Setting Eggs on the 27th...

[BYC910]

I'm still awake here if the chick is moving around clean its butt if you have iodine put some on its navel. others might not agree with this I've been in and out of my incubator a lot today .helped two hatch. I got Maran eggs from a long time breeder last year who helped me through the hatch he told if they pip it is ok to take them out. because my incubators are crap I do it more than not .feather dusters incubator must be a really good one . I'm hatching my own eggs this year ,so i picked the best ones and added eggs every day until they were full. I put down 5 eggs toady at noon went back at 2 this afternoon one of them had piped and started to zipped. they were put in on the 29th one from the 27th hatched and one from the 28th if you do the math there 1 2&3 days early I had one yesterday marked the 28th I candled to put down to hatch I could see it was trying to pip but could not break the shell so I took it out it was so weak all day it could not stand. now its climbing on eggs with the other 2 one is very weak going back to check on them now'

 

[MyNameIs86]

I think someone might be right about it being part of the egg. I just hope the person's right. Here's a picture of the incubator, the color in question is circled:



Not sure if you can tell what the color is of, Blood or egg shell membrane?

this little guy decided to try to hatch without zipping all the way around and so i decided to step in a little and help it hatch every so often i would peel egg shell off until i saw he/she was able to get the rest off by himself or herself... genders are not known yet.

 

[MyNameIs86]

I just checked the temp and humidity and it got to 87 humidity. I am curious if this is good or bad. I unplugged the vents but scared I would shrink wrap the eggs

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I just checked the temp and humidity and it got to 87 humidity. I am curious if this is good or bad. I unplugged the vents but scared I would shrink wrap the eggs

87% is fine. I've had mine hit over 90% when a few chicks hatch all at once. With the chicks being wet they produce more surface area of water therefore the humidity will shoot up. As they start to dry and fluff up it will come back down. Unplugging vents is also fine. I have mine fully open as oxygen is critical to the chicks at this stage. They are learning to breathe air rather than live in a liquid environment.

Good luck

 

[dreamer5577]

Still waiting on my eggs..

Saw rocking eggs yesterday and heard peeping this morning.

Hopefully this means I'll be getting new arrivals soon.

 

[WVduckchick]

All so exciting! Good luck everybody.

I'm only on day 14. Candled and weighed mine this morning. All 14 doing great! Moving great, air cells look fine, eggs filling up! I do have 2 that are somewhat smaller eggs, and the air cells look a little small, but I'm hoping they are just small chicks. Overall I'm happy. One more week..... uuuuuugggghhhh

 

[Feather duster]

After I got out of work this morning I went to TSC and picked up chick starter and a spare light bulb. Came home and tended to my big girls,which they had already started to pay their rent with a couple of eggs. I usually get seven or eight a day. Then I got the new girls & boys out of the incubator and put them in the brooder. I introduced each one to water & feed. They started drinking & eating rate away. There appears to be no deformities and all look. healthy & lively.








I also have a video, but I don't have a you tube account. It seems funny to have chicks again after just tending to the big girls for a year.I hope these Partridge Rocks do as well as the Barred Rocks because they seem to be egg laying machines. I'll have to play with the heat lamp to get it just the right temp for the chicks. Now I'm going to have to get off my butt and build a growing out coop and pen. It won't take them long to out grow my brooders. I also got to get my incubator all cleaned up and sanitized before I put it away.

 

[BYC910]

Is your incubator in homemade incubator thread I would like to know more about it your hatch rate is awesome .wish mine was that good. congrats. on a job well done.

 

[Feather duster]

Is your incubator in homemade incubator thread I would like to know more about it your hatch rate is awesome .wish mine was that good. congrats. on a job well done.

No not yet , but one of these days I'll have to do that. I have some pictures of it on page 3. I think what ever you make it out of has to be well insulated, with good ventilation , Plenty of heat sinks, forced air which also helps with ventilation. My fan ran on 12v during first 18 days, then for hatching I ran it on 5v to slow it down so it wouldn't dry the eggs out. I just used two 60 watt light bulbs for the heat source. I'm not a fan of the water heater thermostats. I used the STC - 1000 temp. controller which is readily available on ebay for about twenty bucks. After I built mine I put it through a two week shake down and really learned all the ins and outs of how it worked. I don't think any two homemade incubators will act the same. But also I got to tell you shipped eggs are a real big gamble and I think I really lucked out with the eggs I received from Meyer Hatchery. And then there's the postal service to deal with. You never know whats going to happen on their end. I did a semi dry incubation keeping my humidity between 30 & 35 % .I had to add a little water everyday to maintain that,because I have a wood stove. Then when it came time for lockdown I jacked the humidity up between 70 & 75 %. I forgot to mention I used a automatic egg turner and maintained my temperature at 99.5 for the whole twenty-one days. I candled eggs on days 7,14, and 18 washing hands before and after, and wearing latex exam gloves. That's the only time I touched the eggs.after setting them. Who knows, next year could be a complete bust.

 

[MyNameIs86]

Update on my Chicks/Eggs:


Right now it is 6:40pm on Day 21. This morning I woke up to 4 chicks. I went to the farm where I got the chicks for food and got 2 bags of food. I think there's at least 1 pound of feed in each.
I also stopped at a pet store and got a reptile basking light for the heat lamp. It's a 50W. Wasn't sure whether or not to go for the 50 or the 75 so I stuck with the lower watts. Hmm. When I got home, I filled the feed bottle and water bowls with water and feed (along with stones in the water, so my babies don't drown).

I still have 3 eggs in the incubator. I didn't see any pips, so I decided to turn them over and was delighted to see they were pipping on the unseen part.
Two of my babies have a pasty butt. It's black in color and somewhat hard. What do I do with them? do i put their butts under warm water and take the black off? or just leave them alone? Next time I incubate I will leave the incubator at 102 because this hatch was between 99-102. I don't like pasty butts.

Anyway...I also have heating pad on the bottom which is warm since the lamp doesn't project heat that reaches the bottom too good but somewhat reaches the bottom.
Whats an update with your group of chicks?