Moon’s first time incubating eggs, and also Hatch-Along!

[MoonMoon]

Actually not true. It’s afternoon now. I forgot to post that lmao

 

[The Moonshiner]

You must be exhausted by now. I'm exhausted just from reading this thread.
Good luck with your hatches

 

[MoonMoon]

I’m finally done with feeding, refilling waterer, collecting eggs, watching the outdoor flock. I am reeling

Anyway. Gonna candle all the eggs without missing/skipping any anymore, I am numbering them so I can’t skip one. Unfortunately some are not looking good, but I’ll post them all for you all to study anyway.

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Egg 1. 29th or 30th egg.
Clearly a quitted. Must be long ago. This egg’s last candling was on Day 8. Somehow I missed it till now. White shell.

Egg 2. Set and laid on the 30th. Alive white shell

Egg 3. Set and laid 29th April. Alive medium brown shell

Egg 4. Not written laid and set date though I think laid and set on the 30th. Alive. Speckled lightbrown shell

Egg 5. Laid and set 30th. Um, why are the veins looking like that? Have big space on one side....have movement though so approve. White shell

Egg 6. Set 2nd of May. Lots of space at the bottom...no movements. Lumpy spots for the baby I was supposed to be seeing....I don’t know...white shell.

For a day 13th egg not too bad so I’ll leave it in.

Egg 7. Laid and set 3rd of May. Strong movement. I saw the full shape of the chick. Hello white shell

Egg 8. Laid and set 29th of April. The darkness is a good sign caucasian shell

It’s skin colored lmfao
Egg 9. Strong movement. White shell. Happi happi happi *yippee jumping*

Egg 10. For some reason I forgot to take that egg’s picture. Well, very strong and healthy chick in there. Speckled medium brown shell.

Egg 11. Healthy. Dark brown shell.

Egg 12. Quitted. Medium brown speckled shell.

Egg 13. So actually posting about 23 eggs is very tiring. I’ll summarize the rest.

Egg 14-23. All fine and healthy and with strong movements. I can even see movements with plain eyes. They’re kicking so hard the eggs shake
So overall out of 33 eggs, 21 eggs lived to 16/05. That’s 63% still alive I think. Well we’ll see how many hatch. There better be some half leghorns and feathered feetsie

I only have one rooster. Everyone will be from him. At least he did his job well lmao we had 18 hens and he got most of their eggs at least.

 

[MoonMoon]

I’m bumping humidity to 60-65% I guess. I don't want to do 70% humidity that much but I don't know about dry hatching either. Well, for just today anyway. May let humidity fall to 50% again till day 20/21 when I’ll bump it up again. Who knows. I plan a lot in my head but I make decisions in the moment. We’ll seeeeeeeeee~

 

[MoonMoon]

Oh yeah also forgot to mention: I had also reduced the temps setting back to 38.1°C. If anyone passing by thinks that’s a bad idea plz tell me, but I just thought since all of the eggs are more spread out now without the turner tray I should be on the err side of heat. Then again, it wasn’t much difference? Idk

It probably doesn’t matter that much I am just anxious lmao.

 

[MoonMoon]

I was changing the temp depending on if I turned the house’s radiator on. 38°C for 23°C room temp and 38.4°C for 18°C or so. Well it’s lockdown now so I’ll stop. Constant 38.2°C rn I haven't touched the incubator for three days, it stayed stable at 38.2°C, 55-60% humidity, for three days. Idk how.

Today morning I saw humidity was 39% but I can't refill then so I'll refill the water when I’m home from work. I believe nothing would happen this late.

Today is day 20 for the first few eggs, exactly today evening, the eggs should pip, if not, uhhhh. I’ll maintain humidity 55-60%.

It’s day 19 for clutch 2 which mean they’ll be pipping while the first clutch hatching.

There are 3 eggs around day 16 which will be just there, hatching or not we tried stagger hatching which is a good experience regardless if they hatch or not.

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Cookie, the broody, broke 4 eggs throughout the weekday last week. I couldn’t check so by the time I checked the nest was a mess. I gave her a new nest and some of her eggs back cleaned and if those eggs died then so be it. A good lesson for me regardless.

Next time these dump trucks are only getting 7 eggs a clutch.

In another vein, we may also have another broody. Butter who had failed to hatch eggs a month ago(actually my fault)is now looking to sit for a very long time on the nest again, so I have put her in a separate cage, with 8 white eggs. We’ll see if she is successful this time(she reached day 15 and 17 days sat last time so she should be this time)

(yet to have pic of her in the cage)

 

[athomas718]

I’ve always wanted some broody hens!!

 

[MoonMoon]

Just came back home from work and rushed right to the incubator and EXTERNAL PIPPING!!!! At 41% humidity?!

Anyway I panicked and added hot water into the canal and now it’s 70%. Oosp. That’s way too high, I wanted 60%.

Anyway aaaaaa. So miraculous. I’ve been waiting since forever can’t stop saying hello and tapping the lid. They’re making a lot of noises

Will update whenever there’s progress

 

[athomas718]

Yey!!!!! How exciting!

 

[MoonMoon]

Unfortunately Butter decided the new nest was not where she want to brood, or she's not broody anymore even though she sat for the entire day yesterday, and broke an egg while she's at it.

Smh me and her. That's 0.30€ she just broke! Anyway I let her out I don't need her anyway, I'll let her be, if she return to the communal nest and sat there though idk what to do, all of the hens want that spot

All of the eggs she sat goes back to the home of course. We can still eat those even if they were sat on for a day.

Cookie is still sitting.

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Ignore that and turning back to the pipping eggs, I think 6 out of 10 of the 29th of April eggs is pipping now. Worryingly no visible pipping on the white eggs which is from the leghorns, which I really want offspring of, but hey at least the suspected wyandotte egg is hatching despite the small size(the wyandotte had been consistently laying small eggs until recently I think which may be an outlier and she just lays small eggs by default)

Otherwise

It's time for bed now. Hopefully I get to witness some hatching tomorrow more fully but yeah these probably will overnight zip. They were set 29th of April, 7-9 pm. They will not wait for me to wake up duh.

Seems like this chinese incubator is fine at least. Lots of success.