Hatching with Brinsea!

Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance
2015 RHOSC Hatch-a-Long

I can't believe that it's been almost a year since I set my last batch of eggs! I've been using my Brinsea Mini Advance for the past few years and I've loved hatching with it! It's made the entire process simple and fun! The only stress came from waiting for the chicks to hatch!!

This year Brinsea was kind enough to offer me a large discount on their Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance incubator...and I jumped at the opportunity! I wanted to have the ability to hatch more eggs, as well as giving the chicks extra room when they are hatching.

If you followed along on any of my other pages you know how this page will be set up and worked. For those of you who this is your first follow along, I will chronicle the incubation from Day 1 until HATCH day! :) Each day I will post the new entry at the top of the page, so scroll all the way to the bottom for Day 1.

Along with offering me a nice discount, Brinsea has been kind enough to offer you, my wonderful fans, a 10% off coupon for your orders with them! Just use the code, "RHOSC" when placing the order and your discount will be added!


Another reason for all my excitement is that Wendy from Cluck N' Chatter Ranch, out of Oregon, sent me 2 dozen silkie hatching eggs! If you haven't had a chance to check out her page, click on her name above to go see her FaceBook page and all her GORGEOUS silkies! She was initially going to send me a dozen, but because shipping eggs can be iffy, she was so generous by including another dozen! Even throwing in some Silkie/Easter Egger eggs as well! I'm super excited to try my hand at hatching these beautiful birds, and hope that even with shipping the eggs...that some of them make it to lock down and hatch!

Well friends...here we go! I hope you enjoy this journey with me...and please leave comments on this page, or go to my RHOSC FaceBook Page and leave comments there! Don't forget to check out Brinsea's website and make sure to use the code above for 10% off...you won't be disappointed!! Enjoy this adventure with me! You can see all the pictures and MORE on my Instagram Account!!
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Day 4:

Today is LOCKDOWN! I can't believe that the eggs have been in the incubator for 18 days already!!! Today is the day that things change big time! And by that I mean, the Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance is taken OFF the cradle and no longer turns the eggs...and the humidity gets bumped up to about 65%. And the biggest change is that I can NOT open the incubator now until hatching is done! That's the most important thing about lockdown! If you open the incubator while chicks are trying to hatch you risk them getting shrink wrapped inside the egg and dying because the humidity isn't high enough. So I have to resist all temptations from this point on! And let me tell you...it's NOT easy!


So lockdown began this morning at 12:01 AM since I was awake for a late night goat feeding! ;-) Before I locked everything down I took the opportunity to candle all the eggs that are left and take a few pictures as well as a few videos! :) I'm going to attempt to load the videos the correct way, but if for some reason they load "sideways" just turn your head to the left LOL. 

Here is one of the silkie eggs!!! :)


Okay, here is one of the silkie eggs, can you see the chick moving! So exciting!


This is one of Miss Amelia's eggs (my Easter Egger Hen) can you see it pressing against the air sac!


Eggs out of the dividers and into the Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance tray!


Incubator off the turning cradle!


Egg tray in!


Cover on...and it's LOCKDOWN!!!!



Day 9:

Well it's been QUITE a while since I updated everyone on what's been going on! I apologize for that. I can't even begin to tell you how much I am loving my new Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance!!! It's so quite, and has been holding temp and humidity at rock steady levels! So woot on that! I've candled the eggs a few more times, and out of everything that I've set, I've only had to pull 5 eggs! Not bad for mostly shipped eggs! I fear that after candling today I have a few more that will be pulled in the next day or two, and I'm going to attempt to crack them open to see at what stage they were when they "quit." I tried that last time...but got a little dry heavey LOL. Out of the eggs that I set from my girls, all of Amelia's eggs are still viable and growing nicely! Olivia's two eggs and Lacey's single egg are doing well too! And out of the two double yolker eggs I set, I believe only one is viable. The other quite at a certain point early on. So we'll see how it goes! 


I wanted to take videos and all that to post, but I haven't been able to get good videos and/or pictures for some reason. BUT I will keep trying. I did post a short video to my Instagram account! So check that out to see that!! :) 

I promise that in the next few days I'll start posting more. I can't believe that we are almost a week away from hatching!!!!!! So eggciting!!

Day 18:

Exciting things going on here! Finally the eggs are at a point where I was able to candle them to see if there was any growth at all. And I'm happy to report that there is!!! Last night I candled the eggs from my girls, and I'm happy to report that Mr. Kevin is NOT shooting blanks :) and that all the eggs, including the two double yolker ones...are growing! I'll be interested to see how those two large eggs progress! Only time will tell!


So it looks like the numbers, as of now, for the eggs that are developing are as such:

Silkies: 16 YES!  3 that are questionable. 2 that are definite "NO." 
EE/Silkie Cross: All three are questionable. I'll candle in a few days. They were hard to see through the shells.

Out of my chicks: 
Amelia's Eggs: 5 for 5 YES!
Olivia's Eggs: 2 for 2 YES!
Lacey's Egg: YES (1)
The two LARGE double yolker eggs...as of right now...there is something going on! Time will tell! :)

Here is a picture of one of Amelia's Eggs! :)




Day 20:

Not much is happening with regards to the changes inside the eggs right now...well that we are able to see. Last night before I went to bed I placed the incubator onto the turning cradle, and let me tell you that things is great! It rocks it back and forth twice an hour! I love my Brinsea Mini Advance too, but when the turner kicks on it makes a beeping noise as well as you can hear it turning. The Octagon 20 Advance does it all silently! :) Hopefully in a day or two we'll be able to see some veins growing in some of the eggs! That's when things start  to really get exciting! :)


Day 21:

What an exciting day here on the farm! I finally got my new Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance incubator set up and running...and set the eggs! I set a total of 21 Silkie Eggs plus 3 Silkie/Easter Egger cross eggs from Cluck N' Chatter Ranch! Plus...don't tell Michael, but I set up  my Brinsea Mini Advance too! ***shhhhhhh*** I wanted to throw in a few eggs from my girls as well so I needed the extra space. I set 5 eggs from Amelia, my Easter Egger, 2 eggs from Olivia who is suppose to be an Olive Egger, 1 egg from Lacey my Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, and 2 EXTRA LARGE eggs that I'm positive are double yolkers. These two are more an experiment than anything else. I know that hatching twins is rare, but we'll see how it turns out...it never hurts to try! 


So my friends, here are a few pictures from when I set the eggs this morning! Wish me luck...and thanks for taking this journey with me! Let's hope for an eggciting 21 days!!! 

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