Hands on hatching and help

[quackshack74]

Ill keep you all posted. yikes

 

[Blooie]

Transfer complete! No casualties!

Pulled a lot of eggs - a total of 18 - obvious clears, blood rings, and a couple of quitters. Kept one that I'm just not sure of yet. So I have 8 active, moving, viable eggs (Day 12) and one that I kept in case for a total of 9 eggs in the Brinsea.

 

[BigWeenMachine]

So believe it or not, my test is going well in the FI. My known thermos were all within a couple degrees of each other at room temp in the bator before I turned it on. I laid them out so the sensors are around the same height. I've got 98 (lowest to the floor), 99.1, 100, and 100.2 on the one that's the tallest. The unit itself is on like 96 and the extra one included in the unit is only reading like 95. I feel for people who buy them and don't get extra thermos. Getting the proper readings on the units would cook the poor chicks.

That's awesome. Hope the temps hold for you! Fingers crossed!!!

 

[BigWeenMachine]

Well Ruby, I just cracked the 2 eggs that were clear on the bottom third of the egg when I candled. 2 Beautiful blue swedish looking chicks that looked fully formed but were extremely tiny. Neither one moved or kicked or anything once cracked so I am sure they had already died by the time I removed them. All the veins were gone on the shell during candling and once I opened them up the remaining veins inside were black. Quitters I guess.

On a happy note though, I briefly fiddled with the hatcher and added the one remaining viable duckling that was due to enter lockdown (she had not pipped the shell yet but I could see her lil beak fluttering around in the air sack-- Hopefully she turns out okay cos she was pipping on the short side of the slant in the air sack). With the help of my wife (who is 7 months pregnant and grumbling about me getting the baby nursery ready instead of playing with ducklings), we managed to quickly add the last good egg to the other 3 in my hatcher...... and we candled the 2 eggs already inside the hatcher that I was previously worried about, only to find full development and movement in both!!!

I am still a lil worried about our first pipper though. He has definitely made progress today by making the crack much bigger and chirping several times when I played him peeping duckling videos from youtube, but he still hasn't made a hole all the way through the shell so I can see his cute lil beak chattering about. He just finished day 26 about 5 hours ago so he is still probably ahead of schedule. I feel like a nervous soccer momma duck, lol.

 

[Laurel Meadows]

Power out for 18 hours.... Yup, spring in Maine! Temps down to 7° last night house got into low 40s. Moved the bator next to wood stove.
1 egg. I only lost 1 egg!!!!!!!!
Yup, counting my ducklings before they hatch!!

great job keeping everyone warm! Sorry to hear you lost one egg but glad the majority are ok!
I had 4 remaining eggs in the Brinsea during the power outage-I moved them back to the Hova still air yesterday morning. 2 hatched overnight and one is zipping now

 

[caesargirl]

great job keeping everyone warm! Sorry to hear you lost one egg but glad the majority are ok!
I had 4 remaining eggs in the Brinsea during the power outage-I moved them back to the Hova still air yesterday morning. 2 hatched overnight and one is zipping now

I was really surprised. The styrobator held heat for quite some time though and super thankful we have a wood stove. We're having a house generator installed in July thank goodness! I'm more worried at this point about the pigeons contaminating the eggs. They're getting their own brooder today and then I'll pull the eggs, quick clean the bottom of the bator. I'm not sure if I'll have to clean the eggs. Hopefully it's just going to be a little wipe off here and there.
How well did the Brinsea hold heat? Did you do anything extra to try to maintain heat?

 

[WVduckchick]

Happy to hear it! I feel for you. Our weather took a turn for the worst and we had snow and ice all day. It was in the 70's and 80's last week. I moved all the young ones outside and my broody just hatched chicks. It was a nightmare. Actually rigged up a heat lamp out there...something I said I would never do.
That's the tough thing about still airs. Trying to get the temp stable. Sounds like you're on the right track and good to know to use many thermos...I think I might order one this week. Not the FI but the hova.
I don't usually play the music until zip time. That's when they need that final boost to get out. They go crazy. I mean, nothing wrong with playing it whenever, just saying.

any more progress or new pips?
I say to early. Give it another day.

We are frozen again this morning. Of course, this is after I re-ran all my water hoses out to the coops and unplugged all the heated waterers. I'm mad as a wet hen... lol
My 3-1/2-week olds seem to be handling the cold very well though. Although, I must say, they must have some Silkie blood in them, because they are too stupid to go upstairs at night, where the brooder plate is. I've had to move them by hand every night for over a week now!

