New to Incubating and Hatching and, well, everything! Anyone want to hatch with me? *with PICS**

[mebberry4]

Hi littlekatzz!

Good deal on the incubator! What kind is it? My original plan was to borrow an incubator, but I ended up buying one instead.
What type of breeds are they mixes of? I would be interested in hearing if you have raised chickens before or if you are a completely-new-to-everything like me.
Quote: x 2!

The only thing that has made the past five days go by quickly for me was working 12-14 hours shifts at work, but I do not recommend that!

I hope you will post here with updates and hatch along! Good luck!

 

[AinaWGSD]

Quote:

Thank you for the link and the info on your technique. I gave in and couldn't wait until day 7.
I candled yesterday (day 4) and saw air cells that were already the size of a nickel on my BR and NHR eggs and on my orpingtons some of the air cells were the size of a quarter! Needless to say I am increasing my humidity, but as I mentioned in my reply to AinaWGSD I think I am going to have a hard time keeping both the orpingtons well humidified and the BR and NHR from being over saturated.

I'm thinking some sort of mini squirt bottle that I can use to mist the orpington eggs only.....

That site has great pictures. But if you read the picture captions, right there on day 2 it says

Quote: Which makes me think that the air cells pictured on that site are not necessarily what one would typically expect, size-wise anyway, from other larger breeds. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. This is after all my first time hatching eggs and I was also wondering how big the air cells should be at each "stage" of incubation. I worry that mine are too small at day 12, but then again at day 12 they still have a little over a week for the air cell to get bigger.

 

[mebberry4]

I worry that mine are too small at day 12, but then again at day 12 they still have a little over a week for the air cell to get bigger.

Here is a diagram that I think I am going to go with for evaluating my air cell size: (She also has an interesting perspective about the yolk on shipped eggs in the rock vs. don't rock debate.)

http://www.bevsmarans.com/hatching_eggs.htm

Do you feel as though your air cells are about the size of day 14 on this diagram or are they closer to day 7 in size?

If you think they may be too small I would be careful with humidity for the next 4 days. I have read a lot of information on the learning center and the forums that says styrofoam incubators (not sure of your set up) are notorious for "drowning" chicks on hatch day. Also, since lockdown usually starts on day 18 and you will likely be increasing the humidity up to 70-80% the air cell definitely will not get any bigger after that. The concern would be that the chicks may not have a big enough air cell to pip on their way out.
I am extremely green when it come to all of this, so I am just stating what I have read, not what I know works.
Maybe someone with some prior experience will join us and weigh in?

It is possible that the air cells in my BR and NHR eggs were an ok size on day 4, however, I am almost completely certain that the BO air cells were way too big for that time frame.
I increased the humidity and have been holding the incubator at around 42-48% since day 4. I also sprinkled water directly on the BO eggs, but not the others this morning. It's now day 6 and I may be too impatient to wait until tomorrow night to candle again.
I need to find a higher power flashlight that will show me more detail. Any suggestions for high powered flashlight brands?

 

[AinaWGSD]

Thanks for the awesome daigram, that helps me a lot! I think my air cells are closer to the 14 day mark on that drawing. Not quite that big yet, but obviously we aren't that far a long yet either so I'm ok with that. I feel like they're definitely bigger than the day 7 mark.

I've read that styrofoam incubators can be bad for not allowing enough evaporation and ending up with chicks drowning at pip too. With so much conflicting advice about humidity during incubation out there it's hard to know where to keep it with no experience. We started at 50%, but then I read about dry incubation and the problems with too much humidity. So I decided to let the incubator "dry down" and have been running between 35-45% for the past week and a half. I think I feel most comfortable when it hovers right around 40% though.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

This is an eggcellent page put up by a BYC member. I think they made it a sticky. Candling pictures throughout hatch.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

 

[littlekatzz]

Ive only had chickens for about three weeks now & I love them . My incubator is just a cheap strofom little john model. Im having the hardest time keeping the humidity higher then 14% in it & im getting worried. Im hoping my meter is just wrong.

