January Hatch-a-long 2018

[Scott214]

My hatch date is supposed to be the 25th-26th depending on if I have any early ones maybe the 24th too!

 

[gimmie birdies]

my eggs have been in for over 24hrs, so I can count day one now.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I have some eggs in the incubator that were my own chickens eggs too, I am hoping one egg was from my NN. If it ends up being lavender on top of that...ooooh!

 

[mrsdee]

It seems to be pretty good. I’m checking the hydrometer accuracy right now. Is there any way to check for temperature accuracy?

A way you can check the accuracy of thermometers is the ice water test. Fill up a glass full of ice then fill it up with cold water. Let it set for a couple minutes. Then stir it up and put in your thermometer. Make sure it's not touching the ice. The temp should be 32 F. You can see how off it is from there!

 

[The Golden Egg5]

A way you can check the accuracy of thermometers is the ice water test. Fill up a glass full of ice then fill it up with cold water. Let it set for a couple minutes. Then stir it up and put in your thermometer. Make sure it's not touching the ice. The temp should be 32 F. You can see how off it is from there!

I don’t think I can with the thermometer I have. It’s a digital one so I think the water would ruin it.

 

[mrsdee]

I don’t think I can with the thermometer I have. It’s a digital one so I think the water would ruin it.

Yeah I guess you're right. That's the only way I know to do it. I have a digital one, a regular Mercury one that came with my incubator, and an old meat thermometer! And that one is the most accurate of them all since I was able to test it. Good luck!

 

[The Golden Egg5]

Yeah I guess you're right. That's the only way I know to do it. I have a digital one, a regular Mercury one that came with my incubator, and an old meat thermometer! And that one is the most accurate of them all since I was able to test it. Good luck!

I have an old meat thermometer that I haven’t even thought about. I could go test that and compare to see if the digital one is accurate.

 

[chickenmama109]

turns out my hatch date is the 21 i did not wait 24 hours before couting my first day so know my real hatch date for four of my eggs is the 21

 

[chickenmama109]

how big should the air sail be on day five i dont know if the humidity is too low the humidity is around 50 my incubator is a still air

 

[mrsdee]

how big should the air sail be on day five i dont know if the humidity is too low the humidity is around 50 my incubator is a still air

I think 50% is a little high for the beginning of a hatch. I've read that around 30% is good. I'm really struggling to keep moisture in mine. Outside humidity is only 30% and it's bottoming out at 10% in my circulated air incubator. I'm having to add water like every day or every other! Just so it bumps up to around 50% then starts to come back down. I'm actually kind of worrying about how I'm going to keep high humidity once I get to lockdown!