Setting today who's with me?!?

[ajneal30]

I have 13 of 39 that are OBVIOUSLY developing. A lot of the others are dark so I am not giving up on any of them yet. I also had a hen go broody yesterday. If everyone hatches, I will have 46 chicks. I am pretty sure some of my eggs will not hatch though.

 

[VannahRAe]

So quick question. When I go to turn my eggs they're hot to the touch. Is that normal? I'm a first timer and I wanna make sure I'm doing this right! Help please.

 

[18Peeps]

So quick question. When I go to turn my eggs they're hot to the touch. Is that normal? I'm a first timer and I wanna make sure I'm doing this right! Help please.

They should be warm to the touch, I don't know about hot...maybe put an extra thermometer in there to double check the accuracy of the 1st thermometer? Some people on this site have recommended 2-3 thermometers to double check and I don't know if that is overkill...

 

[VannahRAe]

Oh well great. These eggs are like hot and I candled them and there is still the dark spot I lightly traced it hasn't moved so hopefully they're still alive in there .

 

[VannahRAe]

I have 13 of 39 that are OBVIOUSLY developing. A lot of the others are dark so I am not giving up on any of them yet. I also had a hen go broody yesterday. If everyone hatches, I will have 46 chicks. I am pretty sure some of my eggs will not hatch though.

DANG! That's going to be a lot of chicks!

 

[tumiyum]

DANG! That's going to be a lot of chicks!

Why so many? Do you have a farm? How many incubators do you have? My home-made incubator barely fit a dozen eggs.

 

[tumiyum]

I'm adding three more eggs to the bator just to hopefully have a better hatch rate. I will try and post pictures tonight because there is a dark spot developing in three of the eggs. I traced the outline of the dots to mark their progress.

Good idea. I should do that too

 

[18Peeps]

Oh well great. These eggs are like hot and I candled them and there is still the dark spot I lightly traced it hasn't moved so hopefully they're still alive in there .

I hope so. They will feel warmer than your body temp. Maybe that just feels hot to the touch for you? You have a thermometer in there, so it is probably fine

.

 

[18Peeps]

Candled and weighed the eggs again tonight. They are on the light side because I've been keeping the humidity between 15-25%, so I might bump it up over the next few days but I really want to be sure they've lost enough weight to turn around in their shells by day 14. There are 27 of 30 developing. I removed the other 3 and opened them. One was a fertile yolker, one was a blood line or blood ring quitter and one little guy that started developing and for some reason stopped around day 4 or 5...maybe because of candling...I don't know

. Poor little guy. I'm hoping the rest still hatch. No more quitters please

. Can't wait for hatch day!! Only 11 more days to go.

As soon as I figure out how to download pics from my ipad, I will post pictures of a nonfertile egg, a porous egg quitter and a porous fertile egg. Some of them were really moving around during candling and it was very neat to see them! I think I even could tell where head and the feet were with some, but mostly they just looked like wiggly blobs with veins around them (still very cool to me). New life is so amazing.

 

[ajneal30]

I filled up my incubator (holds 41 eggs with the turner) minus two because I didn't want to wait another day just for two eggs. I had a friend call up and ask if I could hatch some for her because something got into her hen house and eat all of her flock. My mom also wants some chicks. The hen just decide on her own she wanted babies. I am 90% sure that 7 or so of those eggs got too cold sitting out on the counter overnight so when I candle next I will remove them if there is no sign of development.
Last year I had temperature problems (trusted the wrong thermometer) and only got 2 of 22 so I am kind of stacking the odds this year in hopes I will get a more sucessful hatch.