Incubating eggs: Updates and results!

[77horses]

Right now we still have some eggs in our homemade ice chest bator. It is steady at 99-101*F, except on hot days, when we need to crack the cover open. Hum. holds pretty well. So far, here are the results:

-Chicks hatched: 1
-Eggs died just before hatching(didn't pip): 2
-Eggs that died at early stage on developing: 2(that we know of at the moment)


Right now we have some Amer./Cochin eggs...through out 2 that died at an early stage, 1 is healthy and developing, and the rest have chicks in them but not sure if they are alive...The shell is very dark and hard to see inside while candling and I'm afraid to crack them open because there might be a live chick inside. We have 1 Buff Orp/Cochin eggs that may have died at an early stage on developing, but not sure. And we have 1 RIR/Red Star(or possibly Red Star/Cochin) egg that is on day 4, showing signs of development.

The chick that hatched out needed a little bit of help due to too low hum., but is alive and well today.

We also had 3 parakeet eggs in the bator(that have been transferred to a smaller "bator") and have been developing nicely(except for 1 with a crack in it...).

Hopefully the 1 chick that we had hatch will not be alone in her broody box for long!

I will update you on any more changes.

 

[Barred Rocker]

I have a home built still air incubator that I made from and old wooden storage box and a glass door from one of my wife's antique medical cabinets. Took me a while to get the temperature and humidy to level out but I managed 3 Barred Rocks and 1 Buff Orpington out of 18 eggs on the first hatch. I had a lot of temp variations on that batch. The second went better but had a rotten egg explode and ruined a bunch. I just started another dozen Barred Rocks tonight and I've got the temperature steady at 99.5 to 100.5. It drops when I open the door to turn the eggs but placing a white towel over the door brings the temp back up within about 15 minutes, I just have to be careful and not forget because on the first batch I forgot and left it on for 2 hours and the temp shot up to 107. If I get at least a 50% hatch rate out of this one I'll be exstatic!