hatching eggs

[Artemis farms]

hi I am hatching chicks for the first time and I need help seeing if thars a baby chick in the eggs
some are newlee lade eggs and some have been in the fridgh for sometime but I see something in all but I still whont to know how to tell. I live in Maine, I am 15, and I have goats too. sorry for the miss speld whords I am a bad at taping, lol. THX!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

Hatching eggs can be a lot of fun.

Fridge eggs will have a harder time hatching I think (but they can). And you won't be able to see a chick in something newly laid because it has to be incubated above a certain temperature for so many days before any development will start. By using a candler/flashlight, I can see veins in my eggs by day 5 or so.

You can tell if eggs are fertile by cracking them open and observing the blastoderm/blactodisc.

There is a LOT of info in this article. Maybe too much for some people. But I find it to be one of my very best resources regarding hatching...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hatching-eggs-101.64195/

I used to have Nubian boys, they were super sweet! What kind are yours?

I can totally help with more info, links, and pics... but it would be better if I know what stage you are at so I can make it relevant.

Gotta plan for all the boys you will hatch? What breeds are we talking about? What incubator will you be using?

Happy hatching!

 

[Artemis farms]

hi! thx for helping! i have 3 Nubian does and 1 alpine doe and a alpine wither. my chickens are isa brown and the roos are rodisland red and I don't know what the other one is. I put fridge eggs in the incubator on fryday and than todays "batch" my incubator is a farm innovators, model 4250 it can hold 41 eggs but so far I have 15 in. I candied the eggs this morning and I saw something in 7, 6 I saw nothing but I am giving the eggs a 2 chanc, and 3 are from this morning. thx

Hi, welcome to BYC!

Hatching eggs can be a lot of fun.

Fridge eggs will have a harder time hatching I think (but they can). And you won't be able to see a chick in something newly laid because it has to be incubated above a certain temperature for so many days before any development will start. By using a candler/flashlight, I can see veins in my eggs by day 5 or so.

You can tell if eggs are fertile by cracking them open and observing the blastoderm/blactodisc.

There is a LOT of info in this article. Maybe too much for some people. But I find it to be one of my very best resources regarding hatching...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hatching-eggs-101.64195/

I used to have Nubian boys, they were super sweet! What kind are yours?

I can totally help with more info, links, and pics... but it would be better if I know what stage you are at so I can make it relevant.

Gotta plan for all the boys you will hatch? What breeds are we talking about? What incubator will you be using?

Happy hatching!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Well, I would save all my eggs I wanted to set @ room temperature for up to 10-14 days before viability starts to reduce. And set them at the same day and time, for future reference. If you have a separate hatcher, then I set them at least 5 days apart (giving time for late hatchers to still try) if I wanna set more eggs. That way my hatcher can stay closed for lock down. What kind of chicken eggs are you hatching? Are the dark or light? Are you using dry incubation or standard method? I know some breeds appear to be harder to hatch than others b ut haven't heard anything about ISA's or Reds. That's pretty good that you can already read your eggs at only 4 days! I am still working on technique and accidentally aborted 1 fetus on a misread candle during my last hatch. It already had eyes formed. I usually pull any I can't tell by 10 days, but give it until then because of my limited experience level. Any blanks I pull, get scrambled and fed back to my animals so there is no waste.

Setting them on the same day ensure they can click and chirp at each other and communicate to coordinate their hatch. Hatching requires different humidity than incubating. Mine is the GQF 1588, kinda the same as yours. I love it so far and use my original 1602n for the hatching.

Did your eggs go directly from the fridge to the bator and sweat inside there, or were you somehow able to bring them to room temp without sweating? It isn't recommended but I have broken plenty of the rules and still have good hatches. Seems like you are going to also be one who breaks all the "rules", and I bet you will still have a swell time. Good luck! Anyways, in nature... the hen leaves the eggs over night every time she lays until she has enough gathered to sit on. Surely it gets fridge temp some places when they do that!

Another reason to set on the same day is because chicks that hatch later will be weaker than the earlier hatching ones in my experience.

Since, like you I want to have hatching going on and I was too excited to wait for a clutch or the next clutch. Anyways, I started setting every Sunday, which is also when I ditch non starters and make room in my incubator which also holds 41. And so all hatches take place on that day as well. Of course you would wanna pick whatever day of the week would work best for you, should you decide and try that method.

Since a hen also warms them up every time she sits to lay an egg... I might consider pulling today's set while collecting more and then set them together... I emphasized might , because I'm not really sure what I do with new information sometimes until I get put in that position.

But oh boy, you are off to an adventure! Chickens are cool, but hatching is fun!

 

[Artemis farms]

hi thx for that! I have isa browns hens and 1 of the roos is a rod island red and the 2 one is a Silver Laced Wyandotte. I am kind of excited to see what the chicks will look like! half isa half red and some half isa half laced!

 

[Artemis farms]

I will try to post pics of the eggs and chicks!

 

[HelenAbim]

Hi everyone. I am new to backyard chickens and I am also trying to incubate turkey and duck eggs set together. I have a locally built wooden incubator and it has a compartment for kerosene lamp. I use kerosene because we have frequent power outage in Nigeria. So I set the turkey and duck eggs yesterday evening at 17:30. I set 6 eggs each though the incubator can hold up to 50 eggs in each tray. I have 2 thermometer-hygrometers in the incubator. The "door" is slightly ajar to maintain humidity levels. The humidity level seems to hover at 36.6°C. It briefly spiked to 41.2°C when I replaced the lantern and tried to increase the heat because it was reading 35.8°C on the thermometer. I am sure it was like this for an hour as I was out taking care of my ducks and guinea fowl. I quickly opened the door fully and the temperature dropped back to 38.8°C. Do you think the eggs can still be salvaged? The temperature has consistently been 36-38°C except for that time in the morning. The relative humidity seems to range between 55-65%. The humidity is always worse at night but I have a fan blowing as long as there is power and the humidity drops to about 59-60%. Will my eggs hatch?

 

[HelenAbim]

I wrote the date I set the eggs as well as a letter of the alphabet to identify them and a big X on one side as well as an O on the opposite side. I have turned them about 4 times since I set them yesterday. I will still set about 29 more turkey eggs on Saturday morning. If I get the eggs on Friday around 4pm, will it be okay if I set it by 00:00 Saturday morning or by 06:00 Saturday morning? Please help me anyone, I need these eggs to hatch. I live in a very humid environment and I am doing the best I can. I plan to candle the already set eggs when they are 12 days old. I would have taken the eggs to a commercial hatchery but a lot of hatcheries here steal hatched chicks and I need the turkeys.
Below is a picture of how my incubator looks like on the outside.