We had a 76% success rate - not because of my intelligence, but because of finding and reading helps here on BYC and also some advice from my mom who has done this several times through the years. I hope it will help other newbies.
We chose our bathroom to do our incubation experiment. It is fairly large but small enough to easily keep warm if needed, and one of the most visited rooms in the house, so we could forget them.
A few days in, I brought in a little room heater and set the thermostat to start it up if the temp dropped below 65 degrees. (We've been heating with wood heat so the temp can fluctuate.)
I started our 17 Australorp eggs in a LG 9200 still air bator that my mom loaned me on the afternoon of March 24. (Eggs were purchased from our area hatchery.) I filled the water troughs in the bottom because that is what it said in the bator instructions. A couple of days later, after reading more on BYC, I took all the water out of the bator and went with the dry hatch method, hoping that I hadn't ruined them already with too much humidity the first days.
I set my cell phone time feature to go off every 8 hours so that I could turn the eggs. There were a few days when I was an hour or two early or late but at least they got turned. (The penciled X on each one helped me not to miss any.)
In the first 24 hours, I should mention that I discovered that dear 5 yr old grandson had moved the knob on the bator some time during the day. The thermometer read 108 when I got home from work!!! Great-grandma said not to give up yet, hoping that they would still be OK since it was so early in the the development, and it might not have been that hot for that long.
During the first week I added some cleaned fountain rocks and placed them all around the outside edges of the bator. Some thread somewhere said it might help keep the heat evened out in the bator. I figured that it couldn't hurt.
I had started out the first day or two trying to keep the temp at 99, then BYC threads read that 100-101 were better with this bator. So from about the 3rd day on, I tried to keep the temp at 100 and the humidity in the 30% range. The humidity dropped even lower for a day or two around day 15-17.
I tried candling on the days that it is recommended. What I saw looked very discouraging. (Obviously I didn't know what I was doing.) I told my DH and family I probably won't have any more than three hatch. That was about all that I found during my candling that looked like what I had found in my research. Mom said not to give up yet and not to throw any out unless it started stinking. So, I held my breath and pressed on.
On the morning of Day 18, I put two sponges in the bator directly under the two larger vent holes and added water to all the water troughs and saturated both sponges. I candled again and found one that was clear, so I threw it out. Then I declared LOCKDOWN and warned the family that the bator lid was NOT to come off for ANY reason until the hatching was done. (Note: I should have used a waterproof tablecloth under the bator.) Within an hour of lockdown, the humidity level went up, up, up to over 70%. Don't tell the family but I did lift the lid once when no one was looking. Then decided to error on the side of more humidity than less and left it alone.
The evening of Day 19, before going to bed, we started hearing chirps! We even saw a couple of eggs rocking!
Morning of Day 20, the chirps were louder and more regular. On closer inspection, I found about three eggs that had small chips on them! A couple of hours later daughter and grandson called me at work to say that one had hatched! An hour or so later, a couple more had come out! We went to bed that night with about ten more eggs left to hatch out.
Day 21 By mid-afternoon all but three eggs had hatched!! I had chosen not to intervene unless absolutely necessary and I think all the humidity must have helped. All that hatched came out beautifully and quickly with no problems. That night we moved all the chicks out of the bator. Most were still damp due to the 70ish% humidity!
Today is Day 24 and the three eggs that didn't hatch are still in the semi-cleaned out bator. I think since we don't hear anything or see anything today will be the day we pull the plug on the bator. Then I will be able to properly sanitize the bator.
We are having so much fun watching the 13 fluffy Aussies we have in a very large clear plastic tote with a heat lamp hanging from the ceiling. We are definitely hooked on incubating! What a fun learning experience for us all!
Thanks BYC and all the forums for being here for us newbies!
We chose our bathroom to do our incubation experiment. It is fairly large but small enough to easily keep warm if needed, and one of the most visited rooms in the house, so we could forget them.
A few days in, I brought in a little room heater and set the thermostat to start it up if the temp dropped below 65 degrees. (We've been heating with wood heat so the temp can fluctuate.)I started our 17 Australorp eggs in a LG 9200 still air bator that my mom loaned me on the afternoon of March 24. (Eggs were purchased from our area hatchery.) I filled the water troughs in the bottom because that is what it said in the bator instructions. A couple of days later, after reading more on BYC, I took all the water out of the bator and went with the dry hatch method, hoping that I hadn't ruined them already with too much humidity the first days.
I set my cell phone time feature to go off every 8 hours so that I could turn the eggs. There were a few days when I was an hour or two early or late but at least they got turned. (The penciled X on each one helped me not to miss any.)
In the first 24 hours, I should mention that I discovered that dear 5 yr old grandson had moved the knob on the bator some time during the day. The thermometer read 108 when I got home from work!!! Great-grandma said not to give up yet, hoping that they would still be OK since it was so early in the the development, and it might not have been that hot for that long.
During the first week I added some cleaned fountain rocks and placed them all around the outside edges of the bator. Some thread somewhere said it might help keep the heat evened out in the bator. I figured that it couldn't hurt.
I had started out the first day or two trying to keep the temp at 99, then BYC threads read that 100-101 were better with this bator. So from about the 3rd day on, I tried to keep the temp at 100 and the humidity in the 30% range. The humidity dropped even lower for a day or two around day 15-17.
I tried candling on the days that it is recommended. What I saw looked very discouraging. (Obviously I didn't know what I was doing.) I told my DH and family I probably won't have any more than three hatch. That was about all that I found during my candling that looked like what I had found in my research. Mom said not to give up yet and not to throw any out unless it started stinking. So, I held my breath and pressed on.
On the morning of Day 18, I put two sponges in the bator directly under the two larger vent holes and added water to all the water troughs and saturated both sponges. I candled again and found one that was clear, so I threw it out. Then I declared LOCKDOWN and warned the family that the bator lid was NOT to come off for ANY reason until the hatching was done. (Note: I should have used a waterproof tablecloth under the bator.) Within an hour of lockdown, the humidity level went up, up, up to over 70%. Don't tell the family but I did lift the lid once when no one was looking. Then decided to error on the side of more humidity than less and left it alone.
The evening of Day 19, before going to bed, we started hearing chirps! We even saw a couple of eggs rocking!
Morning of Day 20, the chirps were louder and more regular. On closer inspection, I found about three eggs that had small chips on them! A couple of hours later daughter and grandson called me at work to say that one had hatched! An hour or so later, a couple more had come out! We went to bed that night with about ten more eggs left to hatch out.
Day 21 By mid-afternoon all but three eggs had hatched!! I had chosen not to intervene unless absolutely necessary and I think all the humidity must have helped. All that hatched came out beautifully and quickly with no problems. That night we moved all the chicks out of the bator. Most were still damp due to the 70ish% humidity!
Today is Day 24 and the three eggs that didn't hatch are still in the semi-cleaned out bator. I think since we don't hear anything or see anything today will be the day we pull the plug on the bator. Then I will be able to properly sanitize the bator.
We are having so much fun watching the 13 fluffy Aussies we have in a very large clear plastic tote with a heat lamp hanging from the ceiling. We are definitely hooked on incubating! What a fun learning experience for us all!
Thanks BYC and all the forums for being here for us newbies!
