Trying again. Set 16 eggs tonight.

[Coop de Grille]

I set 10 eggs on 2-22 and they all turned out to be duds. I picked up eggs from a different person this time and am hoping for the best. I have a new Hovabator with fan and automatic egg turner instead of trying to regulate my ghetto looking homemade incubator.

I started up the Hovabator last night, went to work today and picked up the eggs on my way home. The incubator has stayed exactly at 100 degrees and 38 % humidity since last night. I'm setting four pure French Maran eggs, they could be black or blue, the hens are in the same pen. I set 12 mixed eggs, could be any of the following mixes.... EE, Barred Rock, Wheaten Maran, Cuckoo Maran.

My kids are excited, can't wait for March 21st!

 

[AlienChick]

Good luck on your hatch!
Sorry about the duds. I often get a lot of duds from shipped eggs.
Do let us know how it goes!!

 

[Coop de Grille]

I candled my eggs (yes, I'm impatient!) and I can clearly see veins in two of them. Several of them are green eggs and I can't see much at all but the brown eggs are starting to develop! After two hatch failures I am THRILLED to see this!

 

[Arielle]

Chicken S--glad to see you are willing to try incubating again !

You have not mentioned the development of the air cell. Do you watch this? It needs to be fairly large by day 18 or lockdown. Many poeple don't talk about it, but rather refer to the RH as an indicator. In case you aren't aware of it, here is the chart I follow as a guide when candling. I use the lt brown eggs as a guide as I can't see thru the marans.

Diagrams of air cells, duck and chicken:

http://www.poultryconnection.com/quackers/aircell.html


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Do keep us posted. Good luck!![/FONT]

 

[Coop de Grille]

Thank you for the chart, that is very helpful! Should my eggs be pointed end down or up in the egg turner?