 

[mebberry4]

Thanks for the awesome daigram, that helps me a lot! I think my air cells are closer to the 14 day mark on that drawing. Not quite that big yet, but obviously we aren't that far a long yet either so I'm ok with that. I feel like they're definitely bigger than the day 7 mark.

I've read that styrofoam incubators can be bad for not allowing enough evaporation and ending up with chicks drowning at pip too. With so much conflicting advice about humidity during incubation out there it's hard to know where to keep it with no experience. We started at 50%, but then I read about dry incubation and the problems with too much humidity. So I decided to let the incubator "dry down" and have been running between 35-45% for the past week and a half. I think I feel most comfortable when it hovers right around 40% though.

You're very welcome! I'm glad to hear your air cells are just about on schedule. I agree that their can be a lot of confusion around humidity and hatching for us newbie's. I originally started out thinking I would follow the guidelines for a dry incubation as well. My RH was in the mid 40's to start and I too let the incubator 'dry down' to about 32% or so at the lowest then increased it to the mid 40's again. I did maybe two cycles of this and then realized how big the air cells were on my porous orpington eggs. eek!

I am happy to report that after keeping the humidity between 44-48% for the past two days that my air cells are all back on track except for one.... Despite what I thought was a good long settling period for my shipped eggs I found one adorable, wiggly little embryo developing in the large end of the egg...right where the air cell should be.

The air cell is sitting off to the side of the small end of the egg and is quite stationary.
I think I am going to try to post this issue on another thread and see if anyone has any advice.

 

[mebberry4]

This is an eggcellent page put up by a BYC member. I think they made it a sticky. Candling pictures throughout hatch.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

Thank you for posting this link! Those pictures are a great resource.
I just noticed you are a New Hampshirite as well, although it looks like you are quite a ways north of me!

 

[mebberry4]

Quote:

Ive only had chickens for about three weeks now & I love them

. My incubator is just a cheap strofom little john model. Im having the hardest time keeping the humidity higher then 14% in it & im getting worried. Im hoping my meter is just wrong.

Wow, 14% is really low. Do you have all of the water trays filled? If so, it may very well be your hygrometer that isn't reading correctly.
I did a bit of research into thermometer/hygrometer combos and it seems like WalMart is a pretty good source for getting one in a hurry. If you had more time, you could probably order a nicer one with free shipping off of Amazon, but I think it would be a good idea to find out the actual RH as soon as possible.
Have you had anymore issues with your temperature regulation? Have you candled to see what size your air cells are?
Glad to hear you are enjoying having chickens. I am so looking forward to the day when I have some running around the yard!

 

[mebberry4]

Update:
Today is day 7 of incubation. I candled all of my eggs yesterday (~day 6.5) and found some adorable, wiggly little embryos!

In all, I counted 12 eggs with good veins and moving embryos, 6 questionable eggs and 6 clear. I set the clear ones off to the outside of the incubator, but will wait until day 10 to remove them.
Of the 6 questionable eggs:
-one had good veins and what appeared to be an embryo, but no movement noted. {I couldn't resist checking on this one again this morning and thought I saw some movement....}
-two had good veins, but no embryo seen (one may have a blood spot?).
-one had very slight veining, but unsure if I was seeing a blood ring or not.
-one was very hard to see into due to its speckled nature. It has what appears to be a disrupted bloom and is likely clear.
-one had a black dot with a smallish circular web of veins around it.

I will be candling again on day 10.5 (Friday evening) to make a final decision on the clear and questionable eggs.

The one egg I mentioned in a previous post with the mal-positioned air cell still has a lively embryo growing in the wrong end as of this morning. I was fortunate to find some fellow BYC members to point me in the right direction for help on this one. As of late this morning the egg is positioned air cell up on its side with the large end slightly lower than the small end... basically the exact opposite of the way you are supposed to position an egg. If the little embryo makes it to hatch day, I will be supporting this egg in a more stable version of this position in hopes that the chick will pip the air cell if it is 'above' the chick.
Here's hoping!!!!