May 2020 Hatch-A-Long

[CindyinSD]

I had no idea you could calibrate a hydrometer...especially a digital one! Thanks so much for sharing the link!!

You can calibrate some hygrometers--not all. Not most, ime, but you can get an idea of how far off they are and use that knowledge to adjust the numbers you'd like to see on them.

 

[CindyinSD]

On day 15! Chicks look great. My worry is about the air sell. 30% humidity was evidently TOO MUCH and I realized this around day 12/13. So now it’s around 15-20. Hoping that will help till lock down. They are small bantams and I’m worried the air cell won’t be large enough....

so has anyone done a Safety hole????

I have... didn't work. Sometimes I guess they do, but it helps if the chick is alive at the time. I was pretty sure mine weren't. You need to wait 24 hrs after the internal pip (which means you'd have to open the incubator and candle eggs to see if there are internal pips. Most of us try to avoid that during lockdown.) But sometimes you do look and you do know, so if it's been 24 hours since the internal, you could chip away a flake or add a pinhole. It's my understanding that as the air quality deteriorates, the rising CO2 prompts the chick to pip the shell.

I'll bet, though, that your air cells will be fine by hatch day. The chick "draws down" prior to hatch. This greatly increases the size of the air cell.

Here's an article you might like. In the section on humidity, there's an illustration showing the expected levels of the air cell depending on the day you're on. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-beginners-guide-to-incubation.73350/

 

[BertyRoux]

Ok, I need help. It's day 12. Based on all the candling reference threads, articles and pictures, I have some eggs that appear "normal" or near where the pictures show development for this stage. But then I have this one (and a few questionable others). They are all darker shelled brown eggs, kind of hard to see through anyway, but there seems to be way more shadowed/dark area than the others, and than the reference material.

I'll apologize in advance for the bum picture - my phone has an aversion to focusing on really dark objects. I tried my best but it wasn't having it. You can see a bit of translucence down at the bottom, and maybe some veining, but the rest is very dark.

 

[Knighstar679]

I had a few dark chicken eggs I am hatching that looked similar. I left it. As the air cell got bigger I was able to see more. Those eggs just external pipped in the last 4 hours.

 

[Erin80]

Dark eggs are sooo hard to see through.
I’m on day 3 today.....will not touch the eggs...will not touch the eggs......lol

 

[Vantic]

Ok, I need help. It's day 12. Based on all the candling reference threads, articles and pictures, I have some eggs that appear "normal" or near where the pictures show development for this stage. But then I have this one (and a few questionable others). They are all darker shelled brown eggs, kind of hard to see through anyway, but there seems to be way more shadowed/dark area than the others, and than the reference material.

I'll apologize in advance for the bum picture - my phone has an aversion to focusing on really dark objects. I tried my best but it wasn't having it. You can see a bit of translucence down at the bottom, and maybe some veining, but the rest is very dark.

View attachment 2101934

I had the same problem my first hatch. I took a no stink, no crack policy and left them. They hatched.

Try changing the direction of the candler, move it around the egg. Sometimes that will find you something to see.

 

[BertyRoux]

I had the same problem my first hatch. I took a no stink, no crack policy and left them. They hatched.

Try changing the direction of the candler, move it around the egg. Sometimes that will find you something to see.

That was my thought, I don't want to get too meddling, it just looks SO much fuller than the others and I don't need to explode my kitchen with rotten egg I did try to candle from all angles... The air cell I can make out but otherwise it's super dark except at the point. Odd. I caught a video of movement in one of the other more normal progressing ones, so that was neat.

Thanks for the help, all. I'll make note of which one it is and see what comes out of it!

 

[SueT]

My little Sebright, Moonshine is finally broody! I let her sit on nest all night to make sure. This morning, I reached under her, pulled out the fake egg and I placed 5 eggs beside her: 2 Spitzhauben, and 3 Spitzhauben-Sebright cross, I'll call them Sprights. She carefully rolled them under her and settled down. So hers are 8 days behind my incubator eggs, which are down to 4 Spitz and 5 Sprights.

 

[CindyinSD]

I have motion in all my duck eggs, internal pips (shadowing) in all, external pips in around half a dozen. One has pipped the shell an inch or so from the small end and has its bill exposed, singing to me. Sprayed it with some water as an apology for troubling it. Got to go do tractor stuff. Maybe that will pass the time better than hovering.

 

[CABINHOLLOWNC]

I have motion in all my duck eggs, internal pips (shadowing) in all, external pips in around half a dozen. One has pipped the shell an inch or so from the small end and has its bill exposed, singing to me. Sprayed it with some water as an apology for troubling it. Got to go do tractor stuff. Maybe that will pass the time better than hovering.

It’s so exciting at that point! I don’t accomplish much (other than watching the incubator) when hatching is eminent! LOL!