March Hatching Madness

[NellaBean]

I am getting a dozen Mille Fleur Cochin eggs today, and will be filling up the bator with my own eggs, mostly RIR, with some LF cochin (blue and splash) as well, and maybe a few White Leghorn crosses.....Whatever I can fit! I haven't fired up the bator yet, planning on doing it tonight....so will set them tomorrow night when I get home from work. March 4th to 5th will be my hatch date

 

[Sweet Chicks]

Hi!
As of 8:00 tonight I set 29 eggs:

14 Barred Rocks
1 Columbian Wyandotte
2 Mottled Houdan
3 BBS Orpington
1 cochin
7 BO
1 unmarked!!!! Hatch date March 4th 2010!!!

 

[The Sheriff]

Good grief, I cannot believe I am saying this but I am probably IN too! I am expecting a shipment of Olive Eggers from Wynette if her hens ever get off the pot if you know what I mean!

Here we go again! Hoping for better luck this time.

Mary

 

[TattooQ27]

Since I am still having issues with getting the temp stable in my LG (although I am behaving and not touching the knob) I decided to quickly candle my duck eggs this morning. We are about 2 hours shy of starting day 6 so I thought it would be an ok time to check for progress. Out of 24 eggs that we set, 21 have veining and 3 are clear. We are going to leave the 3 clears in there for now though just in case they should decide to do something.

We don't want to mess with the temp knob too much but every morning the temp is up to 102.7 in the incubator and we are worried that we are going to cook the eggs so we are going to try to change some things. We are starting by turning the fan around. Right now it is blowing down on the eggs, we are going to turn it so it points towards the top of the incubator so it pulls the air up through instead of blowing down. We are hoping that helps.

I noticed when I candled that the eggs with the most veining/visible development are the eggs directly under the fan which is what got me thinking about moving the fan. My thought is that the air temp is highest at that point so perhaps the air is hitting those eggs and deflecting to the eggs around them. The eggs around the fan are at varied stages of development so I am thinking the fan is working to keep the temps around it the most stable. The eggs farthest away are the 3 clears and the eggs that are about (if I had to guess) a day or so behind the eggs under the fan so perhaps the air is just a bit too cool there. Hopefully swapping positions of the fan will help circulate the air more evenly and then if we do adjust the knob a tiny bit down everything will stabilize.

We are also adding a freezer thermometer to monitor the temps (it monitors to 104 degrees F). We are using the same Walmart thermometer that a lot of people like but we don't know how to calibrate it since it doesn't have a probe and we don't own a thermometer that we know is accurate. The freezer thermometer in certified to be accurate and we like that the probe is in a bottle of glycol which will fit nicely into our turner and should give us a better idea of the temp inside the eggs. I wouldn't think that we would have 21/24 eggs developing well if the high air temps were doing damage but I would feel a lot better knowing that we weren't going to lose all of these eggs because of wonky air temps.

Either way, something is working so we are excited!! Now I can't wait till Sunday to add my chicken eggs )

 

[Egg_newton]

I got eggs in the bator now with Feb 13th hatch date. I hope to set my second batch right after that. So, I'm in!

 

[NellaBean]

Mine went in last night.

12 Mille Fleur Cochin Project eggs (shipped)
30 brown eggs (Mostly LF cochin, some RIR either pure or crossed with Jersey Giant) (my own eggs)
1 white egg (White Leghorn x either RIR or Jersey Giant) (my own eggs)

43 eggs total!

I will candle at 5-7 days and toss any bad ones. Keeping my fingers crossed! Last batch of my "own eggs" I set hatched about 80-90%, so I am keeping my fingers crossed. My roosters really seem to do their job....every egg I drop and break is always fertile (LOL).

Here is my countdown clock!

 

[ksf59]

thought I would update .I set 12 french black coppers, 8 french blue splash marans, and 12 welsummers at 7 am Friday morning. This is my second hatch, and will try to get my humidity level a bit better. My temps have been stable but averaged about 100 in forced air last time , will try to lower that just a bit this time. Will try to get that thing at 99.5. I set on Friday morning last time and had pips late wed night with chick thursday moring, rest thursday night. will shoot for 30 to 40 humidity 1st 18 then 55 to 60 to hatch. Last time, I was at 70 to 75 at hatch, had 1 stuck and 4 or 5 ready but did nothing. full developed, but no pip that I could see. May have been to wet the last 3 days. Last time all shipped eggs. this time the marans are shipped. I picked up the wellies from the farm.

 

[kelseygirl707]

I'm with you! At least I hope I am, the PO played hot potato with my box, so if any of them managed to not get scrambled, then I am with you!

15 eggs went in, Hatch date of March 4th!
I set:
3 Mottle Houdans
4 Barred Rock
4 Buff Orps
1 BBS Orp
3 Columbian Wyandottes

Also this is my maiden hatch with my Home Made Incubator, and so far it has worked like a dream.

Good Luck Everybody!

 

[tobin123]

i am in i set 35 eggs at 2;45 today not sure what kind i just like to hatch:cd

 

[Redfarrah]

I'm IN.. set 6 (just 6) green eggs americanas yesterday morning, Farmin'chick lives close to me, so I ran over there and got a 6 pack.
Been checkin' the BenQbator every couple hours to be sure it's acting right.
IncOn !!