Incubators Anonymous

[Arielle]

Quote: Never a dumb question-- only one that is never asked. At lockdown because of the increase in humidity the rate of moisture loss slows or even stops, again deending on the humidity relative to the local ambient humidity. SO may not be worth the effort at that point, before yes, I need to go look at 12 shipped FBCM eggs in my incubator and see if I should sand them also. Sometimes it is hard to see the aircells, I often think they are not developing. My last batch of marans were a very pale egg and grew huge air cells without meddling.

If you have eggs with air cell too small you need to rectify it before lockdown, even delay lockdown if necessary. If you see a pip INCREASE the humidity pronto. Did you find the instuctions?? DO not move aka shake the egg to sand rather move the sand paper in a circle. Make sense?

 

[mbleily]

Ok i opened since the others had not pipped yet and one is hatched he seems ok just has what looks like a knot on its head but very strong so fingers crossed that it will be ok and the knot will go down i put more warm water and the humidity dropped only from 50 to 48 i added more warm water after i flipped the little guy and the humidity came back up pretty fast so i think all will be well thanks for the quick response i think you saved my chick.

What kind of eggs do you have in there? Could it be a top knot on its head instead of just a knot. You know the kind that have lots of feathers on its head. Polish or Hudan?

 

[jandrusrn]

Never a dumb question-- only one that is never asked. At lockdown because of the increase in humidity the rate of moisture loss slows or even stops, again deending on the humidity relative to the local ambient humidity. SO may not be worth the effort at that point, before yes, I need to go look at 12 shipped FBCM eggs in my incubator and see if I should sand them also. Sometimes it is hard to see the aircells, I often think they are not developing. My last batch of marans were a very pale egg and grew huge air cells without meddling.

If you have eggs with air cell too small you need to rectify it before lockdown, even delay lockdown if necessary. If you see a pip INCREASE the humidity pronto. Did you find the instuctions?? DO not move aka shake the egg to sand rather move the sand paper in a circle. Make sense?

Makes complete sense. And I'm gonna go peek now. Found the instructions, yes!! Made a shortcut to a lotta pages today..... such a great information day.

 

[ROCKIN R FARM]

so far so good on my 100 plus eggs. I do need to recount how many I have. I had to take a few out today that I noticed was slightly cracked. I had to rearrange them on the trays sense i notice when the trays move that some of the eggs end up stand up straight. So took them out real quick and took some out so they will lay flat when turned. And noticed dh put in some turkey eggs as well with out me knowing. So had to make room for them on the trays so brought in about 5 red or black sex linked eggs to put in the Leahy bator I have.
Here in a few days I need to candle all of them to see how everyone is doing. I have never candled that many at once before. Is there a fast way to do this or do you just have to do one at a time?

 

[jandrusrn]

EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK... Just did a quuick candle to check for air cells on Marans..... the decision was made to leave them as is. I still say that they look a wee bit small, but DH says they look OK, and with just 0% hatches.... we don't wanna risk anything by DOING something.

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE...

it looks like we'll be going into lockdown tomorrow with 11 viable eggs. Thanks to IA for all the help....

Arielle... I bow to you my darling.

 

[Arielle]

EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK... Just did a quuick candle to check for air cells on Marans..... the decision was made to leave them as is. I still say that they look a wee bit small, but DH says they look OK, and with just 0% hatches.... we don't wanna risk anything by DOING something.

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE...

it looks like we'll be going into lockdown tomorrow with 11 viable eggs. Thanks to IA for all the help....

Arielle... I bow to you my darling.

No need to bow to me . . . . I learned by reading on BYC and the university web sites. WHenever I have eggtopsied unhatched eggs, I have mostly found very watery chicks. Either they quit before lockdown or during lockdown and didn't dry enough. Can you make a record of the size of the air cells so you know what works and what doesn't for next time?

Hope it goes well . . and let us know.

 

[ki4got]

No need to bow to me . . . . I learned by reading on BYC and the university web sites. WHenever I have eggtopsied unhatched eggs, I have mostly found very watery chicks. Either they quit before lockdown or during lockdown and didn't dry enough. Can you make a record of the size of the air cells so you know what works and what doesn't for next time?

Hope it goes well . . and let us know.

IMO, the most accurate way to gauge water loss is by weight. shipped egg aircells may be damaged slightly and look way huge compared to what they should be so that's not always accurate.

you weigh the egg fresh (in grams is most accurate) then calculate how much they should weigh before lockdown. i write that on the air cells of at least a few eggs every hatch, so i can track them.

you can get a gram scale for under $10 off ebay, and i use a container of thread seal tape (aka teflon tape) for my egg stand, but anything you have on hand would do. that's just what i did have handy LOL anything to keep the egg from rolling works. in a pinch even my wedding band works. LOL

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I love how much I must think. Come up with a cheap solution whenever posible. I'm sure your wedding band comes in handy!

 

[jandrusrn]

Just a quick note.... we went into lockdown tonight and had to hurry up the process because of all the.....wait for it......(you're all used to it, I'm sure).....

peeeeeeeping, pipping...... and all that moving going on!!

so grateful for the help. As I type this I've got one of the Marans eggs pipping and that's not the one we heard talking.......I love this. I just knew I'd feel this great! Yippeeeeee

 

[ROCKIN R FARM]

congrats on your peeps. That feeling never gets old