Wow! I'm off the site for a few days and so much action! Annmarie, you make me laugh! I love your description!! Congrats on what I hope is the first of many. Alas, our power went off here last night. It's bad enough with the heat outside and no air-conditioning. My eggs went into lockdown on Wednesday eve and 24-hrs. later, blam, the dreaded power failure. After 3 hrs. of waiting for the electric crews to find us, giving up on them, I bundled up my incubator and drove 30 minutes to the first available hotel. Temps in bator were still in 90's but the humidity had dropped. Geminy crikes!! Woke up at 4 a.m. and thought there was a bird loose in my room. I was out of that bed soo fast! Hadn't really woke up. It wasn't a bird in the room of course but 2 of my eggs were chirping. I was jumping around like an idiot thinking "they're not dead. My eggs are alive"!! Back home now with power back on. All through the day the chirping got fainter and fainter. I've read everything I could here about chirpy eggs and no hatch. Everyone has their own opinions. It came down to this: the ol' timers say chicks will hatch if they're supposed to. If they don't hatch, something was wrong. Mother Nature knows best so let her deal with the eggs. That's the advice I decided to follow. It might not be what I want to do, or even what other people chose to do. But I don't need sickly, scrawny chicks to take care of. I would be heart-broken if one or many had cross-beak or something else. I lost nearly a dozen eggs from one breeder in the first candling. This experience has been a myriad of lows and highs. This is not my first hatch but it's the first with all bought eggs. Most of us know the insecurity of dealing with eggs that shipped from several states away. I doubt I will do it again but I'm already wondering "how can I get some so-and-so chicks"!! So anyway, tomorrow eve will be my day 21 and I still have hopes that something will happen. ChicksinPR, I enjoyed your picture. Had to look for a few seconds to see the chick, I saw the opened egg right off. It's really interesting to see what others do and how they do it, etc. I don't think I could get a picture. My bator view window is covered with moisture but the humidity is a perfect 80% so I don't wanna lift that thing up for awhile. I'll sure take pictures if I get some chicks but that will be 24 hrs. after the last egg hatches. Please keep us up to date as we love to hear from you. Good luck everyone!
