Hands on hatching and help

[jlashaw]

I've only had one broody this year and she was a murderous mama. Ive got another broody that is on a nest of 15 eggs. They should hatch on the 31st. I'm very excited to experience a hen taking care of chicks. I'm not sure I can keep my hands off of them though, if she kicks any out of the nest. So far she has been a great setter. Any input?

 

[silkepopa101]

So far two have hatched! A Silke and a Chantix! All that worrying for nothing lol

 

[RubyNala97]

You can buy hygrometers very cheaply, I paid $2.99 for mine at a hardware store. I highly recommend you grab one. Pet stores will sell a thermometer/hygrometer combo that takes up little space. Just don't buy the National Geographic digital one; it was total garbage.

X2. Mine is a reptile, dial hygrometer for $5. It's easy to calibrate and clean off after/before each hatch. You've gotta have a hygro!

I put them in a cardboard carton and it's running dry, hatching isn't due until Wednesday night so hopefully I have enough time!

Good luck!

I have always hatched laying down. Depending on how these shipped eggs go that I will be recieving next week, I may hatch them upright. I prefer laying down though and if possible that will be my choice.

I've never hatched upright! Well actually I had one egg with fluid issues and that 1 egg hatched upright in carton but I totally prefer laying them down for hatch.

Um, hi. I'm Blooie. I don't know if I'll be a "hands on hatcher" or not. I have my shipped eggs sitting here and so far I'm afraid touch them. I already broke one just looking at it. The eggs are letting their air cells settle right now while hubby is trying to regulate the incubator and I'm scrounging in the cabinet for margarita makings. It's gonna be a looong month.

Good luck, Blooie! How did the air cells look?

Realizing this is "hands on" thread, I'm excited to have a hands OFF hatch... My pigeon is sitting on an egg!!! She laid it last night. Should be 17 days from now!!!

My grandfather breeds pigeons and my grandma took a chicken egg from my house last week and put it under a pigeon!

Alright! So getting used, paid off even more! Ha, now I can't wait to tell my DH

Yes, the 9300 is horrible! And that's all most stores sell now. So you definitely got the better model!

 

[Blooie]

X2. Mine is a reptile, dial hygrometer for $5. It's easy to calibrate and clean off after/before each hatch. You've gotta have a hygro!
Good luck!
I've never hatched upright! Well actually I had one egg with fluid issues and that 1 egg hatched upright in carton but I totally prefer laying them down for hatch.
Good luck, Blooie! How did the air cells look?
My grandfather breeds pigeons and my grandma took a chicken egg from my house last week and put it under a pigeon!
Yes, the 9300 is horrible! And that's all most stores sell now. So you definitely got the better model!

Like water balloons partly filled. Wobbled all over the place. Let them set for a couple of days, then rechecked. Out of 27 eggs, 11 still very obviously had that look. The rest were probably where they should be - I think. Put 'em in the incubators upright and left them alone for 12+ hours. Went in today, took the ones that were in the 4200 out of the turner (which had not been plugged in yet) and put them in egg cartons to keep them mostly upright and did the first turning by hand...not much, just enough to say they were turned. I don't have a clue what I'm doing here. Feel like I'm drowning.

 

[FridayYet]

Sounds like you are on the right track, Blooie! Just keep tipping them side to side 3-5 times today.

I am one of those people that believe that shipped eggs can suffer some unseen damage that cannot be undone even by "perfect" incubating techniques. In fact, I believe that very little can be done to reverse the damage - and the least damaged eggs should make it and the heavily damaged ones won't. Unfortunately, you can't always tell which is which just by looking at them. You also can't tell if the box had a smooth trip or were left in a truck in freezing or boiling temperatures, tossed around and dropped repeatedly.

If a majority of your eggs are looking good by the morning, I'd just pop them in the turner (if you were going to use it anyway) and let the incubator do it's work.

Don't jeopardize the good eggs to baby the damaged ones that have a poor chance of making it anyways. As always, just my 2 cents and probably worth a lot less.

 

[RubyNala97]

Like water balloons partly filled.  Wobbled all over the place. Let them set for a couple of days, then rechecked.  Out of 27 eggs, 11 still very obviously had that look.  The rest were probably where they should be - I think. Put 'em in the incubators upright and left them alone for 12+ hours.  Went in today, took the ones that were in the 4200 out of the turner (which had not been plugged in yet) and put them in egg cartons to keep them mostly upright and did the first turning by hand...not much, just enough to say they were turned.  I don't have a clue what I'm doing here.  Feel like I'm drowning.

