Hatch Along - Setting eggs June 7th.....anyone else?

[Seslar]

So I candled last night. This is my first attempt at incubating and I've never candled, but have looked at the pics online. That being said. Most of my 8 eggs showed porosity pretty badly (spotty shells) and they looked to me to be yolkers (not fertile). Two eggs were very opaque (no light shining through or full of a mass?). I was at 10-11 days last night. I'm bummed but will continue with the incubating for a while longer and keep checking for progress of some kind. I saw no signs of movement or veining. Could these hens have not been fertile? They are all three tore up by mating from the looks of their necks and backs. One of the roos was trying to mount the hens as I was catching them to bring them home from the place I bought them. Strange the eggs wouldn't be fertile.
EDIT: to say that my son candled the eggs with me today and there are actually three opaque eggs but my son was able to see the veining inside of the dark shadowiness. So, hurray for young eyes! And once he pointed them out, I was able to see them a bit too. I'm glad that we may at least have three potential hatchers coming on!

 

[shardean]

Ok..still trying to figure out candling...I have been doing it...I got 16 shipped Silkie eggs from an auction on BYC, looks like growing babies in only 6. And one of the six has a big crack in it! It was fine this morning, don't know how that happened, still a week away from hatching. So I will be lucky to get 5 babies from the 16 eggs....bummer! But 14 out of 15 of my Polish Crested eggs look like they have growing babies. And 5 out of 6 of my Buckeyes look good. And 2 out of 3 of the buff brahmas look good. And 7 out of 8 of the silkie eggs I got locally look good! We shall see next week!

...I sealed the crack dripping wax on it...hope it works! Has anyone tried that before?

 

[Stephanie739]

Stephanie739 I have been wondering this myself. I am between 44 and 55 depending. I have played with the vent on my Eco but it says to not go under 1/3 open. I have one channel with two sponges and put have a sponge in the second because I was having issues going above 40%. Having to jump even higher during lockdown may prove interesting, I think I am going to have to get those dropper things to squirt water down into the channels. I almost wish that hydro pump thing they sell wasn't 100+ dollars, I might have a weak moment and get it. Though I am trying hard to not hatch anymore until ducks next year. Seeing as I was only going to get 4 more chickens and now have 21 in the oven I have a feeling I might fail on my own promise.

Today was very challenging (day 14) I have been having temperature spikes right under the bulb (104-105 ugh) while the temps on the edges were too low (96-97) (still air/homemade cooler incubator) I have also been playing around with several different ways to increase the humidity while trying to regulate my temps. Thankfully, right now, all is stable again.

The babies really started increasing my temperature yesterday on day 13 (26 eggs)

Egg level temps (near the center and on the very outside edge) are reading 100ish (still air) although the wall thermometer (near the top) is reading a bit high at 103. Humidity is at 55%. I ended up moving the incubator into the room with a window ac. I currently have a sweater draped over the incubator. To fix my center spikes and help with humidity, I placed a half used roll of duct tape directly under the bulb and put water soaked pads and a sponge in the middle of the tape roll. Now the eggs won't be directly under the bulb and they won't get wet either.

I am really trying to be prepared for lock down. Its a bit more challenging than I expected.

 

[baconskatiedid]

Lockdown was yesterday at 11:30 for me. Can't wait, Can't wait, Can't wait!!!!!

 

[FlyRobinFly]

How is everyone doing? I couldn't resist candling tonight (late Day 17) and pretty much couldn't see anything except a wee bit of light at the end. I hope that is a good sign that I will have new chicks in a few more days! Planning to go into lockdown tomorrow, I'm using a friend's Brinsea and seem to have to work to keep the water in the channels from being sapped. I think I may have to look for some sponges for lockdown to make sure the humidity is where it needs to be.

 

[DeannaOR]

We candled one last time tonight and went into lockdown. Poor Scott..only 1 of the 10 BLRW eggs has developed. It was the whole reason we did this, he wanted some BLRW. Of the 20 eggs we set only 10 total seem to have anything going on. I wanted to toss all the bad ones, but Scott wanted to leave them in "just in case". 2 of them are Marans so we can't see anything. I'm excited because the 3 EE's and 2 Amerecaunas look great and I'm most excited about them. I hope they start hatching at night...I have to work, but Scott is home after knee surgery and I know he will have a hard time leaving them alone.

Good luck everyone =)

 

[baconskatiedid]

My hatch has not gone well! Only 3 babies!

 

[boxedcow]

oh no baconskatiedid What day are you on? I bet they are 3 super cute babies though

I am putting mine into lock down tonight. I am going to candle them and I am trying to decide if I should remove the ones I am pretty sure are quiters or if I should just leave them in there? Most are full of shadow, but there is one that looks like a deflated inner tube and another that is almost all light. I am such a nervous nelly i don't want to take something out that was perfectly fine

 

[baconskatiedid]

Day 23. Candled, cracked and threw the rest out. The 3 are cuties! I have a hard time posting pics. Haven't figured out how to send them straight here from my phone. I send them to my facebook, download to my computer, then up load them here> long way around!!! Will have them soon.

 

[boxedcow]

Well I just removed the turner and laid down the eggs a couple hours ago. I filled the second channel with sponges as well and filled up the water. Humidity finally got to 60% only after i added a moist paper towel onto the bottom. The vent is only half open to try and get the humidity up. I am a bit frustrated with how difficult it is to increase it. I know I am suppose to open the vent all the way but I am worried the humidity will drop back down. Any suggestions?

I think 3 of my Marans eggs are duds 2 are see thru and 1 has something in it but it is 1/4 the size it should be. I considered taking these out and putting a little tupperware bowl of water in there instead. Am I being a nervous nelly for nothing?

Info:
Humidty 60%
Temp 99.8
Brinsea Oct20 Eco


If I and them make it to Thurs/Fri it will be a miracle lol

-Denise