Hatchalong! Setting Eggs April 6, 2012. Anyone else in?

[loves2hatch]

For lockdown, I'm planning to take them out of the turner and lay them down. But.... I thought I'd use the lids of egg cartons and lay six of them in each... 3 on each side of the ridge. That way they can't be rolling all over the place and the carton lid will catch some of the mess.... less to clean up later. Also a question.... do any of you put a barrier in your incubator at lockdown to keep breeds separate? How high does that barrier need to be. Would 4 inches height keep them apart or are they more "rousty" than that when first hatched?

I think I'm going to go with hatching in the egg cartons if I don't freak out and change my mind at the last minute.
I haven't done different breeds in one hatch to have to keep them seperate. I always wondered how they knew which was which when they hatched especially if they weren't there to see them hatch.

What namebrand did you use? Where did you get it? I have what I thought was a powerful led, took the eggs into the bathroom with out windows but all I can see are the air sacs. That be so exciting to see inside!!

my flashlight isn't as powerful as I would like it is a led it uses 3 AAA batteries. But it was given to my kids as a gift from some friends that live in switzerland. LOL.It has 12 tiny bulbs in it. I have seen them in the farm stores around here that look similiar.But they probably carry them at walmart or something too. The earlier stages I can see great into the shells, the ducks eggs were perfect light colored eggs and could see thru the whole time. The chicken eggs that I have set now are all brown, some light some darker at this stage I can see the air cell fine and I can see a little veining right by the aircell, but sometimes I have to turn the egg to a different sides a few times at this stage to see the veins. Also i hold my egg and cup my fingers around the flashlight to block the excess light, make it more sealed then move it around the egg it seems to work better for me then setting the egg on top of something with the flashlight underneath. I candled a few eggs on saturday night and marked the air cells on those, the whole egg seems to be full I can't see thru the bottom of the egg at all, like I could with the ducks. I've seen those candler's at TSC but haven't tried them, not sure if they are led or not. they were about $12. Anyone else have a flashlight they could recommend?

My aircells don't seem to be that big as of Saturday. I can't find that chart I've seen before on this, i can only find the duck one. but I thought the air cells were supposed to be like 1/3 of the egg by hatch time? I'll candle again tomorrow night see how much they grew since I marked some of them on saturday.

 

[live2shine]

Oh goodness- sorry for the confusion. I have a big group put in on the 6th, so that's why I joined in on this hatch-along. This is my first incubation, so I put them in and started before I knew you really shouldn't start on different dates. I don't have tons of eggs in there (16 total) and the incubator has been pretty easy to maintain temperature. I'm trying to avoid interfering too much so I don't disturb the humidity, etc. I'm definitely worried that I've screwed up the humidity by taking my hatched chicks out quickly to put in the brooder. I'm just praying things turn out okay. By the way I have 3 more chicks this morning! I'm wondering if some of my chicks set on the 3rd are coming a little early. I haven't had the incubator open long enough to even check the date I have on the opened eggs. I did pull a shell off one chicks head this morning because it seemed to be stuck. That makes me worry more about the humidity. Good luck to everyone....I'm looking forward to hearing the stories! I'll get my pictures up soon. Most of my hens are black star with a few RIR (not sure if any eggs are from them), and I have 2 silver-laced red wyandottes (my FAV!!!) I have a few blue eggs in the bator from my one beautiful super-silvery wyandotte. I'm hoping those eggs will hatch successfully. I have 4 black chicks right now with a little white on a few of them, and one yellow chick with black markings. Wait- I just got up to check and one of my blue eggs is pipping!

 

[steveclank]

Getting excited for lockdown tomorrow night....they just sit there looking so innocent...waiting for the calamity to begin.

 

[chickchickchiky]

Mine went on lock down on Saturday! I did the float test and they were rocking and rolling yeah! I am so excited to see if they all hatch! I know i have one that i think quit after day 14 sometime but i left it just in case cause i already killed a chick on day 14 thinking it was a dud so did not want to do that again. Happy Hatching everyone!

 

[Zootopia]

What namebrand did you use? Where did you get it? I have what I thought was a powerful led, took the eggs into the bathroom with out windows but all I can see are the air sacs. That be so exciting to see inside!!

