Order Up. Toaster oven Hatch-A-Long

[Tstraub]

I'm setting 21 eggs from my backyard flock in my modified toaster oven incubator I have successfully hatched eggs in this incubator before my last run had about a 50% hatch rate with several fully developed chicks dead in the shell I have made some improvements to the incubator and plan to run it at a lower humidity this round in hopes of improving the hatch rate.

To keep with the oven theme all eggs have been marked with a number. These numbers will correspond to an egg or chicken food item in the menu below. Please feel free to place your order and cheer on any of these eggs.

The Sire should be my Black Copper Marans Cockerel Axl. There is a small chance that some of these eggs were fertilized by my leghorn mix rooster that the had been with the girls few weeks prior so if any hatch out white his contributions might still be in play



The Ladies

Eggs 1-5 are from my French Black Copper Marans Betty

1. Coq au Vin-CatInTheHenHouse
2. Suoffle OUT
3. Mayonnaise OUT
4. Quiche-Daniel Grey
5. French Toast - wrathsfarm

Eggs 6-11 are from my olive egger Blue

6. Omlet- TwoCrows
7. Over Easy
8. Scrambled- GreenJay
9. Dutch Baby-Alexandra Runner
10. Fried Chicken
11. Chicken and Noodles-CloneFly

Eggs 12-18 are from my Barred Rock Oreo. This is a sex linked pairing all males should be born with a white spot on their heads. Anyone choosing one of these is encouraged to predict the gender and hopefully I can witness the hatch and verify the gender

12. Boiled
13. Poached - Debbie292d
14. Fried Egg - Rock17
15. Pickled Egg-BackroadGirl57 predicts girl
16. Chicken Alfredo- GirlsHuntToo predicts girl
17. Rotisserie Chicken
18. Chicken Nuggets-Nym

Eggs 19-21 came from my Olive Egger, Cocoa
19. Egg salad
20. Chicken salad
21. Egg Noodles-ChickenLoverTrin

 

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@GirlsHuntToo

I’m going to take off my chef’s hat for a minute and slip into some nurse’s scrubs to discuss Chicken Alfredo’s health check

Egg shell temperature came in at 99.7 anything between 98.5 and 101.5 is considered to be acceptable 100.0 is the ideal target

Her weight tonight was 57 grams. I didn’t write every eggs starting weight but I know that all of the eggs laid by Oreo started between 60 and 65 grams. That would put her target weight 54.9-58.7 on day 18 today is day 16 so she is right on target

Veins look really good. But didn’t photograph all that well. Movement was a little slow but she is definitely moving around. I think I caught her while she was resting or possibly even asleep tonight. All in all I believe she is very healthy.

 

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Pip on #11 Chicken and Noodles @CloneFly

 

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Chicken and Noodles is out but Dutch Baby was over excited to have a friend and was playing a little too rough. Since I didn’t see any more pips I chose to move Dutch Baby out to the brooder. I’ll re introduced them once Noodles gets dry and rested

 

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Update on the chicks. The incubator chicks are doing well brooder temperature is 90 on the warm side food and water on the cool side to encourage them to explore the whole area. They like hanging out under the heat most of the day

Momma hen doesn’t read and if the rules and has her babies outside temps are in the mid 60s winds in the teens gusting to 20+mph. Babies look healthy but I haven’t been able to get a real close look at them. momma has made it clear that she doesn’t need or want any help she’s got it.

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

@GirlsHuntToo

I’m going to take off my chef’s hat for a minute and slip into some nurse’s scrubs to discuss Chicken Alfredo’s health check

Egg shell temperature came in at 99.7 anything between 98.5 and 101.5 is considered to be acceptable 100.0 is the ideal target View attachment 3784095

Her weight tonight was 57 grams. I didn’t write every eggs starting weight but I know that all of the eggs laid by Oreo started between 60 and 65 grams. That would put her target weight 54.9-58.7 on day 18 today is day 16 so she is right on target
View attachment 3784096
Veins look really good. But didn’t photograph all that well. Movement was a little slow but she is definitely moving around. I think I caught her while she was resting or possibly even asleep tonight. All in all I believe she is very healthy. View attachment 3784097

Oh.Wow. I was expecting to hear that much! It seems like you really do care about these chicks well being. It kinda sounds like a pregnancy update ultrasound tbh! Haha

 

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I candled all of the eggs tonight the dark green ones #6-11 are too dark to see anything but the air cells. I did see veins in the rest of them so i believe we will go into lockdown with 19 of the original 21 eggs

My work week starts on Saturday afternoon and I’ll be working 12 hour shifts. I plan to start lockdown Friday night because it’s the most convenient time for me to monitor things. I’ll be awake anyway so I’ll spend the night trying different sized water vessels and sponges to bring the humidity up.

We have rain in the forecast Saturday, Monday and Tuesday so I think Mother Nature will help with the humidity.

 

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dutch Baby @Alexandra Runner you picked a winner

 

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As day #0 comes to an end all is well. Nine of the 21 eggs have been claimed and I have edited the first post to add user names to the egg list. If I missed anyone please let me know. Temperature and humidity are well within acceptable range.

Attached is a graph from my govee thermometer. The big dip between 9-10 am is when the sensor was outside of the incubator to load the eggs at the start of the hatch. The following downward spikes are when the thermometer and all eggs were outside of the incubator for hand turning.

 

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The eggs got turned 6 times yesterday. The slight temperature differences shown between turning is due to the thermometer being in different positions inside the incubator. It’s a little warmer in the center and cooler near the corners. I have been moving the eggs around while turning so that none are in the cooler places the entire time.

I did check egg shell temperatures with an infrared medical thermometer and the coolest were 98 degrees the warmest were 101. For what it’s worth I do have a broody hen setting on 9 eggs out in the coop. She is 2 days ahead of this batch. Her eggs were 97-102 degrees so I’m not concerned with the temperature difference in the incubator. I’ll just stir them up a few times a day and everything should average out.

I was counting the first day as day 0 but the app I’m using on my phone must start on day 1 because it says we’re starting day 3.