Late January Hatch?

[debosaurus]

Placing my First eggs in my incubator tomorrow! I am renting the Brinsea mini from a local farmer who does hatches in schools and whatnot, and have purchased 7(max capacity of incubator) heritage eggs!

I will be picking them up tomorrow and putting them into the incubator.

These will be my first chicks, and I am hoping for a relatively rooster-free crop, but we shall see!

Who is hatching with me?

 

[tishl]

Here she/he is!!

 

[debosaurus]

That's so great! I hope you got your eggs in in time

I'm putting 36 in my new Hovabator right now, first try for me. Breeding experiments with hatchery White Rocks under Red Cornishes and New Hampshires.

It's been really cold, so I hope I got to the eggs soon enough out in the barn. I guess we'll find out in a week.

And they're due to hatch around the same time! Let me know how it goes.

 

[butterfliesdoku]

Question: What should be the first day to candle? Should it be completely dark when I do it? TIA

I'm impatient and candle on day 4 but most recommend candling on day 7 or 10. Candling when it's completely dark definitely helps.

 

[Plucky Clucks]

Was woken up at 2am to the racket this one was making!

Checked in again at 4:30 on my way to work and our was looking much more alert and starting to fluff out.

 

[Plucky Clucks]

How cute is that?

 

[CrowHollowFarm]

Thanks, I still haven't mastered posting pics.

 

[Knigge]

OK here is the formula to use to calculate hatch rate and fertility rate: #hatched / #set = % hatch #hatch / #fertile = % Hatch of Fertile. But when calculating you would cancel out the ones that were clear or not fertile. You do count any that actually started to develop (i.e. blood rings, etc.) I started with 24 had 2 clears = 22. So far I have had to cull 3 blood rings and 1 quitter. If all of my chicks hatch (it would be great if they did, but I am not holding my breath) then my hatch rate would be 18/22=82% That would be a pretty darn good percentage considering this is my first time hatching eggs, I have the Little Giant (which doesn't have a reputation of being a super easy incubator to hatch in) and 12 of my eggs were shipped eggs. If I get above 75% I will be happy with it.

 

[Hiltonizer]

Thanks, in that case I seem to be on a pretty good pace. All but 2 of the eggs I discarded were clears. We'll see how lockdown treats me... first time in a Hovabator.

 

[Knigge]

It is gonna be a busy...fluffy weekend on this thread lol.