try, try again !
Look what has hatched in the last 24 hours at my house:
Yes, that's right, the woman with the dismal 9% first hatch rate has finally figured it out!
There you will see 10 wheaton marans and 2 buff orps, and there's a wet Welsummer in the hatcher now and more pips to come! I'm on day 20 with a full bator, and pleased as punch!
I just adore these wheatons. I think they are beautiful.
Many of you know that I hosted a thread called "Newbies First Hatch" and awarded Al6517 a 6month Golden Feather Memebership for having the best hatch of all newbies listed based upon percentage and total eggs set. What that thread doesn't say is that "I" had the worst hatch of all listed, and was pretty discouraged.
However, I did my BYC research ! I read a "novel" of a thread about humidity and listened the 'dry hatch' people. It worked.
Here's what I did differently:
*I attempted to keep day 1-18 humidity at 38% (no higher) and didn't add water until the humidistat said "21%".
*Day 19-21 I went to 65% (or around there) as humidity rose as eggs hatched.
*I chose NOT to candle (mostly). I was incubating very dark eggs (marans and welsummers), and I couldn't see anything the first time I did these. I chose to use "my nose" and watched for a stinker in the bator. I kept those eggs WARM consistently and didn't bother with the temp drop by candling.
Anyway ! I'm egg-cited! Can you tell? Now, I'm as smart as any dumb-cluck hen!
Look what has hatched in the last 24 hours at my house:
Yes, that's right, the woman with the dismal 9% first hatch rate has finally figured it out!
There you will see 10 wheaton marans and 2 buff orps, and there's a wet Welsummer in the hatcher now and more pips to come! I'm on day 20 with a full bator, and pleased as punch!
I just adore these wheatons. I think they are beautiful.
Many of you know that I hosted a thread called "Newbies First Hatch" and awarded Al6517 a 6month Golden Feather Memebership for having the best hatch of all newbies listed based upon percentage and total eggs set. What that thread doesn't say is that "I" had the worst hatch of all listed, and was pretty discouraged.
However, I did my BYC research ! I read a "novel" of a thread about humidity and listened the 'dry hatch' people. It worked.
Here's what I did differently:
*I attempted to keep day 1-18 humidity at 38% (no higher) and didn't add water until the humidistat said "21%".
*Day 19-21 I went to 65% (or around there) as humidity rose as eggs hatched.
*I chose NOT to candle (mostly). I was incubating very dark eggs (marans and welsummers), and I couldn't see anything the first time I did these. I chose to use "my nose" and watched for a stinker in the bator. I kept those eggs WARM consistently and didn't bother with the temp drop by candling.
Anyway ! I'm egg-cited! Can you tell? Now, I'm as smart as any dumb-cluck hen!
