JUST FOR FUN NOVEMBER HATCH–A–LONG!!! 2015

Join the November hatch along!

Hello everyone! This is a bit late for me because my chicks will be hatching in about 11 days, but I thought for everyone another hatch along for the month of November would be fun.

We can help each other out, share pictures, ask questions, and have a fun time chatting.

Now for me I only have two eggs developing, I put in seven, but none of the others even started developing. In all of my previous hatches all the eggs I put in my incubator hatched. I figured out my problem. The hen I got the other eggs from is really old, so there is probably a problem with her eggs.

Anyways... How about a countdown? And for anyone else hatching eggs right now join along! Share your previous experiences, and what's going on right now.

I'll be keeping everyone updated with my hatch.

Hope to see your pictures of newly hatched chicks, candled chick embryos, and more!

I have a dozen eggs due in 17 days and 5 hours.
I hadn't planned on hatching any till next month but I had a single chick hatch a couple weeks ago and it needs friends.
I haven't made repairs to my cabinet incubator yet so the eggs are in my little giant temporarily. I have to keep reminding myself to go to the cellar and turn the eggs.
We're supposed to get 4 days of rain starting Monday so today and tomorrow will be taken up with outdoor chores. When the rains come, I'll have time to work on the incubator/hatcher.

Cool! You know I think I'm going to have to do the same thing, if I get both to hatch I'm more than likely to have one boy or both boys, or if I only get one to hatch I'll need to put in some more eggs either way. I just have to wait until these ones hatch because it's kind of late now to add extras.

I'll be sharing some candling pics later today.

I wanted to mention that roosters need to be photo stimulated for fertility just like hens.

What does that mean? :/

Where is everybody? I'd love to see your incubation!

Ok here's some pictures of them in the earlier incubation stage, also some pictures of my last hatch... I just had to share them! Will post the now pictures tomorrow instead.

ChickenCanoe said:

I wanted to mention that roosters need to be photo stimulated for fertility just like hens.

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Quote:

CherriesBrood said:

What does that mean?

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It means they need longer day length to improve fertility.

Light exposure to the retina is first relayed to the nucleus of the hypothalamus, an area of the brain that coordinates biological clock signals. Fibers from there descend to the spinal cord and ultimately project to the superior cervical ganglia, from which neurons ascend back to the pineal gland. The pineal gland transduces signals from the nervous system into a hormonal signal.
The gland produces serotonin and subsequently melatonin, a hormone that affects the gonads for sperm production in males and ovulation in females. An increase in melatonin causes the gonads to become inactive. As photoperiod in relation to day vs. night is the most important clue for animals to determine season. As it lengthens, the gonads are rejuvenated. The duration of melatonin secretion each day is directly proportional to the length of the night because of the pineal gland's ability to measure daylength. Besides reproduction, it also affects sleep timing and blood pressure regulation.

CherriesBrood said:

Where is everybody? I'd love to see your incubation!

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Don't be too discouraged. I started a Christmas hatchalong a couple weeks ago and no one has joined yet.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1048605/christmas-and-zodiac-hal

ChickenCanoe said:

ChickenCanoe said:

I wanted to mention that roosters need to be photo stimulated for fertility just like hens.

Click to expand...

Quote:

CherriesBrood said:

What does that mean? :/

Click to expand...

It means they need longer day length to improve fertility.
[COLOR=333333]Light exposure to the retina is first relayed to the nucleus of the hypothalamus, an area of the brain that coordinates biological clock signals. Fibers from there descend to the spinal cord and ultimately project to the superior cervical ganglia, from which neurons ascend back to the pineal gland. The pineal gland transduces signals from the nervous system into a hormonal signal.
The gland produces serotonin and subsequently melatonin, a hormone that affects the gonads for sperm production in males and ovulation in females. An increase in melatonin causes the gonads to become inactive. As photoperiod in relation to day vs. night is the most important clue for animals to determine season. As it lengthens, the gonads are rejuvenated. The duration of melatonin secretion each day is directly proportional to the length of the night because of the pineal gland's ability to measure daylength. Besides reproduction, it also affects sleep timing and blood pressure regulation.[/COLOR]

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Hmm, I never knew that before, very interesting. I did wait until day 6 of the incubation until I took out the undeveloping eggs. I did crack them open afterwards and I was right, none of them started to develop, only the two that are still in my incubator. I only understood the first sentence of what you said though. All that stuff is to complicated for me. You are very educated! I mean I know a lot about chickens, I've done a lot of research myself, but your information is very very good! How do you know all of that?