Hatching for idiots 101

[chicky chicky bok bok]

I have no clue what I am doing! Yes, I am a real woman and can admit that I have no clue what I am doing! We thought it would be fun to hatch our own chickens and so we started out on an interesting journey that has now resulted in 41 eggs in a bator. We isolated 6 hens to 2 roosters in hopes that the gents would get the job done! We would then collect the eggs and daily add them to the bator. We have 2 bators and were going to move eggs by day 18 into second bator. The problem is I have no idea if the eggs I have are cooking or making a chicken! I candled them yesterday and again today and what I saw........no clue! I say about 2/3rds of the egg was a dark mass and the rest I could see through. I see no veins or blood ring.....just darkness. Do I need a brighter light? What should I see by day 8? Should I just not care, let em cook and see what we get? I feel like a new mom with no clue how to take care of a baby! I need some advice from expert hatchers!

 

[BirdBrain]

Some shells are just too dark to see through. I just hatched out 4 from eggs I had no clue about until they pipped. I could just as well have been cooking rotten eggs for all I knew. There were others that were difficult to see but if I could see veining around the top, I knew that something was developing. By day 14 there should be mostly a big dark blob filling most of the egg. If you can see through it and it appears clear at this point or there is a blood ring or dark splotches around the edges then those can go out. I opened all the eggs I discarded to see if they were unfertile or early quitters.

Look for the veining up around the air pocket at the top. Shine your light directly down on the fat end and rotate the egg slowly. I bet you will see more that way. I used a very bright LED flashlight. It didn't put out any heat to speak of and worked great. I tried a 60 watt bulb in a can (with a hole cut out) and I was afraid of cooking the egg before I got a chance to see what was in there.

 

[dbcooper02]

Do yourself a big favor and stop loading eggs daily. Daily loading will create a nightmare trying to get them into the hatcher without losing the humidity for the ones that are already in there. Not to mention trying to keep track of which are which.

Save up your eggs for say 7 days and set them in batches.

Read through this thread especially the second post.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=124459

 

[chicky chicky bok bok]

What is that they say about hind sight????? As I said, I needed the Idiots guide to hatching chicks. I really think that some of the more experienced people on this sight should pool their knowledge and write such a book. Seriously, I would buy it. You could fill it with all sorts of cool tips, great pictures and a daily growth chart. My kids would totally love it. Anyway, I currently have 41 eggs already loaded and cooking. I think that what I am going to do is move them in batches that center around a 3 day due date. That way, by the time they are all hatched, the ones still in the 1st bator will just need to be taken off the turner and they should be ok.........who knows. I will keep you all posted. As I have said, if I can just get 1 chick out of this whole batch, I will consider myself successful!

One more question that I have. How much is too much handling and when should I no longer even pick them up?

 

[Laskaland]

If you have them in a turner, there is no need to touch them until day 18, when you move them into the hatcher. If you are hand turning them, turn until day 18 when you put them in the hatcher. Good luck!

 

[reddevil]

need help i have bought to many eggs. i have to small bators full. but i have some due to hatch end of this week. what can i use or make for a hatcher. i need help