Our Egg Hatching thread! Hatch: Nov. 7th (Hatching Video PG 57)

[Jamie821]

40 should be okay

 

[Jamie821]

living in michigan the humidity should start lowering as it has cooler air coming in

 

[Jamie821]

you got it down early in incubation so should be okay. Believe me I know only one made it on my first time hatching. Nine died fully developed when they pipped through the membrane and I didnt understand why. I felt terrible and then had it explained to me. My hatches are alot better now.

 

[MichiganWoods]

Sorry to hear that, Jamie. Humidity has been hovering between 37%-40% now.


OK... I did another quick candle. I just can't help myself. I find the whole growth process very intriguing. So here are the stats!

6 Definite Embryos! Saw the bean-shaped lumps with the little black eyes!
- 3 EE's
- 3 RIW's

6 Maybes
- All EE's

4 Infertile
- 2 EE's
- 2 RIW's

5 Veining or Bloodrings
- 4 EE's
- 1 RIW

So, if I'm lucky, I'll end up with 12 out of all of this. If I'm very lucky, I'll end up with 17, but I have my doubts about the ones I think I might be seeing bloodrings in. I'll let them sit in there for another week and recandle just to be sure, but it's seriously tough to tell with the dark shells. The EE's that I saw the embryos on, despite the dark shells, were very obviously little chickies.

 

[katrinag]

Candling is so neat. It is a wonderful thing to show the kids. I candled last night also.

 

[MichiganWoods]

I'll try to get a sharper picture tomorrow, but, eeeeeee!

Here's the shot straight out of my camera:

And after tweaking a bit in Photoshop to enhance all the details:

By the way, no that is not a little bacteria ring starting off towards the lower left-hand side. I drew a smiley face on the egg to let me know there was a viable embryo inside. Decided it was time to start lightly pencil marking the eggs so I knew which was which.

(I am probably way too excited

)

 

[katrinag]

Good pictures.

 

[kodiakchicken]

Don't know how I missed this thread earlier, but it looks I'm due to hatch at the same time you all are. I put 14 of Halo's blue barred rock eggs in the incubator the afternoon of the 17th.

This is my first ever hatch and I'm really excited, but so nervous that I haven't candled the eggs yet. I am afraidof handling the eggs too much, although I turn them faithfully 3 times a day. I am planning to candle this Friday, at 7 days.

I'm using an old fashioned round metal incubator with a wafer thermometer. The temp has been really easy to regulate but the humidity is another issue. I don't have a hydrometer so I have no idea what the percentage is. Everything I read said that the size of the air sack is the best way to tell if the humidity level is right, so I'll be checking that closely on Friday.

I so hope these eggs hatch.

My daughter and I are so excited about it!

 

[MichiganWoods]

kodiakchicken, good luck with your clutch!

I try to keep handling down to once per day, and less than a minute per egg. I had posted elsewhere on BYC asking about candling, and after reading all of the responses, the one thing that made sense to me was; use common sense. If I were turning the eggs by hand three times a day, then the incubator would be opened for several minutes, three times a day while I turned each egg. I'm not getting in there but once a day to candle. And I may go a few days before I do it again. Everyone seems to do it differently, and some not at all.

Here's one more quick pic from today. Finally got a chance to see what else was on my camera. This was a different egg.

My daughters are really looking forward to the chickies too.

 

[pbjmaker]

Ahhh you have giant red spider eggs too....