I don't know the brand name, my husband picked it up aththe feed store and I snagged it. It is VERY bright! I can see pretty good even into the darker eggs.

 

[Zootopia]

Oh goodness- sorry for the confusion. I have a big group put in on the 6th, so that's why I joined in on this hatch-along. This is my first incubation, so I put them in and started before I knew you really shouldn't start on different dates. I don't have tons of eggs in there (16 total) and the incubator has been pretty easy to maintain temperature. I'm trying to avoid interfering too much so I don't disturb the humidity, etc. I'm definitely worried that I've screwed up the humidity by taking my hatched chicks out quickly to put in the brooder. I'm just praying things turn out okay. By the way I have 3 more chicks this morning! I'm wondering if some of my chicks set on the 3rd are coming a little early. I haven't had the incubator open long enough to even check the date I have on the opened eggs. I did pull a shell off one chicks head this morning because it seemed to be stuck. That makes me worry more about the humidity. Good luck to everyone....I'm looking forward to hearing the stories! I'll get my pictures up soon. Most of my hens are black star with a few RIR (not sure if any eggs are from them), and I have 2 silver-laced red wyandottes (my FAV!!!) I have a few blue eggs in the bator from my one beautiful super-silvery wyandotte. I'm hoping those eggs will hatch successfully. I have 4 black chicks right now with a little white on a few of them, and one yellow chick with black markings. Wait- I just got up to check and one of my blue eggs is pipping!

AH, so you have to keep us updated, it is hard to do staggered hatches in a single bator, and it gets so dirty.

So you can keep us entertained while we wait on ours to hatch

 

[lamoka]

Well here comes the hardest part. Just went into lockdown with all 25 eggs I started with, can not believe they all have made it so far. I am sure I will lose a few between now and hatch I usually do but so far this is my best percentage making it to lockdown. Humidity is holding at 72% a little low but at least its holding steady. Hope everyones hatches turn out good now I have to keep myself away from the incubator so I am not tempted to sneak a peek this is the hardest part for me!!

 

[loves2hatch]

Mine went on lock down on Saturday! I did the float test and they were rocking and rolling yeah! I am so excited to see if they all hatch! I know i have one that i think quit after day 14 sometime but i left it just in case cause i already killed a chick on day 14 thinking it was a dud so did not want to do that again. Happy Hatching everyone!

AH, so you have to keep us updated, it is hard to do staggered hatches in a single bator, and it gets so dirty.

So you can keep us entertained while we wait on ours to hatch

Getting excited for lockdown tomorrow night....they just sit there looking so innocent...waiting for the calamity to begin.

I know it's like the quiet before the storm, can't wait!

Mine went on lock down on Saturday! I did the float test and they were rocking and rolling yeah! I am so excited to see if they all hatch! I know i have one that i think quit after day 14 sometime but i left it just in case cause i already killed a chick on day 14 thinking it was a dud so did not want to do that again. Happy Hatching everyone!

keep us posted! Any chicky's today?

AH, so you have to keep us updated, it is hard to do staggered hatches in a single bator, and it gets so dirty.

So you can keep us entertained while we wait on ours to hatch

X2 on keeping us entertained live2shine. anymore to report today?

 

[loves2hatch]

Well here comes the hardest part. Just went into lockdown with all 25 eggs I started with, can not believe they all have made it so far. I am sure I will lose a few between now and hatch I usually do but so far this is my best percentage making it to lockdown. Humidity is holding at 72% a little low but at least its holding steady. Hope everyones hatches turn out good now I have to keep myself away from the incubator so I am not tempted to sneak a peek this is the hardest part for me!!

I agree this part is hard. Even harder when that first one pips. I'm hoping mine start late at night when I'm asleep and I wake up to them almost out of the shell and all hatching at once! Do you think that's too much to ask of these little chicks?

 

[fowlsessed]

I just put my eggs on lockdown right now. I just removed them from the turner and set them on their sides in a corner of the incubator, added some hot water. And you wont believe it, five eggs are already piped. WHAT!!!!! what is going on? this can't be good. the humidity had gone down and I didn't adjust it thinking it would be fine till lockdown. But now what? Do bantams hatch earlier or something, Ive never heard of that before though. I don't know what to think of it. just praying all ends well.