September Hatch-A-Long

[Honora]

My hatch is over, all 7 hatched. Here they are! Lots of pics!

I have 2 chipmunk-colored EE's

I have 2 jubilee orps. 1 seems to have a brown stripe on it's back:

I have 1 dark blue chick that is a cross between my Splash bantam orpington hen & jubilee rooster:

And I have 2 beige-looking chicks with a dark stripe down the back. They look exactly alike but one's mom is an EE and one's mom is an orpington. Twins from different moms!

 

[ChickenMath101]

Super cute! Any more hatch yet? @ChickenMath101

We are watching them come out like popcorn! Every half hour there is a new one. 4 are out, 13 to go.
This is the most incredible thing EVER.

 

[ChickenMath101]

My hatch is over, all 7 hatched. Here they are! Lots of pics!
View attachment 1135463

I have 2 chipmunk-colored EE's
View attachment 1135457
View attachment 1135458

I have 2 jubilee orps. 1 seems to have a brown stripe on it's back:
View attachment 1135459
View attachment 1135460

I have 1 dark blue chick that is a cross between my Splash bantam orpington hen & jubilee rooster:
View attachment 1135461

And I have 2 beige-looking chicks with a dark stripe down the back. They look exactly alike but one's mom is an EE and one's mom is an orpington. Twins from different moms!
View attachment 1135462

They are so darling!! Love them! I'm glad the hatch went well for you. I'm so anxious to hold babies but am sitting on my hands until they all hatch, lol!

 

[Impatient]

Well I feel like an idiot. After I picked my incubator back up and candled to check the babies were good I set it right back up in it's normal spot and ignored it for awhile so it could get to temp. Bout 6 hrs later (very small incubator, so it normally gets to temp pretty fast) I noticed it was stuck at 97F. Double checked with my liquid thermometers in case the digital were off and they read the same. Checked the settings, they were still set proper so begrudgingly I upped the temp setting a tiny bit and went to bed. When I woke up, it was at 98F. Starting to get annoyed I upped the temp a little more. Four more hours and it couldn't seem to break 98F. Checking everything, everything seems fine, going crazy because I'm a week out and just had 1/9 hatch rate on my last batch (bad eggs and user error). Turns out when I set it back up, one of the probe thermometer wires somehow got stuck under the lid in the back, so it looked closed and felt closed, was not fully closed. Soon as I fixed it temp started going right up. Literally almost had a heart attack though. Hopefully the 12hrs at 97-98F didn't do too much except maybe push the hatch back a little.

 

[Honora]

Well I feel like an idiot. After I picked my incubator back up and candled to check the babies were good I set it right back up in it's normal spot and ignored it for awhile so it could get to temp. Bout 6 hrs later (very small incubator, so it normally gets to temp pretty fast) I noticed it was stuck at 97F. Double checked with my liquid thermometers in case the digital were off and they read the same. Checked the settings, they were still set proper so begrudgingly I upped the temp setting a tiny bit and went to bed. When I woke up, it was at 98F. Starting to get annoyed I upped the temp a little more. Four more hours and it couldn't seem to break 98F. Checking everything, everything seems fine, going crazy because I'm a week out and just had 1/9 hatch rate on my last batch (bad eggs and user error). Turns out when I set it back up, one of the probe thermometer wires somehow got stuck under the lid in the back, so it looked closed and felt closed, was not fully closed. Soon as I fixed it temp started going right up. Literally almost had a heart attack though. Hopefully the 12hrs at 97-98F didn't do too much except maybe push the hatch back a little.

Hopefully they still will hatch fine. I think high temps are worse than low temps, right? My temps were all over the place in my incubator & mine still hatched fine! I was surprised at how well they did in spite of it.

 

[ChickenMath101]

Well I feel like an idiot. After I picked my incubator back up and candled to check the babies were good I set it right back up in it's normal spot and ignored it for awhile so it could get to temp. Bout 6 hrs later (very small incubator, so it normally gets to temp pretty fast) I noticed it was stuck at 97F. Double checked with my liquid thermometers in case the digital were off and they read the same. Checked the settings, they were still set proper so begrudgingly I upped the temp setting a tiny bit and went to bed. When I woke up, it was at 98F. Starting to get annoyed I upped the temp a little more. Four more hours and it couldn't seem to break 98F. Checking everything, everything seems fine, going crazy because I'm a week out and just had 1/9 hatch rate on my last batch (bad eggs and user error). Turns out when I set it back up, one of the probe thermometer wires somehow got stuck under the lid in the back, so it looked closed and felt closed, was not fully closed. Soon as I fixed it temp started going right up. Literally almost had a heart attack though. Hopefully the 12hrs at 97-98F didn't do too much except maybe push the hatch back a little.

I don't think that little cool-off with have a negative impact at all.

 

[ChickenMath101]

We have 5 live babies and 5 pips! And either 6 or 7 eggs holding out on us. 3 blue/black Jubilee Orpingtons and 2 Silver Laced Orps so far.

 

[BlueBaby]

Hopefully they still will hatch fine. I think high temps are worse than low temps, right? My temps were all over the place in my incubator & mine still hatched fine! I was surprised at how well they did in spite of it.

Actually, I had my incubator the last 2 hatches at 101 F., and I had better hatching rates than I had doing the 99.5 F. as suggested. My flock is all Australorps, and my eggs are from them.

 

[Impatient]

Actually, I had my incubator the last 2 hatches at 101 F., and I had better hatching rates than I had doing the 99.5 F. as suggested. My flock is all Australorps, and my eggs are from them.

Yeah I've been aiming for 100.5-101F myself. I think a lot depends on your location. If you're getting eggs from hens used to heat their eggs seem to do better a little higher. Part of the issue with my last hatch was a temp spike of 104F. Still got a chick though! He's two weeks now, but still prefers being warmer at night. During the day he's all over the brooder, at night he likes to lay RIGHT under the heat lamp. Gets this super silly comfy face lol.

 

[BlueBaby]

Yeah I've been aiming for 100.5-101F myself. I think a lot depends on your location. If you're getting eggs from hens used to heat their eggs seem to do better a little higher. Part of the issue with my last hatch was a temp spike of 104F. Still got a chick though! He's two weeks now, but still prefers being warmer at night. During the day he's all over the brooder, at night he likes to lay RIGHT under the heat lamp. Gets this super silly comfy face lol.

Maybe it could also depend on what breed that you have, too? My eggs come from my own flock, so I am not trying to hatch out several different breeds at once. I just added 2 new layers to my flock this past Sunday (2 blacks and 1 blue Australorps), but they are still young, and the eggs aren't big enough to hatch yet.