What is the neatest thing you've seen when you candled your eggs?

[FenDruadin]

Great thread! Coolest thing I've seen is the duck's bill opening and closing. But it's all amazing!

 

[walkswithdog]

I do love the beginning and seeing that eye and heart form, and I do LOVE FEET, chuckle, but my favorite is late stage candling, taking out an egg, turning a light onto the air cell, tapping gently with the edge of the light and being able to see the chick SEE it and tap back... usually accompanied by a peep or peeping.

No that's not recommended - since it implies something not recommended. A bator open at hatch.

But I have the luxury of setting groups of eggs I designate as a candling batch and I will candle that group and take notes through the entire hatch, from day 4-21.

I also end up with rescue eggs from broodies, that I have to candle, when I get them, to see what's going on. An active - but unhatched chick, who peeps is always a welcome sight.

I also stagger hatch, two or more groups in one incubator that is hand turned. There's never a lock down in that situation. I still have good hatches but I've had a lot of practice at it.

As to cheap and homemade incubators - I've run well over a dozen hatches through my cheap homemade Darthbator (mini-fridge). They can be very efficient and effective once you learn the proper settings for your situation. Don't dis homemade. I ONLY went to "bought" incubators again, when I found a huge antique redwood incubator for sale (75.00$) near me.

I started and learned on an LG, did well with it but then built my own because of what I didn't like in the LG. Then I hatched like a madman and saved toward a cabinet bator - I wanted a Dickey. But then found the redwood one and am in love. It's running it's very first test hatch of eggs now.

Homemade can be a wickedly efficient use of money and time and they often work BETTER than some of the small store-bought incubators. And you learn more. A big bonus.

 

[duckboatprincess]

walkswithdogs: I really hope I get to experience something similar. That is awesome! Over all, it cost around $30 to build my bator. It's similar to Miss Prissy's Chic Chick bator. It's been a great experience to be able to build something like this and actually get to see it work. The redwood bator sounds awesome! Do you have a picture of it? I've never had a bator before, so this is all very new to me.

Can you give me any advise on doing a staggered hatch? I've got 10 ee eggs due the 25th, 7 pekin and 3 rouen eggs due the 7th, and 15 WH eggs due the 9th. Thus far, I haven't been able to get any info on doing a staggered hatch. I know it's a lot more work and it's harder to hatch like this, but I couldn't help it. The bug has infected me severly!!!

 

[walkswithdog]

Hmm when you're learning a new bator - stagger hatching does make things really a lot harder.

For one thing you don't know if it's the bator or the result of staggering that hurts your hatch rate.

What you pay for a bator has little to do with whether it works well or not. I paid probably less than 30 for both the homemades I have running now and they work great.

For staggering, keep your time turning eggs short, and fast.

I can't help you with humidity, it varies too much region to region and even house to house. Here I dry hatch and usually only tinker with the humidity if it's below 45% in the last three days.

Today I got caught with my pants down - evidentally a hen had started a couple of these for a few days before the eggs were found and gathered. I went to turn and found two pipping, when they should have been due th/fri/sat. Chuckle. Now they're dry, the incubator was running around 25%. Surprises...

Turn quickly and often, I do it 3-5 times a day. Trying to keep humidity and temps as stable as possible.

Twice works, mostly, some chicks don't do well that way, depending on the source of the eggs. Some do better. welcome to no rule set in concrete.

I use cartons to keep turning safe and efficient. It's a lot easier to bump or crack individually handled eggs.

If I'm staggering I put the hatching group on it's sides, the cartons then keep the others safe from bumper chicks. It also helps me remember who not to turn - I need all the help I can get LOL.

Mostly it takes practice. Next time try one source for eggs and one setting at a time.

But your major worries are consistent temps, and enough ventilation, and a bit of humidity at hatch.

Humidity you get to learn the hard way. I tried the normal way and everything drowned.

I forgot to raise it for one hatch, and everything hatched... clue phone...

So you have to play it by ear. The biggest cautions are enough ventilation, stable temps and remember every time you touch an egg you increase the chances you are going to crack or break one - broken eggs make unhappy people. Some small types of cracks can be mended with nail polish or super glue or candle wax dripped on, and the chick may go on to hatch.

Excess candling can result in lost chicks, so the "over candling" that I do for certain batches I do, knowing the risk. Those are never with vital eggs.

 

[duckboatprincess]

I'm guilty probably of over candling. I candle the chick eggs every night at the last turn. I candle the duck eggs every 2-3 days, just checking for growth and make sure everyone is coming along.

My humidity has stayed right about 50% at day one. I don't have any water in there, it's just that humid in the house. It doesn't matter if the lid is wide open or all the vents are closed. It stays right at 50%, so that's been easy monitoring. My temps fluctuate, but are between 94 and 102. I can't get them to stablize any more than that, so it is what it is. Thus far, I've only lost 2 of the 12 EE eggs and they had bloodrings. With the first clutch of duck eggs, out of the 10, there are 2 that haven't shown any development. Today is day 5 for them. The rest have embryos and heartbeats. The welsh harlequins are only on day 3 and so it's more of a guessing game as to what is growning. It looks like I've got 4 or 5 out of the 15 that aren't doing anything. One seems to be growing, but the airsac is on the side of the egg. It's quite odd, so I'm not holding out too much hope for it. The lady I got them from washed 11 of the eggs and didn't wash the other four, so I'm thinking this is going to affect my hatch. I don't know why she did that, but it was $5 for the 15, so it's not a great loss if they don't hatch.

Once the ee eggs are due to hatch, I'm planning on putting the duck eggs into cartons so I can just tilt them. Right now, I don't have enough cartons. I wasn't thinking and threw two of the three out, so I've just got the one that holds 18 eggs.