Incubators and dogs

[embkm]

Today is day 20 on my eggs in my homemade incubator. Day 21 starts at 11 am. I've been checking every hour to see if there are any pips, but so far nothing. Of course, checking all the time is a habit I've gotten into the past 3 weeks, checking temps every hour.

Anyway... when I first turned the incubator on, one of my dogs, Lily, showed a little interest in it because it was new. After the first day though, she hasn't even looked at it since... until today. I've seen her staring at the incubator at least 5 times today and she has even gone to sniff at it a few times. Could she be hearing chick noises that I just can't hear yet? Or is that just my wishful thinking that it means something will happen soon?

 

[gabrielle1976]

Yes dogs could hear / smell the eggs changeing and makeing noise.

 

[Emzyyy]

Woah! thats sooo cool Id never thought of that now I just wanna hatch some eggs to see what our dogs would do!

 

[embkm]

Quote:
Well, my male dog could care less about the "funny box that keeps lighting up", but Lily is definitely more interested in it today. She is also the dog I can't have loose with the adult chickens. She is way too interested in them for me to trust her.

But if she can hear something, that gives me a lot of hope that at least a few will hatch!

 

[chilling in muscadine]

Before you see any pips you will have internal peeps. This is the chick peeping in the egg and also if you hold the egg up to your ear you can hear the chick pecking at the shell trying to pip. Most likely this is what your dog is hearing and they have so much more powerful hearing than we do. When my chicks starts to pip I have to lock the bators in a room where the dogs can not get to them. I would hate to have some hatch while I was sleeping and the dogs get to them and kill them. All in all it sounds like you will have fuzzy butts soon but be sure to protect them from your dog. Congrats and have some fun with them when they hatch.

 

[embkm]

Thanks Chilling. Lily is locked in her crate when there's no one home, so the 'bator is safe from her.

I keep putting my ear to the incubator, but all I hear is the fan. My temps and humidity are rock solid right now, there's no way I'm opening the 'bator to listen to an egg (Even if it's driving me crazy).

 

[chilling in muscadine]

Well did you have any luck and end up with some fuzzy butts?

 

[embkm]

I did finally! 4 hatched yesterday.. 2 days late! I had just about given up hope. Still trying to give the last little egg a chance, but I will be pulling the 4 hatched chicks out this afternoon to put in the brooder with my feed store chicks. I hatched 2 NN and 2 BR mixes.

 

[horsejody]

My dog loves the incubator. He is as bad as me. Even in the first few days of incubation he will sit in the bathroom where the bator is and stare into the window like he is willing them to hatch. He loves the brooder too. He gets very upset when the chicks leave the house. Unfortunately, he is epileptic and usually has a seizure shortly after his babies are taken outside.

 

[serendipity22]

I don't know about dogs, but my 10 month old is drawn to it like a moth to a flame...