February 2017 Hatch-a-long

[HeritageHenNut]

Candled my Duck eggs & marked air cells. Of 9 set 7 look fantastic, 1 is iffy and 1 clear.

 

[CuzChickens]

@CuzChickens
 those week-olds are adorable!  Congrats on the anniversary... it's going to be a good year!

Thank you, and thank you! I am quite excited about the new chicken keeping year, with plenty of ideas brewing!

 

[orrpeople]

Candled my Duck eggs & marked air cells. Of 9 set 7 look fantastic, 1 is iffy and 1 clear.

Beautiful! That's a pretty good percentage! Best of luck!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I think so. I'd like to be able to move the "lockdown ready" eggs to a separate bator for hatching, leaving the rest until it's their turn to hatch out. Because I have small incubator space, being able to rotate them through might expedite my process a bit.

That is what I do during the summer because I hatch a lot of guineas to sell. I tried a still air styrofoam incubator from Tractor Supply and it was terrible; I couldn't even use it as a hatcher because it really struggled to maintain heat and humidity. At the time I was using a Farm Innovators forced air for my primary incubator, so I bought a second cheap 56-egg chinese incubator and started using that to incubate and use the FI as my hatcher. The FI is styrofoam but it is enclosed in plastic, and I think that helps with the temperature regulation. The strictly styrofoam ones might work better if you cut the box so you can use it to help hold the heat, or do some other modification to help with temperature regulation (some people wrap them in towels). I didn't want to cut the box though because I already knew I was going to return it as soon as the other incubator arrived. I do have to keep my chinese incubator in the box and it really does seem to help. Whatever you do, though, just make sure you don't block the air vents.

 

[danielkbrantley]

Smell the eggs. You'll know if one is rotten, and in that case remove that and don't bother with the rest. I've done the same thing, hanging on to some until lockdown or longer just in case. As long as it doesn't stink, it's not really a risk.

I love this site, and it's because of people like you, SunHwaKwon. Thanks so much!

 

[JenniferDuBay]

Set my first eggs 9 days ago. I candled last night, ended up with 54 developing, 9 blood rings (is that number normal,) and 20 clears. My incubator is a joke at best, but I sort of accidentally bid on some mystery eggs at an auction and had to get it finished. (Seriously, 84 eggs for 10 bucks, I couldn't resist!) Hopefully when these hatch and sell I can build a "real" incubator

 

[MontainBourbons]

21 sulmtaler eggs into lockdown!!! They are due to hatch on the 9th.

 

[butterfliesdoku]

I'll be joining in! I'm going to set eggs tonight. It'll be Legbars, Bielefelders and Easter Eggers. Some eggs are a month+ old so we'll see what happens.

 

[orrpeople]

Set my first eggs 9 days ago. I candled last night, ended up with 54 developing, 9 blood rings (is that number normal,) and 20 clears. My incubator is a joke at best, but I sort of accidentally bid on some mystery eggs at an auction and had to get it finished. (Seriously, 84 eggs for 10 bucks, I couldn't resist!) Hopefully when these hatch and sell I can build a "real" incubator

If it was shipped eggs, then yes - early quitters happen, unless you can account for a spike in temp or inconsistency with the incubator. This time of year, it seems there is more chance for infertility (clears, I'm guessing - did you open them up and check?) especially in places with odd or just really cold winter weather. But, heck $10 - totally worth the risk!!!

 

[orrpeople]

I'll be joining in! I'm going to set eggs tonight. It'll be Legbars, Bielefelders and Easter Eggers. Some eggs are a month+ old so we'll see what happens.

Legbars and Bieles are my next batch. (Either March, or adding a hatching bator) I hatched some Bieles last month and now that Jeff from Papas has given the green light on fertility, I am totally psyched to get some from him! Auto sexing breeds are a wonder!