Mission Control...we have LIFTOFF!!! Ooops, I mean LOCKDOWN!

[CALI CHICK]

I half expected to see early movement or pips, but maybe it means my temperatures were good too, like you mentioned, ggarratt.

My eggs are on Day 20. I set them at 9 am three Fridays ago, so I'm thinking they will hatch around 9 am tomorrow morning. Of course, some might start early and others a little later, but tomorrow should be the big day! Good luck with your hatch. I hope you start seeing some pips soon. And, I would enjoy pictures of your babies very much.

Fortunately I get to be at home also. I helped my son finish school in a couple hours this morning, but he has a Lego-Engineering class this afternoon. Other than that, I plan to camp out here in the "egg nursery". We use this room as an office, sewing room, art room, classroom & now a hatchery! Tomorrow my schedule is marked "Hatch Day" so nobody could drag me out of the house if they tried.

Keep us posted, even if it's just a pip and/or zip!

 

[ggarratt]

I'm watching and waiting! I'm officially at 21 days 2 hours and 35 minutes since set time. I think I see what could be the start of a pip. But it might well be my mind playing tricks on me. I'm not going to get too excited until I see an obvious pip. My old incubator ran cool, so I'm kind of used to a late hatch (although the waiting was awful). But my husband gave me a new brinsea incubator for christmas so I'm hoping that I'll be seeing chicks later this afternoon!

We're so lucky to have the flexibility to be at home for hatch day. I think this is about my 6th hatch or so, but I still get so excited when it's time for them to arrive.

I'll let you know as soon as I see something.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

I'm on day 20 too and anxious to read the updates to see if anyone has any noise/movement yet. This is my first time to incubate and I have no idea what to expect. I saw some wiggles on day 18 when I moved the eggs to the hatching box, but since then they have been really quiet. I keep finding myself sitting in front of the incubator hoping to catch some more movement! I too am hoping this means my temps were great since there hasn't been an early pipper, but I did the dry hatch method and now I'm worried I dried them out too much and they're stuck. Good luck everyone.

 

[ggarratt]

Hi wholewheat! How many eggs do you have in the bator and what breeds? I have to admit, I've never seen my eggs move, nor have I been able to hear peeping before I've had a pip. So don't beat yourself up if you don't see/hear anything. What I look for are those pips. They can be easy to miss so I tend to look with a flashlight because the light will catch those little edges of the broken shell around the pip.

Let us know when you see something! And feel free to ask any questions. I don't know if we'll have the answers, but we can always try!

 

[CALI CHICK]

I'm on day 20 too and anxious to read the updates to see if anyone has any noise/movement yet. This is my first time to incubate and I have no idea what to expect. I saw some wiggles on day 18 when I moved the eggs to the hatching box, but since then they have been really quiet. I keep finding myself sitting in front of the incubator hoping to catch some more movement! I too am hoping this means my temps were great since there hasn't been an early pipper, but I did the dry hatch method and now I'm worried I dried them out too much and they're stuck. Good luck everyone.

I'm glad you joined us. Ggarratt has 6 of these under her belt, but this is my first time to incubate too. Wow-you sound just like me. I was kind of worried I overdried the eggs by using the dry hatch method also. The first 2 weeks my humidity was around 20-25%. Then the aircells seemed too big so I upped the humidity to around 30-35% this last week. On Day 18 I marked all the aircells with a pencil as I candled each egg. For lockdown, my humidity is averaging 62%. I think it will go up when the chicks begin to pip the shells. I just want them to hatch on their own SO bad, it doesn't matter when.
Let us know about any "little" thing going on with your eggs.

This is so exciting!

 

[CALI CHICK]

ggaratt, your avatar sunrise is beautiful! I'm guessing it's a sunrise since you are from Maine. We have pretty sunsets here in California, but I remember visiting family in SC when I was a kid and enjoyed watching for the sun to come up. I grew up in Ohio but have never been to Maine. The closest would be maybe Maryland or New York.

I'm shining my little flashlight at the eggs every 10 minutes or so. Haven't seen any tiny volcanoes, yet. Hopefully my chicks won't be blind with all my bright lights. - LOL

 

[ggarratt]

Thanks! It actually is a sunset. I was an Outward Bound sailing instructor for a number of years, so we were out surrounded by islands trying to find a spot to anchor for the night. We're a little out of the way up here, so it's not really a place you go through. I moved out to Colorado for awhile but missed the ocean so much I had to move back. I don't think I'll ever live anywhere else.

I want these chicks to come so badly, but it seems like they always wait until I go to bed to make their appearance.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

I have 16 partridge silkies. I put 19 in orginally and three were not fertile. All 16 have progressed great, but I didn't look at them before I put them in for lockdown since it always looks so black to me. I am so anxious because I had three hatched out by broody hens and one of them is absolutely cute! The other two look like they might just be black (not to imply I don't think they're cute also).
I got the hatching bug bad when I first put these in and set another batch after this one. It had the egg laid on my birthday so it was "crucial" to hatch my birthday baby----it was a dude! So I really hope I don't kill them all on this first go because I don't know what I would do different with the ones already cooking.
Thanks for having me. It's exciting to see how it is going for the others on the thread.

 

[ggarratt]

Uhg, no pips for me yet and I'm half way though day 21. My hatches always seem to run late. So now they're probably going to hatch while I'm sleeping. I'm not one of these folks who gets up all night long to check the incubator. So I guess I'll just hope to have an incubator full of chicks in the a.m.!

I hope you all have some little peepers in the a.m. too! G'night!

 

[CALI CHICK]

ggarratt....I AM one of those people who gets up all hours of the night.

I can't sleep if I know something is happening or going to happen.
Well, I hope when you wake up you've got lots of little hatchlings and more pips to follow.

My eggs are just sitting there as quiet and still as a bump on a log! It's probably for the best because if there were any pips or eggs rolling, I would NOT be able to sleep.
Yep, maybe we'll all wake up to cute little fluffballs Friday morning.

Tomorrow - Day 21 - Hatch Day!