Set eggs 3/5. Looking for others to hatch with!

[Ryan Moorefield]

Is it your first hatch....GOOD LUCK

We are keeping this thread going for a while, so please feel free to pop in and join us. The more the merrier.
I sat eggs over the weekend. I think there are about 50 in there. They were shipped so from what I read on here I'm not getting my hopes up for tons of babies, but a nice round number would be great. They are porcelain, lavendar and BBS silkies and bantam lavendar Ameraucanas. I have another four dozen coming this week. They are mottled cochins, MF cochins and more lavendar Ameraucanas. Everything is bantam. No large guys for me. The Rhode Island Red roo attacking me has made me scared to even consider another big bird. I shouldn't feel that way because the new silkie roo I got is MEAN!!!! I thought he was running across the yard to see me and I couldn't figure that out because he does not appear to like me. Today he finally got up the nerve to try and attack my leg when I was walking back to the house. Silly thing, I just pick him up and assume he wants me to pet him and love him. Because drats, he cost way to much money to give a boot to!
There are others on here that have hatches coming this week and there are Easter Hatchalongers too.

Yes this is my first hatch and I am only 15 so I hope they do well and good luck to you to.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Yes this is my first hatch and I am only 15 so I hope they do well and good luck to you to.

I my gosh!!!! Good for you. My son is 13 and absolutely loves chickens and the incubating process. I can hear him right now saying hello to the chicks in the incubator downstairs!
What kind of incubator are you using?
Are your Ameraucanas large or small?

 

[wholewheatchicken]

I have most certainly learned a valuable lesson. "Leave well enough alone" I wish I could go back and help that baby somehow but there was nothing I could do once the egg was cracked. I just hope the other 3 hatch.

I seriously messed up my first hatch by twiddling in the incubator. I needed to get in there, but I couldn't leave it alone after that and then I thought they were all dead and I took them right out of the incubator and I'm pretty sure they were still alive. It was a lot of chicks too that I killed. And then I only had one chick that I had to keep alive and it was very difficult. Then my next hatch was just too dry and I killed all of them.
So here I am with this hatch and just so you know you're not alone, I will share my story of today with you. I know now no matter what happens leave things alone, but my DH came home from work and he was so excited about the chicks. I left him downstairs unsupervised because I thought he was admiring my babies. LOL, no way....he was using a coat hanger and sticking in the side of my bator and rearranging my egg crates and picking the shell off a chick. The temps dropped to 91. I about fainted when I saw what he was doing. I was like, did I authorize you to mess inside of my incubator, dear? There were no more pips, nobody was trying to hatch. I thought he killed them. I was so sick about it after everything I have been through with the past two hatches. But you know what, you really do have to learn. Then he started wanting to save the chicks. He wanted to open the incubator. I said no. What happens happens. I've already learned once you step in it causes a series of events and then you keep trying to fix what went wrong and it usually ends up worse. He kept saying do you want me to do this or that and I said I just don't know what to do. I think we should leave it alone. Maybe someone will pip later. We shouldn't open the incubator.
I know he didn't mean to do anything that would cause harm to the chicks, he just got excited and couldn't help himself. I understand because I've been there too. I told him we'll just learn from this and it's going to be okay. We have three pretty chicks and let's just leave it at that if it doesn't go well. So off he went to bed and I went on doing what I needed to do. Every once in a while I looked in the bator and there was nothing. I thought they were dead. So tonight at around 8:00 one of the silkie chicks I thought he killed popped out of the shell. Then about 20 minutes later the other silkie chick popped out of the shell. Then three minutes later a Red popped out of the shell. There are pips on all but one egg, and I may just not be able to see it.
I have learned to not mess with the incubator, do not mess with the broody hen.
I moved my broody last weekend because her chicks were getting ready to be born. She sat there for two days and it was fine. On Saturday I went to the barn and she moved and buried the eggs. They were dead. Those were my two special Buttercup eggs of only three known ones. They were set to be born on Monday. Then I moved Yetta away from Buttercup Sunday evening because they are literally sitting head to head and I was afraid they would fight over chicks and kill the babies. Monday morning I found her back next to her friend and her chicks were dead. One of them appeared to be close to pipping out. There are four chicks I killed because I didn't leave well enough alone. I've learned, not all broodies will let you move them. My Maggie will. She will come in and sit happily in my bathroom for weeks on end and be like a queen. She comes in most days and I take her downstairs and she lays her egg in the baby pen. I've learned Maggie thinks she's my house chicken!!!!
You will come to know what to do, when to do, when to leave things alone. We are all learning everyday. Hang in there. You are going to get the hang of it.
And I bet my DH never messes with my bator again!!!!!
Even my son keeps coming to me saying, mom, this or that is going on in the bator and I'm like, well, it will work itself out. Things are going to be okay. I'm not opening the bator. He now knows we're not opening the bator!
Yeah, it's been a long day around here. I'm ready for tomorrow to get those babies out.
And if anyone needs any more stories about the dumb ideas I come up with, they are free. I have a zillion of them. I'm always studying on things and trying to figure things out and in the process I have real doozies! I call them my good ideas gone bad.
Off to get pictures of my little ones while they are still all ugly and wet.

