Lockdown!

Just put the eggs in Lockdown!  That means I moved them (and all the incubation apparatus) to the bottom of the Reptipro and did their final turn--after this we only open the incubator for a few minutes 5 times a day to give the eggs fresh air, no more turning the eggs--raised the humidity to 65% and increased the temperature setting on the ReptiPro so that the lower part of the incubator gets up to 99.5 degrees.

I placed a sheet of soft rubberized mesh on the bottom of the incubator, it cushions the eggs and will give the freshly-hatched chicks traction so they don't develop spraddle leg. On the right is the hygrometer--even though it displays both humidity and temperature, we use it only for the humidity reading--the temperature reading isn't accurate enough for the eggs. The small white dish with the marbles (to prevent chick drownings) holds the water that provides the humidity, and the weird sparkly pink Disney Princess water weasel toy with the white cord sticking out of it is a 'fake egg'--the cord holds the thermometer probe--one end is inserted into the water weasel, the other end is attached to the thermometer readout outside the Reptipro. The water weasel mimics an egg, and by inserting the probe into the inner pocket of the toy you get a reading of what the temperature is inside of an egg. This little trick gives you a much better hatch since inside the egg is the temperature you are concerned about!

Club Flamingo--the brooder box--is all ready to go!  Sadly, no broody hens right now, so no broody mama this year.

Now we wait until this Saturday, March 31st for the hatch...allowing, of course, for the bantam eggs which always like to hatch 1 or 2 days early! 

When the first egg pips (when the chick pecks out a tiny airhole) we will start the webcast here: Chickam

If you check the link and see EGGS, it means the hatch has begun! 
Tune in and suggest names for us to draw out of a hat as each chick hatches! The weirder, the better when it comes to names for chickens, naturally.