First Time Hatching Anyone With Me??

[Kathryn4629]

Quote:
Dang, only 6 are developing? That sucks!! Well I guess those 6 will be extra special chickies

I have big LED maglight (looks like what the police have) I guess I will try using that when its time.

I dont think I could resist opening up the 'bad' eggs, I have problems controlling my curiosity

 

[kfchickenlady]

Quote:
Dang, only 6 are developing? That sucks!! Well I guess those 6 will be extra special chickies

I have big LED maglight (looks like what the police have) I guess I will try using that when its time.

I dont think I could resist opening up the 'bad' eggs, I have problems controlling my curiosity

Yes it Sucks! they are shipped SQ silkies too...

I put a piece of tape on the end of the mini mag, because I couldnt take the plastic lens off. anyway, at night I turn off the lights in the room and stick the end of the flashlight on top of the eggs still in the bator, the tape seals the light out, and voila! I just hope I get SOMETHING to hatch...my daughter would be the one to open one, shes 16 and thinks most food is gross, but would do this, she helps DH process the meat birds...

 

[Kathryn4629]

I am wondering where the best place to go to buy a thermometer/humidity gage would be? I am thinking Home Depot? Hoping to find something fairly cheap

 

[dsqard]

AllCoop'dUp :

I'm having first time hatching nightmares!

I put 18 mixed breed eggs in the incubator Octagon 20 Adv., with Humity pump on Feb. 8th, due to hatch on March 1st. Then ordered the Mini Advanced and Ovaview. Received those last night. Candled the eggs last night at 9 days and am VERY CONFUSED! and SCARED that out of the 18, only a few look like they have anything growing. The majority of them look like there are big dark blobs to one side of the egg. I didn't see anything moving in any of them. The Ovaview did OK, but good grief, I'd love to have an x-ray machine to get a better look!!

I'm scared I'll toss an egg that is developing..killing a developing chick would be so awful. But I can't seem to find pictures of what I'm seeing. I may need to candle them again tonight. I'm scared I'll have a bad egg explode in my incubator, contaminating the entire batch and have to throw them all out.

How long can you keep a bad egg in the incubator before it explodes? I read about "weeping", but none of mine seem to be doing that.
How do you keep from gagging when you break open an egg you've removed to check what when wrong?

I'm so

I don't know what color your eggs are but I did my first hatch in January. I had all brown and green eggs. I didn't see much veining, never saw movement and yet I still got live chicks out of the hatch. It actually sounds like you probably have more developing than you think. I wouldn't get rid of any of the eggs until day 18 when it will be pretty obvious which ones are growing a chick and which ones are not. As long as none of them smell and are not "weeping" as you said, leave them in for now. Good luck!
ETA - the eggs that I opened that didn't make it were not smelly at all. All of the eggs except for two never started developing. One of the eggs that did start quit really early and the other egg had a fully developed chick that never pipped internally. None of them smelled.​

 

[MustLoveHens]

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The best place to buy them is at a pet store in the reptile section. I have found these to be accurate and easy to read. I got both my thermometer and humigity guages at Petco. The Thermometer was $7.99 and the humitiy guage was$ 4.99, but they do have a combo pack that was $11.99 I think, but my local Petco was out of that so I had to purchase them seperately. The brand was the Petco label and the humidity guage packaging does state that you can use it the bator. I actually did not read the back of the thermometer package, but the one I have is working spot on in my bator.
Hope this helps

 

[Kathryn4629]

Quote:
The best place to buy them is at a pet store in the reptile section. I have found these to be accurate and easy to read. I got both my thermometer and humigity guages at Petco. The Thermometer was $7.99 and the humitiy guage was$ 4.99, but they do have a combo pack that was $11.99 I think, but my local Petco was out of that so I had to purchase them seperately. The brand was the Petco label and the humidity guage packaging does state that you can use it the bator. I actually did not read the back of the thermometer package, but the one I have is working spot on in my bator.
Hope this helps

Thank you! I just got back from Petco and got the thermometer/humidity gage combo, the one I got gives me a 24 hour high/low read for both temp and humidity

Its in the bator and warming up as I type. Its was only $10.42 with tax. yay!!

 

[Kathryn4629]

Update: I guess I am not going to add a fan this time around, my current funds $$ just can't handle the price

So it looks like I will be doing it still air.

With going the still air route, I will be be keeping the temp between 101 and 102 according to dsqard and that wonderful link. Thank you again!!

 

[kfchickenlady]

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I got one at
TSC for 2.99. It has temp and humidity and works great.

 

[AllCoop'dUp]

dsqard @ Crazy "L" Farms - thank you for the encouragement. I was in such a hurry to look at them and then I couldn't figure out what the heck I was looking at! I ended up marking them all with a big "?" My hands were shaking so badly I didn't want to hold them any longer than I had to! I think I will take them all out and look again sometime this weekend. I'm also going to put 7 in the mini incubator I got, as a back up. Have any of you every had a situation where you moved the viable ones to a different incubator and started a new batch up?

 

[Kathryn4629]

Eggs are in the incubator!!!

Now I just have to keep my hands off it and let the temp do its thing

I will try very hard