Shhh- Top Secret!

[Chic_girl]

Yep- Dorm-closet hatch looking promising!

Topdycke- How did your candling go? Everything look okay with that temperamental incubator of yours? I hope your eggies are looking alive!
And Ariel- I'm headed over to your thread now! What fun!

 

[topdycke]

I had to stall on the candling because I need to switch to a stronger light. I did graph the overall weight however. I weighed the eggs as a group in the carton when I brought them home and did that again today and I made up an excel chart to track it. The chart showed I could/should increase the humidity very slightly as I am about half a percent greater overall loss than ideal. It was interesting because the notes said that low humidity would tend to have an earlier hatch rate. So looking at the chart The actual weight loss is about a day ahead of where the ideal is.

 

[topdycke]

I swapped out the flashlight for a drop light with a incandescent bulb. This was bright enough but heats up. We also lined the box with foil to help. I definitely saw development in at least 6 eggs. Now having never done this I saw eggs which 1. had a dark yolk like mass. 2. I saw one which I believe has a ring and a 3. couple which I don't see anything.

 

[Chic_girl]

Excellent pictures! Its hard to tell, but I think that the pic 3rd from the top has a horizontal blood ring, so I think that egg is out- the 4th and 5th ones have a larger, darker mass, so that may be embryos developing for you!

What is your format for the humidity-tracking chart? I'm sure it might be a pain to post, but I'd be interested in seeing it!

 

[topdycke]

Yes that is the one I saw the blood ring in too. The photos let me see some things I didn't when I was going from egg to egg. I will do again next weekend and see what changes.
For the excel spread sheet I used the weight on the first day and plotted a line based on a 14% loss over 21 days.
have weight as the vertical value axis and have the dates as my horizontal axis.

 

[topdycke]

I used this one as a model. If you had weights for each egg you would do a chart for each one. I did them as a group. I can't post the excel doc to this site

 

[topdycke]

ARRRGH!! UPS wants a signature at the time of delivery. What are they thinking? I work. I get stuff delivered and left at doorstep and for an incubator they want a personal signature. So still hang in in with the LG. No abrupt disasters. Will suck it in and go forward. Temps are a degree either side of the 99.5 mark and I upped the humidity and it hangs around 30%

How are your peeps? Looked like some snow for you again? Many schools here are on break already.

The site won't let me post the graph although it looked like it would. The formula was easy enough and I used the chart to display.

 

[Chic_girl]

Arrgh, that's so frustrating! Can you go to the post office to pick it up? Hopefully your LG won't mess up the entire hatch!

Mine are doing good, so far! Day 12- hatch day is creeping ever closer, and with it, our spring break! Man, I can't wait- no Florida trip or ski trip for me- instead, I go home and play with chickies for a week- what's better? (And cheaper?)
I have a few midterms in the next week and a half, so I've been trying to pound the knowledge into my head, so I can do good!

 

[Chic_girl]

POWER OUTAGE! POWER OUTAGE!!!
Panicking, oh yes, panicking!!

We had a power outage Starting at 10:30- I couldn't get back to my dorm until just now (12:10).
What do you think happened? My incubator is COLD! I don't have any other thermometers, so don't know how cold, but man- such a stress!
I covered it with a blanket and placed it in a styrofoam cooler- an attempt at insulating what ever heat may be left. And I may have placed an egg or two in my brassiere...a stroke of inspiration from another thread floating around here.... Too bad my bra isn't substantial enough for all 8...

 

[AQHAchick22]

Ick, sorry about your power outage! Hopefully they didn't get too cold and will do okay. Hens sometimes get off their eggs for an hour or two at a time so fingers crossed all works out!

I love that you're hatching eggs in your dorm, I wish I thought of that when I was in University....all I had was a fish.