November Hatch-A-Long (2014)

[rachelpotter]

I vote for an Eggtopsy!!!

 

[ochochicas]

Ahhh bummer. I'll have to do it tomorrow. It is late and raining outside. I refuse to do it in the house! Maybe my one remaining legbar egg will make it, but I'm not holding out much hope at this point.

 

[Antiquity]

Ahhh bummer. I'll have to do it tomorrow. It is late and raining outside. I refuse to do it in the house! Maybe my one remaining legbar egg will make it, but I'm not holding out much hope at this point.

I don't usually worry about stink unless the eggs stink before cracking, but then I remove iffy eggs on days 7 and 14, so they don't really have time to get a stink going. I removed two dead eggs from my first batch today and cracked them in the house. Unfortunately I accidentally dropped the embryo down the sink BOTH TIMES so I didn't even get to look at them. However it was fun announcing to the entire house that I dropped two dead chickens down the drain, so... there's that.

I also once had my hens hoard three weeks worth of eggs behind the henhouse in the middle of the summer. Out of 32 eggs, 21 of them were between 3 and 5 days developed, most of them had blood rings, and none of them were stinky. That means the oldest eggs had been sitting in 95-100 degree heat for THREE WEEKS and still hadn't gotten stinky, even after being dead for quite some time.

I know one of these days I'm going to get burned by the most raunchy, stinky old egg known to man, but at this point old eggs just don't scare me.

 

[Fullofstitches]

What do you have in lockdown? And what did you order for your thanksgiving hatch?

Legbars! I was looking for good layers and liked the bluish egg.

The current set has 35% of the number I ordered that made it to lockdown, with one pip so far - day 21 is tomorrow (Wed) evening. I had them shipped from OK to CA, but the trip seemed to have loosened too many air cells. I had ten to twelve start for sure, maybe two others were early quitters (ended up as cloudy eggs on day 16 and were tossed. Four blood rings - I think the loose air cells got those. Of the seven that I put in lockdown, I think one may have died on day 17 - no noticeable movement, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt - and one had a saddle air cell that seemed to have evened out.

I found a closer breeder, so I ordered the next batch from him and hope the journey is easier. If these don't work, I have one last chance of someone picking some up on their way here (and here has moved!). Otherwise, I'll have to try again (maybe with something else) in the spring.

 

[Dcat]

Ahhh bummer. I'll have to do it tomorrow. It is late and raining outside. I refuse to do it in the house! Maybe my one remaining legbar egg will make it, but I'm not holding out much hope at this point.

When I do an eggtospy I put them in a freezer bag first just in case and go outside also. That way any mess is easy to toss out.

I don't usually worry about stink unless the eggs stink before cracking, but then I remove iffy eggs on days 7 and 14, so they don't really have time to get a stink going. I removed two dead eggs from my first batch today and cracked them in the house. Unfortunately I accidentally dropped the embryo down the sink BOTH TIMES so I didn't even get to look at them. However it was fun announcing to the entire house that I dropped two dead chickens down the drain, so... there's that.

I also once had my hens hoard three weeks worth of eggs behind the henhouse in the middle of the summer. Out of 32 eggs, 21 of them were between 3 and 5 days developed, most of them had blood rings, and none of them were stinky. That means the oldest eggs had been sitting in 95-100 degree heat for THREE WEEKS and still hadn't gotten stinky, even after being dead for quite some time.

I know one of these days I'm going to get burned by the most raunchy, stinky old egg known to man, but at this point old eggs just don't scare me.

you had me laughing, I'm sorry you didn't get to look at the embryos but at least you have a good sense of humor about it. You don't even want to hear some of the stuff my family and I get laughs over.


