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

[FortCluck]

Little gremlin was moving around everywhere when I was candling! Please be polish sebright cross

 

[Mylied]

I wish I could candle. I'm only on day 2.

 

[FortCluck]

I wish I could candle. I'm only on day 2.

I candle 24 hours after they're in but I can see growth with my flashlight

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I wish I could candle. I'm only on day 2.

So I'm technically only on day 2.5 but I wanted to take a peek at the questionable eggs. It's difficult to see in the images but I'm seeing development in 3 out of 4, including the cracked egg! I will candle the whole batch in a few days before deciding if Lumpy is actually infertile. Crackles will have the real test in the long run!

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Good morning all! I saw you were talking about dry hatching... this really isn't possible where I live... did you know the humidity reading can go below 0? I tried it with chicken eggs but the alarm would never stop, and most failed, and I eventually gave in and gave remaining 6 of the 24 to the broody hen. So stressful!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Good morning all! I saw you were talking about dry hatching... this really isn't possible where I live... did you know the humidity reading can go below 0? I tried it with chicken eggs but the alarm would never stop, and most failed, and I eventually gave in and gave remaining 6 of the 24 to the broody hen. So stressful!

Humidity is very finicky and there are so many factors that will determine what the best humidity is for hatching. We discussed humidity a lot in last months hatch-a-long too and we all had success with our hatches with varying humidity based on our past experiences. What incubator you're using, where you live, where you keep your incubators, how porous the eggs are, etc. will all have an effect on what humidity works best for you.

In my own experience (and I do happen to live somewhere with really high humidity outside) I keep my incubators in my house where central air/heat is run nearly year round but the ambient temps in the room are consistently between 67-74°F throughout the year. I have also used several different table top incubators in the same room with the same variables and I have so far found that, for me, I like to incubate with really low humidity in styrofoam incubators somewhere between 35-40%, with 65% at hatch, and in the plastic incubators the sweet spot is between 45-55% for the first 18 days and usually 65% for hatch.

EDIT: accidentally typed 25% meant to put 35%

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Yes! I really believe you need to take your own natural humidity levels into account. For me its 0 so I have to add something. If I don't I'm basicly dehydrating eggs. I'd love to try it one day, when I move to a less dry climate

 

[LilyD]

If you start spraying your eggs I was told to do it once a day and to stop around day 21.

If anyone here has info on spraying eggs please let us know.

With Muscovies I usually open up the incubator and will leave the lid off while I candle and then I spray with water just in a water bottle regular from the tap warm spout and then put the lid on again. Let me see if I can find the guide.

This is the guide that I used:

 

[hysop]

I’m on Day 12 today. Started with 23 eggs. 2 were infertile. 21 eggs still in the incubator. On the olive eggs it’s harder to see much but on the ones I can see stuff I can see movement.

I am distracting myself by weeding my garden area. Too many weeds!! Shoulda started this ages ago.

 

[FortCluck]

I'm waiting for dark so I can candle