I just set 5-21-11 in my home made incubator

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yea I did make my candler today. It's a light bulb socket inside a big coffee can. works good. Day six will be friday night for me. I'll let you know and get some pics of it for you.
 
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I love mine. I thought it was gonna be small like 10 eggs or so, but I can fit about 18 standard breed eggs in there, and it's great at holding temp.
What did you make your "innerds" of? I'd love you to post some pics of it.
Welcome aboard... got your eggs lined up? I ran mine about a week to practice getting the humidity right. The 70 percent required for lockdown was tough, but I just added a sponge in front of the light and it fixed it right up. Also, add some straws or tubing so you can add water without having to open the lid, as I've found out, even a very temporary drop in humidity during the hatching can cause shrinkwrapping of your new chicks.
 
I candled my eggs on day 4 and have 6 growing with 2 more iffy out of 15. That's better than I expected, considering the circumstances. I'm going to candle again in a few days to be sure, and then I'll remove the bad eggs.

Since my last post, I was told that my roo is a black tailed white Japanese Bantam, and the hen is a bantam EE, so these will be mixed breed chickens. If they make it to hatch day, they will be my first chicks from my own eggs! I had 2 eggs under a broody that were at day 24, with no pips, so I finally cracked them open, only to discover that one died early on and the other died around day 15. Sad. I'll probably try the broody route again, but not until next time.
 
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I have a hen that looks identical to your girl! How freaky is that!
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I'm also doing my first hatch and I'm at day 16... nervous! Don't know really what to expect. I've also got a home made incubator made out of styrofoam boxes and a plexiglass window. I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer that I'm using to monitor temp, but nothing for humidity. Should I put a little dish of water in there for when they hatch? Why is the humidity important?
 
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the humidity is what keeps the chicks from getting shrink-wrapped. Without humidity, the fluid inside the egg dries up too fast, so the chick can't move about and pip it's way out of the shell. Not sure if that's the right way to explain it. This is only my second time incubating eggs.
 
Good thread! Very interesting (and exciting).

Is there a way you can post pics of the candling?
 
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Good to know! Thank you! It's been really wet/humid around here sine we put the eggs on to incubate, so I think they'll be okay, but I'm going to put a little dish of water in there now just to be sure.
 
You need the humidity high at around 70% for the last 3 days. Try not to open your incubator for that period. If you open it for just a second it can drop your humidity 15% or more, which may or may not shrinkwrap a chick that's pipped. I test ran my incubator to 70% and held it there, but as soon as I got the humidity right, the glass got water drops on it. So if I were you, I'd add a bowl of water under the eggs and a wet sponge in front of the light till you see the condensation on your glass. Try to add more water through straws or aquarium tubing if you can. I hope they make it. I'm worried for them.
 

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