November Hatch-A-Long (2014)

[Renee572]

It is wonderful to try something new and good to do much research before you start! The odd thing I found about that is that many people have conflicting opinions so when you are new it is hard to know what to make of that. Please read the Hatching 101 article here on the site. She recommends humidity between 20 -30% and that has worked the best for me also. Local eggs are the easiest to hatch. Shipped eggs have many complications and are more difficult to hatch... I wouldn't recommend them for the first time.

There is no reason you can't have a great first hatch, but remember to give yourself a break and know that it takes some time and hatches to gain experience... so just know that this is just the beginning and there are many more hatches to come. If you are like most of us, there will be many many many more hatches to come!

Thanks for your response, I did read up on Hatching 101, thanks for suggesting it. I am getting local eggs, just have to make a drive for them so don't have to deal with shipped eggs. I am so excited I found so slw that are local, I want one so bad!! I guess a 20-30% humidity doesn't sound too hard to achieve, I have been a little concerned about humidity as I live in AZ and it is not humid here at all.

Good luck!!! Once you decided to hatch eggs time doesn't move fast enough...lol the wait to get and set your eggs, the wait until you can candle and actually see something, the wait to lockdown and the wait to hatch day....I hate waiting!!! lol. My first hatch attempt was a bust. My thermometer was 6 degrees off and we only ended up with two hatches and one survivor, so my biggest thing now is having more than one thermometer at all times. My first hatch I strove for 60% humidity (upped it over 70 at lockdown) because that's what the book I had said. We set eggs on the 16th of this month and this time we are going dry. Now, I can't guarantee my meter is accurate, but dry it's reading 45. Same as the humidity in the house. Even if it was reading 20% high, I'd still be in healthy 'dry range'. But I am keeping a close eye on air cell size. We are using a forced air incubator temp as close to 99.5 as we can keep it. Usually stays good between 99-100. My eggs are from my sisters chickens. Originally she brought me 32 for incubation so we set those plus two of the fridge eggs she brought us (we get our eating eggs from her as well) as an experiment. We are on day ten. I've pulled 3 due to bacteria (2 blood ring but no embryo, one very funky one that the shell cracked all the way around while in the incubator.) One of the two fridge eggs started growing but ceased at about day 3 ish and I had 13 clears that got tossed today. So I have 16 (counting the second fridge egg) that are definitely developing and I can see good movement in 15 (one is a bit dark to see well.) And I have one that I do not think has developed, but I can't tell, so it's staying in there as long as I don't smell anything.

Thanks for your response and the info you provided. Luckily I have lots of things going on right now that I don't think the time will pass by too slowly but I am anxious to get started. Good luck with your hatch, I will be following!!

Another thing I am curious about is whether people incubate their eggs standing them up pointy end down or if they lay them on their side. I can't seem to decide what would be better, whatever I read makes me feel like this area gets conflicting results as well. I guess the first time you really just gotta choose a way and stick it out and hope for the best and then make improvements the next time it seems. Anyway, I am sure with all the knowledgeable people on here I will at least hatch 1 little chick!!

 

[Renee572]

We are new to chickens, too. Got my first set of chicks in March, two hens in April, and now I'm hooked and have over 20 birds. It wasn't long ago somewhere on the forum that I posted I never ever planned to own an incubator or hatch eggs. LOL then in June one of my hens went broody so I bought her some eggs to hatch. It was a good start for me to have the broody do all the work and I just got to have the fun. Ten eggs hatched, one died, I kept 4 chicks and sold 5 of them. Some people have said that broody raised chicks are not friendly, but that does not have to be the case. If you talk to the eggs before they hatch they will be used to human voices before they enter the world. My chicks were all very friendly, even the cockerels.

