Surprise!
I've got a chick!
I wasn't expecting this until tomorrow...or maybe tonight, seeing as today is kind of day 21 because I set my eggs late in the evening on Monday the 3rd (which is why I was counting tomorrow, not today, as my day 21). But my husband got up for work this morning and yells upstairs, "you've got a P2 peeper!" (my Polish eggs are marked P1 or P2, depending on what pen they came out of) At first I thought it was just that the egg was chirping at him, but when I asked he said, "um, no, it's almost out." Sure enough, the little guy had completely zipped. By the time I got my son and myself dressed and back downstairs, I had one very loudly peeping chick bouncing around the 'bator!
And in the time it took me to write that, I've got a few more eggs pipped. Ready or not, here they come!
I set 48 eggs total, 30 Cuckoo Marans (some of mine and some I had shipped from another breeder) and 18 WC Black Polish (all mine). I tossed one Polish egg that had developed a blood ring, the rest have developed well. I also dropped one Polish egg while candling on day 17.
That was sad--there was a perfect chick in there. I know that there are several clear Marans eggs (the P.O. wasn't too kind to my shipped eggs), but I have such a hard time seeing anything in those dark eggs, unless I've got a an oozing one I let them be! So, I've got 46 eggs left in the 'bator. I set them all in cartons and every time I "turned", I propped up alternating sides of the cartons. I tried to mimic the angle of an auto turner. On day 18, I simply set all of the cartons flat, upped the humidity, and left 'em to finish baking!
I'm anxious to see what my hatch rate is, having not just hatched in the cartons but also incubated. I've been following the threads of those of you who have been using the cartons for hatching, it seems like this is a good "trick" for those of us using the styrofoam 'bators.
Time to get the brooders ready!
I wasn't expecting this until tomorrow...or maybe tonight, seeing as today is kind of day 21 because I set my eggs late in the evening on Monday the 3rd (which is why I was counting tomorrow, not today, as my day 21). But my husband got up for work this morning and yells upstairs, "you've got a P2 peeper!" (my Polish eggs are marked P1 or P2, depending on what pen they came out of) At first I thought it was just that the egg was chirping at him, but when I asked he said, "um, no, it's almost out." Sure enough, the little guy had completely zipped. By the time I got my son and myself dressed and back downstairs, I had one very loudly peeping chick bouncing around the 'bator!
And in the time it took me to write that, I've got a few more eggs pipped. Ready or not, here they come!
I set 48 eggs total, 30 Cuckoo Marans (some of mine and some I had shipped from another breeder) and 18 WC Black Polish (all mine). I tossed one Polish egg that had developed a blood ring, the rest have developed well. I also dropped one Polish egg while candling on day 17.
I'm anxious to see what my hatch rate is, having not just hatched in the cartons but also incubated. I've been following the threads of those of you who have been using the cartons for hatching, it seems like this is a good "trick" for those of us using the styrofoam 'bators.
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