Setting eggs in incubator May 3rd...Anyone with me?

[melina90]

Started out with 35 - this is my second attempt with shipped eggs - my first batch didn't hatch at all, they died in the shell during lock down and had terrible saddle shaped air cells. I'm trying a different approach to this batch. The first couple of days in the incubator I didn't turn them, hoping that the air cells would reattach. Some of the air cells have a slight saddle shape to them, but the rest look pretty good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Mine are awfully saddle shaped too. Some of them are even beyond saddle shaped, stretching out like a flower or a star from the top of the egg down to the sides... I'm not going to put them in a strict lockdown though, I know they'll probably need help... Hoping yours hatch well for you!

I caved to temptation and candled a few. It was hard to tell what i saw. All the ones I saw except the BCM eggs had an air cell and a dark mass, which I hope were healthy chicks growing right along! But maybe they were all bad. I really don't know! I may candle some more tomorrow. (Fingers crossed!)

Fingers crossed they were all baby peeps!

 

[DiamondDust]

I caved to temptation and candled a few. It was hard to tell what i saw. All the ones I saw except the BCM eggs had an air cell and a dark mass, which I hope were healthy chicks growing right along! But maybe they were all bad. I really don't know! I may candle some more tomorrow. (Fingers crossed!)

Most likely the dark mass you are seeing is developing chicks! The BCM eggs may be too dark for you to see the air cells well. It sounds very encouraging for your eggs!

I did find one egg that looks to be a clear but I am going to leave it alone for now. As long as none of the eggs start weeping I plan to leave them in there until lockdown. Then I will candle them and take out any that look clear.

I hope everyone is having a good incubation so far!

 

[TheDownyChick]

I candled some more just now, and I saw movement in several! Wee hoo! What a lovely Mother's Day gift to know I have little peeps growing! I also saw what i think might have been a blood ring. Fortunately, only one, though. This is so educational.

 

[Mamahumecky]

culled 5 eggs of my um like 34 there is one more i'm pretty sureneeds culling but since i am not 100% on I won't do anything with it. oneinfertile the others were blood rings =o( but the rest in the bator all seem to be cookin like they should one more week and i should have some babies

 

[Cotton42]

So far I've resisted the urge to candle. I'll probably do it today, but most of my eggs are from BCM so who knows if I'll be able to see anything or not.

 

[hatchling66]

Hi, I'm new to chickens altogether. I started 20 eggs in the incubator on 4th may so due on 25th. I set 4 BCM, 4BO, 4GLW, 4LA and 4LS.
All the GLW are clear which is disappointing as they are so pretty but the rest seem to be doing well. So far I candled on day 5 and 8 and I have all LS doing well, all BO OK although one egg is really porous. One of the LA is clear and one had a blood ring so I had to cull that one, felt sad but sure it was dead.
The other 2 LA's look good and active and 3 of the 4 BCM's look good but harder to see so fingers crossed.
Really exciting and interesting to read all your stories so thought I'd join your hatchalong if that's ok?

 

[DiamondDust]

Hi, I'm new to chickens altogether. I started 20 eggs in the incubator on 4th may so due on 25th. I set 4 BCM, 4BO, 4GLW, 4LA and 4LS.
All the GLW are clear which is disappointing as they are so pretty but the rest seem to be doing well. So far I candled on day 5 and 8 and I have all LS doing well, all BO OK although one egg is really porous. One of the LA is clear and one had a blood ring so I had to cull that one, felt sad but sure it was dead.
The other 2 LA's look good and active and 3 of the 4 BCM's look good but harder to see so fingers crossed. 
Really exciting and interesting to read all your stories so thought I'd join your hatchalong if that's ok?

Welcome to our hatch-along thread! Are your eggs from your own flock or are they shipped? Sounds like this group is a mixed bunch so far. I have only shipped eggs this year because I lost my roo in January. Hope your hatch goes well!

DD

 

[hatchling66]

Hi, thanks for response. My eggs are from local smallholding about a mile away so only a 5 minute journey to home. The incubator is hired from them too and is fully automatic so not much to do really but watch and wait. They estimate an 80 to 90 percent hatch rate but i'm not sure we're going to do as well as that. So far so good though.
Candling all of them later today, still can't bring myself to take out clear ones, pretty sure now they're not doing anything though. Maybe i'll take them out on day 14.
Very hard to resist candling, so exciting to see little claws waving about! This is so exciting! Think I'm going to move further from town to get more land.
We don't have as much space as you do in the states.
Good luck with yours.

 

[Jordi15]

Hi! I set 12 eggs on April 30th, in our homemade incubator, to see if my bantam roo was able to "get the job done" with my regular sized hens. Candled on day 10 and only one (from an ameraucana hen) was fertile so I tossed the rest. Candled on day 12 and my baby fuzzy butt is alive and well... Lockdown is Saturday! Hopefully I have a chickie by monday. This is my first time hatching eggs and for the first 8 days the egg was in a cardboard box with a lightbulb and wet sponges (while we were building the other incubator.) So it pretty much spent half its time in a still air and half in a forced air incubator... And so far so good.

 

[schmockl]

Candled eggs tonight. Culled three more. Two with blood rings and one that started to develop and then quit. The rest look pretty good.