Incubating Eggs of different ages

[hehahn]

One of the babies fell in the water dish, and she is NOT happy. At all.

She's so cute when she's angry!

 

[hehahn]

Here's the still pics of the hatch. It's a little blurry as it was flopping around as it came out of the egg.


and the post-hatch pic:


The look on the chick's face seems to be saying, "That was a lot of work!"

I like the angle of this picture because the chick's body still looks egg-shaped to me.

I am trying to get the video I took of the hatch to load. I'm not as tech-savvy as my husband, so I may have to have him do it.

 

[hehahn]

Well, that's all folks! (for this hatch anyway)
The next additions to this thread will probably be the duckling babies on the 23rd, and the silkie babies on the 24th.

 

[hehahn]

Wait! I lied...I do have the dog chillin' with his peeps:





The chicks loved Miles' warmth, but he was more interested in how they smelled. I put the shock collar on him so he didn't run into the neighbor's pasture and chase their horse as he is wont to do, but I left it on while he was spending time with the chicks in case he decided to "taste" any of them!

 

[hehahn]

The duck eggs went into lockdown today!

 

[hehahn]

The Silkies also just went into lockdown! Yay!

 

[yellowflower]

Are you hatching the ducks and the silkies the same way as the first chicks? Can you give more details of how your daughter did it? I have some silkies that are in the incubator and am thinking of doing it this way. I know with a heat lamp in the brooder the temp stays very stable, for me anyways. But how do you keep a steady temp that is high enough through the whole area? Hope this makes sense. I think it's really cool that you have shared another way to hatch without buying another incubator or making your own incubator which seems a little complicated for me.

I'll be sticking around to see how they all hatch.

 

[hehahn]

I'll let daughter type this:

We are hatching the duck and silkies the same way as the first chicks.
OK, here's how I did it: Three days before hatching I stopped turning the eggs, then anywhere from 1-2 days before they were supposed to hatch, I set up the brooder, started the lamp, and made sure it reached and held the right temp. I moved them to the brooder setup on page one, with the old styrofoam cooler bottom, the plexiglass, the paper towels, and the sponge on a plate. Or, if you wanted to, and actually had the entire cooler (we just had the lower part, hence the plexiglass.) you could cut small square holes in the top and make your own windows.
As far as I know, the temp stays steady for me too. I just put a thermometer in the middle of the brooder, and hold it steady at about 100-101 F, so that way I'm fairly certain that it's at least 99.5 on the edges of the brooder.
Oh, and if you do make your own, remember to poke air holes in the sides!

Ours has a big chip out of the side that we use for ventilation.
Good luck with your hatch!

 

[hehahn]

The duck eggs pipped!

 

[yellowflower]

Thankyou to your daughter for the explanation. I will be trying this with mine around the 6th of march. Can't wait to see how it goes with the ducks and silkies. Good luck!