We have two identical Little Giant model 9200 still-air incubators. One we have upgraded to forced-air by installing a fan kit. We haven't really noticed a difference at hatch time between the two, although forced-air units are supposed to be better! 12 Chicks right now with two more on the way! One Birchen Marans, Two Buff Brahmas, six Light Brahmas and three blue/gray Giant Cochins hatched so far. :) Velvet ~:>

Hey all. I've been watching over this wild mothers nest for weeks now. But when i checked it today i noticed the eggs had hatched and there was only two left un hatched. )( Mother and babbys weren't there. I even checked the cracks and logs for any lost babbys )( So i picked up the first egg to poked a hole in it. Yoke came out. So that was a bad egg. I picked up the second egg and well There was a little beak sticking out. So! I made its hole bigger so it could come out than i looked around for the mother. I could find her. So I ended up taking the baby duck home with me. What should i do? Right now its on a heating pad/shirt. I have the number for a rescue center to call in the morning. Will it be okay over night? Asria

^^^ Hahaha...I once had to buy eggs at the market while my girls were molting, I brought them home and made a point to show the eggs to the girls to remind them what they looked like. Laying started up again shortly thereafter. :) Well...we checked both incubators and candled the eggs we could see into last night. A lot of them were clear, especially the Polish eggs. :( But I don't see my Polish ladies getting much action from my roos, the dumb boys! Other eggs have chicks, but I could not tell if they were alive or not, and how fully formed they are. No peeping or activity yet from any of the eggs, but they aren't due to hatch until beginning at 8PM Saturday night. If none of these hatch, I don't know what to think...I know that both of my roo boys are getting their job done and I don't think they have fertility issues, they are healthy fellas. We did change locations for the incubators this year, to my dining room table, in a corner of a room away from windows and doors to help protect from drafts. I THOUGHT I had a great spot, but if this batch doesn't work I'm going back to putting the darned things in the kitchen. :( On top of everything else, we are having weird weather here since yesterday, supposed to continue until Tuesday--wind, rain/hail, and tornadoes, of all things! If the power goes out, I have my broody hen contingency plan...Bear, Splash and Blue are all broody and would get to sit on the eggs. :) We checked the cam last night and have it all set up and ready to go, if hatching begins we'll fire it up and I'll notify everyone. Time will tell! Velvet !:>

You're welcome! We did lose one chick, the one that hatched two days early. :( I'd hoped it wouldn't happen, because she was a feisty little cuss and the child of one of my favorite hens...but obviously something was wrong inside her, possibly something that didn't form quite right since she hatched before she was officially 'done cookin'. But we did have one last chick that hatched late, so we have four chicks again--three Americaunas mix and one kind of 'mystery' bantam chick--who has our banty roo, Scott for a father, but I'm uncertain of who mom is since the chick is unexpectedly very blonde. The egg was good-sized though, and I thought was from our Silver Laced Wyandotte hen. Time will tell when she feathers out more and we get to see what she looks like! I brought Moet, our buff Frizzle Cochin hen in as acting mom, she's raised chicks before and is an old pro. I wasn't initially going to do this, but the babies were peeping so loudly for US, that I wanted to nip that stuff in the bud. *L* But it's kind of cool to see the mom and kids interact. We'll try another hatch with eggs gotten from elsewhere, I'm afraid my girls are getting a little too old for their eggs to reliably hatch successfully (they are at least 4 years old, some are more like 6-7). But this time I was really trying to get some chicks from some of my favorite hens. I'm thinking I'll get some eggs from the local feed store, they've got some ex-battery hens, Cinnamon Queens, that look lovely. :) Velvet ~:>