You can mark the 11 that were the worst and monitor them. Just tilt them at a 45 degree angle from one side of the carton to the other. I would do that 5xday. By day 12 the CAM (chorioallatonic membrane) takes over for the vascular system. It's like a balloon that inflates around the inside of the egg. When that happens, it usually seals up any lose air cells and makes them firm. Sometimes they firm up in weird shapes because of how wobbly they were. That's ok. If they are not loose anymore after that you can turn on the turner. Just be gentle with them and give them your best shot! You got this!!

 

[caesargirl]

Super quick candle says 38 with hearts, couple clears (Big Momma, jumbo pekin, vehemently hates the boys!) and couple with "strange" colored yolks.... Out of 44....

 

[Blooie]

You can mark the 11 that were the worst and monitor them. Just tilt them at a 45 degree angle from one side of the carton to the other. I would do that 5xday. By day 12 the CAM (chorioallatonic membrane) takes over for the vascular system. It's like a balloon that inflates around the inside of the egg. When that happens, it usually seals up any lose air cells and makes them firm. Sometimes they firm up in weird shapes because of how wobbly they were. That's ok. If they are not loose anymore after that you can turn on the turner. Just be gentle with them and give them your best shot! You got this!!

Um, sure.

But the turning I can do....just doesn't seem like much of turn when they're in the cartons.

 

[kgoslar21]

I was reading this thread and although this is my first hatch, I can already tell I am going to be hands on. I had 2 chicks hatch overnight and took them out of the incubator and put them in the brooder box. I couldn't stand watching them walk all over the other eggs. All I could think was how disorienting that would be for the chicks in the eggs. The set hatch day is tomorrow so I must have had the incubator a little warm. I set it at 100. Started running the humidity at about 50% until I read the dry hatching article then let it get down to about 25% before lockdown. Had it at 65% until the first one hatched now running at about 75%. Running a farm innovators 4250 forced air came with auto egg turner and candler. The candler down right sucks but other than that I think we are doing ok. Hear more chirps as I type and have at least 5 more pips no zips yet. That's my excitement for the week.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I've only had one broody this year and she was a murderous mama. Ive got another broody that is on a nest of 15 eggs. They should hatch on the 31st. I'm very excited to experience a hen taking care of chicks. I'm not sure I can keep my hands off of them though, if she kicks any out of the nest. So far she has been a great setter. Any input?

Good luck. Don't have too much input. Other than bugging mine to candle here and there, there wasn't anything to do but to remove eggs the others laid in there.

So far two have hatched! A Silke and a Chantix! All that worrying for nothing lol

Yay! Congrats!

X2. Mine is a reptile, dial hygrometer for $5. It's easy to calibrate and clean off after/before each hatch. You've gotta have a hygro!
Good luck!
I've never hatched upright! Well actually I had one egg with fluid issues and that 1 egg hatched upright in carton but I totally prefer laying them down for hatch.
Good luck, Blooie! How did the air cells look?
My grandfather breeds pigeons and my grandma took a chicken egg from my house last week and put it under a pigeon!
Yes, the 9300 is horrible! And that's all most stores sell now. So you definitely got the better model!

I prefer laying them down too.

Like water balloons partly filled. Wobbled all over the place. Let them set for a couple of days, then rechecked. Out of 27 eggs, 11 still very obviously had that look. The rest were probably where they should be - I think. Put 'em in the incubators upright and left them alone for 12+ hours. Went in today, took the ones that were in the 4200 out of the turner (which had not been plugged in yet) and put them in egg cartons to keep them mostly upright and did the first turning by hand...not much, just enough to say they were turned. I don't have a clue what I'm doing here. Feel like I'm drowning.

Sounds like you're doing great. You're doing what needs to be done. If some don't make it, it's not because you messed up!!!

Sounds like you are on the right track, Blooie! Just keep tipping them side to side 3-5 times today.

I am one of those people that believe that shipped eggs can suffer some unseen damage that cannot be undone even by "perfect" incubating techniques. In fact, I believe that very little can be done to reverse the damage - and the least damaged eggs should make it and the heavily damaged ones won't. Unfortunately, you can't always tell which is which just by looking at them. You also can't tell if the box had a smooth trip or were left in a truck in freezing or boiling temperatures, tossed around and dropped repeatedly.

If a majority of your eggs are looking good by the morning, I'd just pop them in the turner (if you were going to use it anyway) and let the incubator do it's work.

Don't jeopardize the good eggs to baby the damaged ones that have a poor chance of making it anyways. As always, just my 2 cents and probably worth a lot less.

Not so. You're great at advice!! Half the time you take the words out of my mouth before I can say them. And I consider my words worth at least 2 cents....lol

Um, sure.

But the turning I can do....just doesn't seem like much of turn when they're in the cartons.

I actually think that turners turn too much.