Setting Feb 16, want to join in>Hatch-Along

[frankensusan]

Fixed it. So it looks like there is a slight amount of too much weight loss.
Question is, is it at a level to be concerned about, or should I carry on with the current temp/humidity that has got me to this point?
Susan



weight day 12 2/27
expected weight loss calculated weight loss difference

39.40​

3.21​

3.80​

-0.59
41.25​

3.34​

3.65​

-0.31
51.90​

4.23​

5.05​

-0.82
47.60​

3.81​

3.75​

0.06
59.70​

4.82​

5.20​

-0.38
46.90​

3.79​

4.10​

-0.31
56.35​

4.57​

5.20​

-0.63​

I forgot to say that I can't really go by air cell size as they were shipped and all have saddles or loose air cells. It is so thrilling to see them bobbing around in there. I'm crossing my fingers for them for hatch day.

Susan

 

[hokankai]

It looks pretty good so far. The eggs with less weight loss could have thicker shells, or they could have been older when you weighed them originally meaning they had already lost a little weight in storage. I'm doing mine a little differently, looking at percentage lost rather than the difference in weight so the chart is a little confusing to me, but it looks good so far.

I would maybe up the humidity juuuust a tad, but it's not too bad right now.

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

Frankensusan, I would up the humidity to slow down the weight loss. I weighed my eggs and monitored the weight loss the first time I incubated, and had a 87% hatch rate with local eggs. This time, I'm not weighing the eggs anymore, but just eyeballing the size of the air sac and adjusting humidity accordingly.

 

[Jmurph]

How long did you candle each egg for? Do you see veins? If you see veins it's still good. Sometimes they're sleeping and not bouncing around. If you shine your light long enough, they should start moving slightly

I thought I candled for what seemed like a long time, but then I am crazy weird about keeping the incubator open too long. The veining is good and very apparent in all of them. On a side note, I spent 25 years of my career as a high risk Obstetric Ultrasound Technologist, so I get a little weird when I don't see movement...lol. Funny, but in the "human" world...you would re-ultrasound again in 24 hours, because babies sleep, sometimes we even poke them to get them to react...in fact, there is even a little jolt that we give them ....no PRESSURE here. First time incubating and I feel like any one of the number of moms I scanned over the years.

I guess I get nervous because I see other's candling videos and they have a party going on in their eggs. Comparitively, my Polish eggs are moving significantly to the orpingtons...maybe becaue they are Bantams and may hatch a day earlier?
And My Pekin duck eggs that are incubating(day 20) start moving when I say..."Heeeeyyyyy little duckies". LOL...NO WHERE ELSE BUT HERE could I say this and have people know I am not joking when I say I do this.

 

[hokankai]

I thought I candled for what seemed like a long time, but then I am crazy weird about keeping the incubator open too long. The veining is good and very apparent in all of them. On a side note, I spent 25 years of my career as a high risk Obstetric Ultrasound Technologist, so I get a little weird when I don't see movement...lol. Funny, but in the "human" world...you would re-ultrasound again in 24 hours, because babies sleep, sometimes we even poke them to get them to react...in fact, there is even a little jolt that we give them ....no PRESSURE here. First time incubating and I feel like any one of the number of moms I scanned over the years.

I guess I get nervous because I see other's candling videos and they have a party going on in their eggs. Comparitively, my Polish eggs are moving significantly to the orpingtons...maybe becaue they are Bantams and may hatch a day earlier?
And My Pekin duck eggs that are incubating(day 20) start moving when I say..."Heeeeyyyyy little duckies". LOL...NO WHERE ELSE BUT HERE could I say this and have people know I am not joking when I say I do this.

I do the EXACT same thing, LOL. I get so excited and talk to them when I see them. I get that feeling of aw every time I candle. You can try candling them again to see if they are moving today. I had one of mine that wasn't moving and got that nervous feeling, but it suddenly jerked awake and started moving slightly. You can try tapping the egg with your fingernail, but I'd just wait a day or so and look again. Maybe it's because orpingtons are a calmer breed? LOL I don't know.

 

[Jmurph]

I do the EXACT same thing, LOL. I get so excited and talk to them when I see them. I get that feeling of aw every time I candle. You can try candling them again to see if they are moving today. I had one of mine that wasn't moving and got that nervous feeling, but it suddenly jerked awake and started moving slightly. You can try tapping the egg with your fingernail, but I'd just wait a day or so and look again. Maybe it's because orpingtons are a calmer breed? LOL I don't know.

I don't have any fingernails, I chewed them all off this week during the incubation..lol! You may have a point about the Orpingtons being a calmer breed! We had one that we called Big Bird...Best chicken EVER!!! Somehow she got through the fence (she kept finding ways). She would be on the other side and we would have to go out and I would have to yell, "Hellllooooo chickens" and then she would show us the ever soooo small space she was getting through. One day she was gone. I think she just got out and became prey for something. The other side of our property is "common woods". I never had Polish, but if they are bred for their looks, I could understand them being a little skittish.

My duck eggs were pretty quiet last week too, but seemed pretty active today. I am not giving up yet! I have some Blue Cochins and some Frizzles that I have to candle yet tomorrow, so maybe I will pick up a few Orpingtons and see if anything has changed. The air cells look stable. Geez....this is like a long car ride when you are young....ARE WE THERE YET?

 

[hokankai]

I know right?! I'm trying to live vicariously through other people hatching so that I don't get too crazy, haha.

 

[frankensusan]

It looks pretty good so far. The eggs with less weight loss could have thicker shells, or they could have been older when you weighed them originally meaning they had already lost a little weight in storage. I'm doing mine a little differently, looking at percentage lost rather than the difference in weight so the chart is a little confusing to me, but it looks good so far.

I would maybe up the humidity juuuust a tad, but it's not too bad right now.

Ah cool I could add percent lost to my chart.
Susan

 

[DraigAthar]

Ah cool I could add percent lost to my chart.
Susan

Yeah, you have a range of about 13% to 16% weight loss, I've seen different opinions on what's best. From my own experience, I have far more trouble with the eggs that are over weight rather the ones that are under weight. The slightly under-weight ones all hatch early and fine, the over-weight ones often hatch late or don't hatch at all, even though they had visible movement right up until the last day or so. But that's just my own experience, I'm not a large scale hatcher. I usually shoot for 15% weight loss on all of my target days, but I don't fret if I am within a whole gram either side (I always am setting standard size eggs, though - if they were banty eggs I might narrow my range). I also move eggs over into the hatcher (high humidity) on whatever day they approach target weight. So sometimes I have one egg ready to go in the hatcher on day 17, and a few that stay in the main incubator (lower humidity) right up until they pip internally.

 

[pcreel]

Good Day All,
I candeled my eggs for the third time and removed all in question today. I have 5 for certain moving responding chicks.

Then 4 that seem unresponsive, hope they are not quiters.
The 15 eggs i removed 10 floated when I put them in a bowl of water, the other 5 sank which I scambled them up for the pets. Only one of these 15 eggs had a small blood spot. The others were sloshy and stinky

so I flushed them.
My temp has remained at 99.to 100.3 and 30%- 45% humidity throughout. One day the temp did go up to 103 but it was less than an hour, hopefully it did not kill the 4 that seem unresponsive. I will check them once more before lock down.
2-Polished crested mixed with crested roo.
1- legg horn mixed with crested roo
6- easter eggers mixed with crested roo.
What a combination.
Excited to see how they come out.
BTW is that considered unethical????
Is it ok to have a mutt chicken?
Does it cause complications as in dogs?

Patty