Still trying to get the humidity right in the FI, but I think that will be easy enough this evening, with sponges, so I think I will lockdown tonight. I think ordering the hova is your best bet though!

x2 about those candling pics. Too early.

But speaking of candling, I did notice something that I hadn't noticed before. On my darker eggs that are harder to see veins, I realized that the "dark blob" yolk, seems to float lower (toward the pointy end) on ones that are developing, and floats higher on ones that turn out to be clears.

13 hours after power came on, just candled. All eggs still good. There's a couple I'm not getting happy vibes about, but, we'll see.
Have to build a baby pigeon appropriate brooder tomorrow. They must get out of the bator. Like the adults, the largest one likes to poop out of the nest bowl.... Yup, got on eggs. Ick. They gotta go! Candled the egg under the adult pigeons, their duckling is cooking along nicely. They even coo at it. Gonna be a rather confused baby!

That's amazing! Resilient little boogers, aren't they. Good luck with the new brooder. The piggies are soooo cute.

Day 25 (lock down ), I had 2 eggs going in my wee homemade incubator. Lost #1 last week. #2 looks great as of few hours ago.
Nervous ducky momma wish I could take the week off. Candled last time little bit ago. Very full, good veins, little movement seeb. Very hopefully. Eeeeee can't wait. ♡♡♡

Nerve wracking, huh?

I always want to take off hatch days too!
Lockdown for me this evening!

Transfer complete! No casualties!

Pulled a lot of eggs - a total of 18 - obvious clears, blood rings, and a couple of quitters. Kept one that I'm just not sure of yet. So I have 8 active, moving, viable eggs (Day 12) and one that I kept in case for a total of 9 eggs in the Brinsea.

Great job!

Well Ruby, I just cracked the 2 eggs that were clear on the bottom third of the egg when I candled. 2 Beautiful blue swedish looking chicks that looked fully formed but were extremely tiny. Neither one moved or kicked or anything once cracked so I am sure they had already died by the time I removed them. All the veins were gone on the shell during candling and once I opened them up the remaining veins inside were black. Quitters I guess.

On a happy note though, I briefly fiddled with the hatcher and added the one remaining viable duckling that was due to enter lockdown (she had not pipped the shell yet but I could see her lil beak fluttering around in the air sack-- Hopefully she turns out okay cos she was pipping on the short side of the slant in the air sack). With the help of my wife (who is 7 months pregnant and grumbling about me getting the baby nursery ready instead of playing with ducklings), we managed to quickly add the last good egg to the other 3 in my hatcher...... and we candled the 2 eggs already inside the hatcher that I was previously worried about, only to find full development and movement in both!!!

I am still a lil worried about our first pipper though. He has definitely made progress today by making the crack much bigger and chirping several times when I played him peeping duckling videos from youtube, but he still hasn't made a hole all the way through the shell so I can see his cute lil beak chattering about. He just finished day 26 about 5 hours ago so he is still probably ahead of schedule. I feel like a nervous soccer momma duck, lol.

I have Swedish ducklings too! Good luck with the ones that remain. Can't wait to see pics!

 

[Laurel Meadows]

So believe it or not, my test is going well in the FI. My known thermos were all within a couple degrees of each other at room temp in the bator before I turned it on. I laid them out so the sensors are around the same height. I've got 98 (lowest to the floor), 99.1, 100, and 100.2 on the one that's the tallest. The unit itself is on like 96 and the extra one included in the unit is only reading like 95. I feel for people who buy them and don't get extra thermos. Getting the proper readings on the units would cook the poor chicks.

Wow that is crazy that the built-in is so far off! I run 4 thermos in my Hova still air and If they're all clustered together they read very close but I have major cooler spots around the perimeter so I try to keep eggs right under the heating element. The center 3" diameter is very hot in mine so I don't put eggs there either.

With the Brinsea, it holds completely steady but it's just so small I don't like hatching in it. I did a test on mine and at the upper built-in glass thermometer it would read 99-100. At mid-egg level about 1 1/2" below the thermo I was 97.8 on 3 separate thermometers! So I dialed mine up to read 102. At egg level I'm now right on 99-100. Have you or @RubyNala97 found this to be happening with your Brinseas too?

 

[WVduckchick]

Wow that is crazy that the built-in is so far off! I run 4 thermos in my Hova still air and If they're all clustered together they read very close but I have major cooler spots around the perimeter so I try to keep eggs right under the heating element. The center 3" diameter is very hot in mine so I don't put eggs there either.

