Incubator Update 2

It has been 9 days yesterday since the first egg was set in the incubator. 7 of our eggs are at least 7 days old, so it was a good time to check these 7 eggs:
I found 4 eggs with blood vessels, one 8 days old egg clear (probably infertile), and two 7 days old eggs speckled, with no blood vessel yet. Speckled eggs are more difficult to successfully incubate, so those may be bad too, but I'll give it two more days to decide. The clear egg was removed from the incubator and put in the compost pile. It is risky to keep bad eggs in the incubator, as they may get infected with bacteria which will decompose them, producing gazes that will eventually make the egg explode, contaminating (killing) all the other eggs in the incubator.

I also added a piece of wet cloth inside the incubator to maintain high humidity.

So far we have 4 out of 7 eggs developing blood vessels. That is the furthest we managed to go, our previous attempt failed to reach that milestone. Blood vessels show that the egg is fertile, and started to develop, so from that point on, it is all about temperature and humidity, for the 13 to 14 days that remain until hatching (21 days total).

End of September, we may have peeping sounds coming from the incubator.
This gave me another business idea: next year, we may sell chicken tractors with up to 8 laying hens, to get you started with your own fresh eggs immediately, like a turn-key system. The chicken tractors are A-frame 5FT by 10FT (50 sqft), and can easily hold 8 hens. They need to be moved regularly, for the comfort and hygiene of the hens, so they are build on 4 wheels. These are similar to the tractors we are using on our farm, so it is a proven design.
Pictures of our first tractors (built from recycled material) will be posted soon. If we ever sell tractors, they will of course be built with new material.