Incubators Anonymous

[Arielle]

Hey there IA folks... I have a group of eggs scheduled for lockdown tomorrow. They are all chicken eggs... HOWEVER, the air cells don't appear to be big enough.... maybe by a day or so. Most of them are full of chick, and everyone is moving.... appearing ready to go relatively soon. Here's my question: Do I wait an extra 12 hours or maybe even an extra day to see if the air cells increase and then lockdown or do I decide which ones need more time and divide the hatch?

Thanks for the suggestions guys... always a pleasure.

I see Karen already answered--so I will add this:

X2 If that air cell is not big enough, that makes lockdown useless. I've had eggs externally pip before getting them into the hatcher.

 

[ki4got]

well, here's the tally so far...
2/2 quail (1 brown 1 gold)
3/4 from the self blue cochin pen (2 blue 1 black)
4/4 EE/dorking cross - amazing cuteness.
0/4 welsummers (but i did see movement in 2 when i checked earlier this morning)
8/9 partridge/mille cochin pen - the 1 quit around lockdown i think.

one interesting thing to note... i had one egg (partridge/mille) that had the air cell on the side of the egg, not large or small end. as it incubated, got larger but never moved one way or the other, just flat on the side. candled it earlier when i took the last chicks out, thought i saw movement. well he's out. never saw a pip or anything just boom there's a chick and a mangled egg. LOL looks like the other chicks tried to help or something. there's no pattern to the cracks. just all over the place. either that or he just 'hulk'ed his way out. LOL *grunt* *POP*

the turkey isn't due until tomorrow, but apparently the commotion of hatching the last 3 cochins has spurred it on to further efforts. the pip area is much larger now and starting to go around i think.

here's a pic i took of one of the ee's. you can almost count her eyelashes!

 

[thasista]

Ok, well today 14 BRs from DMRippy have hatched so far and 3 more are pipped and working. The other one is moving inside and may be internally pipped.

This may throw cold water on the theory that chicks must be in lockdown with the humidity high. I opened the incubator to turn eggs this evening and a guinea was almost all the way hatched. It was dried and fluffed in the egg! No sticking. Interesting.

Also, 6/6 turkey eggs from spectrum ranch off ebay were externally pipped. I moved them into the hatcher quick.

6 guinea eggs hatched and there are 3 more pipped. One hatcher is emptied cleaned and ready for the next batch. 3 of the turkeys I hatched over the past few days died. The rest appear to be doing well. I dip their beaks in water every chance I get, but I've gotta work to pay for this habit.

I got 5 boxes of eggs in the mail today! They are labeled and placed in the incubator to sit for a day or two before turning. Guineas, EEs from Arielle and silkies arrived today.

 

[DMRippy]

Ok, well today 14 BRs from DMRippy have hatched so far and 3 more are pipped and working. The other one is moving inside and may be internally pipped.

This may throw cold water on the theory that chicks must be in lockdown with the humidity high. I opened the incubator to turn eggs this evening and a guinea was almost all the way hatched. It was dried and fluffed in the egg! No sticking. Interesting.

Also, 6/6 turkey eggs from spectrum ranch off ebay were externally pipped. I moved them into the hatcher quick.

6 guinea eggs hatched and there are 3 more pipped. One hatcher is emptied cleaned and ready for the next batch. 3 of the turkeys I hatched over the past few days died. The rest appear to be doing well. I dip their beaks in water every chance I get, but I've gotta work to pay for this habit.

I got 5 boxes of eggs in the mail today! They are labeled and placed in the incubator to sit for a day or two before turning. Guineas, EEs from Arielle and silkies arrived today.

My guinea did the same thing, well they were pipped in the incubator before I moved them.

BTW that is great on the BR eggs!

 

[DMRippy]

Well today is day 20 and I had maybe 15 or 20 chicks out already! Mostly EE and Olive Eggers, ALMOST ALL are black

that is ok. I had 1 BLRW out, but could not tell color, the glass was dripping

I was so busy cleaning pens, moving chicks, cleaning pens, moving chicks and so on that I didn't have time to even look! MUCH anyway

I am finally getting straight on chicks and pretty soon I will be able to list them on CL as pullets. My roo guy is going to come next Friday and pic some up

That will give me a little break in space, then I can fill it up with the next batch of roos

does it ever end????? Nah!

 

[gabrielle1976]

The babies are finnly big enough for me to see thru the cuckoo maran brown shells and I tossed 3 clears but the other 8 seem to be doing well from what I can see wich isnt much just that those eggs looked diffrent then the other three pretty much. My 3 norwiegians are still plugging along and I offically have 6 swedish flower hen eggs with babies in them. 49 button eggs got set yesterday. Pretty shure a good dozen of those becuase of bubbles and fine cracks wont make it but I set them just in case . So in my wilma bator I have 8/11 cuckoos , 3/8 norwigian, 6/20 sweedish flower hens and 49/55ish? button quail .. I have the bobwhites in the hatcher with the rest of the eggs but in a box with wire cover cuase it looks like the bobs will be smaller then jumbo quail though not as small as buttons maybe and I was afraid they would get smooshed by the big chicks I have quite a few little breeds , chukars searmas silkies ect but those barn yard mix eggs are big and I expect some big chickies from them lol

 

[thasista]

My guinea did the same thing, well they were pipped in the incubator before I moved them.

BTW that is great on the BR eggs!

2 more to go and I will have 16/16 hatched. I can't remember how many you sent me but this is phenomenal! I can't wait to see what the second batch does!

 

[Arielle]

Ok, well today 14 BRs from DMRippy have hatched so far and 3 more are pipped and working. The other one is moving inside and may be internally pipped.

This may throw cold water on the theory that chicks must be in lockdown with the humidity high. I opened the incubator to turn eggs this evening and a guinea was almost all the way hatched. It was dried and fluffed in the egg! No sticking. Interesting.

Also, 6/6 turkey eggs from spectrum ranch off ebay were externally pipped. I moved them into the hatcher quick.

6 guinea eggs hatched and there are 3 more pipped. One hatcher is emptied cleaned and ready for the next batch. 3 of the turkeys I hatched over the past few days died. The rest appear to be doing well. I dip their beaks in water every chance I get, but I've gotta work to pay for this habit.

I got 5 boxes of eggs in the mail today! They are labeled and placed in the incubator to sit for a day or two before turning. Guineas, EEs from Arielle and silkies arrived today.

Yup, lockdown isn't quite as rigid as we have been led to beleive. I've had many hatch in my incubator. It was a very staggered hatch! about 10 day of 1-2 chicks a day! Wet sponges in, chicks hatch, sponges out, repeat !!! Totally blew away the lockdown theory! LOL

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Donna you must have some hardy BR!! THough the OE and Cm had great hatching rates also!!

 

[WinklerFarms]

Well today is day 20 and I had maybe 15 or 20 chicks out already!  Mostly EE and Olive Eggers, ALMOST ALL are black that is ok.  I had 1 BLRW out, but could not tell color, the glass was dripping

I was so busy cleaning pens, moving chicks, cleaning pens, moving chicks and so on that I didn't have time to even look!  MUCH anyway

I am finally getting straight on chicks and pretty soon I will be able to list them on CL as pullets.  My roo guy is going to come next Friday and pic some up   That will give me a little break in space, then I can fill it up with the next batch of roos does it ever end?????   Nah!

gotta love having a roo guy! I have a guy that will buy every one I have. He likes his "old fashioned chicken" a lot but doesn't want to raise them himself anymore. The Roos go in a tractor and feed cost for them is very very low. They get a lot of veggie and fruit scraps from the store that I work at.