Okay. I got 23 silkie eggs on auction here - bought 12 and got ELEVEN extras! I had a couple that had ruptured airsacs or yolks, a few stayed clear, then a couple of bloodrings and a few that quit half-way through. No worries about that, aside from the inevitable "aaaw, I lost a baby" - great seller sent ELEVEN extras! Did I mention ELEVEN extras?
At any rate, long story shorter, I have nine eggs in lockdown.
This is my third incubation, and I did not (although I should have) weigh the eggs before I began incubation. I did have the eggs in a LG still air with a PC fan installed, but the temperatures kept spiking, so I moved them into my hatcher. Since they got into the hatcher, my temperatures have been pretty steady, except for ... well, I can't seem to stop screwing this up. Apparently I want these babies too badly! One night a week ago or so I turned off the hatcher bulbs so that I could stand right there next to it to quickly candle, and ... I went to bed without remembering to turn it back on. In my defense, it was really late and I'd had a migraine all day. Six hours later, the wiggler temperature was about 82*, but it came back up to temperature pretty quickly. ::le sigh::
I've kept them in a styrofoam egg carton with holes in the bottoms of the cups. The egg carton is hotglued to a piece of 3/4" PVC running longways, so that it sits on an angle to the floor of the hatcher - I turned by leaning the carton to the other side. At lockdown, I stopped turning, but left the eggs in the carton and on an angle.
My hygrometer was showing a pretty steady 30-35% humidity. However, looking at all the airsac pictures and illustrations, my airsacs reached at least 1/3 of the egg at probably ... day 14. And, some of the airsacs are misshapen, shaped more like ... barbells, but not quite that narrow in the center.
Well, this alarmed me. Too large an airsac means too thick an albumen, and not enough room for development and turning, right? So, I zipped up the humidity high, trying not to dry them out any more, and I've kept it around 65% since then. The airsacs haven't gotten much larger at all, and I can still see movement in all the eggs. I also still see active pink veining in the little space between chick and airsac, and on some I see some moving shadows, like the membrane is mounding into the airsac area from chick movement.
I know, leave them alone. Right now, my humidity is holding around 62%, but ... jeez. I've read so much, including the threads referenced in the sticky here, and Pete's great info on his site, and I just want my silkies. My instinct says raise the humidity a bit, that the airsacs are still too big, that any goo left in there is too thick and I need to do everything I can to make sure they can move around in there - but then I'm afraid of gluing them in there.
I'm hoping that having them on an angle, like they are, will help them to get their little beaks out of there and into air. No cheeps yet, no pips, just lots of anxiety. Hold me?
At any rate, long story shorter, I have nine eggs in lockdown.
This is my third incubation, and I did not (although I should have) weigh the eggs before I began incubation. I did have the eggs in a LG still air with a PC fan installed, but the temperatures kept spiking, so I moved them into my hatcher. Since they got into the hatcher, my temperatures have been pretty steady, except for ... well, I can't seem to stop screwing this up. Apparently I want these babies too badly! One night a week ago or so I turned off the hatcher bulbs so that I could stand right there next to it to quickly candle, and ... I went to bed without remembering to turn it back on. In my defense, it was really late and I'd had a migraine all day. Six hours later, the wiggler temperature was about 82*, but it came back up to temperature pretty quickly. ::le sigh::
I've kept them in a styrofoam egg carton with holes in the bottoms of the cups. The egg carton is hotglued to a piece of 3/4" PVC running longways, so that it sits on an angle to the floor of the hatcher - I turned by leaning the carton to the other side. At lockdown, I stopped turning, but left the eggs in the carton and on an angle.
My hygrometer was showing a pretty steady 30-35% humidity. However, looking at all the airsac pictures and illustrations, my airsacs reached at least 1/3 of the egg at probably ... day 14. And, some of the airsacs are misshapen, shaped more like ... barbells, but not quite that narrow in the center.
Well, this alarmed me. Too large an airsac means too thick an albumen, and not enough room for development and turning, right? So, I zipped up the humidity high, trying not to dry them out any more, and I've kept it around 65% since then. The airsacs haven't gotten much larger at all, and I can still see movement in all the eggs. I also still see active pink veining in the little space between chick and airsac, and on some I see some moving shadows, like the membrane is mounding into the airsac area from chick movement.
I know, leave them alone. Right now, my humidity is holding around 62%, but ... jeez. I've read so much, including the threads referenced in the sticky here, and Pete's great info on his site, and I just want my silkies. My instinct says raise the humidity a bit, that the airsacs are still too big, that any goo left in there is too thick and I need to do everything I can to make sure they can move around in there - but then I'm afraid of gluing them in there.
I'm hoping that having them on an angle, like they are, will help them to get their little beaks out of there and into air. No cheeps yet, no pips, just lots of anxiety. Hold me?
