Setting Eggs on 2/26 (now with pictures)

[teamsunbelt]

The last hatch I had, I started with filling a resevoir in my 1588 with water. I never added another drop until lockdown. I have a sponge in each resevoir, and I fill them all up. Gets it to 70%, no higher than 80%. I hatched 18 of the 19 eggs. I am trying that again this time. My incubator is in the garage, and does not seem to be affected by the weather. I holds the temp dead on and the humidity gradually falls.

 

[kahlua]

It is now day 5 and it looks like 17 of my 24 are/were developing. The rest I am not sure about - either there's nothing there, or the shells are too thick to see though. Unfortunately I had a spike in temp last night and lost 2 for sure, so far the others seem okay so far, but I'm not sure how quickly they'd show a blood ring. I am having some trouble keeping my incubator steady and am constantly checking and adjusting it I'm afraid to sleep now!! But other than last night I think I'm doing okay.

 

[daniduck]

I have had no luck in the past in attempting to candle Marans eggs, they are just two dark for me to make a guess on. So I'm going to leave them all be except adding water a time or two.

 

[teamsunbelt]

My understanding is that a temp spike of a short period does not harm the eggs. The eggs are very dense, and it takes time to raise the temp as well as lower the temp. This seems especially true if the incubator is full.

Also, I found when i used my LG incubator, to get the temp set, and do not touch it. If you make an adjustment, you would need to wait for quite sometime to see where it settled out at.

 

[just2rosey]

I candled today and I think my fertility is way down.

I have more hens than one rooster can cover. I knew this could potentially be a problem for me. I had my rooster locked in the coop with my four Ameraucana hens for my last hatch and had 100% fertility. After I set those eggs I went back to free ranging everyone and now my roo is turned out with 16 hens, and I think I only have 9 out of 24 eggs fertile. Pitiful, that's only about a 35% fertility rate.

I was hoping he would have developed a preference for the girls he had been locked up with, but he hasn't he actually prefers the red sexlinks.

I will have to lock them back up together again before I set eggs again.

 

[kahlua]

I candled again today...there were definitely 5 that weren't fertile, and 2 quitters. There are some that I'm not sure about yet - they were definitely developing but I'm not sure if they still are. And there are several that are looking good.
The temp has been better in my incubator. The one night I lost 2, it spiked up to 106. I'm not sure how long it was that high for. But since then it's been better. Still not totally steady but nothing extreme. I just have a styrofoam cooler with a light bulb and dimmer so it is crude. I am going to make a "real" cooler with a thermostat and fan for my next hatch. I found lots of good threads on making one on this forum and my husband will do the wiring. I really hope some of these guys will hatch, I think I'm getting attached already!!

 

[mabhera]

I candled last night. Seems i have some developing ok. hard to identify in all of them because they are so dark (black cooper marans). I checked the lighter ones. in some I saw movement, in some a dark mass...in some nothing.. But failed to see the air cell in all. when you are suposed to start to see the air cell? I'm dry hatching so I add no water. Still the humidity is around 40%.

 

[mabhera]

Hello:

If you started your hatching february 26 then you have reached 1/3 of the waiting time. So congratulations. If not, youll get there too!!!. Cant' wait to see them hatch.

 

[Barbedwirecat]

Sounds like you are doing good! You should be able to see the air cell on day 1 (Even if they are infertile). However your eggs are REALLY DARK so I wouldn't expect you to be able to see anything. You'll have to take a guess pretty much, unless you have a really powerful candler. I don't toss any eggs till day 10 even with bloodrings unless they start to smell. Make sure to do a sniff test, you'll know if you have a bad one. You could try weighing the eggs to see if they are losing mass every day.

 

[mabhera]

I need a digital scale. As soon as i find one i''l be taking their weight . You are right....with eggs this dark is a miracle i can see "something" inside with my flash light. i'll keep rotating them and checking the temperatures and the humidity. Positive thinking also works. So i should stop worrying and enjoy the process. . thanks.