 

[dixie&trixie]

How soon can I put more eggs under my broody? I would like to give her a break. Can I collect eggs and store them until someone goes broody?

 

[wholewheatchicken]

How soon can I put more eggs under my broody? I would like to give her a break. Can I collect eggs and store them until someone goes broody?

My experience is it will depend on your broody. Aren't there still a few eggs under her that you're not sure about? If there are eggs, leave them under her. If you know when she started sitting, it will be about 21 days or so. If you don't know, it's a guessing game. Are you able to buy a better light to candle with so you can see if there is development if there are eggs?
I have had two broodies who just wouldn't give up until they got a baby. My Maggie sat from December 14th of last year to February 2nd to get her own babies and she wasn't negotiating it. She took care of those babies for about seven weeks before she gave them up. She's in the barn right now and I think she is waiting to steal a chick from one of the other girls. My toolbox Earleen sat for six weeks on top of the toolbox and she moved to a nest over the weekend and I gave her another hen's egg so she can hatch it and get up. Sometimes you can break them pretty easy and other times they have made up their mind they want babies under them.
You can collect eggs and store them. Make sure you mark a date on them so when the time comes you pick the most fresh eggs you have. If you know who laid them, that is helpful to mark that on the egg too so you can see who makes what color of chicks. Use a pencil. I have noticed under the broody it might fade off and you have to touch it up on occassion. Keep them in a cool area that has some humidity to it and turn them.

 

[Cattitude]

wholewheatchicken, I have a message to myself written on the top of the styrobators: DO NOT OPEN THE LID!!!

Because I did the same thing you did. I think all of us have, and probably will, again. I have to slap my hands to keep them off the eggs, despite *knowing* that they do better if I handle them less!

My first hatches of the spring usually suffer from too much care, rather than too little. Later, the urge to interfere gets less, and my hatches get better. Thank goodness I had/have several batches before Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC Easter Hatch-a-long! I'm hoping for good results in that hatch!

Best of luck to everyone!

 

[mohillbilly]

