Now I am flapping. I have five cheeping, pipped eggs but slow progress. How long does it take for a chick to fully hatch?

[MehgaLegs]

I should just leave them to it but I am worried that the humidity is too low and the mebranes dry.

Can't bear it if I only get one chick. We took hatched chick out this morning to put in brooder and I think I've cocked up the humidity

no ideas, but bump

Just looked - 2 more have hatched and three have little beaks poking out. It's getting very noisy in the spare room. Some of the others have pipped.

The little one in the brooder is so sweet. I have taught it to drink, when I put my hand out he hops on and pecks my wedding ring.

Too for words!

I've no advice about humidity or duration of hatch - being a hatching Luddite and relying on my aga hens.

Have a look on the 'eggs to growers' bit of PPF - there's bound to be a thread on it.

And another! DS3 is going to explode when I tell him.

There are 5 in there now. It's steaming up a bit so I've opened the vents a bit. Still 11 to go.

sounds great
just be strong and KEEP THE LID CLOSED. humidity is all.
they can take a good day from pip to hatch no problem
ahhhh congrats!

btw also leave chicks in there until completely dry and fluffed up - fine to leave them in there for 18 hours or so for a slow hatch. between pip and hatch they absorb the yolk which is food and drink enough for 24 hours or so.

I've just bought this years R-Com. I thought about getting a cheaper model but it does look stylish easy to use. I blame peahead. Particularly as I'm thinking of keeping quail now as well!!!

... talk of the devil... How are your quails PPH?

oh how exciting, we only have 8 days to go wiith the duck eggs!!

Oh lovely! How exciting! I hope you're taking photos!

We're now up to 7 and four more are pipping. I must give a couple to Lulu but I don't want to open the lid again. Will see how many we have in the morning.

They are proper story book, fluffy yellow chicks. The last one to hatch has the most enormous long legs.

Will take some pics tomorrow when they are in brooder as ones from incy are unclear.

Fantastic!
Put some pics up as soon as you can

Mehgalegs.... Your boys are so cute

I saw a Sasso chick in Smallholder mag earlier - they are indeed yellow!

If you want 'music to hatch to' the Foos did Radio 1 Live Lounge yesterday lunchtime and you can listen to it on the website if you missed it. Lots of Dave Grohl chatting too...

Oh I missed that DoN - will listen now.

Woke up to a bustling cheeping incy with more 9 more hatching over night.

Lulu has three and is very happy.

The others are all in the brooder and having a fine time.

They are hysterical. I have just given them a how to drink and how to eat lesson. They all run madly after my hand.

Just one dud. My candling was pretty accurate though. I opened unhatched egg and was just runny yolk, no chick.

So out of the 24 bought eggs 16 healthy chicks - not bad for a first go.

Will do some pics after lunch.

That's a pretty good yield. I'd be very happy with that. Especially given that bought & posted eggs could have been awful.

Are the 16 all for the pot? That's about how many meat birds I want to raise this summer, what with baby no.4 due next month, I don't want to go mad. I'm not growing much veg this year either.

Yes all for the pot. They are in the broody shed for a few weeks and then they will go next door in the pigs old land. It has only just been seeded though so hope we get some good grass growing weather.

Not long to wait for number 4 now. I used to do pregnancy gardening with all my lot. I'd get my kneeler out and do a little circle of weeding 360 ddegrees around myself. Then I'd go and put my feet up for a bit.

My garden has been invaded by rabbits . That's the next job on the list. Vermin contolr

Are they all in the brooder now? My incy should be here on Monday. So I'll start collecting eggs for it tomorrow. It'll be a mixed bunch of Vorwerk x Lt Sussex, Silver Sussex or Amber Star so should be large enough for either purpose.

I can't decide whether to buy just 6 Lavender Araucana eggs. Somebody on PPF has posted a thread saying that the Cream Legbar eggs they had in their incy have finally (24/25 days) hatched. And they're bloody ducklings!!! Bought from Ebay I think...

To keep eggs to use in an incubator, collect them regularly from the henhouse, especially if the weather is hot (some hope). Put it in an egg box, tip down, and keep the box away from heat, light, sunshine etc. I keep mine in the cellar but a cold cupboard or room without any heating will do. Write the date & who's egg it is in pencil on the egg. Turn the egg to stand on it's opposite end everyday. The fresher they are when you use them the higher the hatch rate should be. But eggs will keep like this for up to 2 weeks.

I read Hugh F-W yesterday who says to store eggs on their sides (lengthways) and turn them everyday. But I've not heard that before and you couldn't just stick them in an old egg box then.

When the incubator has reached the correct temperature/humidity, then put the eggs in. They will all heat up together and hatch at the same time regardless of the day they were laid.

An egg that gets warm after being laid and before going in the incubator will probably 'go off'.

Is your cockerel fertile? I'm using new hens AND a new cockerel this year so I've no idea whether our eggs are actually fertile or not. Will soon find out!