Setting 8/12 any buddies

[farmgirlforever18]

JohnCT- Glade to here you made it thru without any power outages

OMG i need it to be hatch day i don’t think i can wait tell Friday

I need something to get my mind of the eggs

 

[eggdd]

i moved the eggs to the hatching incubator this evening. i candled them while in transit. of the 11 silver penciled rocks, 5 of them had moving chicks inside. of the 11 marans, well, i don't know. they're too dark. so, i have 16 eggs in the hatching incubator, and i'm anxiously waiting their arrival. i hope they all hatch.

all the eggs were shipped and i suspect they had a hard go of it - - there were 4 eggs smashed when the package arrived (wrapped in a clear trash bag courtesy of the shipping company).

we'll see!

 

[ladycutter]

I'd like to share something that I discovered. When candling my shipped egg last night it dawned on me that the air cell is perfect! I have never seen, in all the shipped eggs I have hatched this summer, an air cell this good. They are always large and irregular from the air cell being ruptured from rough handling by the post office. After reading on some other sites some tips on getting better hatches out of shipped eggs, this time I let my eggs sit for 2 whole days before starting them, then after I put them in the incubator, I waited a whole other day before turning on the turner. Looks like the extra time allowed the air cell to go back to normal clap I just won an Ebay auction for 8+ bantam Polish eggs that are coming from Kansas to me in California next week and I am going to try this again with them and see if I get the same result.

This is very interesting, I am curious to find out what you discover and Thanks for sharing that! I let my shipped eggs set for about 30 hours before setting but I did turn the turner on when I put them in. I don't have much experience looking at air cell's yet so I couldn't tell you if mine are good or not, I am guessing they are average for shipped eggs.

I am trying my first hatch with shipped eggs and I am really confused by what I saw when I candled today, some fairly clear eggs with veining and movement and other eggs that you can't see through! All are light brown or cream colored on the outside and some are porous as well.

I go to lockdown Wednesday night at midnight and I have all Sussex (light, coronation, buff, silver and 2 possible reds) and 1 Serama sent for a friend...most of the light colored birds don't look as dark but then one of the light's looks dark and another doesn't...but that could be a mismarked egg as I got a light chick out of a shell that was marked Buff on a previous batch my friend hatched for me and there was only 1 chick out of 12 eggs)

I have pulled 4 bad eggs so far and started with 21 eggs (these were replacement eggs for the 2 previous batches with 1 chick hatches), three looked 1/2 hard boiled and one had black goo inside and smelled like sulphur once I opened it , but I pulled these because they had just started to leak and had what I call shadow cracks in them when they arrived so I was watching them closely, nothing else has leaked or smelled so I left them all in there.

Is there that much discrepancy between chicks that some eggs would look black and others would look only half grown? The Sussex are a pretty large breed (these are from the Australian imported lines originating back to greenfire farms and I am wondering if they just develop slower and if they do should I put off lockdown for a day or so? The breeder won't respond to my emails anymore, perhaps I asked too many questions or they are too busy (I can relate) but I am not sure what to think of this and any input would be appreciated!

With no other feedback my guess would be to go into lockdown on day 18 as planned and if they seem to be taking longer to hatch than normal (some of them anyway, then I will be prepared to open the bator and get dried chicks out after 48 hours (the most they can go after hatching I read) and leave the rest longer to see what happens...I have them in a bathroom with the light off and the door open (for fresh air to circulate in) and it has no windows in it but I could crank up the hot water and get it nice and steamy in there and bring the humidity up before opening the bator to try and keep the humidity from dropping very much..not sure what else to try but it would be worth a shot if they seem to continue to develop as they have been even though some appear to be slower than others.

The Silver Sussex chick I have that is about 3 weeks old that a friend hatched for me from the first batch (lone chick from 10 eggs) is taking a long time to feather out but her body is getting much larger than the speckled I got from the feed store to keep her company and the speckled has lots of feathers, the Silver is few days older than the speckled and I have read that the Large Sussex take longer to mature for table birds also so that might make sense...

Anyway, almost time for lockdown (I think anyway) and it is getting exciting now ! ! ! ! !

I am with FarmGirl, it is going to be a VERY LONG 36 hours!!!!​

 

[chickee]

Quote:
This is very interesting, I am curious to find out what you discover and Thanks for sharing that! I let my shipped eggs set for about 30 hours before setting but I did turn the turner on when I put them in. I don't have much experience looking at air cell's yet so I couldn't tell you if mine are good or not, I am guessing they are average for shipped eggs.

I am trying my first hatch with shipped eggs and I am really confused by what I saw when I candled today, some fairly clear eggs with veining and movement and other eggs that you can't see through! All are light brown or cream colored on the outside and some are porous as well.

