INCUBATING w/FRIENDS! w/Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs No problem!

[lisahefner]

Hi all! I hope I can get some guidance on this. I had 6 bantams, two were sitting on eggs, and I had several eggs in the fridge from some others. One night, a raccoon came in and slaughtered all my chickens, except for the one hen that had actually hatched two eggs (she was in another place). These were pets to me, and I was just devastated. One of the hens that was killed, had two eggs that went unnoticed by the racoon. They were cold when we found them. I took her eggs and put them in a aquarium with a light bulb over them. Got it to around 99-100F. A couple of days later, after reading something on a forum here, I decided to take the eggs in the fridge (I couldn't bring myself no eat them now), and put them in there also. Then I started seeing signs of life, and went and bought a Brinsea Manual Egg Incubator. Now all except 1 are showing signs of life! My problem is, I have one incubator, and these poor eggs are at all different levels of development- and the very first one looks really close to hatching. Does anyone have any tips? Maybe I could put the first one in the aquarium with another heat source, and do the lock down? But I'm not sure what to do. Any ideas greatly appreciated!

 

[Ren2014]

Joining this one and hopefully I can keep up

@Sally Sunshine sorry to hear you were ill. Happy to see you are on the road to recovery.

I'm on day 16 of shipped eggs that must have gone through hell to get here. Day 14 I culled 3, pulled a stinker, 5 developing well and 10 others I am not sure of. All have horrible air cells

I went and did what I said I wouldn't ever do again... ordered more eggs. This time I am going to do everything right from the start. I now know what rolling air cells look like and if it happens with this shipment, thanks to you all and the knowledge I have learned I will do better by them.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Subscribing

And now I'm joining up over here! Nice to have a whole bunch of information in one place.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

i have cream legbar eggs on the way, not sure how many yet, but as many as i can get. i will probably incubate some barnyard mixes from a friends farm (ive taken to calling them 'brown haven' eggs, ha!. i am using a little giant with a fan and no turner. i can a hydrometer/thermometer to use and the the incubator should be calibrated from my last (poor) hatch. tomorrow the eggs are shipping and i will plug the incubator in then. the temp im going to keep the same 37.5 C but i would like to work with a lower humidity.....my last hatch was between 50-60 % with lockdown being 60-70%, there were also a couple very high spikes when i tried to adjust the humidity up for lockdown. this hatch i want to try 35% throughout and 50-65% on lockdown. i just devised a little 'manual' egg turner for my self that i am hoping will help me keep the humidity even. i thought i could move the cartons from side to side of the lids (like in the first and second picture) and fill the rock filled lids with water to keep the humidity i desire....that way if it goes to high i can remove the lid and replace it with a dry backup

any thoughts on if this will be efficent?

I would still get her up n running early in case something is malfunctioning (knocks wood), and you calibrated not only the included thermo/hygros correct? you rely on others than what came with the unit? please say yes!!!
as far as this statement "my last hatch was between 50-60 % with lockdown being 60-70%, there were also a couple very high spikes when i tried to adjust the humidity up for lockdown. this hatch i want to try 35% throughout and 50-65% on lockdown" can I add that humidity should never be a set number, use it only as a tool. Have you found the Hatching 101 Article I wrote to help others? with CCL they can be hard to loose weight and you need that first week to help loose weight. 35% does not sound like a bad number, HOWEVER you really dont have a clue YET what your eggs are going to look like when you get them, they could have LARGE air cells, they could have tiny air cells. IT ALL DEPENDS on the required weight loss in the egg! You run humidity for what the majority of the eggs in the bator need! Some people will weight eggs, I actually wont suggest this for shipped eggs, only because you have no clue how much they already lost during the shipping process. Fresh eggs this is perfect for learning how to monitor weight loss. Fresh eggs is what I always suggest when learning to incubate. So decide on that humidity when you see what you have coming to you!

each egg, breed, bator, room, house, week, season, area, climate, location, altitude, ITS ALL DIFFERENT! no one can tell you what you need for that egg, BUT YOU and when you see them and what they do during the first 18 days! So you have to learn how to read those eggs! and we are here to help you !

I think the turner will work, just be careful your turning is sufficient and that you dont crack the bottoms of the eggs and your not getting too close to heat source

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I'm gonna get in a lot of trouble subscribing here. There will be chicks and eggs everywhere. Like a HAL that never ends! Yeah

I know right!!!

So glad you opened this, was getting a bit sad that the Halloween Hatchbwas over. Such amazing people.

I was panicking!!! I had to make one!

Joining this one and hopefully I can keep up

@Sally Sunshine sorry to hear you were ill. Happy to see you are on the road to recovery.

I'm on day 16 of shipped eggs that must have gone through hell to get here. Day 14 I culled 3, pulled a stinker, 5 developing well and 10 others I am not sure of. All have horrible air cells

I went and did what I said I wouldn't ever do again... ordered more eggs. This time I am going to do everything right from the start. I now know what rolling air cells look like and if it happens with this shipment, thanks to you all and the knowledge I have learned I will do better by them.

AWESOME!!!

ohhhhh what did you order????? and you know we are here for you if you need us!!! ask anything!

 

[Ren2014]

AWESOME!!!

ohhhhh what did you order????? and you know we are here for you if you need us!!! ask anything!

Chocolate Orpington's from Papa's Poultry.

I noticed what looked like a bubble of water in one of the air cells on an active egg. Is that possible? All of the air cells seemed too large so I upped the humidity a bit. It's really hard to tell their size being they have hills and valleys, seriously, like camel humps.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Chocolate Orpington's from Papa's Poultry.

I noticed what looked like a bubble of water in one of the air cells on an active egg. Is that possible? All of the air cells seemed too large so I upped the humidity a bit. It's really hard to tell their size being they have hills and valleys, seriously, like camel humps.

Chocolate Orpington's from Papa's Poultry.

Quote: I know thats hard to judge when they are so saddled. I have seen that bubble as well, It seems as though sometimes the inner membrane can separate from the outer for some reason, idk if from weak membrane and then shipping or what. My last one that I had shipped like that didnt hatch in the end, but I did have several hatch, I think it depends on how large of an area it is. you can only do what you can do be gentle with that egg. you have to do whats best for the majority and treat the special ones as lightly as you can without effecting the others. thats the best you can ya know.

 

[chicapee]

Chocolate Orpington's from Papa's Poultry.

I noticed what looked like a bubble of water in one of the air cells on an active egg.  Is that possible?  All of the air cells seemed too large so I upped the humidity a bit.  It's really hard to tell their size being they have hills and valleys, seriously, like camel humps.

I adjust humidity to the aircells that look the most normal. I have a few saddled ones that just went into lock down.

 

[Ren2014]

I adjust humidity to the aircells that look the most normal. I have a few saddled ones that just went into lock down.

Will do. Please keep us posted and good luck

 

[hippiestink]

Chocolate Orpington's from Papa's Poultry.

Woohoo! Orpingtons!

As to your question I don't know enough about hatching to answer.