THE MOTHER'S DAY HATCH-A-LONG!!!! The last day to join in and set eggs with us is April 28th.

[yinepu]

I don't have the plug out, should I have it out? I don't know how I would keep the humidity up with it out. I put the cloth right along the side so I can get to it with barely opening the lid. Thank you for your advice it has been really helpful.

I'm not sure how many eggs you have in there right now.. but the hatching eggs will need oxygen... so I always recommend that the vents be open

I would much rather have a lower humidity than dead chicks from carbon dioxide poisoning

 

[zookeeper15133]

That's where I've been, too! Keeping the dated straight is confusing for me . Though this go round I'm trying to dry the eggs down more. THe dry incubatin method has not dried these eggs as much as usual. AND . . . .I forgot that olive eggs and cuckoo marans are in the marans family with that dark coating that seems to seal the eggs, on shipped eggs anyway. I spent a few minutes sanding some of the eggs. More to do later.

Please tell me more about sanding these eggs.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: THe instructions are on page 1 or post 1 of the Easter hatchalong. Eggs like marans have a coating of dark ink which needs to be removed a little. Sanding the eggs to look like a striped water melon. The instructions are VERY detailed and this method is meant to increase the hatch rate.

When I set my Olives and cuckoo marans, I totally forgot these are marans asa the egg color is not the super dark brown. Duh!

 

[yinepu]

Please tell me more about sanding these eggs.

by sanding stripes across the egg you remove part of the outer coating.. which helps with moisture loss on eggs that won't lose moisture as easily..

you can do just the opposite with extremely porous eggs by painting stripes onto them with non toxic paint or plain candle wax to help seal in some of the moisture if individual eggs start to lose weight too quickly

 

[Arielle]

I candled a few eggs tonight.

THe aircells are increasing better now that I leave the lid ajar. And the shipped eggs are developing aircells nicely. Of the few I checked, only 1 didn't develop. Hoping for a few. The cuckoo marans eggs are HUGE !

 

[lcammack]

I'm not sure how many eggs you have in there right now.. but the hatching eggs will need oxygen... so I always recommend that the vents be open

I would much rather have a lower humidity than dead chicks from carbon dioxide poisoning

I have 39 in a hovabator 1588. So I will pull the plug out right now. Thank you for your help.

 

[Arielle]

Yinepu, is this a good time for a lesson on incubating my own muscovy eggs? My girls are pumping out an egg a day. Amazing. DS wants one for breakfast. Goodness knows I have enough to spare one for breakfast.

 

[yinepu]

Yinepu, is this a good time for a lesson on incubating my own muscovy eggs? My girls are pumping out an egg a day. Amazing. DS wants one for breakfast. Goodness knows I have enough to spare one for breakfast.

lol.. check out my signature.. it's not done yet.. so regard it as a work in progress...

 

[Tripp16]

Well Im only on day 12 but good luck to everyone going into lockdown! I hope to see some chick pictures very soon!

 

[aaggjg]

I don't have the plug out, should I have it out? I don't know how I would keep the humidity up with it out. I put the cloth right along the side so I can get to it with barely opening the lid. Thank you for your advice it has been really helpful.

I usually leave the plug in until they start hatching at which point the humidity will rise and I remove the plug to make sure that the chicks have enough oxygen.