Just set my very first eggs last night!

[chickintexas]

I picked up a shipment of Silkie eggs from the post office yesterday morning. I didn't even allow them to get on the delivery truck! I figured they had a rough enough time and I didn't want them to end up stranded in my delivery guy's junk Jeep.
I let them rest 12 hours, candled them, then set them. Temps and humidity couldn't be more perfect. I'm sort of concerned about 3 of my eggs since the air cells look like they have detached. I did several searches here on BYC and it was a mixed bag of opinions on the whole air cell thing. I've got the questionable eggs marked and will be keeping a close eye on them. Just part of the risk of having eggs shipped.

The BYC member I purchased the eggs from did a fantastic job of packaging them.

Couldn't have asked for better packaging.
I should have more eggs waiting for me at the PO on Wednesday so I'll be adding them to the incubator that evening. Setting eggs two days apart should be okay, you think?

After messing around with temps, etc for over a week, I had decided to stick with a thermometer I had already had on hand. I had purchased 4 different thermometers during that time.

They were all garbage including the super pricey reptile thermometer/hygrometer. That lovely piece of work started to get all wiggy on me by day 2. I want to return it but can't find my receipt now.

I'm sticking with my meat thermometer by TruTemp. IMHO, it is absolutely perfect for the job. It'll show me the max/min temps. You can set the thermometer to a max setting and if it gets there, an alarm will go off. It also has a very long cord attached to a probe so while the probe is in the bator, I can stare obsessively at the temp read outs while I'm laying in bed. It doesn't show the degrees in tenths but after all the reading I've done and after all the testing that I personally did, I've come to the decision that with all the thermometers out there with varying temperature readings, a few tenths off isn't going to hurt anything.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[ICallMyselfCherie']

That is so exciting!!! I have a white banty silkie and she's wonderful! I got her when she was a few months old, so didn't have anything to do with her hatching, but she looks like she's going to be a wonderful mother!!!! After a lot of experimenting I'm beginning to think he might not be able to handle all of the eggs that are being delivered through the mail on Friday, so I'm considering buying or making a bater too . . . I don't even know where to start!!! I was counting on mama chicken doing all the work!!!

Anyway, congratulations on your new eggs!!!