeared that it was working fine to this point and that at least I could be ignorantly optimistic that I might get several chicks in another week.

You never know! I keep reading all kinds of 'miracle' stories here, so it sounds like the little chickies can make it through all kinds of obstacles.

 

[CamNorth]

Watching mine from work:

ustream.tv/channel/superjjf

Thursday at Lunchtime is 21 Days

Wow, a web cam that is pretty cool.

 

[ShelterFarm]

Well I'm still cooking along with 6 of the 7 - I cracked unlucky #7 last night and it looked like it quit around day 4 or 5 - this also confirms that I did see a blood ring on day 10 but it wasn't clear what it was (and now I know). Will be going into lockdown Wednesday night and plan to do a webcam on it as well.