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

[kahlua]

I also just locked mine down...and now the wait begins! I have 7 going into lockdown...I really hope they all manage to hatch! Two have pretty funky looking air cells but the rest look fine.

 

[miniegg]

I hope you don't mind me joining so late.

My last hatch (first ever) was a disaster, 7 out of 10 left in the bator. One started to peep and died at day 24, I was so upset. I've hardly been on here since. Set 13, unlucky number but that was the number that fit... discarded 4 early on, looked infertile. So, 9 left, 1 wobbled on day 18. Locked down yesterday morning... due Thursday morning at the latest.

Mistakes from last time, temp a bit too low according to independent thermometer and stupid bator instructions didn't tell me to fill outer container.... even though my common sense was telling me I should.

I run dry this time til lock down early Monday, the fertile ones all looked good at last candle.

No signs yet other than the wobble on Sunday evening... I so hope these make it. I've got lots of bits here for making my own bator, need to crack on and hopefully I'll get better results.

Good luck everyone xx

 

[GwenDellAnno]

So... would you put eggs into lockdown early or late? My 18th day starts at 8am tomorrow morning. I need to be on the road by 7:30 and will not be home until around 11:00 at night. (My son is turning through the day, but I don't really trust him to do lockdown correctly by himself). Would you do it early or later?

 

[bayvistafarm]

I was under the impression, that you stop turning the day of lockdown. If you set them in the morning, I would get them ready before you leave for work, and then no one needs to do anything but watch the humidity. Thats just my opinion. I set my eggs at 3pm... and on the 18th day, locked down before noon. Everything worked fine.

 

[Zootopia]

Wow guys, relax, this is supposed to be fun too. The chickens don't have a watch, set them when you have time to.

GDA, set them before you go to bed tonight, check the humidity in the morning and go. I set mine last night since I knew I'd be very busy today and wouldn't get to them. I put some hot water in the cup and it went up to 70%, I knew it would, the water was hot. Humidity is around 50% now that's where I'll leave it. It will go up alot more as the chicks start to hatch, by then it won't matter.

I only had 9 make it to lockdown, only 6 of those am I sure of. This batch really sucked. Between having to wash eggs because of the box being damaged by the PO and lots of early quitters, I'm not real happy. DH is disappointed, he'd be more than that if he sat down and figures out how much I spent on those 2 batches of eggs. Better luck next time.
Oh well. I got a big box from a very generous breeder today. Perfect shape all around, PO dented a corner but the eggs were well packed and not affected by the dent . I'll try again tomorrow.

 

[nickie]

Since my incubation is going to take longer than you guys I thought is share a little video I made while letting my kids see the eggs.

 

[steveclank]

I set mine pretty late on the 6th, so I'm going into lockdown before I go to bed. Brooder is all set. Building on the coop starts very soon.

 

[GwenDellAnno]

Yeah, I know. But this is my third try. The first the temps went up and down too much and the second I drowned them with too much humidity and none made it. So I'm a bit edgy. Third time lucky, I'm hoping!!!

 

[steveclank]

They are officially in lockdown....I'm so nervous. I'm always afraid that none will hatch. I'd rather have the problem of having to deal with 15 chickens instead....I filled the brinsea octagon's 2 water channels and the walls started to really show the condensation. I have the vent 2/3rds open. I put a paper towel in there as well...Unsure if it was really necessary or detrimental(too high humidity?). Just hoping for the best....

 

[lamoka]

Well I went to top of my water in the incubator as I have been going through water very quickly with this hatch and as I am filling the channels with warm water I hear peeping and as I start looking I have a pip. Hope I did not mess anything up the dang water was running low so I would have needed to fill it up anyways. This is early day 20 and my hatches usualy go a little long thought I would be safe guess not!! Humidity comes up realy quick in the Brinsea so hopefully it will be ok.