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Caption: “Are you my mother?”

Chicks in the octagon… yes, that is a perch made of legos. 😆

Looks like 9 will be our final count. Two eggs have not hatched with the rest, and we aren’t seeing movement or pips on either one. Likely a couple of late quitters. Keeping them in the incubator for another day or two, just to see. The chicks are in the brooder now. That’s a 70% hatch rate...

Three more hatched overnight. We now have five healthy birds. The remaining 6 are getting kicked around like soccer balls on a playground! Two more have pipped that I can see. I’ll probably move chicks to the brooder tonight, if the pips hatch and no more have pipped. I know they feed from the...

#9 hatched around 2pm today. #11 hatched right before supper. Two healthy and active birds, cheeping up a storm and playing football with their incubator mates. Looks like a couple more are pipped. This hatch surprised me- I didn’t think we’d be this far along until Friday!

First pip. Hang in there, #9! No others yet, but I’ve seen rocking on about half.

Locked down the remaining 11 this morning after removing two early quitters on day 10. Humidity holding around 60%. At least three (#13, 6 and 2) are rocking occasionally.

I’m two days behind you. Good luck!

Candling photos at 14 days:

Those from Meyer? Looks like mine did when they arrived.

Based on your drawing, my eggs’ air cells appear closer to the 7 day line at day 14. Running the incubator dry for now. Lockdown is scheduled for Tuesday.

Day 14: 11 of 11 eggs look good. The air cells are all solid and most have the slight angle that I see in others’ eggs. About half of the embryos waved at me when I shined a light into their eggs. The air cells are smaller than I expected, so I’m considering running the incubator dry until...

It’s my first attempt raising chicks. What shape works better? Square?

Set up the “brooder” in our storeroom today. This room is part of the house, partly underground so ambient temps stay around 60F year round. My hope is the Brinsea brooder hood will be enough warmth for the chicks, but I do have a heat lamp if they need it. Otherwise I’ll use a regular lamp with...

That’s wild- and proof that nature finds a way. All the internet guides make it look like your chicks will die in the shell if the temperature is off by 0.1 degree F or you allow humidity to drop for 10 seconds during hatching. It’s nice to see that life can be stubborn. As a buddy told me...

Thanks for sharing this. So maybe delay jacking up the humidity if they’re not all ready on day 18? I only have the one incubator.

This is our first hatch, so I’ve been following the book so far. What’s your humidity in the incubator before you lock down? Around here, mine would be around 20% this time of year, which seems low to me.

It is a tad low, I agree. I’m using a salt-tested hygro inside the ‘bator to back it up. The digital reads about 5% lower than the calibrated gauge most of the time.

I only use a small shot glass of water in the incubator, which keeps humidity around 45-50%. The water well in the incubator sends humidity up to 65-70%, so I’m keeping it dry until lockdown.

How much is too much? I’ve candled them twice, and I have the top off the incubator for a minute every day to refill the water cup and check for smells. Figure I’ll candle them on day 14 and day 18, and then lock them down. The blood ring eggs will go at day 14 if they aren’t showing any...