Pippin ain't easy! Day 23 and nothing is happening.

[amaurichick]

Today is day 23, and nothing is happening. I took the eggs out and candled them, and all of them are still moving and have nice veins.
What would make them take so long?
I raised the humidity to 65% 5 days ago and now I'm worried that will cause problems.

 

[amaurichick]

 

[FridayYet]

LOL, Great title, great picture.

Your temperature was probably low. Did you double check it with a separate, calibrated thermometer? What kind of incubator do you have?

 

[amaurichick]

It's a homemade styrofoam cooler incubator and the temp did drop to 97 a few times at night, but not for very long. Maybe a few hours at the most.
There were also times during the day that the temp spiked to 102 for brief periods.
Lesson learned I guess. Next time I will give in and buy a real incubator.

 

[WVduckchick]

What did you run your humidity at for the first 18 days? Also, do you have a fan in it, or not?
If they are still moving, they still have a shot!

Edit typo

 

[FridayYet]

Like my friend WV said, if they are still moving I wouldn't give up yet!

Still wondering if you had two thermometers and did you check one - calibrate it with ice water? Thermometers are notoriously wrong.

 

[amaurichick]

The humidity was at about 35-40% for the first 18 days. It fluctuated a lot. No, I don't have a fan. It's a pretty caveman-esque incubator.

 

[amaurichick]

I had two thermometers, one digital and one old style. They were both within a degree or two of each other.

 

[FridayYet]

Well obviously it's working or your eggs wouldn't look so good at this point! Lots of people hatch in homemade coolerbators. Might try adding a computer fan next time if you'd like to tweak your project and circulate the air.

For still-air bators I think the temp should be around 100.5 - 101 But admittedly I'm not the expert so I'll let others chime in on that.

 

[amaurichick]

I'd say my temp was 99 about 80% of the time and fluctuated a bit here and there so maybe that's why they are late.
Thanks for your advice and encouragement!