March Hatching Madness

[Egg_newton]

Today is day 7. I'm going to candle tonight and sort good from bad. I don't want to toss any until right before lockdown since I'm very inexperienced. I did I quick candle last night of a few different ones and saw definite development in a cuckoo, white, black, and blue silkie!

I'm going to candle everyone tonight and try to put all the ones I think are good together, iffy together, and clear together. I'll let you know my results!

 

[marlin]

I am gonna jump in here I set 25 light sussex and two BC Marans eggs from BYC Member tgcole on the on 2/18. Looking forward to my first candle on the 25th Good luck to everyone

 

[LovinMyPeeps]

It's day 7 for me as well. I have 12 BLRW eggs in the incubator right now and I candled today. So far as I can tell 10 of the 12 eggs may be developing. They underwent a hard and elongated journey compliments of the USPS. Their 2 day priority ride turned into a 5 day ride with a panicked call from my PO on a Saturday afternoon of a long weekend. One of the eggs clearly has a horribly detached air cell, but I left it in, with the hopes it might re-attach. The other is porous and clear, so that one is done. We'll see what day 14 brings!

 

[NellaBean]

Quote:
Your Jersey doesnt squish your leg horns either? I set 3 Light Brown Leghorn/BGJ, Faverolles, EE's all mine along with 6 cuckoo marans and 8 EE (shipped) All set on 15th. Good Luck with everyones hatch.

Well, he does kind of squish them but they must like it because they keep coming back for more

I candled a few days ago....tossed a dozen LF cochin eggs that were clear. They are a young quartet and the rooster is still figuring things out. I think a few of their eggs did candle ok, so maybe he has the hang of it now

10 mille cochin eggs were good! 2 iffy that I left and will recandle
14 brown eggs are good, 2 were iffy (12 lf cochin eggs tossed and 2 rir eggs tossed as clears)
1 white leghorn egg was fine (I use those eggs for veining comparison because they are so easy to candle)

So, of the 43 eggs, 25 were good, plus 4 that were iffy that I left in, leaving me with 29 total. I expect to toss the 4 iffy ones tonight when I recandle.

Recandled last night. The 4 iffy ones did not look good so all were tossed. All others appeared good still! So 25 eggs left. I will probably candle once more just before lockdown to pull any eggs that aren't just "dark". Will be setting up a 2nd bator this week and setting another 4 dozen eggs or so. All of my cochin eggs, plus some rir and salmon fav.

 

[sevenchickens]

I'm on day 7 too. I have 7 barnyard mutts set. It's my first go with a brand new incubator. I've got my fingers crossed. I could't wait so I candled one yesterday when I added water, I saw veining, I think!!

 

[Biochick]

OMG!! One of my eggs has been upside down since I candled two days ago!
At least I hope it wasn't the whole time

Will the chick be upside? It was one of my Black Copper Marans too. The egg was kind
of oblong, but growing.

 

[LarryPQ]

I already have an incubator filled with eggs, and last night I caught an OEGB trying to hatch golf balls! Oh well--I suppose I could let her give hatching a whirl.

 

[Madcap621]

Quote:
As I understand it, if you set your eggs before 12 noon, you count the day you set them as day one. If you set them after noon, you count the next day as day 1. That means your lockdown date is 9 + 18 = 27th.

 

[jbarichivich]

Ok....I'm in need of stress relief! We put our first 12 chicken eggs in the incubator Feb 12th (5 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Araucana, and 5 can't remember the name right now) . So due date March 5th!!! We have a still air incubator. ALL of this is new to our family. I have been able to keep the humidity at about 54-60%, however...my temp seems to go up and down a little from about 99.3 to 101 (today was the first day that it went to 101, but it has been up to 100.8). I have a thermometer that I bought at Lowes that has the indoor/outdoor temp and humidity on it. I have the thermometer in the incubator sitting upright. The outdoor cord hangs out of the incubator so I can see the room temp. The room temp does change and this seems to change the incubator temp. It doesn't help that when we put the eggs in the incubator it was only 30 some degrees outside and it is now 60-70 some. My incubator is not staying at a constant temp of 99.5. Is this ok? I'm so afraid that I started a life and now I'm going to cook it!!!!

We are turning them 3 times a day and only lift the lid to turn them.
I have read so many books and looked at so much stuff online that I'm finding having my three children was easier. Should I be this worried???
Any help would be greatly appreciated. THANK YOU!!!!!! Julie

 

[team_metzer]

I have 2 days left before our eggs hatch. Although we do not know what the name of our chicken breed is , we do know that they are brown egg layers, heavys. The rooster is a big black one.
We built a homemade incubator out of a old wine cooler. We kept the temp at 99.5 and 49% humidity.
What temp should I keep them during and after the hatching?
We did not candle light the eggs, but we did float them.( set egg in water 99 degrees and see if the egg kicks) I remember mom doing this when I was a child in the 70`s . She also hatched 4 eggs over the piolet light of our stove . (mine is electric) . All our eggs moved in the water so we are sure that they are alive .
Healthy, not sure. We have kept the temp and the humidity the same thru out the process and we have a automatic turner.