*UPDATE ~ 11 chicks hatched..."what kind is that one?!"

[WillowWoodsFarm]

Ok, my children and I are incubating chicken eggs for the very first time. We went and bought the eggs but on the way home we started having car troubles. It was kinda warm out so I was afraid that the chicks may have started developing so I didnt want to wait another day before I put them in our incubator BUT because of our car trouble, we didnt get home until about 1 or 2 in the morning on Sunday, July 26 (technically, Monday the 27) Would I count Monday as the first day? And, if it is Monday, would their hatch date be on a Monday. I thought I had all the information that I needed before I started but after continuing to look up info on the web, I am just confused now, lol. Thank you so much in advance to those who can help me!

 

[dsqard]

Monday the 27th would be day zero. Your hatch date should be the 18th of this month. So like next Monday!

ETA -

 

[jm93030]

you should stop turning on July 14 and they should start hatching on July 17

The 17 is day 21

 

[dsqard]

Actually the 18th is day 21 since the day you set is day zero.

 

[WillowWoodsFarm]

Ahhhh...a sigh of relief! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I had a total of 32 eggs. At about 8 days I attempted to candle them but because they are brown eggs (Buff Orpingtons) they were kind of hard to see through on top of me not knowing exactly what I was doing, lol. I candled them again at day 8 or 9 and saw so many little moving babies inside! I have a total of 29 eggs that have life in them, 1 that started to open in the incubator and smelled HORRIBLE and 2 that had a blood ring in them. I super excited but so scared, too. I just dont want to mess anything up... I promise I will keep everyone posted on anything new going on and hopefully I will have some picture of brand new little baby chicks to post on Monday

 

[Gypsy07]

Counting the days is something that puzzled me the first time I incubated. Then I figured it out this way: When you put them in the bator, they have no development. After 24 hours, they have 24 hours, or one day, of development. So really day 1 is the day AFTER you put them in. An easy way to keep track is that that they should start to hatch the same day of the week that they were set. So in your case, at 1-2am on Monday 18th they will have 21 days of development and should start hatching around then. You should stop turning them last thing before you go to bed on the Thursday night, unless of course you want to wait up till 2am to be extremely pedantic about it, LOL! A few hours (or even half a day) either way shouldn't make any difference to them.

And of course, they might just decide to pop out early on day 20, or to hang about inside their shells till day 23. Think of how human babies can turn up a couple of weeks early or late and still be perfectly normal and healthy. It's not an exact science...

Good luck!

 

[WillowWoodsFarm]

Quote:
Thank you so much, that really does make alot of sense! Knowing me, I'll probably wait up til 2am...kinda like your first child, you do EVERYTHING exactly the way the Dr.'s and the books tell you and then by your second, (and in my case, 3rd and 4th) you know better, lol.

 

[Gypsy07]

Quote:
LMAO!

You'll probably be staying up till 2am on Monday to see them start to hatch as well, won't you!

 

[WillowWoodsFarm]

Quote:
LMAO!

You'll probably be staying up till 2am on Monday to see them start to hatch as well, won't you!

You better believe it! LOL I cant wait...I feel like an expecting mama, again!

 

[WillowWoodsFarm]

Quote:
Thank you so much for your knowledgeable help! I will keep everyone posted on whats going on