I got scared when you said you went into the back room and....all kinds of things conjured up in my mind. Mostly things that are in the dark, darkness scares me, I don't like dark and I don't like wind. Going into a dark room scares me. I have very good night vision, kind of liken myself to a cat and I can see things in the dark, things scare me in the dark. The thoughts of going into a dark back room scare me.
Now that I have that off my chest. I am still scared when I wondered what was in the back room, didn't know if the room was dark or not, but that is what was conjured up in my mind, a dark black room with no light.
Yay, after all, I bet that room has a window and it was not dark, it was just a room where Bertha was resting. I remember last year, Coopslave, when you got Bertha. You were so excited and you hatched out many a chick. Remember? I decided to name mine Bertha too. My Bertha is chugging away in my Daughter's back room (it has no windows, so is scarey dark, well the door has a window in it, so some light does come in and electric lights, of course. I took a most beautiful picture of candling an egg when I candled....think I need to make a thread to show that pretty egg. Think I will.
My Bertha will bring a hatch to fruition beginning on Sunday and will go through Monday, then about 11 days later I have another tray that will be hatching. I will candle the eggs tomorrow again to go to lockdown for Sunday hatching, at that time I will also candle the second tray, they will be old enough to get a good visual on what is or is not inside.
I am not thrilled so far with the first hatch, only about 50% candled nicely. I think it may have had something to do with a product I used on the birds which may have decreased fertility, but not sure. The candling of the second rack had better be better than the first. Sigh....50% is not an acceptable number of embryos to be developing and this needs to improve. I chalk it up to either the mite product or the small testes of the roosters in wintertime. Anyhow...we'll see (oops, did I ramble off topic a little, pardon, I mean that).
I think your Bertha is very much like mine Coopslave. Mine is old as the hills though, older than dirt itself I think. I think yours is more young. My Husband put a new thermostat on my unit. I like that and I think it works better. The old system on it was a little black dial that I always had a very difficult time to work and make stay at the right temperature. I think maybe the little dial got bumped now and then or something and it might have moved. Mine has the clear door, I love to sit and look in and watch. Does yours have a clear door? If not, would highly recommend you change it, put out the bucks and get clear so you can watch. It's better than a TV screen!!
Ya, gonna put that third rack of eggs in the day after the chicks are moved to their brooding area. My trays hold 72 in each trays, and three racks, so that is about 216 eggs. I think the new type of racks will hold more eggs than mine. Remember I have that weird racked one that was designed for the goose or emu eggs, totally different rack set up, but works just finely. Oh Coopslave, hold onto your britches!! You gonna be twitchin' to get Bertha chugging along again. Have an awesome day, CynthiaM.
