Woke up to 3 new chicks! **update**

[midget_farms]

So yesterday several eggs pipped. I sent to bed at about 11pm & got up at 6am.

When I woke up there were 2 dry ones, & 1 sitting in his shell.

I have several more pipped & working their way out.

Unfortunately I'm at work & can't watch it happen.

Sorry - no pics yet -maybe this evening.

None of my welsummers have pipped though I saw one bouncing around.

 

[gryeyes]

I have three new hatchlings this morning, too.

 

[theoldchick]

How exciting! Despite all the snow spring will surely arrive!

 

[Lark Rise]

Ours hatched last Friday. It was so exciting! Getting more eggs next Friday...can't wait. I'm officially addicted.

 

[midget_farms]

Just got a text - 3 more have hatched!

42 to go!

 

[Pascal PicklePants]

Awesome.
Congratulations!

 

[midget_farms]

OK - so I now have 11 in the brooder! 10 black australorps & 1 welsummer!

I lost a welsummer sometime last night - it fell out of its egg & into a water dish I had in there for humidity. Totally my fault I meant to remove it last night the next time I opened it, but I never opened it again because the chick didn't dry off before 11:30.

In any case - I have 1 more just hatched that was kind of shrink wrapped due to us taking all the other chicks out. I think I'll just leave them in there for 2 days next time.

& I have 3 more pips.

So - I had set 58 eggs - all shipped - all super cold when they got here.

I culled 10 early

that leaves 48 to get to lock down.
12 of those are out

leaving 36 - but one died accidently

so 35 to go.

I will be tickled if I can eek out another dozen - but its day 22 & there are so many that havent pipped yet.

One of my wellie eggs was rocking & rolling two days ago - but didn't pip. Not sure about that -

In any case - I only opened it to pull out chicks & I added hot water to just about everything each time I did open to control H.

Since this is my home made bator - I'm going to come up with an improvement. Some sort of vaporizor/nebulizer to increase h in a hurry.

Anyway - Off to work

Wish the remaining chicks luck!

 

[midget_farms]

Up to 13 hatched (alive) now!

I had 3 or 4 more pips when I left for work this morning. Lets hope I go home to a bunch more.

I need to double that number to reach my 50% hatch rate goal.

I'm impressed so far with how the incubator has worked - but I'm finding I want to make some adjustments.


1) My turner handle needs to have a T on it so it's easier to turn.
2) I need better water / humidity control for lock down. It worked perfectly for incubation - but I'm not getting it as high as I want for lock down.
Right now I have 2 large 6x9 water pans each with a large sponge - this keeps the H at between 40 & 50%. I need 2 more so I can really get it up to 60 to 65%.