MARCH Hatch-A-Long 2015: Please Read the First Post to JOIN the H-A-L

[poult]

Yay!

 

[rmcclure]

So excited, put 29 eggs in the incubator a week ago (this is day 7) did my first candling on my first batch of eggs ever and im happy to report that aside from the 5 dark brown eggs that want to keep secrets all of them look well and have developed (a couple might have died im not sure) even two that had cracked from being dropped have little babies in them

 

[poult]

I wouldn't keep the cracked ones.Those just allow bacteria into the egg which can end up killing them & polluting the others.Or so I've read.

 

[Lamancha]

Well I think we're going to luck

out and not get as much ice as we thought. So we shouldn't have any power loss. Yay...had stocked up on hot hands just in case.

Do you put the hot hands in the incubator on just the brooder?

I got a notice in the mail from the electric company saying they will be working on the power lines in my area and my power will be shut off Friday from 8am-4:30pm. Ugh, I have 80 eggs in my incubators plus a couple 2 day old chick's.

Does anybody have any pointers on how to handle this? I have a generator but I'm a little nervous using it for the incubators themselves since I won't be home to keep an eye on it. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[paris_r]

Do you put the hot hands in the incubator on just the brooder?

I got a notice in the mail from the electric company saying they will be working on the power lines in my area and my power will be shut off Friday from 8am-4:30pm. Ugh, I have 80 eggs in my incubators plus a couple 2 day old chick's.

Does anybody have any pointers on how to handle this? I have a generator but I'm a little nervous using it for the incubators themselves since I won't be home to keep an eye on it. Any advice would be appreciated.

can you take them to work? i had a converter from my car when i moved eggs in a bator before then i plugged it in when i got there. water has an amazing capacity to hold heat-so the more full your bator the more it will retain heat.--full does not have to mean eggs. you can use many of those refreezable cooler ice things and put them in (one at a time, at room temp) a few days before, these will help buffer against heat loss. how old are the eggs? i cant remember what day but at a certain point in development eggs become endothermic and will generate their own heat. it will still need to be supplemented but they will help, so more insulation via water and occupying as much space as possibly with it. just make sure that they can still get enough oxygen.

 

[paris_r]

my landlord said there was a huge spike in the electricity bill last month (talking over 150$ here). do these table top LG bators use a lot????

 

[tamwade]

I guess I'm being a late start on this here since my eggs are on day 18 today. I set my eggs in the incubator on the 8th & 9th of feb. I placed 35 in there and ended up removing six for no development. Now I have 29. I have over a dozen silkie/frizzle, about six cochan and the rest are barnyard mix from my backyard. Tonight we will go on lockdown. I've never hatched with an incubator before so this is all New to me, little nervous about the hatching. Luckily I'll be gone the two days before hatching so my daughter is going to keep an eye on things for me!

 

[mymilliefleur]

Very interesting and helpful article here on assisted hatching: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching
I've lost several chicks over the years to ether assisting to soon, or not soon enough.

 

[KittyKat3756]

I had set 11 Light Sussex, 12 white Leghorns and 12 Cream Legbars. So far 10 Light Sussex, 8 Leghorns and 11 Cream Legbars are developing on day 7! I'm using two incubators as I'm testing how well they compare. One is a cheapy model which I am manually turning and the other is a Brinsea with all the bells and whistles. So far so good in both.

Update on the developing eggs!

Light Sussex: 8/10 are good, 1/10 possible clear, 1/10 cracked but has a developing embryo so has been nail varnished over half the egg to see if that works.

Leghorn: 7/8 are good, 1/8 is possible clear.

Cream Legbar: 10/11 are good, 1/11 is possible clear.

 

[uzisuzuki]

Is anyone doing a staggered hatch or have experience with staggered hatching? I ask because I have been holding off on starting my incubation until my shipped Phoenix bantam eggs arrived, but due to the weather they won't be shipped until next week & I have 1 egg from each of my own hens ready to incubate now. I want to start my own eggs & then add any viable shipped eggs when they get here, but this will be my 1st time incubating & I'm not sure I can pull off a successful staggered hatch. Any tips would be most appreciated & welcome!