With the Brinsea, it holds completely steady but it's just so small I don't like hatching in it. I did a test on mine and at the upper built-in glass thermometer it would read 99-100. At mid-egg level about 1 1/2" below the thermo I was 97.8 on 3 separate thermometers! So I dialed mine up to read 102. At egg level I'm now right on 99-100. Have you or @RubyNala97 found this to be happening with your Brinseas too?

Thanks for that. I'll likely avoid the very center in the styro also. Since I only have 2 big eggs, and 11 small bantam eggs, I think I should be able to easily get them in a circle under the element.

Yes! I have my Brinsea set on 100.7 to keep egg height at 99-100. This morning I actually lowered the set temp to 100.5 because the Spot Check was consistently staying closer to 100, instead of 99 - 99.5. I'd much rather have a delay for being a bit on the low side as to getting them too hot.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Transfer complete! No casualties!

Pulled a lot of eggs - a total of 18 - obvious clears, blood rings, and a couple of quitters. Kept one that I'm just not sure of yet. So I have 8 active, moving, viable eggs (Day 12) and one that I kept in case for a total of 9 eggs in the Brinsea.

We are frozen again this morning. Of course, this is after I re-ran all my water hoses out to the coops and unplugged all the heated waterers. I'm mad as a wet hen... lol
My 3-1/2-week olds seem to be handling the cold very well though. Although, I must say, they must have some Silkie blood in them, because they are too stupid to go upstairs at night, where the brooder plate is. I've had to move them by hand every night for over a week now!

Still trying to get the humidity right in the FI, but I think that will be easy enough this evening, with sponges, so I think I will lockdown tonight. I think ordering the hova is your best bet though!

x2 about those candling pics. Too early.

But speaking of candling, I did notice something that I hadn't noticed before. On my darker eggs that are harder to see veins, I realized that the "dark blob" yolk, seems to float lower (toward the pointy end) on ones that are developing, and floats higher on ones that turn out to be clears.



That's amazing! Resilient little boogers, aren't they. Good luck with the new brooder. The piggies are soooo cute.



Nerve wracking, huh?

I always want to take off hatch days too!
Lockdown for me this evening!



Great job!

I have Swedish ducklings too! Good luck with the ones that remain. Can't wait to see pics!

We are frozen too!!!

Wow that is crazy that the built-in is so far off! I run 4 thermos in my Hova still air and If they're all clustered together they read very close but I have major cooler spots around the perimeter so I try to keep eggs right under the heating element. The center 3" diameter is very hot in mine so I don't put eggs there either.

With the Brinsea, it holds completely steady but it's just so small I don't like hatching in it. I did a test on mine and at the upper built-in glass thermometer it would read 99-100. At mid-egg level about 1 1/2" below the thermo I was 97.8 on 3 separate thermometers! So I dialed mine up to read 102. At egg level I'm now right on 99-100. Have you or @RubyNala97 found this to be happening with your Brinseas too?

I try to keep mine under the deating elements too, but my center is just the opposite. The perimeter-outer corners and the center run cooler. I have the heating element that runs around the top in a circular square. I try to balance my eggs between the two sides, under the element leaving the center bare.

Thanks for that. I'll likely avoid the very center in the styro also. Since I only have 2 big eggs, and 11 small bantam eggs, I think I should be able to easily get them in a circle under the element.

Yes! I have my Brinsea set on 100.7 to keep egg height at 99-100. This morning I actually lowered the set temp to 100.5 because the Spot Check was consistently staying closer to 100, instead of 99 - 99.5. I'd much rather have a delay for being a bit on the low side as to getting them too hot.

I'm just the opposite. As long as it doesn't push above 101, I'd rather have it a tad high. right now I have one side showing 100 and the other hitting 101. I tried to rebalance and rotate during turning this morning, but I still have that difference. I am keeping a close eye on it though. I want the 100, but not the 101.

This is the first hatch I have been playing the humidity game too- and I don't like it...lol I actually added water along with my sponges yesterday trying to hold humidity up above 40. At this point it could run 50% and I wouldn't be worried and ya'll know how I feel about humidity above 40 the first 17 days....lol I'd better get some cute little silkie chicks after all this....lol Yesterday morning showed 14/18 developing. I hope they are all still developing. We hit day 6 tonight so either tomorrow night or Thursday morning I'll be doing a complete candle and marking air cells so I will know if they are all still developing. I want to get better batteries for the flashlight too and see if I can at least see the air cells in the greens. I put new batteries in it, but they are the cheapos and I think that is my problem, so I need some duracells!! I can usually at least see the air cells, but not this time.