**Hatch Complete**Day 23 on 9 eggs but,....

[Farmer Kitty]

Today is day 18 on 9 of the 12 I originally set. I moved them over to the hatcher last night and candled them as I did so. Two or three looked like they should. The rest were growing and active but, didn't look as far along as they should. Only time will tell what happens but, here's praying they will be okay.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Wishing you luck and a good hatch!!

What is the difference between a "hatcher" and the incubator? How do you set one up?

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds like we have a similar situation, Kitty. Hope we both have better luck than it appears on those questionable ones. They are really dancing in the egg, but look days behind on a couple of mine.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Quote:
Nothing. When you have staggard batches of eggs (ones due at different times) you need another incubator to hatch in. If you hatch the first group in with the rest the bacteria from hatching may/can kill the other batches. We just call the one used for hatching, "hatcher".

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Quote:
I hope so too. Especially with yours. Those poor things have really been around the world! I'll leave the hatch go until they have either all hatched or are definately gooners and we'll see what happens.

I also have new chickens! One of my oldest DD's friends Dad had hatched eggs and now the mother said they have to go. After the weekend I will be posting in the section on what are we. Some I can guess but, the others I'm not sure on. There are 7 total with two diffenant roos.

 

[SusanJoM]

Quote:
A hatcher is really just an incubator with slightly different adjustments. Since on Day 18 you want to stop turning the eggs and you also want to raise the humidity, you need a separate vehicle for doing that if you have eggs at different stages of development in your incubator.

So, during the incubating stage, you are turning the eggs and your humidity is somewhere around 45-50. During the hatching stage, you are not turning the eggs, and the humidity is around 60-70.

If you have only one batch of eggs in process, you can use your incubator for both the incubating and the hatching stages. If you put a second batch of eggs into the incubator 10 days after you set the first batch, you really will need a hatcher (an incubator set up at the higher humidity level and without a turner) to move the first eggs into on Day 18 so that you don't mess up the second batch that still want to be turned and still want the lower humidity.

Does that answer your question? If not, try again, and I will too....

Susan

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Yes, that does answer my question - thank you! I also started another post with more questions so I won't hijack this one anymore. Thank you both - I'm so NERVOUS!!

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Today is day 20. Temps and humidity have been good. I'm sitting on my hands as I would love to recandle and see how those that looked behind are doing. Hopefully, it won't be long now and they start hatching. Another day or two isn't that long..............................right?

 

[gumpsgirl]

That's right Kitty! It's not to much longer. You keep sitting on those hands and finger, eyes, and toes are crossed for you here!

 

[Katy]

My last hatch I had one that was always smaller looking than the others, but very active movement. It was the last to hatch and is smaller than the other chicks, but is active and doing fine......just smaller.