Lacking another broody, I bought an incubator and just set my first batch of eggs. I got a Hovabator with a turbofan. I bought two additional thermometers and two hygrometers, one of which is completely useless. I am doing a modified wet incubation. I'm trying to keep my humidity around 40%. I will add a little water if the humidity gets low, but I'm not keeping the water full all the time. Instead, I am weighing my eggs at 7 and 14 days to make sure they are on track for losing 13% of their original weight. I am also hand turning my eggs 3 times a day. Although this is an experimental hatch, I must be doing something right since my babies are growing! I candled at day 7. Some of the questionable eggs I will candle again at day 10 and take them out if they are not looking good.

The temp I'm trying to keep between 99 and 100 degrees. It seems parts of the incubator are warmer than other parts, despite having a fan. The first day the temp was probably around 103, and since then it has held between 98 and 101. Our house is not heated, so the room the incubator is in stays around 62 degrees all day. Turning the eggs does not affect temp or humidity that much at this point. The incubator is open for 1 - 2 minutes and them temp drops to about 88 degrees. It heats back up really quickly. My broody hen used to leave the nest for up to 30 minutes at a time and the eggs were fine. One egg even got pushed out of the nest one night. It was completely cold when I found it in the morning and it hatched normally on day 21.

I hope this helps. Don't feel too badly about things going wrong. As long as we can learn from it, not all is lost. I am keeping a chart of all my weights, etc and will post my findings after the chicks hatch.

Thanks for your response. I never in a million years would have guessed that I would have chickens in my backyard much less that I would grow to love them and want to do crazy things like hatch eggs!! I could never have 20 chickens in my yard as is so that will have to wait till our next house haha!! But the 4 that I have right now I can definitely see doubling in the next couple months. Any roos that I hatch will be culled for dinner as I can't keep them with my HOA rules but if I get 4 hens out of it I will definitely keep them. Any more then 4 might be a hard choice to sell them! Look forward to hearing about and seeing your results, good luck.

 

[darkbluespace]

Another thing I am curious about is whether people incubate their eggs standing them up pointy end down or if they lay them on their side. I can't seem to decide what would be better, whatever I read makes me feel like this area gets conflicting results as well. I guess the first time you really just gotta choose a way and stick it out and hope for the best and then make improvements the next time it seems. Anyway, I am sure with all the knowledgeable people on here I will at least hatch 1 little chick!!

I personally incubate local or my own eggs on their side and shipped eggs upright. If possible I like to have them on their side because I usually have a chick pip the wrong end and if they are on their side they are more likely to make it. I am sure you are going to have lots of chicks!

 

[darajosami]

Just candled my 3 day old eggs under my 2 broodies and found stleast 2 viable. Hopefully the other 18 are viable.

 

[Steampunked]

I have been incubating my eggs lying down - they actually came a fair distance to get to my house, but they were being driven while being on my lap in a box, so I was hoping they wouldn't have detatched air sacs.

Development right now, about 3 days from lockdown (wow, six days until hatching!), shows that I was right, but it's chance. I really had no idea what I was doing. I did rest them for a couple of hours before putting them in the incubator, but then curiosity got the better of me.

 

[Dcat]

I like to post progress on another site so friends and family can see if they are interested. I was very surprised at how many people were actually following the story. Only a few people would comment on what I posted so I figured just a few were curious, then I posted video of some of the babies hatching and everyone wanted seemed to have questions and comments, LOL. Some people had no clue(like me) that you could do this from home. It is so nice to be able to share the experience with everyone, especially here because every one of you understands my concerns, questions and happy dances. I will try to get pics sometime in the next couple of days of eggs progress while I candle and maybe some video, watching them wiggle and dance around is such a delight to watch and I do time myself when I do candle so they aren't out too long(even though broody's stay off of them longer than I have them out of the bater).

Thanks for letting me join this hatch-a-long and being a part of everyone's emotional ups and downs, LOL. I'm learning something new all the time.

OH, and I like to incubate my eggs lying down as I figure that's the way they are when a mama does it. I haven't thought about it being different with shipped eggs but Darkbluespace brings up a good point. At lockdown I would stand shipped eggs big end up while incubating and lay them down for hatching(when I get shipped eggs that is).

