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

[fowlsessed]

Okay, nothing more this morning, the pip on the egg is the same size and there is no movement from it. I'm going to take the hatched chicks out now. I can't seem to get good hatches, I'm going to try dry hatching next time. I'll post a pic later.

 

[loves2hatch]

Busy night on here last night! Congrats on all the ones that hatched and good luck to those that are still waiting.

LovestoHatch, I was right in the middle of all the fun 14" of snow made me a nervouse wreck they where threatening power outages luckily I did not have any, alot of surrounding areas did. I came home from work and the pip I had earlier had hatched and is doing great. I have 4 more pips hopefully they hatch before I go to bed. I am off tomorrow so it should be fun. Good luck everyone this is the exciting and stressful time we have been waiting 3 weeks for.

I'm sorry to say this but I'm so glad it was you guys and not us. Glad you didn't lose power I guess it would keep your mind off the incubator shoveling all of that snow. Iowa weather usually sucks but I have to say this winter was a breeze. and yesterday temps here were 93. glad my incubator is in the basement where it's cooler.

Terrible news from my batch... I got home from work about 3 hours ago and the light in the bator had blown and somehow fried a bit of wire/tape. The temp was at 91 but temps from the wiggler were in the low 70's. I had to take the eggs out to fix the incubator, so before I put them back I candled them and saw no movement at all. They were so cold!! I'm so scared that they are all dead!! :'''(
I couldn't sleep without checking them. The temp is back up and the wiggler is reading about 90. I candled and I think I might have seen movement in 2. Barely. One of them I only saw what looked like a vein throbbing. I'm trying to stay optimistic... But maybe my eyes are playing tricks.. =/
Anyone know what my odds are? I'm so upset!

oh that's sad, but there is still hope! Don't give up on those little guys. I think ducks seem to be a little hardier than chickens, but that may just be only my opinion. Remember,on this hatch I'm doing now, I accidentally unplugged the incubator for 3 hours and another time the power was out for 10 min. on this hatch.

YAY!!!! I just got home and my first chick from my eggs set on April 6th hatched! The other 3 set on the 6th have all pipped...I might have them all in the morning! Most of my eggs have hatched a day earlier then expected based on their set date...weird! ?? I don't know if this has something to do with me getting my eggs from my hens outside. Maybe them sitting on them right away gives them a head start.

Anyway, I wanted to encourage everyone- especially those concerned with doing things perfectly- and let you know that I did everything absolutely "wrong" and I've had success! I have a basic incubator that I set the temperature for and always made sure there was a little water in and the temperature was maintained. A few times during incubation, it dried up...I don't know for how long. Quite a few times the temp was way off, too. I set eggs on various days- BUT I realized I coincidentally did it brilliantly because my first hatch was set on the 2nd and 3rd, and the rest of the eggs are the 6th and 8th. The eggs that hatched from the 2nd and 3rd I was able to get out, then I was able to set the rest of the eggs on lockdown in time! The second batch got a lot of turning from those chicks rolling them around in there after hatching, too. That brings me to the last thing I did "wrong". I took the chicks out after about an hour or two after hatching to put in the brooder. I did it as quickly as I could, but the chicks were banging around all the eggs in the incubator. They even cracked one, I think. I felt better just transferring them into the brooder and not worrying about them ruining the other eggs.

So far I have 10 chicks out of the 16 eggs I set. I have two eggs left from the first group set on the 2nd and 3rd, but I'm expecting 4 more from the ones set on the 6th and 8th. Once I upload my pictures I'll post them. I'm so excited- they're sooo cute!!!! Nothing is cuter than a day-old chick falling asleep while it's standing up.

Oh, and word for first timers- they are really tired and just lay there after they hatch- some longer than others. I kept thinking they were dead and it took everything in me not to open the incubator and "help". I'm glad I didn't.

Nothing yet as of this morning, don't really expect any activity till tonight at the earliest. My temperature was running 99.6 most of the time, and now it rose slightly during lockdown to 100.5. Should I adjust the temperature a little, or leave it?

I would leave it at this point. if it goes past 102 then adjust it down. my last two days the temps were flucating all over the place within a minute. going from 98 - 101 on digital in a matter of less then a min.

 

[loves2hatch]

This was my night last night. Remember I found the two pips around 3:30 or so yesterday, I then put all the eggs into the hatcher added water and went into lockdown. The temp rose on one side of the bator to 105. but was flucuating between that and 100.2. the other side was holding steady at around 97. I left it for about 2 hours doing that. But I got to nervous with that high of a temp and didn't want to have fried chicken.. so I took out 21 of the eggs and put them back in the incubator after removing the turner and adding cheesecloth to the bottom for clean up. I just set the egg cartons on bottom. I left 11 in this hatcher, counting the two that had pips.
I waited til 10:30 last night and added a little water to the incubator, reading of 40% with the 21 eggs in it. hatcher was reading about 80% no progress on the pipped ones.
This morning as of 6:30 a.m I have two chicks, the ones that were pipped yesterday and 1 more pipped so far in the hatcher and I have 3 pips in the one with the incubator. My room humidity is reading 50%. hatcher is at 85% and the incubator is at 48%
So here's a pic of what I woke up to this morning. The dark chick was just coming out of the shell the yellow chick seems to have a little sticky stuff on head and body, but came to greet the newcomer. he's still wobbly but his toes all look fine.

 

[fowlsessed]

So I took the four chicks out and added some hot water to the bator while it was open. I noticed a few more pips, but they seem dead. Anyway, here are the chicks.

 

[fowlsessed]

You know the chick that hatched at 5 am yesterday? When I took him out he didn't seem completely dry, and he would have had plenty of time, Could that indicate that the humidity is to high? I need a hydrometer before my next batch goes in.

 

[nickie]

So I took the four chicks out and added some hot water to the bator while it was open. I noticed a few more pips, but they seem dead. Anyway, here are the chicks.

Relax, sometimes they pip and then do nothing for a long time. About 12-24 hours I think is average. Give them time. Remember what I said about sit on your hands? Calm down, like my son says (4) hatching is hard work, I bet they're real tired.

 

[Korban757]

Ok I refrained from bothering the eggs, and this morning there are still no outward signs but I heard a single peep

Congrats to everyone who have already started having babies!!!!

 

[loves2hatch]

1 out in the incubator. the humidity was 47% temp 99. at some time the humidity jumped to 63% when I calibrated this thing it was reading 7% low. but it was reading the exact same as the one one that was reading high when I tested them. So I do't think they are accuarate even after you calibrate them. This chick seems to be livier then the other 2 in the hatcher with higher humidity and he's definetly dryer looking.SHe looks good. There is one in the hatcher that is zipping now. several pips in both. I think I really like hatching inthe egg cartons. I don't get so stressed when the chicks are wobbling around. the eggs aren't getting scattered and I can see the progress better.

Korban: Yay! for sounds of peeping. It won't be long now before you see that first pip!

 

[loves2hatch]

4th one hatched. the one from the hatcher. VERY wet! So I took the plug out of the side that has the high temps. will leave it out till some of that humidity dissapears.
Humidity reading 85% right now. 2 pictures sorry they are so big I dont know how to make them smaller coming straight from my camera. anyway. top pict low humidity readig 44% bottom pic 85% humidity

 

[loves2hatch]

Hey tgperg, Where are you, How's things going, anything yet? Haven't heard from you since last week or did I just miss your post?