INCUBATION UPDATE
(Saturday 4th December 2010: Day 7)- Have not opened incubator since setting until tonight.
- Only checked temperature & humidity readings via windows in top; both have remained constant since Day 2, when the humidity had levelled out at a little above 50%.
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Candled tonight: Step-by-step procedure in the Winglet house1. Placed loo roll on halogen light, turned dimmer switch to maximum & turned all other light sources off (lights, monitors, TV screens etc).
3. Removed lid of Hova-Bator completely & put it aside.
4a. Placed one egg at a time onto the top of the loo roll
4b. If I see an air sac with a black 'blob' in the yolk area with spidery veins coming off it I have a developing chick (YAY ! keepers!) & put them back into the auto-turner. I don't always see the blob clearly, and if I do see the blob I don't always see the spidery veins.
4c. If I see a blood ring the egg is removed from the incubator, as it means a chick was developing (so the egg was fertile) but it has stopped developing (died) and is no longer viable (won't develop/grow). I don't bother cracking them open to check them, as I don't know what I'm looking for... that's for exploring a few hatches down the track for me.
4d. If I see no air sac, and the egg looks the same as a freshly laid egg when it's candled (this is something I did before my first incubated eggs, as recommended on BYP & by some BYP members via PM... so you can see what it looks like), the egg is removed from the incubator. Again, I don't crack them open to see if they were fertile, as I'm unsure of what I'm looking for & that's for exploring down the track for me.
4e. If the egg doesn't look like any of the above, or I'm not entirely certain of what I can see, I leave it in the incubator, and reassess at next candling. I was scared to do this the first time I had an artificial incubation, thinking I might be leaving a 'problem' egg in there, but have no qualms now as all the eggs I candled tonight I am far more confident about what I'm seeing than I was in my first hatch. I had the advantage of having someone here (happened to be the breeder of my current eggs, but were eggs from someone else) to show me what to look for when I candled my first ever day 7 egg... a FANTASTIC help to have that if you can wrangle it.
5.When each separate batch of eggs (in this case, three batches; one per breed) is complete, I write the results down as I have a memory like a sieve.
6. After all eggs are candled & I'm confident of my results, and have returned them to the auto-turner, I lifted the auto-turn tray out of the incubator (with eggs in place) & had Mr Winglet carefully hold the tray whilst I removed the thermometer/hygrometer, lifted up the non-slip grip white rubbery/plasticky sheet I have over the metal grid, and topped up the central section with water. It had completely dried out, but the incubator has maintained humidity at a constant all week, so I'm rather happy about that.
7. Returned non-slip mat to it's place, gently inserted auto-turn tray & put cord back into groove, replaced thermometer/hygrometer to the same spot it's been in all week, and replaced lid of Hova-Bator. Plugs still in place.
8. Total time that lid was off would have been less than 5 minutes.
RESULTS OF CANDLING for Day 7Still in incubator:
14 of 19 Australorp eggs definitely growing
14 of 17 Rhode Island Red eggs definitely growing
6 of 6 Light Sussex eggs definitely growing
34 of 42 eggs in total definitely growingRemoved from incubator & thrown out:
5 Australorp eggs (no air sac or signs of development, but I didn't open them to look for signs of fertility)
3 Rhode Island Red eggs (all had blood rings, meaning they were fertile)
I'm especially pleased about the Light Sussex eggs all being fertile, as they are from an unproven young rooster, and I'm chuffed to be able to inform the breeder that his first eggs to go into the incubator for his young charge are all fertile & growing nicely !
(PM to be sent to him as soon as I post this... will try to phone him tomorrow to let him know, too).
Winglet (I'm also chuffed with myself for being able to confidently leave the incubator to 'do it's thang' this time around)
Next report will be at Day 14 candling, unless something unexpected occurs beforehand
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Last setting I had it around 45% to begin with.
The others happily sit on top of her to lay each day & she looks after the eggs until I collect them in the afternoon from underneath her, leaving a plastic egg under her to try to encourage her to stay put. If she's still broody when this lot hatch, AND I have somewhere else for the Bantam Menace to roost, she can raise as many as I can put under her.