Tonight's lockdown & we already have a pip!

[HHandbasket]

Well, we are supposed to go into lockdown tonight at 10 p.m., so 10 minutes ago I went to do the final turning of the eggs before lockdown, and one has already pipped!

I think it's pretty safe at this point to state that we *finally* have the temp/humidity thing with the Reptipro succesfully figured out.

They're hatchin', they're hatchin'!

 

[SourRoses]

Wooo Hoooo! Hatch Chickies, Hatch!

Were waiting on you chickies!

I've been planning to get one of those Reptipro/hot cold fridges since I first saw this site and found the really old post about them (with the lady who drilled the hole in it)... they just look so much better than the stryro + digital + fan + light... well, would you mind telling me what troubles you had with the temp/humidity and how you got it figured out?

 

[gallatea]

congrats..I purchased a Reptipro5000 for my first hatch ever..1 hatched already today, and another pipped. 6 left after that, but tomorrow is day 21. I have to say I like it. I got the egg turner too - I took out one of the turner trays (8 egg), and half is for hatching, and half is for incubation. I love the light inside. I have to find the post about the hole drilling. Pros/cons. I did not like the idea of leaving a new chick inside it long (just let him dry, then took him out). He actually jumped ship (4 inch wall wasn't enough) on top the other eggs, but was ok. But I wonder about oxygen in there. Probably too much worrying.

Silver Spangled Hamburg

 

[HHandbasket]

Well, our last hatch didn't go so well. We had gone by the reading on the digital display on the Reptipro but only 1 chick out of 16 eggs hatched. Come to find out, it was actually about 2 degrees below what was displayed which is why nothing hatched. For this hatch, we put in a digital thermometer/hygrometer that had been appropriately calibrated, and now we are getting more accurate readings of the temp and humidity inside. Obviously it is working better now because we're getting pips! BTW, the little pipper is working on his zip! He has knocked a big chunk of shell out, and some of the other eggs are rocking around in there.

We also have the egg turners but took them out for this hatch and are trying something new. We just laid the eggs on their sides, whereas before they had been in cut-down egg carton trays. It just looked like the chicks were having such a hard time pushing their way out of the shells with the egg sitting upright, and the one that knocked themselves over on their sides seemed to have an easier time hatching, so we just did the whole incubation on their sides this time.

We also have an LG 10200 incubator with forced air, no turner. *Love* that thing and have had excellent hatches in that unit. We are really good about manually turning our eggs, though, because I work from home and am here all day.

 

[SourRoses]

TY

Has the chickie got himself out yet?

Im sorry if Im turning your chickie thread into a bator discussion LOL... but I wanted to mention to gallatea about the other old discussion... the lady that had her hubby drill the hole did it because she was also concerned about the oxygen exchange in there, and ended up wishing she hadn't... The drill cracked her door making it harder to see through, and she had to mess with things to plug it up to keep her temp/humidity after. They came to the conclusion that just opening/closing the door was plenty of air exchange for the eggs and chicks. One of them used the very bottom for chicks that had hatched while she left the eggs up the top. Later I think, she made a little lip for that bottom area, so the chicks couldnt spill out when she opened the door. I guess her humidity and temps must of come back up pretty quickly for her to do that? If you have trouble finding the thread, try adding something like manufacturer to the key words.... one of the fellas, after ordering exactly the same thing as the hot/cold fridge from thinkgeek... did a bit of inquiring into the manufacturer, looking to bulk order a bunch to offer as incubators for less than the repti people do.

Know what you mean about turning the eggs... I'm home all the time too and turned mine like a fanatic.. Plus I really liked the "hands on" egg experience.. talking to them... I got very attached to my babies before they even hatched.

 

[HHandbasket]

I have no problem with the thread evolving into an incubator discussion.

In answer to your question, though, little chickie isn't out yet but has made a big hole & I can see he's got a black beak with a white tip & he's peepin' and making all kinds of noise! We also have 2 more pips this morning, another one of the brown eggs and one sebright egg (sebright laid it but have no idea who the daddy is--last time we had some of these eggs, we ended up with 2 "cobrights"--half bantam cochin, half sebright, pitiful lookin' little birds now that they're getting older LOL).

We also had an ExoTerra. Now, the ExoTerra seemed like a wonderful unit but died after only one hatch. The first hatch we did in it went quite well & the only problems were the problems that come with us being first-time hatchers at the time. It went so well that we set a second batch less than a week later, only to have the thermostat die & it stopped warming up about 36 hours into the incubation. We scrambled like crazy, and Linda (gryeyes) helped us out with a new bator the next day (they were EXPENSIVE eggs and we did end up losing the vast majority, unfortunately).

If the ExoTerra had not died, however, I'm sure we would still be using it. In a side-by-side function comparison with a Reptipro, the Reptipro did a little bit better, but both units require a separate thermometer/hygrometer, as the digital readouts of both units are off by a few degrees (which contributed to chick demise and lack of development in our most recent incubation).

 

[shandiane78]

So cool! The same thing happened to me yesterday morning. Actually, I was picking up the eggs to remove the turning ring for lockdown, and one egg started peeping! I was very surprised.

It pipped soon after that, and then hatched about 13 hrs later.

Best of luck for a great hatch!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've had that happen before, one pipping before I put them into lockdown. Ten out of twelve that developed hatched, so it is not a death sentence. Good luck with the hatch.

Them being this early means your incubator temperature is probably a tad high. I'd suggest trying to reduce the temperature about a half a degree for the nest hatch. With that in mind, smaller eggs like Seabrights can hatch a bit earlier than the 21 days, so don't adjust it too much. You are getting it real close.

 

[wannabchick]

congrats... and good luck
xoxoxo

 

[gryeyes]

Well, the early pips COULD also mean them's great genes in them eggs, y'know! Strong like Carl! <*making Austrian body-builder grunting noises*>