i set at noon on april 22, and added 3 eggs the next day around noon. my first hatch! using a hovabator with egg turner and forced air fan.
i started with 42 eggs, all but 8 of which were from my hens. i was so pleased that only ONE of my eggs didn't develop due to infertility. i had shipped many of my black java eggs to others and had gotten good reports back about shipping, fertility, development and finally hatch rates, so i was excited to see what i could get.
i used a dry incubation method which seems to be best for folks in my general altitude range (i'm in extreme northwest arkansas, near the borders of oklahoma and kansas and missouri). the bator was in a room that abuts a room with an indoor pool, so humidity in the room stayed at around 50%, which seems to be ideal. we stayed around 35% (actually, between 30-40%), and only added water when we got down to 25% and stayed there for several hours. if we got above 40% i turned on the fan in the room and opened another of the vents.
at lockdown, at noon on day 18, i had 15 black javas from three hens, 3 brown leghornXjavas, 2 gold laced wyandotteXjavas, and 4 of my bluest egg laying EEXjavas. then i had the 7 shipped eggs which were AAs/EEs (running in the same pen, so we could get mixes or pure). 31 total. i resolved to not open the top for any reason--letting mother nature take her course, come what may, even if we lose a chick or two--and have kept humidity between 65-75%.
today, day 20, i woke to peeping and pipping. as of now, 9 eggs have pipped. 5 javas to add to my breeding stock, if they are of good quality...2 of my blue eggerXjava (hoping for olive eggers as the java has a very dark egg), and 2 of the shipped AA/EEs (which i thought were damaged due to shipping...the air sacs looked sideways!) i now have very high hopes to get at least 5 or 10 chicks.
pictures soon, i hope!
editing to add...two more pips as of noon...so we are up to 11.
