Moodene here

Well I been AWOL since I dont work anymore as a school bus driver or work at the school anymore...been working on my property trying to get it cleaned up for the spring..and hubby had heart surgery --he is doing great..my daddy had a light stroke but he is doing really well..just alittle tiny memory loss..he doesnt remember when it happened but he remembered talking to my brother while it was happening...lol..he turned 92 last Dec..
I am currently incubating my Easter Egger eggs..got 41 out of 42 so far cooking. Hatching hopefully will be around March 3-5 ....will be doing Orpingtons eggs next...

Welcome back! I,m looking forward to hearing about the progress of the hatch.

I will be getting some blue black splash easter egger hatching eggs too..got 2 broody hens to take care of that..they sitting on wooden eggs at the moment..I do make them get off to go eat...lol.

Welcome back,nice to see some the regulars back

Looking forward to seeing more chick photos. Can't get enough chick photos this time of year ☺

LOL...I am currently building a small inside coop cage for 2 hens that will be laying on some eggs for me..they will still be in the henhouse so when baby chicks hatch..it will be smooth sailing out the door..lol..

Well I hatch 34 biddies out of 39 eggs on March 3-4......I ended up selling them all yesterday and today..people wanted the green eggers..sold them on straight run..my next batch will be BBS Orpingtons,Oliver eggers, and Production reds hens/Blue Orp roo..Hatching date is around March 27-28..I hope..

Wow! Well done!

Great hatch,what do you have for a bator?My hatches r not very good

My trusty 10 yr old Hoverbator. I do dry incubation.

Tomorrow I will post about my March 27-28th hatch. It will be the 7 day candling day.

Clearly you are doing something right! Keep us informed.

I hope I am..lol...will have another full bator of eggs soon as these hatch out...keeping that thing going for awhile..

Tell me more about the dry hatch.You don't add any water till day 18 is that right? What does your humidity stay at those first 18 days?I have to add water everyday in the winter.I have a hatch the 21st of this month

So good to see you back Moodene.

Those are good looking babies! So healthy looking too.

I'm always amazed when people live into their 90s. Sounds like he is quite the gentleman. Maybe you can share with us how he's managed to make it this far. You know, health tips. The older people had an advantage over most of us. Their diet as youngsters was much healthier than the kids get today. Even as poor as my mother was when she was a girl, she and her brothers were all healthy as horses, as they say. They grew their own food, and though I'm sure it was hard work, their health was good.

Ok..I candled today and had to toss 4 eggs out of 42 in the bator..

My dry incubation goes like this:

99.5/100 degrees @30 % humidity forced air and automatic egg turner from Day1-17

Day 18th- take turner out and put all the eggs inside the bator..let the bator build back up to 99.5/100 degrees but raise your

humditiy up to 70% slowly..I have a candle warmer with a glass jar that keeps my water warm whenever I need it..I do not

open my bator lid except on 7th,14th day candling, and 18th day-removing the turner. Then the lids stays on until I see all my

chicks hatched out n dried. I use a funnel with a straw on the end of it to pour my water thru the top holes I have so I dont

have to lose any of my heat or humidity while adding water to my tray beneath the wire. I do not use sponges or the plastic tray

that came with my bator..toss it out after first time using it..lol

Thanks for the info,where did you get a funnel like that?

At a store that sold only kitchen ware. I was looking for spatulas n found diff sizes of funnels there.

That is just way cool!

Sigh...add bator hatching my own chicks to the list of things I want to learn once I semi-retire! Along with consistently rooting my own rose cuttings, hydroponics on the back porch, and learning how to work on my own tractor. I'm sure you all can enable me into more learning adventures by that time LOL!

TM YouTube can be so helpful in the "how to do things" department. People are so generous to share what they know. Reviews on products too. They probably work on tractors and post videos.

I go to U-Tube a lot. I'll have to check out some tractor repair sessions...Thanks for the tip☺

Ok..today was my 14th Day candling on my second batch of eggs I am hatching thiis year..had to toss 2 more eggs..so now I have 36 eggs in the bator....will know on March 27-28 how many will actually hatch out..cant wait to see more fluffy butts..lol..

Doing better than me,had 37 put 15 in lick down,today is day 20 and have heard nothing,usually the silkie eggs hatch at day 20

any news on silkie baby chicks?

Some in the bator that has just started to hatch

Cool!! How many did you end up with? Going to go post my lockdown pic for this week..

Out of 15 that made it to lock down 12 hatched,but for some reason 3 died the next day.I hate when that happens,they just started chirping really loud and fell over and died with a few minutes to an hour later.They were healthy running around and eating and drinking,that happened with the last hatch to.I asked around and was told to give my bator a real good cleaning with 10%bleach and water,so I did,but I am not hatching anymore in the bator its to sad.I have 10 broodies out in the coop and I keep stuffing eggs under them

Congratulations on your hatch; you still got a better than average result. I agree, though, let the hens do the work!

A lady shipped 20 silkie hatching eggs out to me. I candled them on the 8th day, and only 4 of them seemed to be developing. You know, where you see the blood veins forming and sometimes the little black dot. I think they call that the eye. I like to see that black dot wiggle. I don't know if the others were just not fertile or were damaged in shipping. About ten of them are just clear or a pink/orange shade. Nothing developing in there. So when do you give up and throw them out? Six are not easy to see through but I don't see the veins.

Moodene you are showing great self control in only candling them a few times. So on the first candle do you just chuck them when you don't see development?

My first batch I candled them almost every night. haha It didn't seem to hurt them that I know of. I'm not saying it is a good thing to do, probably they should be left alone, but I loved seeing them. I have them by my bed and I'd candle them every night before going to sleep. These I am pretty much leaving alone.

Green, I did some more research on my security cameras and discovered that the hard drive on the DVR was not formatted. That is why it would not record. So, I've got it going on now. It recorded the chickens Saturday and I watched them in X16 forward motion. It was funny to see them scurry around the yard and march up by the camera. Not sure how to save or share anything from it yet. Next goal is to see it on my tablet. Then I can see what is going on around here even when I am out of town. I made it to the place it said I had to open certain ports. It said call your ISP and have them open these particular ports, so I called and they said it wasn't their problem and that I should call the maker of my router. Both companies are saying the port issue is not their fault. Going to call the makers of the DVR tomorrow, God willing. Ty for your encouragement. It is sometimes easy for me to get discouraged with these technical issues when things don't fall into place. Sometimes the problem is when these instruction manuals are written by people who's first language is not English.

LFJ,glad you got that going, keep right at it and eventually you will have it all going,I have a hard time trying to figure things like that out to,and your right the people that write these instructions think you already know the terminology and other things when in reality you know nothing at all,they certainly don't make things like that for beginners.

I do have self control candling these eggs....in my blood...on 7th day candling. If I dont see anything growing..yes I toss them..don t need any exploding in my bator..read too many horror stories on that..My bator is in a cubby hole with a draw down cotton curtain to keep the humidity stable along with keeping the area warm while I am candling all the eggs..I do it on the 14th day as well..On 18th day, the eggs go into lockdown with no opening of the top..only thur the window if needed to add more water thru the funnelstraw..I dont open the lid while the chicks are hatching either..lol...

Got another hatch going now..gotta go post that one now..

I had four that were good on day 14 or so. I looked at the two that didn't hatch today. Dark blob . Wonder why they died.

Taking your advice, I found a little funnel and put water through the vent hole this time too. It worked great. I was so pleased.

I put my funnel on end of straw. LoL.