Saving Blondies D.N.A.

[Binki]

Aww can't wait !!!

 

[BIGTEXIAN]

finally got my incubator after a shipping delay and have had it set up and running for two days. Monitoring of the incubator has shown only .5 degree variance in temp and has been holding at 37.8 C and 55% humidity. With a total of 14 eggs now, 3 from Blondie, {that I have been holding for over a week, I hope they are o.k.} and 11 from my hen Rose and fertilized by the rooster I lost and my new rooster hero, I should be able to have a successful hatch of at least Roses eggs and hopefully Blondies also. With crossed fingers and a little prayer I will add them to the incubator {My first time by the way} and see what we come up with.

 

[Binki]

This is so... Eggciting...

!!

Incubating is a lot of fun! Ive hatched quail eggs and thought I had researched pretty much everything yet I still made some noobie mistakes - the biggest one being during hatching time, I allowed too much humidity to escape while transferring some dry baby quail out, causing a pipped (initial shell crack made by the chick) egg membrane to dry up, turning it dark yellow/brown and too hard for the chick to break out of which I decided to assist after looking it up.. Very risky!! The chick luckily came out fine after I did the steps but doing all that risked even more eggs drying out so its best to avoid in the first place hence me mentioning it

 

[BIGTEXIAN]

thats a concern I have. even though my eggs are all different ages before going into the incubator there are also different sizes and weights and I wonder what order they will hatch. and accessing the incubator to take chics out while others are hatching or ready to concerns me, my incubator recovers fast, i mean it takes only a few minutes to get the temp and humidity back up so hopefully it will be o.k.. I candled them today and are you supposed to be able to see the air sack at all before they are put in the incubator or does it show at day 7? i can not see an air sack on any of them old or new. and the eggs I have from my lost hen Blondie are 15 days old now, I did not see any obvious abnormalities in the eggs {as far as I could tell} I just hope they are not too old.I weighed them all with my digital scale and started a weight log along with logs on temp and humidity ever since I turned the incubator on. Now I plan to go back in @ 7 days to candle and look for the air sack and again @ 14 days to candle and weigh again to see if the humidity level is letting the air sack form properly and then again @ 18 days for the same thing weigh and candle. then I believe I should increase humidity to 65% for the last 3 days. does this sound about right to you, I know the hens leave the nest for up to an hour a day so when I'm in the incubator doing my business won't that be about the same thing? I appreciate you input and advice.

 

[BaileyMChicks]

The different ages of the individual eggs shouldn't matter. As long as they are put in the incubator at the same time(unless you want a staggered hatch, but I doubt you do). You should be able to see the air cell, especially if they are more than a few days old. The air cell is always there, even if the eggs aren't getting incubated. It's just very small at first. For me, I think that 55% humidity is too high. I keep mine at 30-40 for the first 18 days, then I up it to 65-80%. But that's just me. And yes it's like the same thing(doing your 'thing' with the eggs and the mother getting off the nest). I candled all 9 of my eggs from day one, and two weren't fertile, and one quit, and I got 6 to hatch. This was my second time hatching with an incubator. I don't think candling often hurts the embryo or the development of it. And the temps jumping down a bit isn't too much of a problem. But it jumping up is. For this last hatch, on day 3(day 0 for one egg..Kinda did a bit of a staggered hatch..Milo hatched just fine by the way) I went out with some friends. When I got home about 5 hours later, the incubator was off, and the temp was 74 degrees. I;m guessing it was off the entire time I was gone. The wall socket tripped or something like that and I had to reset it. I thought that the embryos might have gotten too cold and died, but they were fine. And I don't weigh my eggs, I just candle to see the development of the air cell(but obviously you can do whatever you prefer.I was just stating what I do). If most of the air cells are too small, humidity goes down. If most of the air cells are too big, humidity goes up. In this last hatch, I had a bantam egg and it's air cell was tiny, and then in the same hatch, I had a large fowl egg, and it's air cell was too big. But all the other eggs' air cells were fine, so I left the humidity, and both of those eggs(and the other eggs) hatched just fine. So don't panic(like I did lol) if the eggs aren't exactly the same. If the majority are fine, then leave what you have working. And btw, it's really fun to candle the eggs to watch the little embryos swimming around, seeing their hearts beat, and then later seeing them press their little feet on the side of the egg...Have fun hatching, and I hope you have a good hatch.