FLORIDA!!!!!ALWAYS SUNNY SIDE UP!!!

[3goodeggs]

I love that the chairs are in front of the brooder. It is like us and our aquarium, it's our version of a wide screen TV.

 

[cmom]

Cmom....just in case you didn't notice, chickens have taken over your house

. The ultimate conclusion of chicken math.

The hatchery isn't in my house. I have a small apartment behind our garage supposedly for guest where I have the hatchery set up. If we do have guests there is a large door behind the couch so I can just slide everything into the garage area. We rarely have guests, but who said it didn't have to be a comfortable place? lol. My DH doesn't allow it in the house. We built the apartment about 15 years ago so nothing happened over night. The first time I hatched, I borrowed a friends Styrofoam incubator. My first hatch wasn't the greatest. Only about 60% of the eggs hatched. It wasn't long after that I bought my own Styrofoam incubator and over the years I would get another then another then another and so on before I bought a cabinet incubator then I bought a 2nd cabinet incubator. My husband told me I was getting out of control and I was so I sold one of the cabinets.

 

[Gingersnap722]

Chicken math at it's best folks!!!

Thanks for the tips Cmom, I appreciate it and we'll candle again on the 10th day.

 

[mossyroo]

cmom, instead of a mother-in-law suite you have a chicken suite.

 

[Gingersnap722]

Cmom, we candled today, day 10 and 18 out of 21 are growing!! I'm so eggcited!!! Seeing that little life in there developing is so amazing!!

 

[cmom]

Cmom, we candled today, day 10 and 18 out of 21 are growing!! I'm so eggcited!!! Seeing that little life in there developing is so amazing!!

It is amazing to see the embryo moving around in the egg and much easier at day 10 or later. Sometimes you can see it before day 10 but not as well and the embryo also takes breaks and stops for awhile then it will start moving around again. At day 18 when you set the eggs for hatching you may see that the egg is full of chick but might not see it move. Just be careful as every time you open the incubator to candle that affects the temperature and humidity. I do realize that a broody isn't terribly concerned when she gets off the nest each day to eat, drink and poop. I have had broodys that I would have to take off the nest of eggs each day because they wouldn't get off and would sit and could die. It never has happened to me but a friend had it happen. Most of the time they would get off for around 10 to 20 minutes daily. I know this if off the subject, but a couple of times I had misjudged the date I thought the chicks should hatch and I took the broody off and there were chicks under her. I have had them hatch in the incubator too because I had the date wrong and didn't get them into the hatchers on time and I heard peeping in my incubator. Good luck and have fun...

 

[Gingersnap722]

Thanks so much for the advice. Would you recommend candling one more time before lockdown or no? In the future, I'm going to wait until day 10 to candle the first time. When we candled at day 3, we thought some of them weren't developing, but left them in just in case. Come to find out, they were developing. I'm all about candling as little as possible.

 

[cmom]

Thanks so much for the advice. Would you recommend candling one more time before lockdown or no? In the future, I'm going to wait until day 10 to candle the first time. When we candled at day 3, we thought some of them weren't developing, but left them in just in case. Come to find out, they were developing. I'm all about candling as little as possible.

Day 3 is way too early to tell if an egg is developing. In my opinion day 7 is really the earliest to see development. All eggs don't start developing at the same time. Everyone is different. Personally I candle on day 10 and again on day 18 when I set the eggs for hatching and at that time remove any of the eggs that didn't develop. Once in awhile I get an egg that is questionable so I mark it and sometimes they hatch and sometimes they don't. A broody will lay her eggs one each day but when it comes time for the chicks to hatch they pretty much hatch within hours of each other. Again, Good luck and have fun...

 

[Gingersnap722]

Thanks for your help, it's greatly appreciated. I know I'm going to be a hatchaholic!

 

[cmom]

Thanks for your help, it's greatly appreciated. I know I'm going to be a hatchaholic!

It happened to me too. I got really carried away. I have it under control now. My DH told me I had to or he would get rid of the birds. I wasn't satified with one incubator and ended up with 5 styrofoam and 2 cabinet incubators. I sold one of the cabinets. I kept the styrofoams and use them as hatchers.