I seriously messed up my first hatch by twiddling in the incubator. I needed to get in there, but I couldn't leave it alone after that and then I thought they were all dead and I took them right out of the incubator and I'm pretty sure they were still alive. It was a lot of chicks too that I killed. And then I only had one chick that I had to keep alive and it was very difficult. Then my next hatch was just too dry and I killed all of them.
So here I am with this hatch and just so you know you're not alone, I will share my story of today with you. I know now no matter what happens leave things alone, but my DH came home from work and he was so excited about the chicks. I left him downstairs unsupervised because I thought he was admiring my babies. LOL, no way....he was using a coat hanger and sticking in the side of my bator and rearranging my egg crates and picking the shell off a chick. The temps dropped to 91. I about fainted when I saw what he was doing. I was like, did I authorize you to mess inside of my incubator, dear? There were no more pips, nobody was trying to hatch. I thought he killed them. I was so sick about it after everything I have been through with the past two hatches. But you know what, you really do have to learn. Then he started wanting to save the chicks. He wanted to open the incubator. I said no. What happens happens. I've already learned once you step in it causes a series of events and then you keep trying to fix what went wrong and it usually ends up worse. He kept saying do you want me to do this or that and I said I just don't know what to do. I think we should leave it alone. Maybe someone will pip later. We shouldn't open the incubator.
I know he didn't mean to do anything that would cause harm to the chicks, he just got excited and couldn't help himself. I understand because I've been there too. I told him we'll just learn from this and it's going to be okay. We have three pretty chicks and let's just leave it at that if it doesn't go well. So off he went to bed and I went on doing what I needed to do. Every once in a while I looked in the bator and there was nothing. I thought they were dead. So tonight at around 8:00 one of the silkie chicks I thought he killed popped out of the shell. Then about 20 minutes later the other silkie chick popped out of the shell. Then three minutes later a Red popped out of the shell. There are pips on all but one egg, and I may just not be able to see it.
I have learned to not mess with the incubator, do not mess with the broody hen.
I moved my broody last weekend because her chicks were getting ready to be born. She sat there for two days and it was fine. On Saturday I went to the barn and she moved and buried the eggs. They were dead. Those were my two special Buttercup eggs of only three known ones. They were set to be born on Monday. Then I moved Yetta away from Buttercup Sunday evening because they are literally sitting head to head and I was afraid they would fight over chicks and kill the babies. Monday morning I found her back next to her friend and her chicks were dead. One of them appeared to be close to pipping out. There are four chicks I killed because I didn't leave well enough alone. I've learned, not all broodies will let you move them. My Maggie will. She will come in and sit happily in my bathroom for weeks on end and be like a queen. She comes in most days and I take her downstairs and she lays her egg in the baby pen. I've learned Maggie thinks she's my house chicken!!!!
You will come to know what to do, when to do, when to leave things alone. We are all learning everyday. Hang in there. You are going to get the hang of it.
And I bet my DH never messes with my bator again!!!!!
Even my son keeps coming to me saying, mom, this or that is going on in the bator and I'm like, well, it will work itself out. Things are going to be okay. I'm not opening the bator. He now knows we're not opening the bator!
Yeah, it's been a long day around here. I'm ready for tomorrow to get those babies out.
And if anyone needs any more stories about the dumb ideas I come up with, they are free. I have a zillion of them. I'm always studying on things and trying to figure things out and in the process I have real doozies! I call them my good ideas gone bad.
Off to get pictures of my little ones while they are still all ugly and wet.

your a blonde right?

 

[gatorridgechics]

WWC- that is aweful. It is hard to learn a lesson, then watch someone make the same mistake. I am happy that it started working out in the end.

We lost all 29 of our Rhode Island Reds, and I can not figure it out. I am copying a link to another thread asking for ideas if any of you would take a look and share any thoughts I'd be very greatful.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/643847/why-did-this-happen#post_8677906

 

[meshellrose]

the only egg (d'uccle) I set for this day did hatch I have 2 more (d'uccle) due on Friday and set 24 Americauna eggs someone gave my yesterday Boy is incubating addicting!

 

[fried green eggs]

I started my first hatch on Mar 6 with eggs from my TSC ee hens x rir rooster. They started hatching a day early. I kept my temps at 99.5 - 100.2 and 6 out of 8 hatched. I hadn't seen or heard anything from last 2 eggs so I candled them this morning and saw a very small air sack and no movement. I pierced the air sack and still heard nothing, so I broke out the top carefully. One for sure never broke into air sack - other might have but the chicks looked too big. I don't think they could have moved to pip. So 6 out of 8 for first hatch in home-made incubators is pretty good I guess but, I wish I knew for sure what I did wrong so, last two didn't hatch?
I got 15 day old chicks in yesterday from Meyer Hatchery. I put my day old chicks in with them last night - they are all doing great!
I'm going to clean out hatching bator and I'm going to start lock-down for shipped austrolope eggs in it tonight. They looked good when I candled them last night so,