I really wish I knew what breeds of chickens my eggs came from! One of the white eggs you can almost see the details of the chick through the shell when I candle, I can see her little legs and toes so easily, it makes you want to touch them. On day 11 now and everything seems to still be going well. I console myself on how long it is till hatching day by concentrating on lock down day because it's three days closer and makes it not seem to take as long,

 

[MrsFitzDarcy]

I'm in the Arizona desert, so I worry a lot about the humidity. Dry, the room humidity is around 40-42%. In the Hovabator it is 25-30%. I put about a quarter cup of water in and it jumped to ~55%. Pouring water in the bottom does not exactly seem like rocket science. Keeping it steady is hard too. It goes way up when you put the water in, then gradually drops down. How long do you wait before adding more water? Should I forgo filling the channels and just do the sponge thing?

This is my second hatch. I didn't have a full-time hygrometer last time because I didn't want to leave the digital thing on top of the eggs so I could see it through the window. Once they were in lockdown I could arrange the eggs such that the therm/hygro was in perfect view of the window. I didn't have a problem keeping the humidity up during lockdown. I do think a couple of the eggs were shrinkwrap-y, so I wanted to boost the humidity a little from the dry hatch last time.

I also could put the 'bator in the laundry room, which doesn't have central heat/air and stays pretty warm and slightly more humid. Will putting it on top of the drying be too much vibration?

 

[Dcat]

I'm in the Arizona desert, so I worry a lot about the humidity. Dry, the room humidity is around 40-42%. In the Hovabator it is 25-30%. I put about a quarter cup of water in and it jumped to ~55%. Pouring water in the bottom does not exactly seem like rocket science. Keeping it steady is hard too. It goes way up when you put the water in, then gradually drops down. How long do you wait before adding more water? Should I forgo filling the channels and just do the sponge thing?

This is my second hatch. I didn't have a full-time hygrometer last time because I didn't want to leave the digital thing on top of the eggs so I could see it through the window. Once they were in lockdown I could arrange the eggs such that the therm/hygro was in perfect view of the window. I didn't have a problem keeping the humidity up during lockdown. I do think a couple of the eggs were shrinkwrap-y, so I wanted to boost the humidity a little from the dry hatch last time.

I also could put the 'bator in the laundry room, which doesn't have central heat/air and stays pretty warm and slightly more humid. Will putting it on top of the drying be too much vibration?

The 25-30% is fine until lock down. Lock down it needs to be 65-70%. I think on top of the dryer would be too much vibration and allow eggs to roll, JMO, I have mine in my laundry room set up on a little table. My humidity has been doing the same thing yours has, I might have to add a sponge in there along with the bowl I already have. I've been adding about 1/4 cup of water daily to keep humidity leveled but I'm going to add more during lock down to keep the humidity up. I'll have a tube running into the bator and into the bowl so I can add it as needed without opening the lid. That should help too as I notice it drops fast since I am hand turning my eggs and the fan makes the humidity loss more extreme than a still air.

 

[charnic44]

I will be setting 18 eggs Nov. 1st in my incubator. Anyone else setting eggs around then? I would be happy to hatch-a-long with anyone who is!

 

[Renee572]

Hmmm. Is it better to ask permission or forgiveness when it comes to chickens and hatching eggs? I finally brought up the idea to hubby and he said no! I am still planning to set eggs on Nov 21st. Wonder what my chances are of convincing him it's a good idea or if I should just ask for forgiveness when he comes home from work to see eggs in an incubator!

 

[Sustained]

I candled my eggs again last night because I couldn't help myself. I found one that was almost completely black inside which alarmed me so I took it out and set it in a plastic bag on my chest freezer because I had already taken the trash to the curb for trash pick up in the morning and didn't want to go outside in my pj's. Well I forgot about it until a little bit ago. As I picked up the plastic bag to go take it outside, I lightly bumped it against the side of the chest freezer on accident. It made a really loud popping sound and the rotten insides came pouring into the bag. I wasn't due to candle anything until tomorrow but boy am I glad I gave in! I did smell the egg after candling it and it didn't smell rotten egg-like to me. It had an odd ammonia smell though. Is that normal for rotten eggs? I looked it up but everything says a distinct 'rotten egg' smell. I've smelled rotten eggs before and this was definitely an ammonia smell. Or maybe a rotten fish smell. Considering most of my eggs are shipped I'm trying to keep my paws off of them and only candle the usual times but now I'm worried that I will miss another goo bomb.