Winter Hatch Along!

[Chick Chick McGee]

Currently in lock down as well!!!(Day 3 of lock down) so far two have started hatching, hoping more will make it!

 

[Tazbeaux]

I candled the 13 original eggs yesterday and didn't see anything going on in them on day 7. I moved them to the modified Hovabator with the second dozen I set on Saturday. I'm going to give them a few more days before I toss them out.

 

[Tazbeaux]

When I opened the Hovabator to turn the eggs this afternoon, I caught a faint whiff of rotting egg. I gave all of the older eggs a good sniffing, found the culprit and tossed it. I will be keeping a closer watch on them now.

 

[Chick Chick McGee]

When I opened the Hovabator to turn the eggs this afternoon, I caught a faint whiff of rotting egg. I gave all of the older eggs a good sniffing, found the culprit and tossed it. I will be keeping a closer watch on them now.

Fingers crossed

 

[Chick Chick McGee]

So Far 4 chicks are out of their eggs and resting! 5 more have pips!

 

[Tazbeaux]

This morning there was more odor in the incubator. I candled all the older eggs and tossed them. The newer batch hasn't been in long enough to start stinking yet. This is only day 3 for them. Congrats on the new babies Chick Chick.

 

[Phillyndilly]

Hi everyone this is my first hatch! I will be hatching silkies and golden Sebrights. This is was a last minute decision as I wanted to see if there was a demand for chicks in my area and apparently there is!
So I grabbed eggs that have actually just been in my refrigerator for a week or so some less. I’m not sure if they will be viable but it’s worth a try. My roos have def been busy so they are fertilized for sure.
I have never ever incubated eggs and I’m a little nervous I have an auto-turn forced air from amazon and we just ordered a magicfly that holds 24.
I’m most nervous about the whole humidity thing. My hygrometer is on the way by tomorrow so right now they are just in there with a bit of water at 99.5 degrees so I hope that doesn’t ruin things.
I’ve read on here that people say silkies and bantams do well at 30-40 humidity at first and then up to 50 at lock down.
I’ll candle about day 7. Woohoo happy hatching!

 

[LilyD]

Hi everyone this is my first hatch! I will be hatching silkies and golden Sebrights. This is was a last minute decision as I wanted to see if there was a demand for chicks in my area and apparently there is!
So I grabbed eggs that have actually just been in my refrigerator for a week or so some less. I’m not sure if they will be viable but it’s worth a try. My roos have def been busy so they are fertilized for sure.
I have never ever incubated eggs and I’m a little nervous I have an auto-turn forced air from amazon and we just ordered a magicfly that holds 24.
I’m most nervous about the whole humidity thing. My hygrometer is on the way by tomorrow so right now they are just in there with a bit of water at 99.5 degrees so I hope that doesn’t ruin things.
I’ve read on here that people say silkies and bantams do well at 30-40 humidity at first and then up to 50 at lock down.
I’ll candle about day 7. Woohoo happy hatching!

Humidity is less important than temp if you can get the temp right where it needs to be then the humidity will be okay. I would make sure your temp is dialed in well and calibrate it. Don't go by the guage on the incubator use a regular thermometer with the red stuff in it to get an accurate reading of the temp in the incubator at egg level. I don't add any water for the first 18 days unless the eggs seem to be losing too much weight then I will add to keep them from losing more.

Day 18 they go in my hatcher and are put on their side. I use two coffee cups with sponges in them for humidity and will fill the cup with water and have the sponge just barely in the cup maybe an inch. Humidity is based off of sq inches of wetness not on how much water so having a sponge that gets wet all over helps to raise it better. I stick a piece of aquarium tubing in the cup and have it run to the outside of my incubator. So I can fill it with a syringe without opening the incubator. The Magicfly I think is smaller than my Hovabator so you may be okay with one sponge for humidity instead of two. I do 65-75% for lock down.

Good luck and glad you joined.

I am staggering my hatch and have 6 babies in the brooder currently and three more eggs in the hatcher. 29 more in the incubator lol. It's safe to say I'm hooked to incubating lol.

My current babies that hatched over the last few weeks.

 

[Phillyndilly]

Humidity is less important than temp if you can get the temp right where it needs to be then the humidity will be okay. I would make sure your temp is dialed in well and calibrate it. Don't go by the guage on the incubator use a regular thermometer with the red stuff in it to get an accurate reading of the temp in the incubator at egg level. I don't add any water for the first 18 days unless the eggs seem to be losing too much weight then I will add to keep them from losing more.

Day 18 they go in my hatcher and are put on their side. I use two coffee cups with sponges in them for humidity and will fill the cup with water and have the sponge just barely in the cup maybe an inch. Humidity is based off of sq inches of wetness not on how much water so having a sponge that gets wet all over helps to raise it better. I stick a piece of aquarium tubing in the cup and have it run to the outside of my incubator. So I can fill it with a syringe without opening the incubator. The Magicfly I think is smaller than my Hovabator so you may be okay with one sponge for humidity instead of two. I do 65-75% for lock down.

Good luck and glad you joined.

I am staggering my hatch and have 6 babies in the brooder currently and three more eggs in the hatcher. 29 more in the incubator lol. It's safe to say I'm hooked to incubating lol.

My current babies that hatched over the last few weeks.

Thank you so much for this info. That’s great to hear unfortunately the thermometers won’t be here until tomm either. Hopefully it’s not too far off.
How do you check it they are losing weight do you weight them?
The only reason I worry about humidity is because we have a pellet stove and I’m currently dying because of how dry it is in the damn house we are going to have to get a humidifier for ourselves. The stove is on the opposite end of the house though.
One other question I have is that the room we are keeping them in is cool. It’s probably about 60 in there is that ok? Because we close the door and we keep the heat low because we have the stove running.
My last question ( for now lol) is that during lockdown what if the humidity drops too low and I have to add water- just don’t open it right?

 

[Tazbeaux]

@ Phillyndilly
Keep us posted on your hatch results using previously refrigerated eggs. I read somewhere that storing the eggs at around 40 degrees for up to a week will kill the male embryos and those eggs wont develop. I did this for my last hatch and only got 1 roo. I am thinking that he was from the last egg collected that was only chilled for 1 night before going into the incubator. Good Luck.