Hatch-Along - Setting eggs this weekend (Jan5/6) WHOS WITH ME!

[SilkieSensation]

You do realize you just made my day, encouraged my growing addiction, and have me totally doing the happy dance!! Thank you for taking the time to break it down, so I will hopefully have some success in doing a second hatch at the same time. Now I'm hoping I can get the eggs tomorrow to add and get going! Fingers crossed!! :-D

If you have any questions just PM me. Always glad to help. I don't always have a chance to check every thread every day but my messages get checked pretty frequently. This goes for anyone else with questions on staggered hatches as well, or any other topic for that matter. If I don't know the answer myself, I can likely locate someone pretty quickly who does. I have friends who have been doing this for years & they are great teachers. If I haven't run into the situation personally, chances are 1 of them has.

 

[TheSpeckledRoo]

I do the same thing with the bowl. I have a LG with the automatic turner. If i do a staggered hatch i just take out a few of the rails. That way the eggs that are not in lockdown are still turning and what not. Seems to work pretty good for me.

 

[SilkieSensation]

I do the same thing with the bowl. I have a LG with the automatic turner. If i do a staggered hatch i just take out a few of the rails. That way the eggs that are not in lockdown are still turning and what not. Seems to work pretty good for me.

I turn by hand, so eggs in lockdown simply get pushed to 1 corner of the bator so I remember not to turn them & the rest keep turning until I get a pip & have to leave the bator closed for hatch. My only concern with leaving a turner running would be the rambunctious chick who tries to hop on top & gets stuck between the rails while they are turning.

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

If my staggered hatches are less than a week apart, I stop turning all the eggs when the first batch goes into lockdown. I've never had any problems. But if they're 7 days apart or more, I take out the turner, and turn the other eggs by hand for a few more days. I've heard of chicks getting their legs stuck in the turner.

 

[gabrielle1976]

 

[dblea202]

So today our humidity has been very touchy...we've been trying to keep it between 35-40% but it keeps going up to 42% even after we have taken water out of the troughs at the bottom. Hopefully this doesn't affect them too much

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

Just did my day 7 candle. Out of 30 eggs, as many as 9 might be clear, which is disappointing. But it's early. I've definitely been wrong before. I left all the eggs in the bator, but marked the ones I wasn't sure about. One thing I definitely noticed, most of the clear-looking eggs were in the middle 2 rows of the bator. All the eggs I stacked on top showed development, as did the eggs on the edge rows. I'm not sure if there's anything to this. Not all the eggs on the middle rows were clear. But to be safe, I left the questionable eggs in those 2 middle rows.

 

[aka Rachel]

Candling -- I'm happy for all of you how have seen some veins etc! woohoo, lookin' good I'm still holding out for my day 7, Sat, but waiting is not easy...

Rotating eggs in bator:
I have a homemade bator & don't think this would apply so much for a commercial bator but here is what happened to me in case it helps anyone:

For the NYDH I rotated my eggs every other day(didn't want to open lid more often) trying to move them between closer & father from light bulb positions for "even baking"
I have a PC Fan in my bator the cooler is pretty small so in theory the air should be well mixed and pretty even temps.

Well, what I found out on day 21 much to my horror, is I had at least one really TOO HOT SPOT (exterioror of egg in that spot was 103.4
so the tragic thing for me was I had systematically rotated several developing eggs which would likely have hatched into the "killer hot spot"

Again, this is a home made bator, it is not perfect, and I can't have a thermometer in every egg, so this hatch I am NOT rotating the eggs,
I have them lettered, and I have the photo diagram of where they are,
I'm going to track each egg spot and note how they develope, incl. order of hatch from which I hope to identify the odd hot (& cold) area of my bator, then depending on what I find I will either move the fan, or simply have a couple never-use egg spaces. Given it is all diy this was the most "scientific" way I could come up w/ to trouble shoot my hot spot problem.

I'm giving the info here in case anyone else has a new home-made bator, If I had to do my 1st hatch over again, I would have picked one side of the eggs to rotate & one side to leave in place, to see if there was an observable difference, but I didn't think of it at the time. If this info. helps anyone great, if not just ignore it and carry on!

Great tips! I had a small cooler bator for my last hatch and it was extremely disappointing. Light you I thought that rotating would take care of any hot spot issues, alas you know how that turns out too.

I dismantled that bator and made one from a large chest with two light bulbs, both on top of the bator at the ends with fans pointing at each bulb. This time I do not have hot spots, and the eggs are being rolled by a turner, no hand turning rotating stuff going on.

I have my fingers crossed for a great hatch for you!

We candled tonight and saw some great veining. My worry is that I'll candle too early and be disappointed by the apparent lack of development, but after tonight I'm quite happy! Out of 19 eggs we have 11 developing nicely from both my hens who are laying at this time. 8 Show no signs, they are all my head hens eggs and she's picky about who mates with her! (yes, she's that tough, lol) The rooster that she likes is getting quite old so I think his fertility is at issue.

My temps are still at odds, either 102 or 98.

 

[lesliedow]

awwww...I just got my new Brinsea MiniAdvanced today. Guess their shipping dept was still holiday-groggy. I did get 6 eggs in my weekly CSA bin--she runs her hens with a few roos so they are likely to be fertile-- and I put 1 fertilized egg from Trader Joe's in for fun. I'll play along, but I'm behind. Not really expecting a lot but hey, I have a new toy!

Leslie

 

[SilkieSensation]

Just did my day 7 candle. Out of 30 eggs, as many as 9 might be clear, which is disappointing. But it's early. I've definitely been wrong before. I left all the eggs in the bator, but marked the ones I wasn't sure about. One thing I definitely noticed, most of the clear-looking eggs were in the middle 2 rows of the bator. All the eggs I stacked on top showed development, as did the eggs on the edge rows. I'm not sure if there's anything to this. Not all the eggs on the middle rows were clear. But to be safe, I left the questionable eggs in those 2 middle rows.

This could be from what I was talking about earlier. Your eggs on top are slowing development of the ones below by blocking the heat. This is why I suggested rotating the top layer down & the eggs under to the top every few days to help even out temp averages. Personally, when I stack eggs I rotate every time I turn, but I'm also hand turning so this is pretty easy to do. I simply lift the top egg out & trade it with 1 from a random space in the bottom making sure I flip it to the "turned" side marking so I don't accidentally rotate it back to a top spot in that turning. By doing this, no egg gets stuck in the "hot spot" for too long & none stay in the "cold spots" either. It helps even development & avoid dead babies.