Setting Eggs tonight, May 1st. . . anyone else??

[BLaBauve]

My Ameraucana eggs came from Washington to Georgia, and not one was broken. Amazing. A few of my Orp eggs were broken, even though they were packaged well. The Orps must have had a rough trip!

 

[JestersEye]

Hi

I set eggs in two different 'bators a while back and just candled the first batch. Somehow I made myself hold out until now, in the hopes of limiting the handling of the eggs and increae their chances. Anyway, I set 20 Giant Blue Cochin eggs, purchased from a local backyard breeder, in a Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco. I started incubating on the evening of April 14th, which makes them 16 days along tonight. After candling, I had to remove 6 eggs that were either clear or had stopped developing early on. Btw, I recently bought an autoturn cradle for this incubator but have only been using it during the last few days. Before that, we had to turn the unit by hand.

I set another batch of eggs in a Brower Top Hatch incubator (which has a built-in auto turner) on April 22nd, so they are only on Day 8. This batch contains 14 Blue *Laced" Andalusian eggs and 8 Blue Orpington eggs, which were purchased from Julie at Gabbard Farms. I have 3 Blue Orps (a roo and 2 hens) that I hatched from her eggs, and they are awesome, in both looks and personality! I still haven't candled these eggs, since it can be difficult to decide how they're developing this early. Instead, I've decided to hold off until the viability of the eggs are more readily apparant, so I really only have to handle the eggs once before lockdown. I'll let you know how things progress on both batches as hatch day approaches. I'm starting to get excited now, so I'd love to have some interested folks to share it all with...

 

[BLaBauve]

You'll have peeps before you know it!! Do you have any pictures of your blue orps?

 

[JestersEye]

Quote:
Yes, I sure do!

Here they are when they were only a few weeks old, taken in early December.

This is what they look like now at 5 months old, taken just last weekend.

Here is a pic of my son with his favorite rooster, the same sweet roo from the trio above.

The blue roo's name is Ash, while his blue hen is called Smoke and his black hen is dubbed Cinder.
(We like using names with a common theme for each group and breed of chickens we own.)

 

[mags2009]

I just woke up and noticed that the bators humidity is about 35%. Too low right? I guess I will have to add water, but I don't want to keep having to open the bator every day to add it. BUt I guess I will have too???

BTW, I got my eggs from Julie at Gabbard Farms too!!!

 

[BLaBauve]

Pretty Orps! I have some blue/splash in the bator now!

Mags - Do you have a vent hole where you can put aquarium tubing in? That's how I get water in. My humidity stays around 40% the first 18 days. I never let it get too high.

 

[mags2009]

yes, there are holes. How would I get the water in using the tubing. I even have some tubing!

 

[BLaBauve]

I'm not familiar with your bator, but you'd run the tubing to water reservoir. You use a syringe to get water into the tube. Another option is to put a sponge below your vent hole and run the tubing to it and soak with water when needed.

 

[chickenhousesplus]

Setting 24 Golden Comets, 8 Pheasants, 12 Rhode Island Reds and for the first time 12 Cubalaya Game Chickens. Hope I spelled that right. All hatching in a two Hova Bator Incubators. Waiting on my Brinsea Incubator to arrive so I can set my bantams.

 

[suzettex5]

This is my first set of eggs I have bought and had shipped to me. I have a quickie question for any of you who have more experience than I- When can I candle and actually see any obvious development? My eggs are kinda dark, but I dont know really waht to look for this early. When I first set them some had no visible air cell, some looked thinner at one end compared to the other end (I candled day of arrival, by thinner I mean light shown through very easily) and I think they looked kinda porous, or like they had lots of tiny spots that the light shown through easier. They are Jersey Giant eggs, so most are fairly dark, I hope that most of my issues are a color thing.

Also (I totally lied about this being a quickie, LOL) Should I be able to see the yolk, or a darker area floating around, or should it hold still? Will air cells show up later? These eggs traveled 4 days to get to me so I have alot of concerns...

Please help me!!