Red Partridge Orpington informational hatch thread

[K0k0shka]

UPDATE: Day 2 today and I definitely remember why I hated this incubator so much last year. This will be the last hatch I do with it. Even with the handheld fan, and constant babysitting to move eggs around in the perpetual search for the good spots, the temperature readings are all over the place! I'll be lucky if anything hatches at all. Still air incubators shouldn't even be sold. They absolutely SUCK!!!

 

[aart]

And calibrating the thermometers in ice water. They are impressively accurate:

Did you test at boiling(checking your elevation and barometric pressure) too?

 

[K0k0shka]

Did you test at boiling(checking your elevation and barometric pressure) too?

The probes are plastic... Would they be okay being boiled?

 

[aart]

The probes are plastic... Would they be okay being boiled?

Maybe/probably not.
Why I do my tests at ~100°F with one of these:
https://www.thermoworks.com/RT301WA

 

[K0k0shka]

Maybe/probably not.
Why I do my tests at ~100°F with one of these:
https://www.thermoworks.com/RT301WA

How do you position it so that the probe is at the top of the egg, but the display is still visible? My incubator only has “windows” on top, so if the thermometer was lying on its side on top of the eggs, I wouldn’t be able to see its display The good thing about the reptile thermometers is that the probe and the display are separate, so I can position each however I need to...

 

[K0k0shka]

UPDATE: I seem to have finally found the good spots in the incubator and found my stride. Things have been looking good and steady for the past couple of days. Not perfect - some eggs are at 99 degrees and others at 100.5 - but this is as good as it’s gonna get, and sure beats the range of 97 to 103 from the first couple of days.

I was going to hold off on candling until day 7 (Saturday), but I just couldn’t help it and took a peek yesterday (day 4) and today (day 5). I candled two sample eggs each time - one of my partridges, and one from my friend’s barnyard mix eggs. All 4 eggs were developing! Yay!!! There was a significant difference in development between the two days. It’s amazing just how fast these things grow, and what a difference a day can make! One of today’s babies was moving, even!

I’ll still candle everyone properly on Saturday. But for now, here’s one of the eggs yesterday:

And one from today:

It’s hard to make out in the photos, but yesterday they looked more like little lumps. Today the lumps are more defined and I can even see the darkness of the eye mass. Exciting!

 

[aart]

How do you position it so that the probe is at the top of the egg, but the display is still visible?

I stick it thru a vent hole in the top, there are pics in here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...incubator-thermometers-and-hygrometers.73634/

 

[Caitiemc88]

I managed to get two to hatch. Can’t wait to see what you get.

 

[K0k0shka]

I managed to get two to hatch. Can’t wait to see what you get.

Awww they are so cute!!! 2 out of 3 isn't bad at all! What about the other 6? Or were they an earlier hatch? (just re-read your earlier comment and can't quite make it out)

 

[K0k0shka]

UPDATE: I'm a few days late with the update, but I did candle on day 7 and things are looking good so far! Out of my 12 partridges, 2 are clear (can't tell if they are early quitters or just infertile, there's no blood ring but they look stratified), and the other 10 are developing on track and moving! Wohoo! There are some wonky air cells, as would be expected given that they flew 2600 miles to reach me, but overall not as bad as last year's. Of my friend's 14 eggs, 1 is infertile, 3 are too dark to see into (chocolate speckled something) and the other 10 are developing on track. Hers have only traveled 8 minutes in my car though, so I'm expecting all 10 to hatch fine, and if the dark ones are developing, they should probably hatch fine as well. She gave me eggs to hatch last year too, and all that made it to day 7 made it to hatch. Not so with my shipped eggs though - they seemed to be doing well early on, but started dropping off after lockdown. So I still have no idea what I'm gonna get.

Now, for the eye candy!

Day 7 Candling

Red Partridge Orpingtons

Barnyard mix eggs


I do have a question about one of my friend's eggs. It looks perfectly fine on the outside, but when candled, has what look like cracks, but also wider light areas that are too broad and wide to be cracks... And are completely invisible on the outside of the shell when not being candled. What are those? Are they a problem? I must note that my friend's eggs are very thin-shelled. Are those just areas of very thin shell? This is what they look like: