MAY HATCH-A-LONG come join in

[outback hatcher]

these are my heritage rir & welsummer they go on lockdown on wed. the 5th

and these are my fbcms they go on lockdown on wed the 12th

not the best pics i took them through the door on my bator and it really doesn't do them justice

 

[kupi99]

This is my second year trying, and I still can't get my LJ temps steady! Looks like they ran cold all weekend, and yes, I possibly did have a killer spike. Now, finally, after hours of just barely moving it my LG reads 99.5.

Finally, after hours of barely nuding it my LG reads 99.5 I'm very worried they're all dead already/not developing. It's only day 4, but I'm gonna try candling.

ARG! Looks like I'm looking at another late hatch this year at best, and we don't have alot of give time at the end of the year! So frustrated.

Ok, I'm done now.

 

[kupi99]

Well, maybe I shouldn't have fixed my LG temps after all! After candling, 4 out of the 6 eggs are definately developing. I used the wonderful candling sticky at the top of this post as my guide, and it looks like we might be a day or so behind. They looked closer to day 3 than day 4, but we'll see. I'm planning on candling again on Thurs (day 7) with the kids, so we'll check on them then!

 

[Lotsapaints]

I have a silkie chick and 3 more pips they are a day early but the one hatched looks strong and active. I figured on tomorrow though I promise pics later when I have more than one still wet anyways.

 

[kelliepulido]

ok I am in for the may hatch along set 4 dozen eggs last night may 2nd around 7ish.1.5 dozen blrw from Jag and the rest are my mutt eggs hopefully will get some banties out of mine

 

[haTHOR]

i also wonder if anyone would weigh in on what to do about thermometers that don't agree...post 140. thank you for any thoughts or suggestions.

here it is...

i have three thermometers in there, and they are vexing me. one is a mercury liquid thermometer (meant for measuring temp of beer during brewing, and more expensive than the others). i have been putting more faith in it.
the other two are the flat plastic freebie GQF sent with the bator, and a digital hygrometer/thermometer combo from wal-mart (acu-rite). the GQF freebie runs 2 degrees off (lower) than both my home thermostat AND the brewing thermometer. the hygrometer combo just stops at 95 degrees no matter what. roll it's also off by 4% on humidity gauged by calibration, so i have a suspicion that is at least 4 degrees off (low) on temp.

given this situation, what would you do? which would you trust?​

 

[chichi56788]

I have some Muscovy duck eggs that are due to hatch on memorial day. I have never hatched ducks before. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[chickintexas]

Quote:

I missed that post or I would have weighed in!
My 2 cents...I don't trust digital thermometers. Period. Plus, the digital ones that are "good" are way too sensitive and don't truly reflect what is going on with the egg itself, imho. . I've spent probably two weeks on the whole thermometer/hygrometer thing. At one point I had 5 thermometers in my incubator including a $28 digital, the Wal-Mart $6 digital, a a couple of other digital ones. The liquid (alcohol) one always seemed to be consistent and much more reliable. I am also using one of those dial thermometers made by "Taylor" that also seems very reliable. The temps match on both the Taylor and the Acurite alcohol thermometer. Throw away those freebie thermometers that you get with rtg incubators/egg turners. If I had gone by the temp on the piece of garbage that came with my egg turner, I would have cooked my eggs!!! It would never get above 92 degrees when the temp was actually at 101!
I was going crazy with the whole thermometer thing. I am happy to say that I have found what works for me. I'm on day 7 of my first incubation and I can positively say that my shipped eggs are growing

I hope this helps you out.

 

[princessmama]

Well we had chicks due April 29th and had two of them hatch then and two hatch May 1st

I'm going into lockdown tomorrow with 12 Muscovy eggs and 5 turkey eggs

I've had some thermometer trouble as well. One of my digital ones fluctuates bewteen 96 and 101 while the other stays at 99.5. The non-digital thermo seems to read pretty close to the second digital. Before I realized that first thermo was fluctuating I'd turn the temp up when it had read 96 for a while (just a nudge) then it would suddenly read 103!

The second time that happened I pulled the other two thermometers out of the other incubator and stuck them in there as well to see what they said. It's crazy frustrating to wonder if your temps are off and not know what to believe!

 

[chichi56788]

How long does it take for Muscovys to hatch? One place said 35 and another said 28 which one is it? And what exactly is lockdown? All I know is that im going into lockdown on the 29th. Im really confused!