My first incubating experience

[12321]

We lost power for a little over an hour on Friday. Before that, I think, I had 16 out of 20 that I could see veins or movement. Just candled again, and took out 2. Only saw movement in about 6, but the others were dark, so maybe.....

I think I'm going to put them in egg carton bottoms for hatching this time. Last time we just laid them on their sides and it was quite a soccer match with the unhatched eggs. There were 2 that looked like they should have hatched, maybe it was from being rolled around to much?

 

[mlaff]

I checked this morning and still nothing. They are rocking but that's about it. I had to add water to get the humidity back up.i hate the waiting game. There may be 5 rocking now. Hopefully they all hatch to make up for my last ones.

 

[salahzantout]

its ok if the humidity played a little bit, but its very dangerous at lock down period, my eggs hatched i had 6 out of 9 and 1 died 4 days after hatching and the other 3 i assume it was before i opened hthe incubator many times and humidity fluctuated at lock down period. I also helped two chicks to hatch because they could not make it by themselves. now i have 5 healthy chicks. Also make sure you do not open the incubator on lock down period and keep the fan high so that the chicks do not come near it when hatching, i had one that hit its beak there.

 

[mlaff]

its ok if the humidity played a little bit, but its very dangerous at lock down period, my eggs hatched i had 6 out of 9 and 1 died 4 days after hatching and the other 3 i assume it was before i opened hthe incubator many times and humidity fluctuated at lock down period. I also helped two chicks to hatch because they could not make it by themselves. now i have 5 healthy chicks. Also make sure you do not open the incubator on lock down period and keep the fan high so that the chicks do not come near it when hatching, i had one that hit its beak there.

Thanks. My first hatch none hatched because my humidity gage read wrong and was off 13% so I drowned all of them. This time I have 3 Gage's in there and they read the same. I haven't opened it since I saw them rocking. They are supposed to hatch sat and lockdown was today but I read its best just to go ahead and lock it down when they start rocking. Out of 6 I have 4 rocking. Hopefully all of them hatch. Fingers crossed. That way I have an excuse to get a brinsea incubator to hatch my own when they start laying.

 

[salahzantout]

I do not know what rocking means hehe, but anyway the whole experience is not as precise as you may think, note that my first chick hatched at the 20 th day and made its first zip on the 19th. others hatched at 20 and 21 and 22... Also note that my incubator is a home made incubator and i was not even satisfied with it when i made it... i put the eggs without preparing it properly, its made out of foam and its not well insulated... everytime i add water it leaks out... but after all, all the eggs had chicks inside... And with all this conditions i had 6 out of 9 hatch...so focus on the humidity... keep it around 70 75...

hope you get a good hatch... its a great experience... with suspense

 

[mlaff]

I do not know what rocking means hehe, but anyway the whole experience is not as precise as you may think, note that my first chick hatched at the 20 th day and made its first zip on the 19th. others hatched at 20 and 21 and 22... Also note that my incubator is a home made incubator and i was not even satisfied with it when i made it... i put the eggs without preparing it properly, its made out of foam and its not well insulated... everytime i add water it leaks out... but after all, all the eggs had chicks inside... And with all this conditions i had 6 out of 9 hatch...so focus on the humidity... keep it around 70 75...

hope you get a good hatch... its a great experience... with suspense

Thank you. I just have no nerves left after last time. I do know I will be getting a better incubator if I hatch more. We finally have a roo and he is trying hard but the girls aren't laying yet. Then I can just hatch my own. That way if nothing hatches I'm not loosing money, just my mind. Lol my humidity is running right. Hopefully I will hear some chirping soon. Kinda missing it since my husband made me put the other babies in the garage.

 

[sellison]

We hatched 15 out of the 18 eggs we incubated on Saturday. They were suppose to start on Sunday but came early. We had one infertile egg, one that quit at 14 days and one must of got turned around and pipped at the wrong end and drowned, most likely from the other chicks moving his egg around. We had to help one and he looked terrible but we threw him in with the rest of the chicks (I had 158 come from a hatchery at the same time they were due to hatch) and four days later he's still alive. That was our first time and we had a humidity gauge that was not right at the beginning. We did have an egg turner and circulating fan. We kept the temp at 99.5. I wish you lots of luck. It was fun.

 

[mlaff]

We hatched 15 out of the 18 eggs we incubated on Saturday.  They were suppose to start on Sunday but came early.  We had one infertile egg, one that quit at 14 days and one must of got turned around and pipped at the wrong end and drowned, most likely  from the other chicks moving his egg around.  We had to help one and he looked terrible but we threw him in with the rest of the chicks (I had 158 come from a hatchery at the same time they were due to hatch) and four days later he's still alive. That was our first time and we had a humidity gauge that was not right at the beginning.  We did have an egg turner and circulating fan.  We kept the temp at 99.5.  I wish you lots of luck.  It was fun. 

Thank you.

 

[mlaff]

Have any of your eggs hatched 12321.

 

[mlaff]

Well I checked on my eggs at 11:30 before picking up my DD. I came back and I finally have a external pip! Excited to say the least.