RI first-time hatcher

[RI Rooster]

Chicks are here! Had a slightly early hatch. Action started day 19 and most came on the 20th day. Started with a little giant 9300 and a computer fan I rigged inside the heating coils from and old computer tower. 24 eggs went in from my own flock and so far 17 have arrived. Holding out hope for a few that haven't done anything and ine that pipped and seems to have been inactive for a long period. We will see. Very happy with our low tech, novice first hatch! Everything is from a single RI red rooster so we have some RI reds, some black sex links, and a couple americauna/red and silkie/red mutts in the mix.

 

[SavKel&RynKel]

That's awesome!
Welcome to BYC! and congratulations on your success!
so you have 6 unpipped, one pipped but quiet, and today is day 21?
did you keep the humidity up when you pulled out the 17 others?

 

[RI Rooster]

Yes. We only took the others out because it had been about 36 hours and the others were scurrying around beating up the other eggs and rolling several of the others pip-down. One appeared to die after significant progress for some reason (probably them pecking him and rolling him all around) and the other, which we saved, was having significant struggles and we could see her all caught up in the membrane and fading fast. She is great now. Last few eggs were apparently not pipped so we were not too worried about getting the chicks out quick. I kept humidity around 65 but it's spiked crazy high during the commotion of the hatch and stayed quite High until today.

 

[SavKel&RynKel]

Wow. I tell you what, i really like incubating... But its a heck of a lot of anticipation followed by a heck of a lot of stress.
Still worth it in the end though, in my opinion.

 

[Kiki]

Congrats!
We need pictures!

 

[RI Rooster]

I really did more eggs than I needed expecting a lower first timer success rate. I'm very happy with the results. I lined up a few homes for my extra chicks just in case so it looks like I will be sending some for adoption! I really only want reds and black sex links for myself. The silkie/red eggs are really hard to distinguish from my barred rocks so I knew a few would sneak in. My Easter eggers must be the dominant trait because there is no doubt which ones those little chip munks are! The only thing I am going to do differently is turned the fan blowing up instead of down in the incubator. Some eggs were right in that hot downward air so they were the early hatchers I'm sure. And at hatch I will leave humidity lower so it doesn't go crazy high after the first egg hatch.

 

[SavKel&RynKel]

Sadly i think humidity always goes crazy after hatching. The birds just have so much moisture in their shells. Now you have a bigger incubator than we do, but our humidity guage was 80-90 percent when our second batch came out.

 

[RI Rooster]

Humidity early on is trouble. During the hatch I can't see why it would be a problem. They need air sac development prior to hatch for sure, but they don't "drown" when hatching in high humidity.

 

[SavKel&RynKel]

The only problem for us was that we were quite new, and added two eggs two days after the first 7. The high humidity and temps cause early hatching for the last two. But I agree if all the birds are the same age then hatching humidity should not be a significant issue. Our first had all nine come out just fine, though i did not buy a humidity gage for them, they definitely got the place nice and steamy.

 

[RI Rooster]

Up to 20. Some birds are late to the party.