setting eggs tomorrow.... 3-21-12 who wants to join?

[rgvchicks]

welcome to the party......

.....lockdown on moday....hatch date on wed......all anxious....this is my 5th hatch since feb.....and i always go thru all the emotions.....lol....dont get tired of it .....

I guess I should jump in here, I set a bunch on March 21, it's a mixed batch of BLR Wyandottes, purebred Aracuana, Ameracauanas, 1 Spitzhauben, and 1 Light Brahma.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Candled for the final time before lockdown tonight. Since candling is easier at night and we go into lockdown tomorrow I wanted to do a final check on the eggs. Of the 18 eggs I have left, I saw babies moving in all but 3. And those 3 were too dark to see anything in. Air sacs are a good size in all the eggs and all of the eggs seem to have good veining. I went out and bought shelf liner this afternoon to put down so that clean up is easier and faster. We'll remove all the eggs tomorrow briefly, fill the water troughs in the bottom to get humidity up, and put the shelf liner in to start lockdown.

 

[DirtCreature]

if you increase the surface area of the water in your bator, it should bring the humidity up. Are you having the humidity at 65-70% the whole 1-18th day(s)...? or just for lockdown?

I have the new hovabator. The temp has ranged from 99.8 to 100.5. It seems pretty stable. Right now I am trying to get the humidity beyond 60%. I want about 65 to 70 %. I have heard that is good. This is my first try. Wish me lots of luck and lots of luck to you all. I also have a hen setting on the same age eggs. It will be interesting to see how all this works out. Gloria Jean

 

[DirtCreature]

I guess I should jump in here, I set a bunch on March 21, it's a mixed batch of BLR Wyandottes, purebred Aracuana, Ameracauanas, 1 Spitzhauben, and 1 Light Brahma.

WELCOME!

what is a spitzhauben!?

 

[DirtCreature]

We built our homemade incubator tonight, we bought the IncuKit after I did some reading and relised it had great reviews. Its pretty cool I must say. LOL. I will post pictures of it on sunday, it will be done then and my first batch of staggered hatches will go into lockdown in that, and then the brooder and then the second batch the same.

Ours is in a coleman cooler. I would like to rebuild it into a wooden insulated shipping crate after a while, but this kit we bought, its basically 1-2 mins and you have an incubator. really cool.

Thanks for the response! Been trying to keep my eggs right at 99.5, but there have been a couple times including this morning where it has run up to 105 degrees... Humidity has been right at 40-50% for most of the time. Have been going on lockdown on day 18 and raising the humidity to 80-90%. Last time I had 14 pip, 8 that actually hatched, and 5 that survived the first week. Ironically, most of my eggs should be purebread New Hampshires, all of the ones that have survived have been black sex links/black stars.

Eggs, are ones that cam from my chickens... Have a New Hampshire Red Rooster, 5 NHR hens, one white rock hen, a black star, and two barred rock hens...

I know that the temperature has been a big issue... have been trying to keep it constant with my dimmer switch, but it is very sensitive, and the slightest bump will cause it to go up or down. I think for the next round I am going to move the dimmer switch to the back or side of the incubator where my curious 5 year old boys, yellow lab, my knee, etc, cant bump it anymore. Am also considering building a bigger, cabinet type incubator...

Thanks,

TJ

 

[DirtCreature]

This is my first hatch! I love doing this, but i have to admit, it would be easier if i already had chickens to begin with, but my coop is empty, it makes the wait even LONGER!

welcome to the party......

.....lockdown on moday....hatch date on wed......all anxious....this is my 5th hatch since feb.....and i always go thru all the emotions.....lol....dont get tired of it .....

 

[crazyhen]

This is my first time too. Even though I see that they are developed greatly I am afraid the whole time that I have done something wrong. Talk about emotions. I walk by the bator at least 20 times a day and look at the temp and hum. So far I think its good. I am one day into lock down with a humidity of 67-70. Oh I hope I have not done anything wrong to them. Mon is my day of reconing. Yikes!!!!

I am scared to pieces. Gloria jean

 

[DirtCreature]

This is my first time too. Even though I see that they are developed greatly I am afraid the whole time that I have done something wrong. Talk about emotions. I walk by the bator at least 20 times a day and look at the temp and hum. So far I think its good. I am one day into lock down with a humidity of 67-70. Oh I hope I have not done anything wrong to them. Mon is my day of reconing. Yikes!!!!

I am scared to pieces. Gloria jean

I think that they will be OK! Besides, quit worrying about them and think about how excited you will be when they start hatching! ITS ALMOST TIME!

 

[kuntrygirl]

This is my first time too.  Even though I see that they are developed greatly I am afraid the whole time that I have done something wrong.  Talk about emotions. I walk by the bator at least 20 times a day and look at the temp and hum.  So far I think its good.  I am one day into lock down with a humidity of 67-70.  Oh I hope I have not done anything wrong to them.  Mon is my day of reconing.   Yikes!!!!  I am scared to pieces.  Gloria jean

Same thing happened to me. It seems like every day the temps were off by 1 or so and I was always playing with the temps. I hope I didn't mess it up. The temps were always between 99 - 100. It never got above 100.

 

[kuntrygirl]

This is my first time too.  Even though I see that they are developed greatly I am afraid the whole time that I have done something wrong.  Talk about emotions. I walk by the bator at least 20 times a day and look at the temp and hum.  So far I think its good.  I am one day into lock down with a humidity of 67-70.  Oh I hope I have not done anything wrong to them.  Mon is my day of reconing.   Yikes!!!!  I am scared to pieces.  Gloria jean

I think that they will be OK! Besides, quit worrying about them and think about how excited you will be when they start hatching! ITS ALMOST TIME!

Lockdown for me was last night. I have my fingers crossed.