Hatch-ALong - Setting first eggs 4/5, hatch day 4/26. Anyone want to join me?

[Loghousemom]

I think that I read hear somewhere that it is harder to get temps up after you raise the humidity. Be sure to open the vents so they have oxygen because the higher humidity can make them suffocate if they don't get a bit of air. Are you using a good thermometer? I am thinking about getting that brinsea spot check one....

 

[dretd]

Ok I know you guys have asked this question before on this thread. But I went into lockdown last night and raised the humidity to 65% but I can't get the temperature to rise above 97 degrees. Should I Tampere with the thermostat or wait for it to go back to normal.
FYI: went into lockdown 8 hours ago

I think that I read hear somewhere that it is harder to get temps up after you raise the humidity. Be sure to open the vents so they have oxygen because the higher humidity can make them suffocate if they don't get a bit of air. Are you using a good thermometer? I am thinking about getting that brinsea spot check one....

My humidity fluctuated through the hatch (between 30 and 40%) and when it was low humidity the temp was about a half a degree higher. My temp has also gone down since I raised the humidity at lockdown last night and is running about a degree cooler (with tweaking) than it was before-- humidity 72%.

Some of this temp change may be 'fake' due to the necessary re-configuration of the thermometers after removing the auto-turner. Additionally the eggs are lower and the auto-turner presumable produced a little heat of its own, plus the increased humidity all leads to decreased temps. I made the decision to tweak my heater a tad because all the thermometers were about 2 degrees low and I thought that was a little too low (97-97.5) so my goal is 98.5-99 right now (had been 99.5-100).

Here they are prior to shutting the lid:

 

[DiamondDust]

So far 5 silkies have hatched...and 5 more eggs to go. One chick pipped and then died in shell. That is always sad. So close! I'm afraid for the 5 that haven't hatched yet...I hope they make it!

Anyway, besides the silkie eggs I also have Barnevelder eggs in the incubator. They are due to hatch tomorrow but one started to pip this afternoon! I'm SO excited about the barnies because I've never hatched them before. I hatched silkies last year.

 

[DiamondDust]

These are the five that hatched so far!

 

[dretd]

These are the five that hatched so far!

Congrats and good luck on the rest of your hatch!

 

[foxflower]

Those are very pretty silkies.

 

[SmittenChicken]

Hope all the hatches are going well... and congrats on the chicks, everyone!


I have 15 chicks hatched, 13 in the brooder and two in the incubator. And several eggs that are still pipping/zipping. I had 3 chicks that got stuck in the egg and tried to push out of the shell for hours, so I assisted a little and got them all to hatch out. Two of those are still in the incubator, and one is in the brooder already causing trouble -- hopefully they'll all do fine!

 

[dretd]

Hope all the hatches are going well... and congrats on the chicks, everyone!


I have 15 chicks hatched, 13 in the brooder and two in the incubator. And several eggs that are still pipping/zipping. I had 3 chicks that got stuck in the egg and tried to push out of the shell for hours, so I assisted a little and got them all to hatch out. Two of those are still in the incubator, and one is in the brooder already causing trouble -- hopefully they'll all do fine!

Awwhhh--look at that little cutie using is hatch-mate as a lounge chair fro the sun-lamp snooze!

Still nothing in the incubator, just quiet eggs. Hard not to worry since so many folks have horror stories about late quitters at lockdown and I've had so many disastrous hatches with shipped eggs--at least these weren't shipped but the fear is still there . Theorectical hatch time is 8 am tomorrow morning.

 

[dretd]

Am I the only one still awaiting hatching? I set the eggs 3 weeks ago at 8 am so today is hatch day for me!

I got my first pip between 1 and 3 am. I couldn't sleep and peeked in on them (and no--I'm not turning in to a crazy chicken lady as my husband has mumbled several times under his breath). As I was staring at the still eggs wishing for movement, B-54.7 said, 'since you asked so nicely" and wham--huge vibration! About 10 minutes later it shuddered again. I figured that it had internally pipped or something but I think it was whacking at the shell in retrospect.

I let Miss B-54.7 be for a couple of hours ( a watched pot never boils, after all) and checked again at 3 am and there was a nice respectable pip. Nothing further this morning, but all of my dread about DIS at lockdown is now worry about shrink-wrapped babies.

Man, incubating is so stressful but yet here I am doing it again year after year!

 

[DiamondDust]

dretd,
I have three eggs still in the incubator but I don't have a lot of hope for them as hatch day was yesterday. Still, I'm not giving up yet. I had four Barnevelders hatch yesterday and five Silkies before that. I checked the silkie eggs that were still in the 'bator since the silkies hatched early and, sure enough, the remaining eggs were all DIS. One had an internal pip but the rest didn't make it that far. I'm glad I got what I did, though I would love to have gotten a higher percentage hatch.

Here are my four Barnie chicks: