Incubating 101

day 13

So the eggs have been growing wonderfully. I have 5 Orust and 3 Welsummer. I removed all the eggs that did not fertilized of the Orust but as for the Welsummer I am having a hard time peering through their thick shells. Now that the embryos are over 7 days of growth, I can definitely tell 2 of the 3 are fertilized. So that leaves the last egg. It is so very dark the light does not shine through!! Ugh! So how long do i let it incubate till i remove it? I do not want to risk contaminating the other eggs by waiting to long. But I may see a hint of life... Tonight right before i sat down to blog, I candled and I think i spotted 5 distinct veins. ohhh wouldn’t that be great to have 3 baby Welsummers! So as for the ratio... All have survived thus far. so for sure 7/7 (if the dark eggs turns out to be fertilized and not just a trick of the eyes that will make it 8/8) So, I am hoping to have a 100% hatch rate come October! I keep the temp between 99 and 100 and humidity likes to be between 35-45. I do add water which boosts it up to about 50. All the articles I have been reading suggest that the last three days should have humidity closer to 60. This incubator seems not to want to hold it that high during my trial runs.

So why the need for high humidity? Well according Brinsea a company that makes incubators, (http://www.brinsea.com/Articles/Advice/Humidity.aspx) they claim the chicks need to loose 13 to 15% of their weight, but to much water loss or excessive humidity is a problem during hatching. The site claims that higher humidity towards the last several days of incubating allows the chicks pourus egg to accept water because the chick has a need to replace the water lost during growth during the first 18 days of incubation. If your humidity runs to high during the entire process it is warned the chicks will be to Large, and hatching difficult because for the chick there is no room to get leverage to hatch out. If the humidity is to low the chicks may be underdeveloped, the air space to large and the chick to weak to hatch at all. Either scenario would be awful!

As always I do not make anything easy for myself. I actually, not believe the facts that fertilized eggs can be stored up to two week ( but have decreasing hatching rates as the time lapses) and be incubated all together. I did not believe it! So i started to incubate my first two Orust starting the 12th which puts me at a due date of the 3/4 of October. The remaining eggs were collected several days later on the 17. This hatch date will be the 8/9. There are 3 Orust and 2(maybe 3) Welsummers for that date.   So what will i do to increase humidity for the 3, but then not 'drown' the other 5 who are just under a week away from their high humidity need? This sure is the question and I know with attention to detail, nurturing and lots and lots of research...Everything will work out.

 My favourite site for all things chicken is  http://www.backyardchickens.com/f/5/incubating-hatching-eggs There is a plethora of information from the users who post here! I am quite amazed at every story and bit of advice given out to newbies like myself!

I hope everyone’s Autumn is just as beautiful as it has been here!
Enjoy!