I set eggs 2/27/10 ** DUE 3/20th-3/21st** WE"RE HATCHING!!!!

[ilovebuffs]

Quote:
Yay! fordmommy. Everything is good! Babylady4 you are such a good friend to incubate eggs for her

Nope, just nuts!

It is so educational for the kids and I just love doing it even though this is attempt #2 for me. I can't wait to do this for myself so I have my OWN chickens!!!

It really is educational for the kids...I have 4 that I'm homeschooling, and they love it! Now, tell me...what are you waiting for? Chickens are so much fun! You should throw some in there for yourself

 

[fordmommy]

Sorry I didn't post sooner. Been busy. Here's what happened.


OMG......What a day. I had a power outage today.

Totally freaked! Bator temp dropped. It lasted about 2 hours or so. I got my bator to a friend's house about 2 miles from me within 30 minutes. The temp was at 87* at the lowest so we should be fine. But HOLY COW! What a scare! Bator back home. Thanks for the quick thinking of Buck Creek Chickens and Babylady4. I think I need to crash and burn.

I was trying to catch up on the posts too. What a wild ride! DH says he's going to buy me one of those car convertors that you plug into you car lighter and then can plug in things.

 

[aceschix]

Quote:
They are cool and only about $10 FROM CUTLER SUPPLY. Although during the 3 day outacge we just had it would not have done a darn bit of good. If you loose power much you shoul get a generator!! Sooo the way to go!

 

[Happy Chooks]

fordmommy.........the eggs will be fine. Momma hen gets off them during the day and they cool, so they'll be fine in the bator. But that attachment for the car sure will come in handy.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Good morning everyone!

I candled my duck eggs at the 30-hour point last night, and I have definite cell division going on in all 6 of them! These eggs were laid in 10-20 degree temperatures and all but one of them were very cold to the touch by the time I collected them, so I had my doubts that they would develop at all! I'm reasonably certain that one of them even froze a little bit - and it's got duck growing in it! I know there's still plenty of time for them to "quit" though...

I have a new 21-bulb LED flashlight that's awesome for candling. I had the hardest time seeing anything in my last batch of chicken eggs for the first week, but with this new flashlight, I can see the germinal discs in the eggs (and these are duck eggs, with much thicker shells!) as clear as day after just 30 hours! I'm going to try and start taking pictures today, and document their development with day-by-day candling pictures!

But I wasn't planning on all the eggs developing - they're the first eggs of the season, and it's so cold...uh-oh. Anybody want some ducklings?

 

[ilovebuffs]

Quote:
Annarie, I have to ask...what kind of light do you have? I really need to get a new one. Where did you get it? Was it affordable? Look forward to seeing pics.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Quote:
Annarie, I have to ask...what kind of light do you have? I really need to get a new one. Where did you get it? Was it affordable? Look forward to seeing pics.

It's a "Guidesman" brand LED flashlight with 21 little LED bulbs in it that I got at Menards on sale for about $5. I've tried LED flashlights with 7 and 14 little bulbs in them and they were rubbish - I couldn't see anything going on in the egg for at least 6 days.

Here's a link to the exact some one I have - it's on ebay for around $14, but any LED flashlight with 21 bulbs that you can find at your local hardware store should work just as well:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ed77caf&itemid=120522437786&ff4=263602_263622

 

[fordmommy]

Annarie , I forgot to tell you yesterday....I will still be with you for your long haul. I have the Bobwhite quail eggs in there too. Those take 26-32 days. And that is WAY cool if you can get daily pics! I candle that one egg in the garage and am so afraid that I may drop it. And that's with TWO hands.

I did candle it again last night and I just can't get over it. It waves at me.

......

 

[Sweetfolly]

Fordmommy - I'm so glad I won't be the odd one out with the longest wait!

Okay, I have some cruddy pictures. I'm babysitting two sisters home from school with the flu today - I don't trust either of them with the camera, and I don't want their germ-covered hands touching the eggs! So, I had to take pictures myself - I needed another hand!

This first picture is NOT mine - it's an example from Mink Hollow Farm (www.minkhollow.ca) of a Day 2 Duck egg:

And here are some of my Day 2 Candling Pics that I took 10 minutes ago - because the LED Flashlight gives off a very bright, blue-ish light, I've found that everything in the egg is much more defined than most candling pictures I've studied:

Once mom gets home from work, I'll hold the eggs while she takes the pictures so that the light is underneath the egg, rather than having that huge glare off to the side - then, I'll start my own thread to update with the daily pictures - and I should be able to start getting some really neat pictures! Look for it later tonight!

EDIT: You can sort of see where I have the date that the egg was laid marked on the side of the egg (that's what the greyish smudges next to the big dark disc are in the first two pictures). Just so you know, that's not anything funny happening in the egg, just my pencil scratches on the shell - I like to keep track of how the older eggs develop vs. the fresher eggs.

 

[ilovebuffs]

Oh! How cool is that! I'm ordering that flashlight right now! Thank you so much for the information Annarie! I will follow your new thread, too.

Can anyone tell me how I can get my smilies to be a picture instead of characters from the keyboard?

Thank you!