Jan./Feb. 2014 hatch a long

[DeannaA]

Day 16 for my eggs and I just candled with a stronger light than I had been using. I have set Barnevelder eggs and they are fairly dark...VERY hard to see what's going on inside! Anyway, I candled just one to see what I could see and I saw a swimmer! Squirmer? Not sure what to call it but I could definitely see it wiggling away inside there. I feel better just knowing that the first egg I checked was doing great! I only have to wait until Wednesday now! It is hard to believe that they can develop so quickly...I can't wait to see the little chipmunk stripes running around!

I have5 Barnevelders in there. Only 2 are developing. I'm hping for a boy and a girl. I have 2 girls already. My new flashlight is so bright it's blinding on a light colored egg. I can see in my Marans eggs.

the buff are due next week
sky blue are about a week in
MY CANDY CORN JUST HATCHED ALL 4
can you tell I'm so excited to have them!!!??? so pretty

Did you order from the guy on Ebay? How many of each of the guineas did you get? How many are developing? I have bid on the Dundottes but I asked if he could swap out a few of the sky blue. He said he would. I have 2 guineas right now. I thought they were Ivory but I'm still not sure. They are cream with blond/ pale tan wash over their wings. Pretty. I think they are both boys. They also need girlfriends. They pull the butt feathers out of everyone while they are eating.

 

[Heidisgran]

Quote:
the breeder on ebay is riverrunner....ea order was 10...5 from the buff are due to hatch and 7 from the sky blue.....they do a great job packing the eggs too

 

[Heidisgran]

"Pepper" has a chick this morning...it's most likely the one from the incubator that I gave her the other day because they always seem to hatch a little early....tomorrow is due day for her other egg. looks like the first chick is a silkie

 

[Heidisgran]

Wait i dont understand. Why do you need humidity when incubating eggs and not when the hen goes broody?

the hen does supply humidity....after she's been sitting on her eggs awhile feel her belly it'll be moist

 

[Heidisgran]

Quote:
you can barely tell and probably can't until you have others to compare to each other but the boys helmet is a bit taller than the girls

 

[Joshua G]

When do I increase the humidity for chicken eggs?

 

[bwalden]

I've got 12 out this morning. Lots of pips still going on. Last night marked day 21 for me so up until tonight no one is late. I've noticed though my temps have dropped a little in my incubator. I raised it by .2 degrees. Now to get the brooder heated and ready. Oh I've also got a black copper Marans trying to be broody. I want her to lay not set on eggs. I've been kicking her off the nest but every time I go back she back on it. Silly hen doesn't know it's 20 degrees with snow on the ground!

 

[JesNflock]

how long was it at 104F? It takes some time to bring the internal egg temperature as high as the incubator temperature.. so it could depend if it was a quick spike or an extended period of time (days?). I think your eggs are going to be okay I have had a spike that high and had chicks hatch

make sure you take the temperature at the same level as the top of the egg, the bottom of the egg will be a few degrees lower.

when you add water, the temperature goes down. so if you remove water, you may see an overall spike and have to balance it out again - just keep it in mind.

I think 30% is about perfect humidity for my area.. I live in Oregon and my house humidity is about 50%, I also leave the 2 air vents open the whole time which helps the incubator regulate humidity from the room it is in.

if you run around 49% for a while, it's okay it won't harm anything. it is all about the average total humidity - the goal here is that the eggs evaporate and lose 13% of their water weight (I weigh the eggs to track weight). so, if it is too high for a time, you can lower it for the next X amount of days to make up for it and even it out overall

I am only on day 3 so it was only for a short time (it was after I added the eggs and left them to come up to temp..) I have been able to maintain a pretty constant temp since that spike and then the drop when I adjusted (that was all in the first day) Good to know I wasn't potentially drowning them before they are even started lol I think I will keep that air vent open now

I really don't monitor humidity. I do what would probably be considered a dry hatch. In winter when the air is dry from running the heat I add a small container of water (never use the troughs in the bottom of the bator, way too hard to get water back out of & humidity back down if you get too much in there) until lockdown & then add 2 more at lockdown. In summer, if it has been rainy I don't add any water until lockdown & then add 2 containers for lockdown. If it's dry I add 1 extra container for lockdown & 1 during incubation.
As for temperature, I have had eggs survive spikes to 116°F and drops to 50°F or lower. They are much hardier than we think. Just get them back to temp & candle in 4-5 days. Any quitters should be obvious by then.
Dry hatching is simply kerping a lower humidity until lockdown. You only add as much water as necessary to keep humidity above 25% until lockdown & then raise to 45-60% for hatch.

I agree that the troughs make it very hard to remove water (I have a turner in there as well). I hardly added any water to it at all and the humidity ended up going up to 49% so I opened the vent hole and it came down to 44*..maybe I should just sop up the water out of it totally

@Farmer Viola I did read up on the dry hatch method and it sounds good (I wish I'd have known about that before I added water to mine..hindsight lol)

 

[JesNflock]

When do I increase the humidity for chicken eggs?

Day 18 (Lockdown)

 

[DeannaA]

the breeder on ebay is riverrunner....ea order was 10...5 from the buff are due to hatch and 7 from the sky blue.....they do a great job packing the eggs too

Same one I'm bidding on.

the hen does supply humidity....after she's been sitting on her eggs awhile feel her belly it'll be moist

A friend of mine said their hens used to dip their butts in a puddle or the water dish at the end of the incubation. I haven't had any hens hatch eggs yet. I am really looking forward to it. I am going to take notes and learn from the experts.

you can barely tell and probably can't until you have others to compare to each other but the boys helmet is a bit taller than the girls

There are a few slight differences between them but not enough to be sure. They are so funny. They run around picking on everyone. One (A) has slightly wider and a bit paler orange legs. He is more mean and a tiny bit bigger. But the other one (B) that I would think would be female has never made the female noise. I haven't given them real names yet, I have just been calling them Tweedle Dumb (A) and Tweedle Dee (B). I heard from so many people they would try to escape or roost in the trees or roam the neighborhood. No such luck. Those guys stay right in the yard. Chasing the chickens. It's hard not to laugh while I am yelling at them. I have a plastic pipe I threaten them with but they know they are faster than me. I caught the mean one (A) once after he attacked my rooster and cuddled him for an hour, then painted his toenails. He has never been that bad again. Kill them with kindness. Whenever anyone acts up too much, I cuddle them into submission. They hate it when they realize how much they like it. I can almost hear Max when I cuddle him outside, "Mom, not in front of the guys, you're embarassing me."