Going to go crazy this weekend.

[spookyevilone]

I have 11 button eggs and 2 coturnix in the 'bator, 4 under a bird. Three of the 'bator eggs got transferred to the hatcher last night, because they're due on 12/5. Several more are due a few days later. So far, the eggs in the hatcher are sitting there, being eggs, with no signs of pips or rocking or anything. I swear one of them gave an angry peep at me when I picked it up last night but I could have been hearing things.

I'm being good and not opening the hatcher. It's holding steady at 99.5 and between 60-75% humidity according to the reptile hygrometer. I propped them up with kleenex so the big end is up.

Pretty sure I'm going to lose my mind staring at the eggs. It's hard to be at work, wondering if there's been any change, and tomorrow's going to be sheer madness. It's my first clutch, so I'm extremely anxious to see if they'll hatch. I know they're fertile - had two floaters that I opened, which had dead mostly formed chicks. (Had a temp spike one night, think that might've done them in.)

I'm just hoping some hatch and have been seriously considering setting up a webcam to further kill any productivity tomorrow at work - or next week, because since I'm staring at them wanting them to hatch, the little protoquail will spite me and not hatch until I'm busy and can't watch them. They're evil like that.

What do you folks do to keep from staring at the 'bators? Right now, I'm tormenting my quail by playing the little button quail calling YouTube video, which makes all my tiny roos start laughing like evil little dolls. I've tried watching TV, writing, doing the dishes - my house has never been this clean, because I'm trying to distract myself from sitting on the livingroom floor, staring through the picture window of the 'bator.

Pretty sure I'm going to be insane by Monday, especially if the little boogers don't hatch this weekend on schedule. Fah!

-Spooky

 

[linebacker]

I've got 60 I'm taking out of the turners tonight. I decided to cut down from the 120 I normally set due to the cold now. Just remember to look all you want, but keep your hands off until they finish hatching. No opening the bator just for a second! LOL

Good Luck,
Brad

 

[spookyevilone]

Quote:
That's the hardest part!! Luckily, it has a picture window on top so I can see them. The only time it got opened was to put an analog hygrometer in there when the digital kept telling me "LOW" when the window was all condensed! Lying thing!

I'm going to be a wreck until something hatches!!
-Spooky

 

[spookyevilone]

12/5, 5pm - no progress on the hatcher eggs. Hatcher is at 60% humidity and holding steady at 99.5. 'Bator eggs were turned.

The setting hen has moved four of her five eggs to a new location. Took out Egg #5, it had some icky gunk on the side. Candled, clear through, which it shouldn't have been by this time. Checked it in water, it floated. Opened it underwater, murky white, no sign of blastocyst. Flushed it. For good measure, scooped out the sawdust where the old nest was and threw that all away too, replaced with fresh. I don't understand this hen. She doesn't set consistently, but she's clearly paying attention to her eggs because this is three times now that she's moved them. At this point, I'm leaving her alone to see what happens. At least I know they're getting turned.

blah. PIP ALREADY, DARN YOOOOU!!!! *flail!* You know what's going to happen, right? They're going to wait until I go out with the boy tomorrow and then they're all going to hatch at once.

-Spooky

 

[spookyevilone]

ARGH! The Coturnix pipped and shoved off the top of his shell, but his yolk was not absorbed at all. It was still yellow and in the membrane. He didn't even make it all the way out of the shell, peeped twice and then just lay down and didn't move again

I opened the hatcher long enough to take his tiny little corpse out. The Button eggs are still in there, being all zen and egglike. No pips yet.

In the 'bator, I swear I hear little scraping noises, but no peeping. Nothing's moving, though, so I'm going to pretend I'm hearing things unless I see a pip somewhere. Which at this point, wouldn't surprise me. I swear they're out to make me insane.

The hen who's been frustrating me by her setting habits has apparently, finally, gone totally broody. She was puffed out with her wings extended over her eggs all day. At this point, I'm not reaching in there even to change the water until she's done.

Pictures of the adult quail, because I had to do something other than obsessively stare at the eggs today. I WISH I could candle them! I tried before they went into the hatcher but the shells are just too dark and my LED light is not bright enough.

Hen setting on nest in far right, under the fake plant. Robin standing guard. She's got five eggs under her again today.

