AHHH!!!!!Jaye wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:45 pmOMG! I candled tonight, but wasn't expecting much, due to my many newbie errors. I set 18, 5 of which were my Welsummer hen Biscuit's eggs. Biscuit couldn't stand Charlie, and let him know in no uncertain terms, so I am counting on them all being yolkers (I can't tell whether they are fertile or not because her eggs are pretty dark).
However, of the 5 Cilla eggs that I set, 4 are fertile, and the embryo is distinct, eye and all! Cilla is my Brabanter pullet.
All 4 of Memphis's eggs set are fertile. Unfortunately, Memphis lays torpedo shaped eggs, so the chicks may have trouble hatching. They will be blue Ameraucana_Brabanter chicks if they make it.
2 of 4 of Deanie's are fertile, 2 I'm not sure about, but the 2 confirmed fertile have air sacs too far down the side. :-My fault - I. didn't store them upright; they were in our egg skelter. Deanie is my olive egger.
I guess we need to get moving on building a growout coop.
How terrifyingexciting! You have no idea how uncomfortable I am right now, crossing all fingers and toes, hoping that some of these hatch! I can't even imagine what you're going through. Wait, yes I can. Welcome to the slippery slope that is hatching 'important' eggs. The oven eggs were a test hatching: now you're in for the long haul 
May the journey be kind to you! Oh, it would be so awesome if you got some more Brabanters out of this adventure!I agree with @kenya; torpedo eggs hatch fine in my experience. I like to lock them down a day or two earlier *just in case*, because if you have high humidity in your house as I do here (rarely if ever under 55%) I feel it gives everyone a little better chance to be in the correct orientation at hatch time. If they're in the right position at the right time, torpedo eggs, round eggs and regular shaped eggs all hatch at the same rate.
A few days ago I posted that humidity in our area of eastern Ontario is almost always ridiculously high, and that wet hatches are more of a concern than shrinkwrapping: then today I remembered that Mr. Jaye has COPD, I think (?) and your house may be kept particularly dry. If that's the case, you may have to watch at hatch time more closely than most, but my advice still stands. Chicks that pip and start to get shrinkwrapped can be saved. Chicks that drown when they pip, or die of heart failure from the exertion of hatching, or get glued in from goop and you don't realize it, cannot.
It is NOT your fault that the air cells of Deanie's eggs are too far down the side. It's Deanie's
. I'm afraid I have a couple hens that lay eggs with misplaced air cells regularly enough that I probably shouldn't breed those hens. It doesn't matter how soon you get those eggs fat end up--the air cell develops where it was always going to. No amount of time of upright storage will fix those air cells. If the cell isn't too far down, as incubation progresses and the air cell gets bigger, it *may* be good enough for chicks to hatch. Remember, a few of the brabanter eggs that Charlie and Cilla came from had the same problem. After all, left to their own devices, hens lay a clutch of eggs all left on their sides, for sometimes weeks. Air cells are either in their normal spot or they're not; barring trauma the cells don't shift much after the eggs are laid. There seems to be a genetic component to "side cells".Clearly you did fineJaye wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 6:17 pm
Okay, so here's how I scored on the points you listed:
1. I didn't really pay attention to the storage temperature of the eggs; they were sitting on the peninsula in the kitchen until I I made the spur of the moment decision to go for it (try to incubate some). I didn't start flipping them until then either. So, big fail on point #1.
Most are fertile and developing, and those are the results that matter!
Oh dear. People like you and I (and a few others on this forum *cough* @Killerbunny *cough* get, um, very invested in our poultry and our eggs. Some may say TOO invested, and they're probably right, but f*** those peopleJaye wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 6:17 pm
2. I plugged in the incubator, then stuck a meat thermometer in the turner right under the heater/fan at egg level. I started panicking about the discrepancy between meat thermometer and incubator temperature. Tried calibrating the meat thermometer and got even wilder variation. DH installed some Arduino probes and I thought the incubator needed adjusting, so I did. Set the eggs once I thought things were stabilized. Two days later DH discovered that the probes were in fact inaccurate because of a coding error, so I reset the incubator temperature back to where it was. I bought a portable humidifier to try to raise what I thought was too low. When I went into the incubator room the following morning it was like walking into a rain forest. So, another fail on point #2.
. My oldest son is an electrical engineer, and I've had to MIGHTILY resist asking him to "tweak" things. He's offered, and I've bounced some ideas off him, but decided that I'm too old to go down the innovation road if what I'm doing is working just fine. An arduino board is a slippery slope of a different kind--so many possibilities! I get excited just thinking about it, but then I catch myself--what the heck would I do if I had a higher hatch rate? Set fewer eggs??!!?? NAWWWWW. That way there be dragons. 
No big deal. I usually wash my hands before handling my eggs because if I don't do it regularly, I notice in a few days. I start getting "quitters". Hand SANITIZER like Purel is NOT a substitute or alternative for hand washing, and can hurt your eggs. It has perfumes and moisturizers that eggs don't like, anymore than germs and skin oils. There are certain things that developing chicken eggs distinctly don't like...oils from cat and dog fur, human 'bathroom' germs (you know the ones I'm talking about, the poopy ones) but otherwise they're pretty tough. If you regularly pet your dog and then go turn your eggs by hand afterwards without washing first, or drive home from work after you've touched your steering wheel for an hour, and don't wash first, you're eventually going to see eggs quit.Jaye wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 6:17 pm3. Well, I actually did all right on the hand washing
- with a couple of minor infractions. I rate them minor because my hands had been recently washed, but I hadn't remembered to use hand sanitizer before moving the eggs around inside the incubator. So, I would say that I passed hand sanitation.
I'd say you pass with flying colours though. I've met you several times. You shower much more often than I do
Yep, that's often enough if the incubator co-operates! An oil lamp as a heater is not so forgiving, and up until fairly recently I was checking temps up to 20 times a day and night. I'm down to 3 times in a 24 hour period. I can peek at temperature, turn my eggs and walk away for hours at a time now. (speaking of which, eggs do not benefit from being turned 20 times a day as opposed to two or three. Not at all.) Though, I may have had an addiction problem from which I am now recoveredJaye wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 6:17 pm4. I get a passing grade in the checking temperature often department, if 2-3 times a day is considered often. So far I have only candled once, but really want to try to see something in Biscuit's eggs tonight. I am beginning to get how this can become an obsession.
OK, I might be a little OCD/addictive personality, but now I check and turn my eggs only once or twice a day. They're fine with that, so, so am I.
I'm feeling it right along with you. I know the thrill of success and the sorrow of dead chicks. Every failed egg is a heartbreak. Every one that hatches is encouragement to try again.Jaye wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 6:17 pm5. Yes, I did hatch chicks in an oven, and one even made it to being a big healthy regular egg laying hen. But Gracie did all the heavy lifting - I just came in at the end after she was forced to quit. It was only four days of nail biting and OCD temperature checking and adjusting for me. But I get what you're saying: in spite of all my missteps, I may actually have some success!
P.S., @windwalkingwolf , you need to write a book; I so enjoy reading all your posts.
No, writing a book is SO NOT not in my immediate future. Writing is just as gut wrenching as hatching!
, when I looked her eggs were covered in