setting eggs tonight!! anyone else?

[LaynaDon95]

Glad you could join us, Cali!
I'll be looking forward to your candling pics!

Corg, what exactly are blood rings?
And I'm sorry you had some.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Those pictures (LaynaDon and Corg) were just awesome. I'm very 'visual' so seeing those veins with the dark spot of the developing chick WAS worth 'a thousand words' like they say! I do hope mine develop too. Of course, what I would do with 16 chickens...I don't know!!!!

Hmmm, I could always sell some of the chicks (around Easter) and earn back what I spent (er, what my DH spent rather)!!!

Corg, I've heard of blood rings too and know they aren't good.

Would you be willing to post a picture of one of your eggs that had one (or did you already toss it)? Thanks

 

[Corg33]

I have already tossed the eggs and did not take pics. Here is a pic of what I saw when I opened the egg (not my pic), scroll about half way down the page. From my understanding blood rings are caused by bacteria and can spread to other eggs if you do not take them out. If this other one turns out to be a blood ring I will take some pics and post them.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/1st-egg-incubating-experience

 

[Corg33]

If y'all have not checked this out DO SO NOW

They have a contest, if you like and share their facebook page on your page you are enteredd to win 6+ eggs.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/623131/free-6-batch-of-hatching-eggs-facebook-users-look

 

[CALI CHICK]

What a stressful night here - and I didn't even put the eggs in the incubator yet, thankfully. Remember I said I'd set them either at night or in the morning? My gut said "wait" since they are still pretty fresh. The oldest egg was laid last Friday 1/20 and the rest are mostly from January 24 and January 25. So I waited.

Around midnight last night our power went out. This never happens! When I called the utility company the automated voice said an outage was in our area affecting 80,000 people and was expected to go back on at 4 AM.

All I could think of was, "What if I'd set the eggs last night?" The power actually went back on at 1:30 AM. When I checked the incubator, the temperature had dropped to 72*.

Now, I'm afraid to put the eggs in the 'bator'....

 

[Corg33]

Great thing you trusted your gut. Now get those eggs in! If it happens again you can put a heat lamp over it or wrap it in a towel or use heat packs.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Thank you, Corg. *sigh...I'm drained! My confidence level is very low and I feel like I'm going to fail at hatching these little eggs. How can you stand this for 3 weeks?

I sure wish I had a broody chicken to do this instead of me.

We DID put the eggs in and I'm trying to get the temp back up to 99 or 100.
The eggs are just laying on their sides and I'll have to hand turn them in this old Brower 845 incubator. Now I'm wondering if I should put them in egg cartons or just leave them be? Trust me, I've been reading threads and comparing opinions for weeks, but when it's the real thing...I've turned into a basket case!

 

[Corg33]

I hand turned my first set for a week at 3pm 11pm and 7am before I got the turner. If I had to do that again I think I would use the carton to make it easier.
You are not going to fail! You are going to have cute fuzzy butts at the end of this!
I can NOT stand it! I walk by and look in the incubator hundreds of times a day and soon as it gets dark my flashlight comes out. My belly is in knots over these shipped eggs. I put in 31, threw out 2 blood rings last night and think I have another. Then the 11 that looked clear still look clear. I think tonight I might be cracking some of them open. Thats over a 1/3 of my eggs bad.

 

[LaynaDon95]

I dropped one of my developing eggs last night while turning... It cracked and so I opened it. (stupid idea) It had an eyeball and everything.

I has a sad now. :'( It was already starting to look like a chick.

 

[CALI CHICK]

This is for both of us! I'm glad to have hatching buddies that are likewise going crazy.

I am checking the incubator every 5 minutes too. LOL - Since I homeschool, it's between subjects or when my son is working on math problems or just every excuse to peek at the eggs!

I'm still trying to stabilize the incubator temp. It keeps going b/n 99 and 102. I'm moving the lid around (that's where the coils/heat source are) because I might have hot spots, but I'm not sure how to keep an even temp throughout the incubator....or if that's even possible with this incubator?

I forgot that you were using shipped eggs as well. That does increase the gamble, doesn't it? Maybe wait until day 7 before tossing the "clear-looking" ones. Is this day 5 or 6 for you?