My first hatch

[ChickenLeg]

Looks like your set, good luck on hatch!

 

[bya1305]

I agree with the auto egg turner!

Yea, I hope to be able to afford one sometime soon. I am pretty tapped with the cost of my home purchase, maybe I'll ask for one for christmas. I know one of the benefits must be eliminating the need to open the container and have to bring it back up to heat. Also eliminates the chance of human error in forgetting to turn. It is something I hope to get soon. I have seen a lot of people saying they love their homemade incubators over bought ones and the ones I've seen usually just sit flat, so I figured I didn't have to stretch myself this time.

 

[Compost King]

I hope you learn a lot faster than I did, I had about 4 or 5 hatches before I started getting things right. On a happier note, the lone survivor of my first hatch back in March 2018 is the father of about 12 embryos in my incubator right now.

 

[bya1305]

Hey everyone, we are a little past 3 days and while I was turning the eggs tonight I candled a few just to see if they looked any better than they did a few days ago from shipping. I took as clear photos that I could, but there were a couple eggs that looked like this. Now the darker circle is pencil, the ring between the pencil circle and bottom most shadow is what I'm curious about. Is this a blood ring? From what I could tell it was orange/red-ish and there are a couple lines coming from it. I know it is too early for visible development. I'm paranoid that one or more of the eggs are dead without knowing and then subsequently exploding. I also don't know all the ins and outs of examining eggs yet so I'm hoping someone might be able to give their input as to what I'm looking at.

 

[aart]

Light the egg from the fat end(air cell end), much easier to see the air cell that way...and candle in the darkest room you have, I use a windowless lavatory so can candle day or night.

Is your brooder or coop all set up with lots of space and a heat source?

Best of cLuck....and Welcome to BYC!

Oh, and, here's tips for calibration and chick heat:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...incubator-thermometers-and-hygrometers.73634/

Here's my notes on chick heat, hope something in there might help:
They need to be pretty warm(~85-90F on the brooder floor right under the lamp and 10-20 degrees cooler at the other end of brooder) for the first day or two, especially if they have been shipped, until they get to eating, drinking and moving around well. But after that it's best to keep them as cool as possible for optimal feather growth and quicker acclimation to outside temps. A lot of chick illnesses are attributed to too warm of a brooder. I do think it's a good idea to use a thermometer on the floor of the brooder to check the temps, especially when new at brooding, later I still use it but more out of curiosity than need.

The best indicator of heat levels is to watch their behavior:
-If they are huddled/piled up right under the lamp and cheeping very loudly, they are too cold.
-If they are spread out on the absolute edges of the brooder as far from the lamp as possible, panting and/or cheeping very loudly, they are too hot.
-If they sleep around the edge of the lamp calmly just next to each other and spend time running all around the brooder they are juuuust right!

The lamp is best at one end of the brooder with food/water at the other cooler end of the brooder, so they can get away from the heat or be under it as needed. Wattage of 'heat' bulb depends on size of brooder and ambient temperature of room brooder is in. Regular incandescent bulbs can be used, you might not need a 'heat bulb'. If you do use a heat bulb make sure it's specifically for poultry, some heat bulbs for food have teflon coatings that can kill birds. You can get red colored incandescent bulbs at a reptile supply source. A dimmer extension cord is an excellent way to adjust the output of the bulb to change the heat without changing the height of the lamp.

Or you could go with a heat plate, commercially made or DIY: http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/pseudo-brooder-heater-plate

 

[TheLittleFarm18]

Yep candle from other end and also it's to early to be writing eggs off yet, give it a week and see what you got. Some times (if the egg is a light color) on day 5 you can see some development happening. Best of luck and keep us posted!!!

 

[starri33]

Hello, I am on my first incubation as well. I've read where you need to keep them pointy side down, and have seen pictures of them laying flat, currently mine are laying flat in a Janoel 12 incubator, They've been in since about 10:30AM, temp has been between 99.5 and 100.2 along with humidity of 50 to 55. Their not a fancy breed, their mutt's I guess you could say, Mom's are Black Sex Links, I don't have a clue what Billy Bob their boyfriend is..lol.. does this sound like I stand a chance?

 

[aart]

Hello, I am on my first incubation as well. I've read where you need to keep them pointy side down, and have seen pictures of them laying flat, currently mine are laying flat in a Janoel 12 incubator, They've been in since about 10:30AM, temp has been between 99.5 and 100.2 along with humidity of 50 to 55. Their not a fancy breed, their mutt's I guess you could say, Mom's are Black Sex Links, I don't have a clue what Billy Bob their boyfriend is..lol.. does this sound like I stand a chance?

Need more details, but best to start a new thread here

 

[MJ1900]

That is so exciting as I have the Janoel 12 incubator and this was my first time! Just hatched 8 out 8 this weekend!. The incubator turns them if the eggs are not too big. I took 1 of the dividers out so they would have more room to turn. When I went into lockdown they were still on their sides but with air space up as much as possible.

 

[bya1305]

Hey everybody just wanted to give a little update! Today (Monday) marks the end of day 9! Of the original eggs from Meyer and a homestead, I have only taken out a few. This was due to a couple of clear blood rings, non development while showing the stretch mark look while under light. Most of the lavender orpington eggs show no development, 1 out of 12 shows nice blood vessels and eye. Meyer's turned out to surprise me quite a bit. 16 of them are showing movement inside the egg and look really nice when candled. There are about another 4 that show blood vessels. I finally ended up receiving the Light Sussex eggs I had purchased on ebay (4 days after the expected delivery date). I figured none of the 8 eggs would show much of anything having been in the mail for 7 days but 4 show clear development! I am excited that it's looking like a better chance now that at least a couple make it to hatch. Pics are from yesterday, day 8

Tossed Eggs



Developing eggs