First time hatching from my own flock

[DemeterAD9]

3rd time incubating but these are eggs from my own birds. The first two times were with shipped eggs and hatch rate was not great but not zero. Now I can finally compare with eggs that are not pre-scrambled. I expect most of these eggs to hatch aside from any blanks (I suspect a few to be infertile).

This thread is to help me keep track of the developing eggs as well as the overall incubation method. I am dry hatching 37 set vertically to start and if the viable egg count goes down to 24ish I will set the eggs on the rollers to finish horizontally. My incubator is a cheap 40-50$ forced air one that should hold 24 eggs (horizontally of course). I've had to tweak the humidity and temp as the factory settings were off a bit.

Set them last night (3/5) so tonight will be day 1. Temp is nearly 100F exactly, according to my 3 aquarium thermometers at least. Humidity is 30-40%. I'm turning the eggs several times a day by propping the whole incubator up this way or that. For the 2 eggs sitting on top of the others I am turning them by hand a couple times a day, partly to make sure they turn and partly to let in some fresh air seeing as there isn't any vents that I am aware of anyways. Disregard the current temp reading on the thermometer, this was just as I added the eggs.

Eggs that I'm incubating, all are labeled with the abbreviations and numbered. I've weighed them all as well and will be keeping track the old fashioned way, with pen and paper. Air cell of all but 2 olives that I couldn't see well have been marked. These hens are all under 1yr and are covered by either a blue copper maran or a black Jersey Giant roo. Hopefully I'll be able to tell who's the daddy fairly easily.
4 dark brahma (DB)
4 Large fowl X (LF)
4 OE
5 EE (2 brown hen, 1 white, 2 bantam)
4 Barred/laced (B/L)
3 Bresse
3 Grey OE
2 BJG
2 Legbar X
2 SLW
2 Light brahma (LB)
2 Buff brahma (Buff)

 

[Cheekychook12]

3rd time incubating but these are eggs from my own birds. The first two times were with shipped eggs and hatch rate was not great but not zero. Now I can finally compare with eggs that are not pre-scrambled. I expect most of these eggs to hatch aside from any blanks (I suspect a few to be infertile).

This thread is to help me keep track of the developing eggs as well as the overall incubation method. I am dry hatching 37 set vertically to start and if the viable egg count goes down to 24ish I will set the eggs on the rollers to finish horizontally. My incubator is a cheap 40-50$ forced air one that should hold 24 eggs (horizontally of course). I've had to tweak the humidity and temp as the factory settings were off a bit.

Set them last night (3/5) so tonight will be day 1. Temp is nearly 100F exactly, according to my 3 aquarium thermometers at least. Humidity is 30-40%. I'm turning the eggs several times a day by propping the whole incubator up this way or that. For the 2 eggs sitting on top of the others I am turning them by hand a couple times a day, partly to make sure they turn and partly to let in some fresh air seeing as there isn't any vents that I am aware of anyways. Disregard the current temp reading on the thermometer, this was just as I added the eggs.
View attachment 4066055

Eggs that I'm incubating, all are labeled with the abbreviations and numbered. I've weighed them all as well and will be keeping track the old fashioned way, with pen and paper. Air cell of all but 2 olives that I couldn't see well have been marked. These hens are all under 1yr and are covered by either a blue copper maran or a black Jersey Giant roo. Hopefully I'll be able to tell who's the daddy fairly easily.
4 dark brahma (DB)
4 Large fowl X (LF)
4 OE
5 EE (2 brown hen, 1 white, 2 bantam)
4 Barred/laced (B/L)
3 Bresse
3 Grey OE
2 BJG
2 Legbar X
2 SLW
2 Light brahma (LB)
2 Buff brahma (Buff)

Very exciting! I can’t wait to hatch my first eggs from my birds also, but my cockerels aren’t doing their job well enough yet
Will you be doing a hatch along?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm mainly commenting just so I get regular updates. I should know when anyone posts to this thread.

Since the incubator is a forced air I don't see any red flags from what you said. It should be interesting.

 

[DemeterAD9]

Very exciting! I can’t wait to hatch my first eggs from my birds also, but my cockerels aren’t doing their job well enough yet
Will you be doing a hatch along?

People are welcome to follow along but I’m not doing the naming hatch along, too much commitment and I’ve got enough things to keep track of!

 

[DemeterAD9]

I know it’s early but I’m a serial candler so it can’t be helped! Later tonight will be 48hrs but you can already see the group of cells working on becoming something functioning. It only looks like a circle on top the yolk that wobbles around, similar to a detached air cell. Just might be able to see the beginning of veins tonight, but tomorrow night I believe they should be apparent.

Edit: total egg count is now 38 as I added a bresse egg. Really want to make sure I get at least a couple from this hen. Egg #3 of hers may not actually be from her but the fresh one for sure is. It will be 1.5days behind but I don’t think that’ll be an issue.

 

[DemeterAD9]

We have heart beats! I cannot see well enough into all the eggs but the blue and green eggs are easy enough. So far it looks like the 2 bantam eggs are duds, as I expected.

This egg has an embryo just below the 2 and a meat spot below the “L”.

 

[Slothinc]

Lovely eggs! Happy to follow along!

 

[AshVau22]

We have heart beats! I cannot see well enough into all the eggs but the blue and green eggs are easy enough. So far it looks like the 2 bantam eggs are duds, as I expected.
View attachment 4068249

This egg has an embryo just below the 2 and a meat spot below the “L”.
View attachment 4068250

#2 looks just like the double yoke egg I had in its earlier stages of development.

 

[DemeterAD9]

#2 looks just like the double yoke egg I had in its earlier stages of development.

I hope it’s not a double yolker, that egg in particular is on the medium side weighing only 54 grams. I noticed the meat spot on the day 2, plus there is no veining coming from or around it. Time will tell but I hope for a singleton as I only set two of that hen’s eggs and twins are not ideal. I’m not sure how a meat spot will effect development but I will say in my last hatch there was an egg that had some floaters inside but it still hatched!

I shuffled the eggs around and did a quick assessment of what is looking good so far. All the dark brahma, legbar X, grey OE, and at least some of the bresse, large fowl and barred/laced eggs are showing development. Too soon to tell with some of the others that are harder to see through, plus I didn’t candle them all. The bantam, light Brahma and BJG eggs may be blanks but they’ll stay till I’m certain. I’ll be marking the good eggs as I candle them.

 

[DemeterAD9]

I’ve decided to keep track of 2 eggs in particular, the legbar X 2 and brown EE. Here they both are on day 4

Bonus photo of one egg from the grey OE, a large fowl who has a darker shell (it is alive and well just hard to see) and a good example of a dark egg (OE) that I cannot see inside of at all!