Mid July Harry Potter Hatch-a-long

[Buffy-Featherington]

Hatching my first ever chickens with my kids. Just started them on the Harry Potter books, so our eggs are HP themed.

Any other mid-July hatchers here who would like to join?

We have 12 eggs from a local farm/not shipped. Set last Friday, so should hatch on Friday, July 18.

#	Type	Weight(g) - day 0	Egg name
1	Ayam C	49	Narcissa
2	Ayam C	48.2	Draco
3	BCM	55.7	Hermione
4	BCM	58.6	Harry
5	BCM	64.6	Hagrid
6	BCM	59.9	Ron
7	Olive Egger	57.4	Dobby
8	Olive Egger	59.1	Luna
9	Olive Egger	61.4	Neville
10	Olive Egger	63	Dumbledore
11	Olive Egger	62.4	Padfoot
12	Olive Egger	58.4	Fluffy

Hoping for 3 hens out of these. Expecto henorum!

 

[redinator]

Dang it, I knew I shoulda got that batch of eggs last week! *Kicks Rocks*

 

[Buffy-Featherington]

Day 4 - noticed that my largest egg (BCM "Hagrid") is not turning 180, seems to be closer to a quarter turn, judging based on the "BCM" text direction written on the bottom of the egg.

Turning angle is set to 10.

My theory is that it is being impeded by the outer wall of the incubator, perhaps the friction from touching the wall is preventing it from being turned as much as the others.

I have moved Hagrid to the inner ring and increased the turning angle to 12. Will observe its movement during the next turn (every 45 min) and adjust if needed.

The increased turning angle will likely "over-turn" the smaller eggs (Draco and Narcissa) to close to a 3/4 turn, but I think that's ok as long as it's not close to a full 360?

 

[Buffy-Featherington]

Well that was a bust. Observed the incubator during a turning cycle, and Hagrid wasn’t turning at all in its new position. I believe the cut-out is too small to allow the egg to make good contact with the bottom turning plate. Also possible I installed the egg holders upside down, and the cut-outs should be flush with the plate. I watched the Brinsea install video and could have sworn the way I did it was correct.

Anyway. I have swapped out one of the chicken egg quadrants with a turkey egg quad, so Hagrid now has plenty of space to make contact and turn on its own quadrant.

Hopefully this does the trick.

Update: Switching to the larger turkey quad worked! Set the turning angle back to 10, since that seemed like a good compromise across the egg sizes.

 

[Buffy-Featherington]

Day 5 - decided to candle a little early. All the white eggs were alive, but the BCMs (dark brown eggs) I really had a hard time with.

I weighed them all and calculated how on-target they were for weight loss (based on ideal 12% loss after 18d). I had two big outliers in #3 Hermione (lost 62% more weight than expected) and #11 Padfoot (lost 28% less than expected). Both those eggs were clearly alive, and the average delta across all eggs was almost exactly spot-on, so not quite sure what to do. I think I'll just keep humidity in the low 40s and hope for the best.

#	Type	Weight(g) - day 0	5d loss target	5d actual	Delta	Egg name	5d check
1	Ayam C	49	1.633	1.700	1.04	Narcissa
2	Ayam C	48.2	1.607	2.200	1.37	Draco
3	BCM	55.7	1.857	3.000	1.62	Hermione
4	BCM	58.6	1.953	1.600	0.82	Harry
5	BCM	64.6	2.153	2.100	0.98	Hagrid
6	BCM	59.9	1.997	1.600	0.80	Ron
7	Olive Egger	57.4	1.913	1.900	0.99	Dobby
8	Olive Egger	59.1	1.970	1.600	0.81	Luna
9	Olive Egger	61.4	2.047	1.800	0.88	Neville
10	Olive Egger	63	2.100	1.900	0.90	Dumbledore
11	Olive Egger	62.4	2.080	1.500	0.72	Padfoot
12	Olive Egger	58.4	1.947	1.900	0.98	Fluffy
					0.99

 

[Buffy-Featherington]

Day 7 candling - they all seem to be alive. Which seems overly optimistic, but they all really seem to be quite living.

The dark brown ones I can't really see through enough to detect veins, but I can see the eye/head bopping around independently and an appropriately-sized air cell. Out of caution, I have marked two of them (#4 Harry and #6 Ron) as "maybes" in my table, but if I had to guess, I'd say they are alive.

One BCM (#5 Hagrid) moved from "maybe" to "alive" today based on the very clear and active movement inside the egg.

OE #8 Luna is bit of a maniac, zooming around inside its shell. Not sure what that means.

Humidity seems to be OK - the outliers on my table (#3 Hermione and #11 Padfoot) have evened out since Day 5. I updated my column headers to reflect desired target egg weight vs the amount of weight loss. Much easier to reason about this way.

#	Type	Weight(g) - day 0	7d target	7d actual	7d % on target	Egg name	7d alive?
1	Ayam C	49	46.88	46.80	99.8%	Narcissa
2	Ayam C	48.2	46.11	45.50	98.7%	Draco
3	BCM	55.7	53.29	52.00	97.6%	Hermione
4	BCM	58.6	56.06	56.50	100.8%	Harry
5	BCM	64.6	61.80	61.90	100.2%	Hagrid
6	BCM	59.9	57.30	57.70	100.7%	Ron
7	Olive Egger	57.4	54.91	55.00	100.2%	Dobby
8	Olive Egger	59.1	56.54	56.90	100.6%	Luna
9	Olive Egger	61.4	58.74	59.10	100.6%	Neville
10	Olive Egger	63	60.27	60.50	100.4%	Dumbledore
11	Olive Egger	62.4	59.70	60.70	101.7%	Padfoot
12	Olive Egger	58.4	55.87	56.00	100.2%	Fluffy
				AVG	1.00

Will try to leave them alone until Day 14.

 

[Slothinc]

Would you like people to choose an egg to cheer for? If so I will choose #2 Draco.

 

[Buffy-Featherington]

Would you like people to choose an egg to cheer for? If so I will choose #2 Draco.

Yes! i always wondered what that was about, thank you!

Draco (and I) thank you for your good wishes

 

[Slothinc]

Tagging a few others who may like to choose a Harry Potter egg!

@GreenJay
@Chickenpoonumber2
@Chicken_Obsesser
@TwoCrows
@AinaWGSD
@Noraaaaa
@HonkABC
@CrazyForMyPeeps802

 

[GreenJay]

Tagging a few others who may like to choose a Harry Potter egg!

@GreenJay
@Chickenpoonumber2
@Chicken_Obsesser
@TwoCrows
@AinaWGSD
@Noraaaaa
@HonkABC
@CrazyForMyPeeps802

Thanks for the tag!
Love the Harry Potter books!