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

[ShannonsChimkens]

So I’m on Day 16, 2 days til lockdown. The air cells are looking a bit small still. I’ve been running a dry incubator since Day 12 or 13 I think. Will they keep growing (hopefully) til it’s time to hatch? My hopes are high but my expectations are realistic as this is my first time hatching.
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Running it dry for a few more days will help the air cells grow a little more. My last hatch had air cells on the smaller side, but got 80% to hatch. Good for shipped eggs from a few states away.

I did have to assist twice. Both of those chicks are alive and well.

 

[Mosey2003]

Yes, I didn't notice when I ordered my Hovabator 2370 that the turner was flat. I was skeptical. I tried it last year, but only for a couple of days and then transferred the eggs to the other incubator with the upright turner. So I haven't really risked using it for a full hatch.
Still waffling back and forth, lol

Yeah, you probably don't know me well enough to know this, but the fact that I actually packaged something up and sent it back through the mail would tell you that I was seriously unhappy with it

This is why I always use Incubator Warehouse for any of my new incubator stuff, their customer service is simply tops.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I have a new still air incubator coming in the mail. It doesn't have a turner. I am going to see if my dumb HHD turners fit in the new incubator when it comes. If it does, the HHD turner doesn't have a plug in, just connective wires. But, I plan on letting the wire hang out of the incubator, and will hook it up to the lid of my HHD. Every time you turn on the HHD the turners rotate. I will turn it on just long enough to turn the eggs, then detatch, until I need to turn again. (the HHD heater, stopped being warm enough, but the turner still works. I will only have it on long enough for a turn.) I will take pictures. It will be better than turning 40 by hand/opening and shutting the incubator.

 

[hysop]

Running it dry for a few more days will help the air cells grow a little more. My last hatch had air cells on the smaller side, but got 80% to hatch. Good for shipped eggs from a few states away.

I did have to assist twice. Both of those chicks are alive and well.

When people say 80% hatch or whatever other percentage, they’re talking about the ones that made it to lockdown or the ones that were fertilized and also counting blood rings and early quitters, but not the yolkers?

Thanks! I’ll find out in two days. These last couple of days I feel like I’ll be touching them less and less, I just want them to grow and not be messed with by candling.

 

[Jules929]

Yeah, you probably don't know me well enough to know this, but the fact that I actually packaged something up and sent it back through the mail would tell you that I was seriously unhappy with it

This is why I always use Incubator Warehouse for any of my new incubator stuff, their customer service is simply tops.

Lol. I would have returned it, but I had eggs ordered and thought I would need to use it. Turns out I didn't get as many "extras" In my orders as expected. I had a staggered hatch and pulled enough clear eggs from the Farm Innovation incubator to make room for the few I had in the Hovabator. At lockdown I used the HB for hatching.
I would like to give it a try this time. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Jules929]

When people say 80% hatch or whatever other percentage, they’re talking about the ones that made it to lockdown or the ones that were fertilized and also counting blood rings and early quitters, but not the yolkers?

I have wondered that, too.

 

[Mosey2003]

When people say 80% hatch or whatever other percentage, they’re talking about the ones that made it to lockdown or the ones that were fertilized and also counting blood rings and early quitters, but not the yolkers?

Thanks! I’ll find out in two days. These last couple of days I feel like I’ll be touching them less and less, I just want them to grow and not be messed with by candling.

There are proper terms for it, but I never remember them. So I always just say what I mean, as in, "Hatched 18/20 that made it to lockdown, 90% hatched. But this was a 50% overall setting since I sat 36 eggs." etc.

 

[Mosey2003]

Lol. I would have returned it, but I had eggs ordered and thought I would need to use it. Turns out I didn't get as many "extras" In my orders as expected. I had a staggered hatch and pulled enough clear eggs from the Farm Innovation incubator to make room for the few I had in the Hovabator. At lockdown I used the HB for hatching.
I would like to give it a try this time. Decisions, decisions...

I needed live chicks badly enough that I wasn't sacrificing another batch to it. I think if the eggs are bigger it probably works a bit better, but it was just too easy for the eggs to swivel with the narrow end rather than roll when I tried it.

 

[hysop]

There are proper terms for it, but I never remember them. So I always just say what I mean, as in, "Hatched 18/20 that made it to lockdown, 90% hatched. But this was a 50% overall setting since I sat 36 eggs." etc.

I like the idea of the ones that hatched out of the ones that made it to lockdown better to have a better idea of how many end up hatching. I always assumed if they made it to lockdown that they were home safe, but as I read more and more I saw that’s not the case

 

[hysop]

@Mosey2003 — yeah the article I read from Sally Sunshine goes by two numbers. The fertility rate, then the hatchability rate which does include all fertilized eggs including blood rings, early quitters as well as the ones that didn’t make it even though they were alive at lockdown.

I think there should be three numbers. Fertility, Lockdown, & Hatchability