Who's setting with me Sept 1st-4th?

[animalsroc4evr]

The baskets are just fresh strawberry pint containers that my mom just happened to keep! I'm sure you can buy them somewhere, maybe a craft store? hmm

I do have a question... Is it really THAT hard to raise humidity up to 60%???? It seems I have added a bunch of water and my humidity is only at45%!!!!!!

Edit: up to 50% getting there

 

[Lesalynn]

On the humidity issue---I have found that it's harder to get my humidity up and keep it there if the ceiling fan in that room is going. I try my best to keep it off when it comes to lockdown. Seems to do better that way. I like the strawberry basket idea!

Oh, and Cochins, I will check those threads out, thank you!!

I have three chicks hatched so far today, one more zipping as we speak, and I can see 4 more eggs with external pips.

 

[animalsroc4evr]

woo hoo congrats oh your pips and zips!!!

Post pictures if you can!!!!

I don't have anything on in my room (because it's so nice out today), even have the window shut which is a rare occasion! haha I went in there and was excited to see 50% but had to open the incubator up to add more water, which of course has knocked it down to 47

 

[cochins1088]

Hearing about all these pips and zips make me even more anxious, but mine won't hatch for almost a week. I'm getting my replacement eggs on Friday, and the 2 that started developing are still developing. The eggs are almost completely white, so they are super easy to see into. My eggs were always dark, it's so cool to be able to see every little detail.

Also, I want to try a experiment and I want to know what you guys think. When an egg cracks during shipping without puncturing the membrane, you can put nail polish over it to prevent more bacteria from getting in and try to hatch it. Many people have had sucess this way. My idea was breaking into the air sac to reveal an intact clear inner membrane. Then putting clear nail polish over the membrane to act like a "shell". This way you could watch the development, though I don't know if it would work, I have a list of things that could easily go wrong from bacteria invaded, to the membrane drying out or the air sac not developing at all (why I will start out with a large air sac) or also the chemicals in the nail polish might be to much to sit directly on the membrane over a large area, but I'm giving it a chance. The egg would have been eaten otherwise.

 

[cochins1088]

And for humidity, the key is surface area which I assume you know, so if the trays aren't enough then you can add a cool whip bowl or such filled with an inch or so of water.

 

[Nicole01]

I have one pipped egg and all 3 are moving inside the shell. I hope they make it!

 

[animalsroc4evr]

I have one pipped egg and all 3 are moving inside the shell. I hope they make it!

Oh my goodness! Do they usually pip early? Good luck, and don't forget the pictures!!!!!



I finally got my humidity up to 61% (then too high at 66%!), I used paper towels! We don't have any sponges around so I hope paper towels will work for the entire lock down! I'm so excited to see my chicks!

 

[Nicole01]

Every single egg I hatched has hatched a day early! I have no idea why either.

 

[animalsroc4evr]

And for humidity, the key is surface area which I assume you know, so if the trays aren't enough then you can add a cool whip bowl or such filled with an inch or so of water.

yeah, I added a bowl of water but it didn't do much good so I put soaked paper towels in there around the baskets (it does make it sorta cramped, but everything managed to fit!) and the humidity shot up to nearly 70%, so I took the bowl with its paper towel out and it went down to 61%

Now I wait

 

[Kanga77510]

I set eggs on the 2nd under a broody hen. We're due in a fe days, and she almost always manage to hatch early. I'm thinking tomorrow through Saturday. Hooray!