Close up (as close as I could get, anyway) of a broody button hen.

Cricket, my lone baby bachelor button who's far too tame for his own good, exploring some DVD's. He's a silver splash but looks more like a blue face.

Silver, surveying his domain. The grey blur on the right is the other silver of indeterminate sex who had formerly been on the roof with Silver. Saw me, bolted. I have no idea what sex that quail is. No bib, flat silver all the way, no barring on feathers, no crowing, but no eggs and is very svelte. These two don't fight, so I leave 'em together.

The other button laying hen. I have no idea what color she's supposed to be. The egg is in the upside down purple hut thing. She goes in and turns it, sits on it for a few minutes, and leaves it. Since the other hen did the same thing until she had 5 eggs, I'm leaving her alone with it.

Same cheeky button hen.

Cheeky button hen and her mate, who's another splash out of a silver line, but also looks like a blue faced.

I did not get pictures of the sad baby Coturnix.

Also, you know you're a total dork when: Worried about the humidity level of your hatcher, you re-fill an empty sterile saline IV bag with plain water, hang it from a closet rod, run the line across the floor to the hatcher, coil it up on the floor of the hatcher so the water warms up, and have it drip slowly but steadily into the bottom pan. *facepalm* No, I didn't open the hatcher - I fed the line through one of the vent holes and manipulated it around the bottom until I had it where I wanted it.

-Spooky

 

[linebacker]

Sorry to hear about your luck with the coturnix chick. You did a great job with the pictures. You should have been at my house at 3:00 am and you would have been excited. We awoke to what looks like about 20 of our sixty that have hatched so far. Hang in there and you'll get babies. I know the waiting is a killer.

Brad

 

[spookyevilone]

Quote:
Thanks. It was really sad to see. I'm assuming the temp spike last week made him mature too fast. It looked like his stomach had closed without the yolk. Blah!

I was awake at 3am, so if only you weren't several states away..

That has to be awesome, to see all the babies peeping around! Congratulations!
-Spooky

 

[spookyevilone]

So, the stupid hen abandoned her nest on Sunday for no reason. I gave it a few hours and she showed no sign of returning so I put them in the 'bator.

The two remaining eggs in the hatcher had reached day 19 with no shows. I water tested, they floated. I pipped one and got albumen, which at that day is a bad sign

One of the eggs was infertile, the other had an early embryo stop with very little blood. Both had dry, papery membranes - which is odd, since the humidity has been decent in the hatcher, tested on a standard hygrometer and the digital.

Of the next four that were due to go into the hatcher, two floated immediately and were infertile, two sank like rocks so I retrieved, wiped them dry and put them in the hatcher.

12 more in the incubator, all just completed Week 1. I finally caved and bought an egg turner, figuring with that and the IV drip line onto the sponge and now an auto-turner, I won't have any reason to open the darn thing for a week.

The egg cups that came with the turner were too big, but I figured buying the quail rails was not worth it because the button eggs wouldn't fit in that either, so I cut Kleenex into quarters, folded the quarters into fourths and tucked the eggs into little kleenex nests before putting them in the cups. They seem to be holding fine, and kleenex is porous and should allow air through.

Foo

I was hoping the hen would do the work for me. Why does she do this?! She sits for a time and then it's like she gets bored and leaves. She's not spooked off the brood.

Hen #2 seems to be showing interest in her lone egg. She crawls in, turns it, kicks sawdust over it, sets for a bit, then gets up and walks around for a bit and returns. Her mate is also very interested in the egg and I've caught HIM sitting on it more than once. It's not an accident - they're both fluffed up in the "setting pose" over it. I am positive he's a male and not another hen, but his behaviour is really weird. It's like he's learning from her. I'm so curious to see what he's like as a daddy.

Watching eggs in the 'bator and hatcher is not quite as boring as watching paint dry, because the ones in the 'bator will slowly turn from side to side over four hours, but it's darn close.

Anyone else do this, or am I just a total freak? Seriously, my evenings after work have turned into 'go home, sit on couch, stare down into 'bator and hatcher, mentally will eggs to pip and hatch'.

ugh.
-Spooky

 

[monarc23]

i steam up the bator window watching

unless i can find a good movie to occupy myself with for an hour, but even then back to the bator i go

LOL!