 

[Junibutt]

So you would count the eggs with the blood rings even if there were no embryos forming? Both of mine that had the blood ring had no formation what so ever and neither did that funky one that was close to blowing up.

Yes, one should count the ones with blood rings because they were fertile and also the one that was about to blow up, unless it was clear from the start.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Yes, one should count the ones with blood rings because they were fertile and also the one that was about to blow up, unless it was clear from the start.

ok TY.

 

[rachelpotter]

We are on day two... OMG this is so hard.

Right now we are just sitting and waiting. Temp in both bator have been great so far. Had to add a little water to both to get humidity up from 30%.

Waiting to turn for a few days... Now just have to decide when to start.

 

[Sustained]

I've been following along since this thread was started!! We have finally decided to hatch some eggs for sure. We aren't going to set them until November 21st so they won't hatch until December but I am following along with this thread to get any information I can. This will be the first time we have tried to hatch chicken eggs and we are still new to chickens, just got our girls in April. We won't be hatching our own eggs as we don't have a rooster but we are looking forward to it.

I see that people usually post how many and what kinds of eggs they are setting, and then updates are made when candling is done. I was just wondering if you all wouldn't mind posting some other information as well. I'd really love to know if people are doing dry or wet hatches, still air or forced air, I'm curious as to what temps and humidity you all are shooting for as well.

I have been doing my research "in case" we hatched eggs. I say "in case" because in the back of my head I have been determined to do it all along. But anyway, now that it is really going to happen and I have eggs lined up to purchase and I have an incubator that will be borrowed I am feeling like I don't have all the info I need. I know this first time is going to be a learning curve but I REALLY want it to be successful. I am very OCD and I am also a huge worrier by nature but I am really hoping that I can feel confident with the info I know and be able to enjoy the experience whether we don't end up hatching any chicks or we hatch all or nearly all the eggs we purchase.

Thanks for you input, I look forward to following your hatches!

Hi! I never expected to do anything crazy like hatching eggs either lol and yet... here I am for the 2nd time. I grew up with chickens but never wanted any of my own. One of the chores I was allotted as a teen was mucking out the chicken coop and taking care of them in general. It didn't fuel an undying love for poultry lol

I fell into chickens as an adult. My husband and I grew up farm kids and he wanted chickens. I said okay. We went to the feed store (I was humoring him by tagging along) and we got 8 Barred Plymouth Rock chicks. On the way home, my husband asks me 'So what do you think of your new chickens?'....

MY chickens???? LOL. He thought he was doing me a favor. I started working on sustainable living (yup I'm one of those, thus my username) several years ago. I had toyed with the idea of chickens before but never gave it heavy or serious thought. Well, long story short, I fell absolutely in love with those chicks. No surprise. I adore animals. My meat rabbit breeders even have toys and name plaques on the nest boxes they've each claimed as their own, etc. Anyway, one day I had a question about one of my hens and found this site. I was absolutely fascinated by all the different chicken breeds. I spent hours browsing. I ran across silkies and just HAD to have some for my flock. There's no chicks that I could find anywhere in my area so I decided to hatch a few. Hatching is addicting, be warned. My first hatch I only ended up with 2 chicks because of my temp/humidity gauge being very wrong. Only getting 2 chicks was my excuse to keep hatching. My husband is a HUGE enabler though so I don't foresee myself giving up hatching.

This time around I have 2 Little Giant still air incubators. One with an automatic turner. The second one was going to just be for hatching but chicken math got me and I've got all the overflow eggs in it. I'm trying to maintain 100-101 degrees and 30-40% humidity. I removed both plugs on top for increased ventilation and will put one back in for lockdown if I need to for getting the humidity to the correct range. Half my eggs are being auto turned and the other half I'm turning by hand. All the eggs are fat end up and will be laying on their side for lockdown.

Good luck when you make the hatching plunge! It's so exciting and so much fun. I get to candle some of my chicken eggs tonight and I'm soooo excited to see whats coming along so far. I've got almost all shipped eggs. My grandmothers dozen are the only local ones this time.