March Hatching Madness

[Madcap621]

Quote:
WOW, I would love to see pictures of your Box incubator! What are you using for a thermostat? I am planning to make a styrofoam incubator/hatcher so that I can keep my turners turnjn' and my bators batin' and not have to stop for that pesky lockdown

 

[lisal124]

I have 3 monitors in the incubator and I have noticed that one side of my incubator is a steady 99.6 degrees while the other side ranges from 100.9 to 98.0, depending on which way the egg turner has the thermometer positioned. It reads 98.0 more often than the 100.9 and has dropped to 97.0 degrees a couple of times. I have eggs on both sides and none in the middle since I only have 11 eggs. Is this okay or should I move all of the eggs to the 99.6 side or more toward the middle of the incubator? Should I keep all the eggs together? These are questions that I should have asked in the beginning but didn't think of this until today. I can always move them on Wed. when I try to candle them again.

Also, to those raising Marans...I am trying to follow the article on dry incubation, but read another article that said the Maran eggs are tougher for them to pip..so should the humidity be higher for the Maran eggs? What are you all doing? I am on day 11 now.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[gamebirdsonly]

Yea lockdown time for 17 Welsummer bantams. And putting in some black copper and blue marans 14 eggs today.

 

[TattooQ27]

We lost 3 more ducks in the last 2 days. Not sure what is going on but they looked perfectly formed. I didn't know they quit this late in the incubation (we are on day 21) but I wish I knew why so we could try to prevent more loss. The temps have been stable and so has the humidity so that's not it. We are now down to 25 from 33....not horrible but I hope we don't lose anymore.

 

[aussieheelr]

It is officialy March! c'mon chickie-poos!!!

My lock down on Tuesday

 

[startingaflock]

I set my first eggs on February 21st and they are due to hatch on March 14th. I put 25 eggs in and as of right now out of the 16 that I can see into there are 7 that are viable. I can't see through 9 because of the green shells. 4 out of those first 16 were just an experiment as they were in the fridge first. If all goes well I will be setting some more at the beginning of April too!!! I'm so excited to have little chickees!!! I started with 5 and 7 week old pullets and 1 roo last year!

 

[ronnie the rooster]

I am new to the site and put my first eggs in the incubator 2 weeks ago, candled last nite and looks like 17 out of the 20 are doing well. What a great site this is, so much information, thankyou all.

Looking forward to lockdown now.

Helen (Cornwall UK)

 

[Joyryder]

I set 28 eggs on Tuesday night, Feb 10th is day 1, hatch date March 2nd.

6 mix of Black Copper Marans and Blue Copper Marans - picked up from AHAPPYCHICK
6 B/B/S Ameraucanas - picked up from AHAPPYCHICK
6 Buff Orpingtons eggs - mine
6 EEs all green eggs - mine

My Count Down Clock http://xrl.in/4imd

Not a good weekend, lost power Thursday night. It happened around midnight I was already in bed. My DH awoke me to tell me. I told him not to worry about it and went back to sleep. He did loose sleep over it. Fri 5am he calls his friend, whose tenent has our generator. By 6 am we've got it hooked up. I have no idea how cold the incubator was. The basement was in the 60s. At least I didn't open it.
Lockdown was Sat night. All dark eggs, too crazy of a weekend too candle. So I did a quick sniff test and left them all in.


Good luck to everyone!
Joanne

 

[Noncentzter]

Tuesday is day 18 for me also...hatching 12 eggs from ChooksChick

 

[chicmom]

I ordered a dozen Cream Brabanter eggs from a woman in Texas, and she's shipping them today with "lots of extras"! So I'm excited and I hope I get a few to hatch! They are a really unique looking, rare breed chicken.

Wish me luck all! Hopefully the eggs will make it OK!
Sharon