Hatch-ALong - Setting first eggs 4/5, hatch day 4/26. Anyone want to join me?

[dretd]

I have all my eggies happily incubating away. The incubator is a forced air Hovabator with auto-turner. How nice not to have to be so hands-on. I have several thermometers in there and of course they all rad something slightly different.
-I have a Brinsea probe dangling about level with the eggs and it has been reading 99.1-99.8 F.
-I took my wireless Oregon Scientific module and taped half a a plastic Easter egg to the back and put that bit in the turner. That one has been running about 100.0-100.8F

Between the two of them I figure they average out just fine. I decided to ignore the oral thermometer through the hole on top that registers 101 and also the little digital along the side that registers 98. I figure the oral was closer to the top therefore hotter and the one along the side was next to the styrofoam and therefore cooler.

What is everyone else targeting for their temps?

 

[mrshaggie810]

I will be setting my eggs tonight so I'm going to join in too, although, mine will hatch later because I'm setting duck eggs! I'll post a pic when it's all set up. I checked fertility earlier this week, and looks like both ducks are laying fertile eggs, so I will be setting 11 from my Rouen and 2 from my Cayuga (I thought I had more, but on closer inspection, I don't! lol) I think my Cayuga is a cross, she lays really light eggs...anyways...Dad is a Rouen/Runner cross. As long as they all look good when I candle them in a few minutes, that's what I'll be setting in my homemade foam cooler.

 

[ErikaDL]

I will be setting my eggs tonight so I'm going to join in too, although, mine will hatch later because I'm setting duck eggs!  I'll post a pic when it's all set up.  I checked fertility earlier this week, and looks like both ducks are laying fertile eggs, so I will be setting 11 from my Rouen and 2 from my Cayuga (I thought I had more, but on closer inspection, I don't! lol)  I think my Cayuga is a cross, she lays really light eggs...anyways...Dad is a Rouen/Runner cross.  As long as they all look good when I candle them in a few minutes, that's what I'll be setting in my homemade foam cooler. 

Yay! Another foam cooler with duck eggs! I'm excited!!

 

[roostercluck]

Ok so this is my first time incubating, and I just candled all of my eggs. This is the 6th day, and I see a dark spot, in all of them, rotate every time I rotate the egg. On some of them there is a dark circle inside the dark spot that has maybe veins going out from it. Am I doing this right? Are my chickens actually developing, or is it just cause I want them to?

 

[dretd]

Ok so this is my first time incubating, and I just candled all of my eggs. This is the 6th day, and I see a dark spot, in all of them, rotate every time I rotate the egg. On some of them there is a dark circle inside the dark spot that has maybe veins going out from it. Am I doing this right? Are my chickens actually developing, or is it just cause I want them to?

Good luck on your first incubation!

Could you please elaborate on your method of candling (bought candler, LED flashlight in tube or other, position of light source--from top, side etc) and the type of eggshell (how dark/pigmented). I stopped candling after my second failed hatch thinking I was over-handling the eggs so I know I am not your best resource, but hopefully there is a more experience guru out there that can help.

Have you looked a the photo sequence for candling? Here is a link: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

 

[Pancholoco]

Candled mine yesterday, looks like all of them are OK, I'll candle again on day 14

wish me luck.

 

[roostercluck]

I am using a LED flashlight and hold the eggs in my hands. The shell color is a crème to brown color. I hold the egg so the larger end is up and the lower end is in my hand. Then I shine the flashlight through my hand and into the egg. I took a look at that page, and mine don't seem to be progressing fast enough.

 

[SmittenChicken]

I am using a LED flashlight and hold the eggs in my hands. The shell color is a crème to brown color. I hold the egg so the larger end is up and the lower end is in my hand. Then I shine the flashlight through my hand and into the egg. I took a look at that page, and mine don't seem to be progressing fast enough.

I'm still waiting to candle mine until day 10, because I had a hard time with it last time even at day 7. Being crammed in a tiny dark space with a growling broody certainly didn't help, but I found it really difficult to see what was happening in the egg and felt like a lot of what I saw was wishful thinking. I definitely would not pull out any eggs at this point if there's a chance they're developing, though.

I'm using a mini mag-lite that holds the egg perfectly, and this time I stuck it in a tall box to make a hands-free candler. Worked great for my initial candling, and hopefully will allow me to get some decent pictures of the embryos this time (if there are any.)


Hopefully I'll have some photos for comparison after this weekend!

My eggs are still incubating away (just finished day 5!) and the humidity's been fine until today
I only filled one reservoir in the incubator to start, and instead am running a humidifier in the room to keep the incubator steady at about 45-50% (I'm at high altitude.) This worked great until it got unseasonably cold outside and all that humidity started condensing on the windows. My incubator was running in the 30s, so I just added a tightly folded paper towel dipped in warm water alongside the egg turner. I only cracked the lid for about 1/2 a second and didn't notice a drop in temp, and it brought the humidity right up to 48% and then leveled off. Feeling pretty lucky right now!

Good luck to all of you as well. And happy candling!

 

[The Chickeneer]

Hey everyone!. Haven't posted in this thread in a while, It's great to see more people joining and hatching along. I finally got the pictures of all the eggs I set. I candled all the large eggs, and a few quail eggs, they all seem to be doing great with the exeption of 2 duck eggs :/ I think I set them like a week ago? Well anyways, the Quail hatch next Thursday and the rest I forgot....it's on my calendar though. Good luck everybody!

4 Welsummer Chicken eggs

2 Mille Fleur bantam eggs

30 quail eggs

5 Duck eggs

 

[DiamondDust]

I have Barnevelders from TLS and Silkies from Catdance in my incubator right now. Set the Silkies last Thursday (4/4) and the Barnies last Friday (4/5). I candled the silkies last night and 9 out of 10 BBS eggs are developing. Only one of the Porcelain eggs is and three of the Partridge are. I didn't get many of those colors though, mainly the BBS. I split the 2 dozen order with a friend of mine and I don't know if she candled her eggs yet. I'll be candling the Barnie eggs tomorrow but they are much harder to see because they are fairly dark shelled. I'm hoping for the best but half of the Barnie eggs had detached air cells so I am handling them with kid gloves, so to speak. My incubator is full to capacity!!!

I'm glad I found this thread and now I can see how others are doing that set eggs about the same time as I did!