Setting Today (03-02-2012)

[chkinut]

yes, i candled every single day with my 1st hatch. i had a bad hatch rate. couldve been many factors. i was hatching shipped silkie eggs. i hear silkie eggs are harder to hatch....AND shipped eggs also have a lower hatch rate, but i have also heard that the less you candle, the better. and also, when you DO candle make sure you wash your hands before you handle the lil guys. i am so tempted to candle the 3 light brown eggs i have in the bator, but they're only on day 3! it's driving me crazy! but i will definately candle on day 7. during the day, i park myself by the bator for a few minutes and just stare at them. i do this numerous times. and i always tell myself as i'm walking to the bator...."why are you going there AGAIN? don't you realize all you will see is....EGGS! they won't look any different! nobody will be pipping, they're only on day 3..etc, etc" but i STILL am drawn to the bator, i STILL go, and i STILL stare!! somebody help me!!!

 

[1sttimechick]

I have resisted candling, although i had to open the bator today to put in a new thermometer and hydrometer, so i did candle one! Didnt see anything seeing it is only day 2....lol I regularly sit and stare at EGGS! I want them to start pipping NOW

Cant wait for day 7 so i can check them all!!!!!

I am also very careful about having clean hands before handling my babies!!!!

My boyfriend thinks im nuts!!!!

 

[dreamer5577]

I candled a few of my eggs today because they are now on day three! And of the ones I candled..they looked good!!! They had the little blood island - looking thing forming! I'm sooo excited that it's going well so far.

I'm super anxious for day 7 to roll around now.

 

[chickensinwasillaAK]

Not my first hatch so I guess I'm in the minority, I don't candle till the 10th day. Then on the 18th when I'm moving to the hatcher I candle again and toss any non developed. I'm using a brinsea OvaView scope, even works on the maran eggs.

 

[dreamer5577]

chickensinwasillaAk- how many other hatches have you done? this is my second. and what's your hatch rate usually? I think you mentioned you are using a forced air bator. Which kind? I'm using a hovabator. I had installed a fan to try and make it forced air but a day and half into my hatch the stinkin fan fried.

 

[chiqita]

Hello!
We put in 24 fcbm maran eggs in the bator yesterday Sat 3d. I'm joining the thread! Hoping for a better hatch rate, we had 50% on our last batch of eggs ( Silkies and Maran and Welsummers) I had a terrible rate on the silkies 4 out of 12 hatched, the Marans were better.

These eggs are from a guy about 45 min away from me however, so I'm hoping i get a decent rate, almost like eggs from home. great to see so many new people hatching here! its EGGCITING!

I don't even try and candle these eggs until you are at the chick/no chick stage, about day 10. I may be a little more ambitious because we also got a new egg candler and I'm hoping that it might make some stuff more visible before 10. We have a hovabator we have been using the last few times, but my DH is a quail egg freak, so we are having staggared hatches and we got another incubator so we can have the hova for lockdown only.

 

[Coop de Grille]

Can I join too?? I set 16 eggs on March 1st. I candled them tonight and I can clearly see veins and development in one of them. Several are dark Easter Egger mix eggs and I can't see much inside of them. I have four Black or Blue French Marans, and the rest are mixes of EE, cuckoo maran, wheaten maran and barred rock.

 

[dreamer5577]

welcomeee to the thread!

Can I join too?? I set 16 eggs on March 1st. I candled them tonight and I can clearly see veins and development in one of them. Several are dark Easter Egger mix eggs and I can't see much inside of them. I have four Black or Blue French Marans, and the rest are mixes of EE, cuckoo maran, wheaten maran and barred rock.

I set mine that day too. I also candled my lighter eggs tonight and saw the same results! Woo! I THINK I saw some slight veining in my darker brown eggs buttttt who knows!

haha

 

[skunknchatter]

Wow a lot has happened with this thread in two days! Glad to see so many hatch buddies. This is my first go round with hatching anything and I've only got two eggs in my homemade bator so I hope at least one hatches. My temps have been steady at 100F. My water wiggler goes between 99-100F so I figure my eggies are about perfect. Humidity is between 30-35% I've tried to get it a little higher but it either jumps way up or hovers around the 30-35 so I figure that works.

I too am a "look at the eggs" addict. I check on them several times a day. I know they are just going to be eggs but I can't help it. My husband says I'm making our toddler have OCD because now he wants up to look at the eggs all day too. I am excited for him to get to see them hatch (assuming that one or both do hatch).

So far so good here. I want to candle Tuesday morning (3 days since I set them Friday night) to see if I can see a blood ring but I'm just using a LED flashlight so I don't know if it will be powerful enough. I'll see if I can hold out until next Friday night to see if they are developing. I did candle them before I set them. Not much to see but I couldn't help it. Good luck everyone!

 

[chickensinwasillaAK]

this is my fifth hatch, using a GQF sportsman cabinet. Last hatch was mine and two other folks, sort of a community hatch, we had 86% on them. My eggs were 93%, some of theirs were pretty old and pushing the limit. Now for percentages, I do it based on what I put into the incubator, not what goes into lockdown. So, an infertile eggs count against your percentage, an early quitter counts. Only those that actually hatch out and survive are considered in my hatch percentage count. I know some other do it differently, they count based on what they lockdown. I'm not freaked out about percentages, what happens happens. I just figure if I set 100 eggs, 94 hatch, I have a 94% success. Others set 100, put 60 in lockdown, all hatch so they call it 100%


Different accounting methods, not discounting anyone who does it the latter way.

Dreamer: What sort of fan did you use? I've heard the PC fans work well, heck mine is running all the time and this puter is a couple years old. I'n not big on restarting every day, turn it on and leave it run. (I know it's bad, just not patient enough to sit here and watch it boot up)

chickensinwasillaAk- how many other hatches have you done? this is my second. and what's your hatch rate usually? I think you mentioned you are using a forced air bator. Which kind? I'm using a hovabator. I had installed a fan to try and make it forced air but a day and half into my hatch the stinkin fan fried.