November Hatch-A-Long (2014)

[Sustained]

What kind of incubator is everyone using? If it's already been asked, I apologize!!

I am using an incuview and then moved these first 7 to a homemade one for hatching. I'll let the remaining 15 hatch in the incuview.

LG still air with auto turner. I also have a second LG still air without the auto turner that I have my duck eggs in.

 

[ochochicas]

Cheapest Hovabator with the fan. Started with 35 eggs, pulled 7 of them because they weren't fertile, and it looks like all 8 of the legbars have died. I can't say I blame the incubator since it appears to be working just like it should.

What is it with the legbar eggs???? It seems like everyone is having problems with them.

 

[Sustained]

Today was my 10 day candle for my silkie and EE batch and my 7 day candle for a silkie and RIR batch. I also had to peek at my last silkie batch and my duck eggs.

I took out A LOT of eggs unfortunately. I knew shipped eggs were a risk though. I cracked them all open to see what possibly went wrong. Only 1 made it very far. It quit sometime between last night and tonight I think. Of the 10 day candle I have 8/20 still going. Although, of the 2 EE eggs left I suspect neither has developed at all (the other 2 didn't either) but the shells are so porous that I can't see very well so I'm leaving them in awhile longer. Of the 12 I tossed only 3 had blood rings. They weren't complete circles so I wasn't sure until today when they hadn't changed. They looked like they quit on day 1 or 2.The rest had no development at all.

Of the 7 day candle batch I have 7/18 still going. One I'm pretty sure hasn't developed but I'm giving it until day 10 to prove me wrong. If it doesn't develop that entire group of silkie eggs will be a bust. It was the box that looked like it got drop kicked and sat on so I guess it's no real surprise. Out of the 11 I tossed, 3 were very early quitters. Day 1 or 2. One egg had substantial cracking and even though I put nail polish on it, it started turning black inside and when I cracked it, it was rotten. 3 never developed and I'm guessing it had to do with shipping. And 4 of my grandmothers RIR eggs didn't develop. They were infertile. Very clear dot instead of a bullseye. I'm going to text her in the morning to let her know that one of her hens is either ugly or a lesbian. Or both.

My last silkie batch, and the one I spent too much money on I'm sure, is doing very well. Except for the rotten goo bomb that I pulled out the other day. I did take out 2 tonight as well. They had blood rings. So I still have 5/8 going on that one.

I stuck the flashlight against my duck eggs as I carefully hand rotated them. It's still early and I didn't expect to see anything but 8/9 are already veining. I was pretty excited about that.

So I'm hoping the rest keep going and make it to hatch.

 

[Junibutt]

Cheapest Hovabator with the fan. Started with 35 eggs, pulled 7 of them because they weren't fertile, and it looks like all 8 of the legbars have died. I can't say I blame the incubator since it appears to be working just like it should.

What is it with the legbar eggs???? It seems like everyone is having problems with them.

They are some issues I think. I had 3 out of 11 hatch from my first batch of shipped eggs in an incubator. I thought it was my handling of the incubator but then the second batch of 12 eggs, only 2 hatched from 2 different broodies.

 

[thailand]

I am using the [COLOR=545454]JN12 Incubator[/COLOR], which is a Chinese incubator, which proudly declares its 'Voltoge' on the front.  The spelling is terrible, but I'm a tech-head iRL, so pretty used to awful variants on spelling.  It is supposed to be able to take twelve eggs, but mine could only take ten - admittedly, several of my eggs were gigantic, but even interspersing them with the silkies, I couldn't manage.  I built a cardboard 'loop' which I glued to the edge of the turner, increasing the amount of space available.  This did work.

The eggs roll completely - 180degrees forward and back.  You won't see it unless you've marked them - it rolls them verrrry, verrrry slowly a few times each day.

I suspect the temperature runs a little low - I'll know more when I know when hatching starts, but it seemed to sustain the humidity quite well - which is really, really unusual in my house.  My house itself runs at such low humidity now that I get dry skin, so the incubator was doing well.

One problem - I think I had an old user manual!  The new one is: http://www.chonka.net/index.php/product/JN12.html

Mine said '37.7' temp for eggs - the new one says 38.  I'm hoping that the slightly lower temp will just mean a longer hatch, not a ruined one.

I'm also using a 12 egg JN12. It's holding a very steady temperature and humidity. Steam Punked, I also am incubating my eggs at 37.7 degrees. It may even be a tad cooler than that because my independent thermometer doesn't show enough increments to be sure. It's 37.7 on the incubator, and 37.something on the thermometer. So far so good. The next 3 days will tell.

 

[Junibutt]

Day 19 has started already. Hatch Day for me is Sunday the 2nd but would not mind any early surprises especially the Legbar pullet egg.

I did my broody version of lockdown today. I took my broody off eggs, gave her food and water and then let her back in after 10 minutes. I had candled yesterday and 5 were still going strong. 6th one is iffy but I think the shell is strong enough to withstand any explosion (fingers crossed).

Based on my previous experience with her, I don't think the broody will leave the nest now till the chicks hatch, so I have placed some food and water by her.

Her daughters from previous hatch (4 months old now) are hanging by her side, all night and most of the day. I guess they know they are getting siblings. Even the broody who is usually hostile towards them does not mind them looking over her shoulder all the time.

 

[Steampunked]

Guess what!

My daughter, Tegan (yeah, them ringlets) singing to the incubator:



Annnnnd!

Pop!

Right in front of her!




And now I have about six hours to try to get an AMAZINGLY over excited two year old to bed...

("But the baby has to be with ME, mummy...)

 

[Dcat]

I am looking forward to doing a larger hatch except for the knowing that the more eggs you have the more bad eggs you can have. Here's a better pic of my incubator, the window pic can give you an idea of the thickness.

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[Dcat]

sorry, phone only lets me add one pic at a time.

 

[Pyxis]

I'm using a Brinsea Eco 20 with an autoturner for the first 18 days. Cannot say how much I love the thing. Then I have an LG that I added a fan to for lockdown.

As for legbar eggs, I wonder if it's because some lines have become inbred? I know that that's become a HUGE problem in Isbars. I just hatched out 21 out of 24 shipped eggs from two different lines and they are all thriving. I even got a white one, which is fantastic because I think I'm going to try to work with the color. It's recessive though so I'm going to have to be careful to avoid inbreeding while I try to get going.