Hatching 36 eggs after school

[BGCNVLA]

I run an after school porgram in Napa, CA & as part of a month-long program on sustainability, we are incubating 36 chicken eggs. 24 of them are from a free range farm near by & are mostly mixed breads. These eggs are an assortment of green, brown, white, & pale blue. I also picked up a dozen fertile eggs at Trader Joes.

The eggs went into the bator Tuesday at 6pm. The bator is an older LG still air with a turner, borrowed from the science teacher. The bators been getting cold at night (the egg temp was 98 when I checked this morning. But it stays consistent through out the day. Humidity's between 40% $45%.

 

[rikku_03]

That is cool how you are hatching Trader Joes eggs can you tell me how it goes because Im thinking about buying fertile eggs from a natural grocery store to try to hatch

 

[BGCNVLA]

I'll keep you updated rikku_03. Here are some pictures of us setting the eggs Tuesday night.

 

[BGCNVLA]

Day 10 Check-In:

The egges seem to be doing well. I have caught the incubator dropping a bit (it was down to 97 when I arrived this morning) but I still think that we're ok. Out of 36 eggs, I have 9-10 eggs that seem fertile (air pocket at the big end) but do not seem to be developing (no veins or anything). They don't stink and they aren't weeping so I'm leaving them for now but I'm not expecting them to hatch. Most of them are the TJ eggs with two white eggs from the farm and one brown egg which may just be too dark for me to see through. The kids are really enjoying watching the development and we're all excited for the arrival of our new fuzzy butts.

 

[Bravo]

Did you calibrate your hygrometer before hand? I have bought 2 from Petco, exactly the same as yours, and one is 15* lower and the other was 20* higher. The spread was pretty unacceptable so better to be safe than sorry!

Also, try using a LED flashlight to candle--works so much better on the brown eggs than regular flashlights.

Best of luck with your hatch!!

 

[BGCNVLA]

Thanks for the advice. I did calibrate the hygrometer (twice) and it runs about 4% low, so I'm adjusting for that. I am using an LED flashlight I just don't think it's strong enough. I can barely see through the light brown eggs!

 

[Kristian]

Well good luck! I wish I had a teacher like you. Im in Agriscience and my teacher is not as into this as you seem.

 

[mypicklebird]

hey! those look like my eggs (someone from Napa got some for hatching recently) I think you got them from me...
Unless you have a really strong candler (like one for duck eggs), you won't be able to see much of anything in the dark brown eggs. The olive eggs will also look black & you won't see anything- not even the air sac. Don't give up on the dark ones until day 22-23. Come to think of it, with the temps down at 98-97- if they survive- they WILL hatch later than 21 days. It your bator is running a bit hot, they will hatch sooner. If too cold, they develop slower. Best to keep as near as possible to 99.5-100. I run my incubator at higher humidity as well.
I hatched out a few chicks on a whim from Safeway. Rock Island fertile eggs- got 2 white roosters out of a dozen eggs.

 

[BGCNVLA]

Today is day 19! I went into school yesterday and put sponges in the bator to up the humidity. I wasn't able to stay long so I hope that it stayed consistent and didn't go too high. Hopefully we'll get some activity tomorrow or Tuesday. Last week (day 15 I think) I went through with the kids and dumped the eggs that weren't developing. We ended up with 25 out of the original 36 eggs (6 out of 12 of the Trader Joe's eggs did not develop, 5 out of the original 24 from the farm did not develop). We'll see what the hatch brings. The kids are very excited!

With all of the eggs that we had to dump. I became nervous that we wouldn't hatch enough chicks to give out to the kids who have signed up to take chicks home. Since two of the "spoken for" chicks are mine, I decided to go to the local feed store and pick up a couple. At least I'd be semi-guaranteed that they are pullets.... I ended up with two silver laced wyandottes.

 

[Namble]

Good luck!! I hope your hatch goes well!!