Humidity Obsessed

[ozexpat]

my first crack at incubation is at the end of day 7. i have veins in 16 of 18 eggs. i have left them on auto up untill this inspection. i have a medicine bottle with water in the bator as humidity was really low. its now mid 30s. happy happy happy!!!

 

[ozexpat]

I have quail eggs incubating right now that i'm doing the dry incubation. I added a small cup (laundry soap lid) full of water let it run dry twice. readings have been between 24% when water in cup and 16% without water. ( i think this may be as low as this one reads) The water is currently empty and I'm leaving it till I go into lockdown. I'm using hygrometer # 3 inside and # 2 outside, the outside one has been reading 24%. They are due to hatch this Sunday. We will see what happens.

how did the hatch go?

I am running dry. At 7 days i have an average weight loss of 3.7%

Does that sound ok?

 

[ozexpat]

I seem to be talking to myself here mostly but i find it therapy in my own way to keep a diary. Maybe I truly am nuts.

I recandled the eggs. i took my time and waited a few moments on each one. I saw movement in 15 of the 18. the other three i was not sure if i was imagining it so i wont count them as viable just yet. Its day 9.

I feel incredibly luck so far that it is going so well. The air cells are growing and the eggs are losing weight at the correct rate. The temp in the bator is at a steady 100,

21 days is a long time.

 

[Pele]

I seem to be talking to myself here mostly but i find it therapy in my own way to keep a diary. Maybe I truly am nuts.

I recandled the eggs. i took my time and waited a few moments on each one. I saw movement in 15 of the 18. the other three i was not sure if i was imagining it so i wont count them as viable just yet. Its day 9.

I feel incredibly luck so far that it is going so well. The air cells are growing and the eggs are losing weight at the correct rate. The temp in the bator is at a steady 100,

21 days is a long time.

Lol 21 days is a long time. It drove me nuts at first as well. But it does sound like your hatch is right on track. You'll probably stop being able to track development after day 12 or so, when the chicks fill up too much of the egg for you to see through. THAT is when the true agony starts, because you can't see inside.

 

[ozexpat]

You'll probably stop being able to track development after day 12 or so, when the chicks fill up too much of the egg for you to see through. THAT is when the true agony starts, because you can't see inside.

Its funny. I am typically a scientific type of person and although I set up the bator, made a spread sheet and started my scientific experiment, I had minimal contact with the eggs until day 7.

I quickly weighed them and candled them and that's when the trouble/anxiety started. I could only see life in some of the eggs and was not sure if they were blood rings or chicks through the brown shells.

I waited 48 hours and then rechecked. I am still not sure on the last 3. I will examine them on day 12, but not the others. I really want minimal touch.

My personal theory is that most eggs in bators die because we handle them too much. The incubator is not only the perfect temp for growing chicks but also most pathogens diseases that will kill them.

 

[Pele]

Yes that's a good philosophy. I usually can't keep myself from candling, but I fully admit that it's for my own entertainment, not for benefitting the chicks. I just wash my hands very very well. Usually the nose is a much better tool for weeding out bad eggs. I had one egg go bad in the last batch, and I knew within a few hours. Phew!

 

[ozexpat]

Oh Gawd, I swore I would not look again til day 12 but...

I lack self control.

On day 9 I could see movement in 15 of 18 of my mutt eggs I bought for ten bucks from a crazy chinese chicken lady. The other 3 had veins but being inexperienced, i could not tell if they were still viable. I was at work all day thinking about those 3 darn eggs. Why should I care? Its just an proof of concept experiment right? I am giving the chicks away if I can bring them into this world.

But those 3 were driving me crazy.

I did a surgical scrub - 5 mins of soap and water (I am a nurse lol) and then into the dark with my candler and bator.

Guess what? They're alive. I have 100% viablity at 10 days.

Hi. My name is ozexpat and I am a chicken addict.

 

[3Dchicken]

lol I am on my first hatch, and all I did to maintain the correct humidity was to add or remove certain amounts of water reservoirs, and to check my one non- scientific three dollar hygrometer to see if it was right before I even put the eggs in. It is day 15 for me today, and now 9 out of 17 eggs are alive. A lot of them were infertile in the first place, so out of the fertile eggs, it would be about 9 out of... 13? I am excited for them to hatch!!!!

Woot!

Hello, my name is 3Dchicken, and I am a chicken addict. (Even though I have never had them before, for these would be my very first, lol)

 

[ozexpat]

I am excited for you 3D.

How did you come by the eggs?

 

[3Dchicken]

I got them from my amazingly awesome neighbor! They are from his flock of hens, but he accidentally got a male when he ordered them, and when he heard that I was looking for some eggs to incubate, he offered to give me some!!! Even though he has about 50 hens to one rooster, I thought I might as well try it! His male is a white leghorn rooster, and the females that laid my eggs were rhode island red hens! (I think he has a split of 25 white leghorn hens and 25 rhode island reds, and all my eggs are brown, so it's prolly more like one rooster to 25 hens, but anyway...) The way to make red sex links is to have the rooster be a rhode island red, and the hen(s) white leghorn, but in my situation, it's the other way around, and I looked up chicken genetics, so I'm pretty sure they'll be all one colour (yellow peepers) no matter the gender. So I guess we'll see if my predictions are right. :3 (If they hatch!)