Set My First Eggs This Afternoon! *Eeek* [Babies Due Friday, July 13th 2o12 --> Spooky!]

[WRVgirl]

My Silkie eggs from Catdance Silkies arrived early this morning! [Shout out to Karen at Catdance Silkies!!! I bought 12 eggs, and I received 22 ] and not only did she completely [and awesomely] load me down with eggs, she marked the colors of the parent chickens on the eggs [at least I think that's what the "BLK" "BU", "W", and "L" mean [black, buff, white, lavender?? Correct me if I'm wrong]

I highly recommend Catdance Silkies for ANYONE who wants to hatch silkies; her birds are BEAUTIFUL, the shipping was fast, and not a one egg was broken when it arrived! The price was MORE than fair and I am sooo excited to hatch these babies out!

I'm a complete nervous wreck right now. I ran the incubator all morning so that I could gauge the temperature in the house and the incubator itself. It seems pretty steady, even with the vent hole open.

Buuuuut...I can't stop running in to check on them! I'm so scared my temp is going to fluctuate and I'll end up with NO babies :/

I went to 3 tobacco shops looks for the humidity thermometer and finally found one [digital. $25 bucks] but it seems to be working great. It reads temp and humidity so hopefully with the 3 plain thermometers plus this digital one, I'll end up with a good hatch rate in the end.

The instructions said nothing about where to keep the humidity levels and I'm still not 100% sure how to raise and lower it. The instructions just say to add warm water to the humidity rings in the bottom of the tray...hopefully I'll figure it out. Any suggestions on how to raise the humidity after day 18???

Oh well, here are some pictures!


Eggs all unwrapped and marked with X & O's!


In the incubator with their 4 thermometers!


All Set and ready to GROW~!

 

[CayleeMarie03]

You Have the Same Incunbator as me. Well I am on day 19. Here is everything I have done. I have kept both vent holes out the whole time. just fill the rings with water at the bottum with a small cup or something similar. When you go into lockdown take like something kinda like a long surenge. Then just put it through the vent holes. Also add some small dishes of water in the corners to squirt water through the holes right above them. In the small dishes it really helps if you add a sponge sticking up about one inch high. Hope this helps. Good Luck With the Hatch!!

 

[Nsampsel]

What I have found on styrofoam bators (I'm running 2 of different brands) is that you don't really need to add any water at all until lockdown unless you are in a super dry climate. With 1 plug out my bators run about 30-45% with no water added until day 18. Then I fill 1-2 of the water wells at a time with hot water & see if I need to add more. Humidity shouldn't go above about 60-65% until the 1st pip, then it raises on it's own because of the wet chicks in the eggs drying. If humidity would happen to drop for any reason during active pip & hatching I lift the lid just enuf to get a spray bottle under it & mist the inside of the top of the bator (not the eggs) with hot water to raise it quickly.