Incubators Anonymous

[gladahmae]

I wanna wake up to pips! Chicks are popping like popcorn over BIL's house in the incubator! 7out so far, and 3 more pips this morning (day 20). Still nothing going on under my broody. Must be patient. Must. Be. Patient. A friend of BIL's family is taking all the chicks that hatch (minus a few for me) which is nice.....we soooo don't have room/coops for another 30-35 chicks here.

My incubator supposedly shipped yesterday, 6 days AFTER I placed the order. Tracking won't work so either it doesn't have a number, or it hasn't gotten picked up yet. I'm less than impressed with the timeliness of this transaction. Should have paid the extra $5 and just gotten it off ebay and it would be here already.

Apparently Amazon's email system is just slow. Incubator should be here today! Now.....to steal eggs back from my broody or not.....watching them pip and hatch is MUCH more exciting, but I like the 'no fuss' point of using a broody.

 

[Arielle]

Haahaa, you have a tough choice.

 

[RideRed93]

Okay! I am a first-timer with hatching my own eggs and I just put my eggs on lock down this morning! YAY now for my questions/concerns..
1: when will I or should I notice peeping (pipping?) in my eggs ?
2: how many days after lockdown should I should see my first chick?
3: my humidity is having some issues.. it said anywhere from 70 to 80% humidity but mine is at 68 ± -will this be a major problem???

I am so excited for this to happen! I hope at least one hatches..

 

[Flowerbh]

Okay! I am a first-timer with hatching my own eggs and I just put my eggs on lock down this morning! YAY

now for my questions/concerns..
1: when will I or should I notice peeping (pipping?) in my eggs ?
2: how many days after lockdown should I should see my first chick?
3: my humidity is having some issues.. it said anywhere from 70 to 80% humidity but mine is at 68 ± -will this be a major problem???

I am so excited for this to happen! I hope at least one hatches..

This is a fun time for you! One of the things I like to do is take a flashlight and shine it on an egg and watch it move. It reassures me that it is ok. The weird thing about hearing peeps is that sometimes I haven't heard a thing and just when I would think they all must be dead....here they come! I put my humidity at between 65 - 70% Too high and you may drown them.

You should have chicks around the 3rd day after lockdown (day 21)
Good luck...let us know!

 

[Runawaylobster]

Okay! I am a first-timer with hatching my own eggs and I just put my eggs on lock down this morning! YAY

now for my questions/concerns..
1: when will I or should I notice peeping (pipping?) in my eggs ?
2: how many days after lockdown should I should see my first chick?
3: my humidity is having some issues.. it said anywhere from 70 to 80% humidity but mine is at 68 ± -will this be a major problem???

I am so excited for this to happen! I hope at least one hatches..

well there are tons of variables in the actual day they hatch but as long as your incubator is a good temperature day 21 should be the day. One thing though, if the eggs are tiny they usually hatch earlier, it's weird my hamburgs always hatch slightly early (they have very small white eggs) and then the marans come when they are supposed to...

btw, my hatcher is usually exactly 68% and thats just fine for me..

 

[ChickNmamma]

Okay! I am a first-timer with hatching my own eggs and I just put my eggs on lock down this morning! YAY

now for my questions/concerns..
1: when will I or should I notice peeping (pipping?) in my eggs ?
2: how many days after lockdown should I should see my first chick?
3: my humidity is having some issues.. it said anywhere from 70 to 80% humidity but mine is at 68 ± -will this be a major problem???

I am so excited for this to happen! I hope at least one hatches..

Hooray for Hatching!

1. You may hear the peeping from inside the eggs anytime they decide to start - no set time. First you may hear tapping - that is their beak tapping against the inside of the shell as their lungs start working.. then they will pip internally into the air sack - that is when their lungs start learning to breathe air. They start peeping at that point. Then they use up the air inside the shell and start struggling and that breaks through the shell, the external pips. You may see the external pips, or you might not see anything until they start zipping and taking the whole top off depending on where they break through. Are your eggs laying on their sides - or are they upright?
2. That is on their time schedule, and they can hatch anytime from day 18 up to day 24. It depends on things like temperatures during hatch, humidity, breed...
3. If you can get the humidity up to 60% when they start pipping they will make it jump way up. Once they poke that hole they start breathing in there and exhaling moisture. Sometimes you can tell when you get that first pip by the way the humidity jumps up. 68% is fine.

Good Luck with the hatch!

 

[Chick a dee1023]

I have a quick question, i know chicks & ducks can be together but not pheasants b/c of diseases,. So my question is...how do i clean the bator if i have duckling eggs hatch in there and them am putting pheasants in right after? Is soap & water ok or do i need to do more? I am having probs with the bator my duck eggs are in and im close to lock down (day 24), i have pheasant eggs coming on tues or wed, and i want to move the ducklings to the other bator (temp keeps hitting 104, I'm catching it and fixing it, there's still life inside the eggs so i want to get them out before they end up DIS). I don't want to kill all of my pheasants by not cleaning the bator properly in between. Thanks in advance!

 

[insanity]

So last nigght I did the 7 day candle on 51 eggs from 2 suppliers.1 infertile and 2 failures in the whole bunch...not bad at all. But 7 OE were to dark shelled to see anything but the aircell.Any ideas how to check them? I use a very bright small led flashlight to candle.

 

[ki4got]

I have a quick question, i know chicks & ducks can be together but not pheasants b/c of diseases,. So my question is...how do i clean the bator if i have duckling eggs hatch in there and them am putting pheasants in right after? Is soap & water ok or do i need to do more? I am having probs with the bator my duck eggs are in and im close to lock down (day 24), i have pheasant eggs coming on tues or wed, and i want to move the ducklings to the other bator (temp keeps hitting 104, I'm catching it and fixing it, there's still life inside the eggs so i want to get them out before they end up DIS). I don't want to kill all of my pheasants by not cleaning the bator properly in between. Thanks in advance!

i never had a problem incubating them together, and know someone who incubates and raises his pheasants and chicks together witout issues... it's ducks i wouldn't keep with chicks because of the mess factor. incubating i don't think is an issue if you have a separate hatcher, since the time periods are different for each.

 

[ki4got]

So last nigght I did the 7 day candle on 51 eggs from 2 suppliers.1 infertile and 2 failures in the whole bunch...not bad at all. But 7 OE were to dark shelled to see anything but the aircell.Any ideas how to check them? I use a very bright small led flashlight to candle.

for the super dark eggs, i just monitor air cells and keep an eye out for leakers or stinkers... if the air cell seems consistent with the rest, it goes in the hatcher.