I hope this is not too late, lol..... if your eggs are rocking, you can do a couple of things..... you can candle them to see if you see movement but more importantly, you can check for pipping...if you can detect , through candling, the location of the head, then you should see some pipping if the duckling is trying to get out.... I have had slight rocking prior to hatch date if it was a large chick positioning....but none the less, you are close enough that now may be the time to stop turning and start watching !! good luck, you are in store for some special times ahead.....

Sorry you lost your chick. :( First time mamas can sometimes be clueless or just have some aspects of mothering missing, others take to it like a duck to water. You never know until you try. Are mama and eggs in a nice, soft, PRIVATE ground-level nesting area that offers NO barriers to the chicks moving around? I agree on the shavings thing, straw is too hard for new chicks to move around in and they can become entangled too easily. It's ridiculous how easily chicks can hurt or kill themselves. Make sure no other hens or roos can get in there and fight over the chicks and eggs. When are the rest of the eggs due to hatch? Chicken eggs take 21 days to incubate. How many eggs is she sitting on? Velvet ~:>

Hi Jan, hope you made a complaint to the sheriffs office. They should have come out to make a report of damage. What a nasty thing to have happen. Do you have fencing around the areas where chicken tractors are parked? Perhaps you could just put up some T posts with several strings of electric to prevent dogs getting close again. Paint ball guns are also a good weapon to mark the dogs if you can't do the 3S's. Paint balls will sting pretty good too, could be evidence if you can locate dog homes for reparation. We had a lovely day, great presents, son was able to come home for a visit. He brought along one of his house buddies who had no place to go. Made for a lively day. Weather was terrible, raining in the AM, snow after noon. Made roads slushy and slippery, slowed driving down a lot. We passed 3 accidents on country roads as we went for the whole family dinner at 5pm. Slides into a ditch, spun into a tree. No people hurt, just shaken up, wrecked vehicles. Son, husband, buddy, all worked Saturday to get a new roof on the workshop. Did pretty well, laid the perlons, foam insulation. Sunday after church, they worked late AM till afternoon in the nasty weather, they laid the sheet metal. Handling the big pieces is hard, but fastening it down went pretty fast. They got one side all down, looks very nice in dark green. Hope to get the rest done this week ourselves. Son went back home today so it will have to be husband and me. I had tried to talk husband into sheet metal roofing before and he wouldn't. When shop needed new roof I tried again, time saver, metal will shed snow quickly, last a long time. He went for it this time. May even get metal on house when roof needs doing! I have always liked how metal roofs looked, probably because I saw so many on great barns! Never seem to need repair work. The dark green on white shop building is real sharp. With his woodstove going so well, the insulation and metal roof should help with keeping in the heat while he works out there on the really cold days. With the break in temps we have melted a lot of snow. Grass is showing!! I have to mulch some bushes now that I can see the ground again. Amazing how 35F can feel like 60F after all those below 20F days! Barnyards are clearing of snow, horses are racing around with firm grip on dirt. Only a couple had winter shoes and snowball pads on before husband got hurt. They had good traction but the rest were much more tenative on snow and ice. Husband is feeling much better, arm is coming along very well. Ribs are still a bit of trouble in damp air, hard to breathe deep. He is back to work full time. We all got good gifts, everyone was pretty happy. I think this is the best organized I have ever been. Ready to go to bed by midnight! Everything was done. I was sure I forgot something, to be done so early. They did morning chores, let me sleep in until 9A. Great present right there!

dianne, Yes I have thought of other breeds, but as I've stated before, I have to hatch the chicks that will sell at the place I swap chicks for feed. The most requested chicks for this local farming area have been the Rhodes Island Red. I occasionally will pick up a different breed to toy with the egg coloring but I have to basically stay with the RIR due to the request. They are not my favorite bird as I find them as scrappy fighters and there's always a commotion in the hen house. I prefer the Plymouth Barred Rock or the Orpington as they are the most docile. SJN, Where did you find those two round meters that fit into the egg holders? Those two meters look way cool. I presume one is for temperature and the other for humidity. I have the white rectangular one on the right side of your incubator picture. Lou