Tis Time for a March 2020 Hatch-a-long!

[Jules929]

I feel so bad now for always telling folks to not panic until it’s like dat 22 or so. And here I al at day 20 at the tip of my seat. I would feel mich better tough if I wouldn’t have had all this trouble this time around.

From the time I decide to get eggs for incubating, it is a rollercoaster.
How many? What kind?
Waiting for them to ship.
Waiting for them to arrive.
Once they are in the incubator it is checking the temp & humidity and whether to tweak. How soon can I candle again? To pull an egg or not?
Then lockdown is painful. Should I play them chick sounds? Did I hear a peep? Is that a pip? Why are they taking so long, oh, it's just D19. Once they start pipping it is harder to stay away. Remove the dry chicks or wait? Assist or leave it? DIS or slow hatcher?
This time is worse because I am not going to work during the week. Well, at least tomorrow is D7 for the first batch, and D4 for the second batch, lol.

 

[julskinka]

I agree. What is your sweet spot?

Mine's just being kind of annoying this time. It needs to be 20-30 overall but that also happens to be the trickiest band of humidity to hold. For some reason if it gets below 30 it will just lose the rest and drop into the teens. I think I don't have my sponges placed well this time, because theoretically (and historically), they'll hold a small bastion of humidity against total evaporation.

I think I managed to sort out my issue, and my sponges seem to be holding around 20-25% now. Yay! Hopefully this sets everyone on the right trajectory for the last four days (!) (until lockdown).

 

[CluckNDoodle]

From the time I decide to get eggs for incubating, it is a rollercoaster.
How many? What kind?
Waiting for them to ship.
Waiting for them to arrive.
Once they are in the incubator it is checking the temp & humidity and whether to tweak. How soon can I candle again? To pull an egg or not?
Then lockdown is painful. Should I play them chick sounds? Did I hear a peep? Is that a pip? Why are they taking so long, oh, it's just D19. Once they start pipping it is harder to stay away. Remove the dry chicks or wait? Assist or leave it? DIS or slow hatcher?
This time is worse because I am not going to work during the week. Well, at least tomorrow is D7 for the first batch, and D4 for the second batch, lol.

I'm going to go out on a limb and just say that's normal, lol. I don't worry like I used to when I first started hatching but I am always watching, tweaking settings, hoping for the best outcome, and sneaking peeks before it's "technically" time to candle....like these Goose eggs! They aren't allowing for early peeking. I THINK I see development in all 4 but I can only see it well in 1 egg. Geese are much harder for me because being able to see development early in the chicken eggs is what makes it so much easier for me be patient. lol

 

[julskinka]

Doesn't it feel like they take even longer to hatch when they pip upsidedown? lol, It's like I have this internal timer that starts ticking when I see that external pip and upsidedown babies mess me all up.

So true. It's easy to forget that that's basically just an internal pip that went wrong haha.

 

[Jules929]

I'm going to go out on a limb and just say that's normal, lol. I don't worry like I used to when I first started hatching but I am always watching, tweaking settings, hoping for the best outcome, and sneaking peeks before it's "technically" time to candle....like these Goose eggs! They aren't allowing for early peeking. I THINK I see development in all 4 but I can only see it well in 1 egg. Geese are much harder for me because being able to see development early in the chicken eggs is what makes it so much easier for me be patient. lol

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I agree. And I am better than I used to be. The dark eggs drive me a bit batty, though. I don't think I should try goose eggs!

 

[Lins_BE]

From the time I decide to get eggs for incubating, it is a rollercoaster.
How many? What kind?
Waiting for them to ship.
Waiting for them to arrive.
Once they are in the incubator it is checking the temp & humidity and whether to tweak. How soon can I candle again? To pull an egg or not?
Then lockdown is painful. Should I play them chick sounds? Did I hear a peep? Is that a pip? Why are they taking so long, oh, it's just D19. Once they start pipping it is harder to stay away. Remove the dry chicks or wait? Assist or leave it? DIS or slow hatcher?
This time is worse because I am not going to work during the week. Well, at least tomorrow is D7 for the first batch, and D4 for the second batch, lol.

I am staggered hatching this year. I told my DH that it is because I don’t want to hatch so many at once and zo I can sell the excess chicks. In reality it is because I was thinking that if I have so mich eggs going I would be less neurotic about it. BIG FAIL!

 

[LilyD]

Doesn't it feel like they take even longer to hatch when they pip upsidedown? lol, It's like I have this internal timer that starts ticking when I see that external pip and upsidedown babies mess me all up.

OMG yes and the fact that I am not sure what time they actually pipped since I was sleeping and expecting these guys to be late since the last few batches were. I keep going and looking and trying to be patient. I can still see the beak moving but nothing other than that so far.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

OMG yes and the fact that I am not sure what time they actually pipped since I was sleeping and expecting these guys to be late since the last few batches were. I keep going and looking and trying to be patient. I can still see the beak moving but nothing other than that so far.

Beak moving is a good thing! I hope this hatch goes more smoothly for you! When does your new thermometer get there?

 

[LilyD]

Beak moving is a good thing! I hope this hatch goes more smoothly for you! When does your new thermometer get there?

May 3rd if all goes well. I ordered a set of water wigglers to put the sensor in and if it works well I'll order a few more for the hatcher too.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

May 3rd if all goes well. I ordered a set of water wigglers to put the sensor in and if it works well I'll order a few more for the hatcher too.

March right? Not May? That would be such a long wait!