Ooo is it too late to join in ? I have 24 japanese quail eggs in the incubator, first attempt, due in 14 days . Really Interesting reading through this thread. So much advicelove it
Its never too late! Welcome fellow hatching addictsIf you aren't yet - you will be.....
I love to see my own hatches work out and see the chicks grow up! He is very pretty by the way.I'm so sad! I have cleaned and disinfected my incubator and packed it away for the rest of winter. My first hatch has grown up so fast and is now outside with out a heat lamp like little grown ups.
The picture is of my little rooster who is the first ever egg to hatch that I incubated! He is a polish crested cross.
Does anyone have an idea of what he's crossed with?
Mom was a white crested black polish and the dad could be:
Buff Orpington
EE
White Plymouth Rock
First of all - don't worry! You/they are fineHi ellieemae, I just set eggs too! I'm using a broody and an incubator at the same time, mostly shipped eggs, but also a few Silkie x ??? eggs that my girl laid. The silkieX eggs are 7 days ahead of the shipped eggs too, just to make it interesting. My broody has raised a clutch before, but this is my first hatch and first time incubating.
I have been having trouble getting the humidity back down to a reasonable level. I had a huge spike (70%!!) on day 2 and don't know how bad that is. I was seeing condensation in one of the windows, so the surface area of water was increased. I removed water from one of the chambers (which was previously calibrated perfectly...), to no change. Later I found a droplet of water in the bottom right corner of the incubator. Maybe a spill? I removed water from another chamber, and most of it from the largest chamber. It's still 65%?!?! Why is this so difficult to control? Did adding eggs increase the humidity? How serious is this? (using 3 thermometers btw, they are also calibrated to each other)
edit: \/\/\/\/
our winters here are mild, but I plan to keep them indoors until they're feathered and then let them outside
Humidity is a factor of surface area like you said. A good way to get humidity down if you have water in any chamber is to cover a portion of it with foil. If you have NO water in it and it is that high you need to alter the room humidity if possible (turning on a heater or air conditioner in a closed room will do that). As a last resort some people have had some degree of luck putting dry rice in the bator to absorb excess moisture. Remember that the reason we aim for 45ish % humidity during the first 18 days is because we want about 13% of the eggs' water weight to evaporate before hatching to avoid a wet chick and other complications. So if it was high briefly you might let it dip down to 25% for a while if possible to make up for the lack of evaporation during that time. You can even it out over time. After lockdown the reason for raising the humidity to 65ish % is to help soften the shell for easier hatching, as well as keep the internal membrane moistened after pipping to prevent the chick from getting glued to the membrane and stuck.
LOL! I don't know who daddy was, but if I'd had to guess without options I would have said Crested Cream Legbar - the barring, color and crest would match perfectly for that cross, LOL! Very cute!!I'm so sad! I have cleaned and disinfected my incubator and packed it away for the rest of winter. My first hatch has grown up so fast and is now outside with out a heat lamp like little grown ups.
The picture is of my little rooster who is the first ever egg to hatch that I incubated! He is a polish crested cross.
Does anyone have an idea of what he's crossed with?
Mom was a white crested black polish and the dad could be:
Buff Orpington
EE
White Plymouth Rock
because of the way he's standing I'd guess the EE....it will eventually stand out that something looks just like one of the daddy's....now I can't wait for you to figure it out and tell! can you take pics of the potential fathers?? hmmmI'm so sad! I have cleaned and disinfected my incubator and packed it away for the rest of winter. My first hatch has grown up so fast and is now outside with out a heat lamp like little grown ups.
The picture is of my little rooster who is the first ever egg to hatch that I incubated! He is a polish crested cross.
Does anyone have an idea of what he's crossed with?
Mom was a white crested black polish and the dad could be:
Buff Orpington
EE
White Plymouth Rock
Kylie not everyone sees their eggs move....it's amazing how it can look like nothing is happening then a few minutes later one pops out!Day 20 (actually truth be known it is actually day 21 but only an hour into it) and NOTHING IS HAPPENING :-(
The 19 eggs all had fabulous movement right up until lock down but there is no rockin' no rollin' no NOTHIN' - should I be seeing something? The temp has been absolutely perfect at 99.5 for the entire incubation process, humidity sitting at roughly 50% - everything has been perfect, until now.
Gah!!!
