I'm a newbie at incubating and I have to say it was a much more rewarding experience than buying chicks at the feed store...although they are always so cute and sweet, I'll probably not be able to stop myself from indulging now and then

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Bought an LG to hatch refrigerated eggs from my sweet hen who was killed by a neighbor's dog...another neighbor gave me 6 fresh from her hens. I didn't have a choice under the rushed circumstances, however the LG has been solid...once I figured it out

. Luckily I placed it in a basement room without windows...I think that was key in avoiding drafts causing temp changes...it stayed at 99.5 without intervention for the full 18 days. Day 18 I played around with it a little to get the humidity steady and 65+% (my biggest challenge as we live in Jackson Hole...6200' and very low humidity). I ended up plugging both top vents, taping shut the 8 small holes on top, placing the whole thing across a large cookie sheet of water so the water would evaporate up through the bottom holes, then wrapped the base in kitchen towels...all which brought the humidity to a steady 65-70%. The only time it went up for a little bit was when a chick hatched. Of the 12 eggs I incubated, one of my neighbor's fresh-from-the-hen didn't hatch, and I felt fortunate to have 2 of my 6 refrigerated eggs to hatch.
(Oh, yea, I also set my iPod next to the incubator and played continuous Yo-Yo Ma throughout the day turning it off at night so they could rest...and put a little vase of bleeding hearts on the top to encourage little girls to hatch along with a few of my sweet GinnyGirl's feathers

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I did have to open the incubator once to pull the Hercules' shell off Una's head

. Oh, boy, was I afraid to do that after all the warnings about not interfering and keeping the incubator closed. Una was the first hatchling. Shortly afterwards Hercules came busting out of a tiny (for his size) hole. Well, Una couldn't resist and had to stick her head inside that shell...she was probably wondering how in the heck he did that

! I watched the whole thing and was, 'no, no, don't do it!' But, true to form, she didn't want to listen to her Nonna

...and she did it anyway. Well, I watched her struggle for about 10 minutes and finally got a quick escape plan in my head and then the courage up to release her. Today she is 4 days old and still the 'alpha chick' ... after Hercules, that is.
One batch and I think I'm addicted.