Hi guys,
I'm at day 8 or so of my 3rd incubation (2 last year + this one), impatient as hell, so please let me tell some of my stories while I wait for the eggs to hatch
For my first incubation, I ordered eggs by mail. Big mistake! Out of 20 eggs only 1 hatched. Most of the others didn't even start developing. After I gave up on them, I hard-boiled them and gave them to adult chickens to eat - when I cut the cooked eggs in half, they were all scrambled inside. Total waste of time and money. I won't order eggs by mail again if I can avoid it.
Next I found some sellers that I could drive to, so I got 10 partridge Brahma and 13 silver Wyandotte eggs. Out of those, 21 hatched and mostly grew into beautiful birds. However, I wasn't at all gentle with those eggs. In fact, I did all kinds of not recommended things.
For the start, 3 or 4 times I almost cooked them - my incubator is rather low-tech, so the thermostat keeps the stable temperature only if the temperature of the environment is stable too. I noticed that the temperature in the incubator goes up every day around noon, so I paid attention to lower it at that time and put it back up in the evening. But there were a few times when I found the thermometer showing 40 C (104 F) or close to it. I cooled the eggs down immediately, but I had no idea how much time did they spend like that - once I found the temperature so high after waking up at night - I guess I overdid it when putting the temperature back up in the evening. Luckily, nothing bad happened.
Next, I had to transport eggs with me to another place - me and my partner mostly work from home, but every 2 weeks or so we have to spend a few days in a city. I couldn't leave the incubator to anybody, so I packed the eggs in cardboard boxes with some cotton wool, brought them with us in the car, and plugged them in again. Next 2 days, I had to leave them alone during most of the day, and I was worried that they might cook if I leave them at normal temperature and it goes up around midday. So I decided to leave them at 35 C (95 F) both days (and brought the temperature back up after coming back in the evening). After 2 days, I packed them again into the car and took them back home. They continued to grow.
Finally, when they started hatching I couldn't leave them alone, so I kept opening the lid to check on them (the lid is mostly not transparent) and take occasional photos. The poor birds survived that, too. In fact, they were/are remarkably healthy. 2 developed a splayed leg within the first week, 4 unfortunately died because I was away and my partner let them sleep overnight on wet litter after drinking water was spilled, and 2 developed a limp later while growing up because of injuries. But no disease or sudden deaths for no reason.
With my current incubation, I started in the same style - rough - first day I kept the temperature lower than it should have been because I had a lot of work that didn't allow me to check the temperature regularly. Then I almost cooked them again (only once for now, thankfully). Last 6 days were rather uneventful, but in a few days I have to go to the city again for 3 days of work, and I'll have to repeat the same procedure as last year. At least I'll be able to take good care for them around the hatching days, as I set things up so that the hatch is around Easter or the day after.
This time I'm incubating 8 of our own eggs - I mean, our Brahma and Wyandotte eggs mixed with a mutt rooster, 9 speckled Sussex, 7 black Brahma and a few Orpington eggs I got as a gift. 2 of the eggs weren't growing, so I already discarded them. One confuses me - first 5 days it seemed empty, but last 2 days there seems to be a small spot, much smaller than in the other eggs and if it's growing, it's growing very slowly. Any such experience? Is it possible that some eggs can wait so long before starting to develop?