I go to lockdown Wednesday night at midnight and I have all Sussex (light, coronation, buff, silver and 2 possible reds) and 1 Serama sent for a friend...most of the light colored birds don't look as dark but then one of the light's looks dark and another doesn't...but that could be a mismarked egg as I got a light chick out of a shell that was marked Buff on a previous batch my friend hatched for me and there was only 1 chick out of 12 eggs)

I have pulled 4 bad eggs so far and started with 21 eggs (these were replacement eggs for the 2 previous batches with 1 chick hatches), three looked 1/2 hard boiled and one had black goo inside and smelled like sulphur once I opened it , but I pulled these because they had just started to leak and had what I call shadow cracks in them when they arrived so I was watching them closely, nothing else has leaked or smelled so I left them all in there.



Is there that much discrepancy between chicks that some eggs would look black and others would look only half grown? The Sussex are a pretty large breed (these are from the Australian imported lines originating back to greenfire farms and I am wondering if they just develop slower and if they do should I put off lockdown for a day or so? The breeder won't respond to my emails anymore, perhaps I asked too many questions or they are too busy (I can relate) but I am not sure what to think of this and any input would be appreciated!

With no other feedback my guess would be to go into lockdown on day 18 as planned and if they seem to be taking longer to hatch than normal (some of them anyway, then I will be prepared to open the bator and get dried chicks out after 48 hours (the most they can go after hatching I read) and leave the rest longer to see what happens...I have them in a bathroom with the light off and the door open (for fresh air to circulate in) and it has no windows in it but I could crank up the hot water and get it nice and steamy in there and bring the humidity up before opening the bator to try and keep the humidity from dropping very much..not sure what else to try but it would be worth a shot if they seem to continue to develop as they have been even though some appear to be slower than others.

The Silver Sussex chick I have that is about 3 weeks old that a friend hatched for me from the first batch (lone chick from 10 eggs) is taking a long time to feather out but her body is getting much larger than the speckled I got from the feed store to keep her company and the speckled has lots of feathers, the Silver is few days older than the speckled and I have read that the Large Sussex take longer to mature for table birds also so that might make sense...

Anyway, almost time for lockdown (I think anyway) and it is getting exciting now ! ! ! ! !

I am with FarmGirl, it is going to be a VERY LONG 36 hours!!!!

At this point (day 18) most (I can see into some better than others) of my eggs are dark and hard to see into. During previous hatches I have wondered if some of mine are developing as fast as others, but all of them have hatched within the 48 hour window at the most, so I wouldn't worry.

Good Luck! Can't wait to see your chickies! Silver Sussex chicks are adorable! I have never hatched Partridge colored Wyandottes (my one egg that survived being smashed from a poor packing job) so I am excited to see what the chick will look like

 

[Shayna]

Tomorrow night is lockdown for me. Last night, Day 16, I opened the incubator and shined a light in the tops of the 5 eggs I believe to be most promising. At this point I can't see much, mostly dark and a few veins visible, and the air cell at top. I no longer can detect movement. Is this normal towards the end of Day 16 when the eggs are getting full? I find it a little concerning because at least two of the eggs I would see a lot of movement in up until a day ago. Now it's very hard to see in them.

They did look pretty much exactly like the Day 16 pictures in this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261876
It's just the movement I wonder about. Is it normal to see a decrease in movement towards lockdown time?

 

[chickee]

Quote:
Yes, decreased movement is normal. As long as you see good veining (veins are first to disappear when the embryo dies) the chicks are fine

 

[Karen09]

Today is the day! I have 5 pipped in the incubator already! Under my Ameraucana I heard 2 chicks - she got off the nest to get a drink of water and so I went and listened. She has never done well with the full waiting - she has only hatched out about 4 but she has been broody since March and will lay on eggs but if I move her to private place, she kicks the eggs out from under her and refuses to sit on them. So I left her in the big coop in a nesting box (3 feet in the air) and she has stayed on these for the 21 days (for the most part). The fact that 2 are ready is amazing. I plan on moving her once they hatch to a more private place. The other broody has the Stanleys, Copper and White Poppyseeds under her and I heard chirping in her private place. She has done an amazing job. As soon as I can, I am going to take pictures of hers. So close and yet,...

 

[Shayna]

Quote:
Thanks Chickee! That's really helpful info.

Karen09- Congrats on the hatching chicks!

 

[Cattitude]

Pics when you can!!!

 

[ladycutter]

Great on all accounts!

Thank you SO much chickee - I am getting ready to move the Serama egg to the LG bator and realized it is a forced air fan unit, so I have just matched the temp to the Hova-bator's (used one of the 4 thermometer's I had in the Hova so I know how to get the same temp there and am going for 60-65% humidity! I got the LG brand new with the turner off of CL's for $10 - that was my deal of the month for sure!

Can't wait to see and take picture's!

The Silver Sussex chick I already have is a cutie, she (I hope) is growing like a weed now and is almost bald in spots waiting for her feathers to finish coming in! I have the lamp in a spot where they can still come and go and they have access to the outside in a fenced area as well so they can hunt for bugs, eat grass, etc. but come back in when they need to get warmed up...yesterday and today were cool so they were inside most of the time until the sun came out a little bit..

My Sussex are going into lockdown tonight (as late as I am up - probably midnight) in the Hova-bator since the Serama will be in the LG, but I am going to put down the rubbermaid shelf lining for easier clean up!