Colorado

[montain_dweller]

i am curious if anyone in the denver area would be keen on having a package of eggs delivered to their house for me. I asm in the mountains, shipping adds a day or 2 from denver and the packages get beat up. I am trying to get some hedemora eggs shipped for the easter hatch along. my area is just still too cold, i was hoping to find someone in the city where its a bit warmer who would be willing to do this. please PM if this might be a possibility

 

[suncatcher]

Looking forward to everyones hatching!!!! So exciting about the eggs developing, sorry to hear about the cracked eggs, I have two older hatchery hens that lay a thin shelled egg, also, I have read that candle wax works better as it is non toxic.

We had a very cold night, but the sun is out so hopefully it will warm up here today. I would not be offended if this was our last cold spell either!

C'mon spring, I am digging out my bator from storage, dusting it off, and may set some eggs the end of March (probably sooner) I want to do a staggered hatch so I can join in the Easter Hatch Along year, still debating on it though..... I really should do a practice run, but hey, is fun hatching along with hundreds of others too! Yay,Colorado hatching season is finally here!

Congrats to everyon who has hatchlings!

eta, I hate not having spell check!

 

[wsmith]

Yesterday afternoon I opened up a few of the unhatched eggs. The vast majority were fully developed, but just didn't hatch. Had all of them hatched that were developed, we would have had close to 20 chicks in the brooder.

 

[Pozees]

wsmith do you know what the humidity was during incubation and hatch? Just curious - Sally Sunshine just told me dead in shell sometimes means it was too high and recommends dropping it some - for me, if anything it's the opposite. Since I dry hatch, the humidity in the incubator is in the 20s pretty steadily, and I bump it to 55%-65% in the hatcher. This time of year I suspect it can be attributed to many, many things we cannot control - all things considered I think you got a nice hatch!

 

[wsmith]

wsmith do you know what the humidity was during incubation and hatch? Just curious - Sally Sunshine just told me dead in shell sometimes means it was too high and recommends dropping it some - for me, if anything it's the opposite. Since I dry hatch, the humidity in the incubator is in the 20s pretty steadily, and I bump it to 55%-65% in the hatcher. This time of year I suspect it can be attributed to many, many things we cannot control - all things considered I think you got a nice hatch!

We kept the incubation humidity between 20-30% and then bumped it up to the upper 50% range during hatching. I think it was mostly due to the collection temps. I had some that got fairly cool during that week.

I am going to keep the incubation humidity the same, but increase the hatching humidity this time. These eggs also had warmer daytime temps, and didn't get as cold.

 

[suncatcher]

Came across this ad on my internet travels.... Wish I had anothe breeding pen built already! http://cosprings.craigslist.org/grd/4345943017.html

 

[thechickenchick]

Many thanks to you both! You are right....it's all right off 85! Lol. We have an Eaton address but are actually only a mile from Galeton. Anyone know where that is? They have this tiny little cafe that is just awesome! They have great pizza too. Very friendly people. Oh and they serve breakfast all day! Bonus!

 

[chlskt]

Welcome to the Colorado thread also!
I have 17 EE eggs that I'm hoping to put in the incubator tomorrow morning. I'm so excited, plus I got 16 chicks this weekend from the feed store in FC...A little out of control right now with the chickens!! LOL

 

[Pozees]

I think you're right about temp at time of collection. So many things can affect hatchability of eggs even when we know they are fertile. I just keep reminding myself that what does develp and hatch this time of year should result in future chicks with higher hatch rates this time of year.

 

[gardendufus]

Quote: LOL so glad u updated. I'm an old accountant and I couldn't help doing the math and it was bugging me. LOL hard to break old habits.