FEBRUARY Hatch-A-Long 2015:Please Read First Post To Join H-A-L

[ChickenLady2014]

Here is my 1 silkie mix Feb. hatch-a-long. I had a straddle hatch, 3 chicks hatched on the last day of Jan. and 1 hatched the 1st of Feb.

 

[emvickrey]

I'll be adding 26 eggs this week. I have 6 lavender orp eggs arriving tomorrow (hopefully) and 14 mottled spangled english orps and 6 bbs english orp being mailed tomorrow. Hopefully I will hear from the other person that was suppose to send orp eggs last month. I'm not gonna hold my breath though.

 

[emvickrey]

I need to dig out my brooders and get them cleaned up and set up. My front porch has to be re-organized so I can get my brooders set up the way I like them. I went to Indiana to visit family during thanksgiving and when I came back the guys had re-organized my mess. I still haven't found the power cord to my new sewing machine. DH is a pack-rat so that don't help any. I finally cleaned the back porch and burned tons of garden seeds he keeps bringing home. For some reason he thinks the mice won't get into them. I have new for him. There was so many seeds on the floor from the mice having parties on the back porch. I scooped it all up, rebagged them and tossed them in the fire before he got home from work. Now I can walk all the way to the other side of the porch. I still have a small area to clean up but the worst of it is done. Now I have to take the furniture he don't want to get rid of to Goodwill so I have room on the front porch for my brooders.

I use clear plastic totes and 20 gallon aquariums for brooders. I lay an extendable screen over the top and attach a heat lamp between the screens. I cover the heat lamp with a pizza pan so I can cover it all with a towel so it holds in the heat since it's cold on the porch. I separate them by each batch. This time I'll separate by breed and color since I'll have english orps and regular orps and different breeders. I"m gonna use color zip ties to be able to know which came from which breeder. Something I've never done before. My silkies I won't use zip ties on since they look nothing like orps. lol

 

[BonRae67]

Here is my 1 silkie mix Feb. hatch-a-long. I had a straddle hatch, 3 chicks hatched on the last day of Jan. and 1 hatched the 1st of Feb.

How absolutely precious.

 

[heyheypaula]

I am officially the token member in the thread with awful luck. There is something wrong with my trusty Brinsea incubator. The fan is working but the light that blinks/remains constant when the heat is running is blinking erratically or not on at all. I think it means the heater in my incubator isn't working, which explains all of my heat troubles today. Right now it is ranging from 97-102 (for the past few hours) with a space heater on and running basically up against it. Today however it was as low as 79 for a short period. I'm on day 19, going on day 20 tomorrow morning and am obviously really upset. I have 23 assorted silkie and serama eggs. I would feel a lot better if I could hear a little peep or see a little pip! It's so hard to know whether or not my eggs will be okay and hatch still. If anyone has any advice or experience with bad hatches please let me know what I can expect!!

 

[ChickenLady2014]

How absolutely precious.

I hoping it's a little girl

 

[BonRae67]

I am officially the token member in the thread with awful luck. There is something wrong with my trusty Brinsea incubator. The fan is working but the light that blinks/remains constant when the heat is running is blinking erratically or not on at all. I think it means the heater in my incubator isn't working, which explains all of my heat troubles today. Right now it is ranging from 97-102 (for the past few hours) with a space heater on and running basically up against it. Today however it was as low as 79 for a short period. I'm on day 19, going on day 20 tomorrow morning and am obviously really upset. I have 23 assorted silkie and serama eggs.  I would feel a lot better if I could hear a little peep or see a little pip! It's so hard to know whether or not my eggs will be okay and hatch still. If anyone has any advice or experience with bad hatches please let me know what I can expect!!

My last hatch eas horrible. I had almost every egg pipped and only 9 out of 30 hatched successfully. None of my sillie hatched out of 10 pips and that was all. I have no Idea what went wrong. It was heart breaking for us all. I even had one hatch not fully formed and decomposing. That was smelly and gross to say the least. I would hope that never happens to anyone else. God luck and I hope it all ends well for you and the babies.

 

[ChickenLady2014]

My last hatch eas horrible. I had almost every egg pipped and only 9 out of 30 hatched successfully. None of my sillie hatched out of 10 pips and that was all. I have no Idea what went wrong. It was heart breaking for us all. I even had one hatch not fully formed and decomposing. That was smelly and gross to say the least. I would hope that never happens to anyone else. God luck and I hope it all ends well for you and the babies.

Im wondering if silkies are tricky to hatch. My weekend hatch of silkies was horrible. 12 eggs went in lockdown, 3 hatched normal, 1 I had to assist and 8 were full grown chicks that were upside down in the egg. 3 of them pipped out the side and died in the shell, the other 5 didn't stand a chance. This was my first ever hatch of silkies. I sure hope I have better luck with them next time. Sorry that so many of you are struggling with hatches as well.

 

[Peep_Show]

I think any shipped egg is a gamble.... BUT Crested Cream Legbars are hard to hatch and very hard to candle. Actually, my best results haven't been the purebreds.

I love my mutts....

 

[Purpletie3]

I am officially the token member in the thread with awful luck. There is something wrong with my trusty Brinsea incubator. The fan is working but the light that blinks/remains constant when the heat is running is blinking erratically or not on at all. I think it means the heater in my incubator isn't working, which explains all of my heat troubles today. Right now it is ranging from 97-102 (for the past few hours) with a space heater on and running basically up against it. Today however it was as low as 79 for a short period. I'm on day 19, going on day 20 tomorrow morning and am obviously really upset. I have 23 assorted silkie and serama eggs.  I would feel a lot better if I could hear a little peep or see a little pip! It's so hard to know whether or not my eggs will be okay and hatch still. If anyone has any advice or experience with bad hatches please let me know what I can expect!!

y

Paula...do you have it programmed for the cooling cycle ? I know sometimes that gets turned on in err or people don't realize maybe it's on the cooling cycle. Mine is at 86 right now and when it is done the cooling cycle will heat back up to 99.5.

Although that doesn't explain it going up and down from 97-102. I hope yours eggs are ok.