Setting Thursday March 25.. Anyone want to join me??

[gckiddhouse]

By the way, there is a great sticky here that shows pics of every stage of development. Helped me a ton with candling.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261876

 

[Why and Dotte]

I set mine the 24th, so I'm right there with ya!
Happy hatching!!!

 

[MrsCluck]

Quote:
Glado hear all is going well... I need a candler so badly but just cannot afford it right now so I used my tiny little mag light.. It has an LED light in it so it does work pretty well... I keep having to sit on my hands though because i am trying to hard NOT to candle.. I just don't want to mess the temp and humidity up... lol

Goddess

Yes I know now I have done it I would like to check them all but as you say worry about messing up temp and humidity. I have waited up to check all back to normal before I go to bed. All good so off for some sleep. Glad you caught your temp in time as ou say 18 days to go - nerve racking isnt it?

 

[Heather08]

Im a loner that set on the 20th and a stray single on the 24th...i got great growth in some of them...doing chicky back strokes in them eggs.

 

[rhondaa]

GreenGodess
I feel your pain...I got up to find that my bators temp had fallen to 97 degrees>>>AHHHHHH! I got it up as fast as I could. I have been having temp problems all day finally got it to 100 about 2pm and it has stayed there since..I hope they are still OK.

 

[GreenGoddess]

Quote:
I wish one of my girls would go broody.. I can't blame you on not wanting the brooder.. Last year I kept my br chicks in an old rabbit hutch in the shed and kept a light over them for warmth.. Luckily it was September so it wasn't cold and they did really well.. This hatch, I hopefully won't have to worry about a brooder as I will be selling the chicks to raise money for the chicks I want.. Then I will have to fix the brooder back up since I used it as a quarantine pen for my two roos before i got rid of them..

Goddess

 

[momiphouph]

I would like to join in?? I set my eggs on the 24th which seems to be right in line with all of you. This is our very first hatch and we are using our homemade bator. So we are a bit nervous, just hoping it all goes well. We set 18 eggs but already know some of them are to old to hatch. Newby mistake, we didnt put dates on the eggs and just kept adding... well when the eggs we ordered came in some of the others were to old... but no telling which ones. lol... lesson learned, Im just hoping none of them explode! We are thinking we will candle tomorrow... day 6. Any thoughts on that?
We are using a homemade water wiggler... I never thought it could ruin our hatch!

So now Im wondering what I should do? Its a ziplock bag with water in it, rolled up. Maybe I should move it and put it in a cup? I currently have it next to the eggs in the carton.

 

[GreenGoddess]

Quote:
Of ocurse you can join! Welcome to the thread! You are one day ahead of me.. How old were the eggs that you put in? All hope may not be lost.. You can candle on day 6 especially if you are concerned about the older eggs but most people say to wait until between day 10 and 12.. The better your light source, the better you will be able to see veins or lack there of.. If you decided not to candle, then just be aware of any bad smells coming from the bator as well as weepy eggs.. If you do decide to candle, definitely give us an update!

Goddess

 

[momiphouph]

Thank you!

Well most of the eggs were less than 10 days but the bad eggs would be around 18 days.

Unfortunatly since they were mixed in... I had no way of knowing the good from the bad, my ds collected them and I was just not paying attention. So we went ahead and put them all in and decided we would pull out the bad as we go. I know we have several eggs that are good but probably 3-5 that will likely be bad. All of which came from the bantams in our back yard. We ordered eggs from a fellow BYCer but all of those were 4 days old or younger so I am not as worried about them. As for now... we are just taking it one day at a time. I may wait to candle... Im not seeing any weeping eggs yet... so we will give that some more time.

My son is so excited and is like an expectant father, he built the incubator. He came to me a few days ago and said, "mom my chicks have a heart beat already!" He read that their hearts start beating at 2 days old. Im so proud of all the hard work he has done with these eggs/chicks and chickens.

 

[gckiddhouse]

momi - just put your homemade water wiggler inside another ziplock.

We are also using a homemade bator. It is working better this time than last. We love to candle eggs. We have candled a few times already. Unfortunately we can't see into about 1/2 our eggs as they are really really dark. Some of them may have a dark shadow when the chicks inside get big enough, but some of them may as well be solid chocolate. The light ones, especially the white ones from a polish are really easy to see into. So much fun to watch them develop. We just wash our hands before turning and candle a few each evening.

As far as old eggs go. You may be pleasantly surprised. You know there is a whole thread on BYC of people hatching fertile eggs from Trader Joe's! Those eggs have been refrigerated and are at least 10 days old. Don't give up on them!

Got a dog crate outside near the coop tonight. Wrapped it in a tarp and put two lights in there. They are off my patio and out of my house!!

Now we need to build out the broody's area so we can move eggs out to her and eliminate the need for a brooder. I am so eggsited about that.

I LOVE broodies!!!