Thanksgiving Hatchalong

[laura s]

Whoop, best spousal unit ever. He gave me 7 cemani eggs for our anniversary. In the incubator now. Hatch date is 11/21. Cross your fingers (and toes)

 

[Hawk12]

We didn't know exact hatch date on these guys, because my husband collects the eggs and it was about a week after she had started sitting on eggs before he told me when I started wondering which hen wasn't laying. We had to move her because our other hens kept laying eggs in her nest and she couldn't cover them all. She had 18 and 4 had already been lost to getting cold after being pushed out from under her. So I candled them all, took only eggs that seemed about the same stage in development and we made her a nest in the garage. It was gamble to move her so late in her incubation but I thought she may end up with a never ending cycle of fresh eggs under her and no babies hatching out. So I am extremely excited to see at least one baby hatched last night. I am assuming it was the egg I saw that had pipped yesterday morning. I was afraid it was dead because I heard no chirping inside the egg or saw any movement. It must have been resting. Hopefully we will have more hatch out before she leaves the nest to raise babies. 10 more eggs to go. I know there are 11 in the nest, she only had 11. So the chick must have hatched out of one side of it's egg and left the other side intact. I didn't want to disturb her much because I want her to keep sitting on them.

Edit: The little chick in my avatar picture is this mama hen when she was a baby. She was born in February, so this is our first broody hen hatching out babies.

So sweet! Good job Mama ♡

 

[ttakas]

Never done a hatch-a-long before but here it goes. 26 eggs set 11/2, lockdown 11/20 and due date is 11/25. Had set a batch 10 days ago but my special needs daughter cooked them (turned temp knob on incubator and alarm on thermometer never went off, 135 degrees inside my water weasel

), but hubby said I could try again. (Those were my first time buying eggs too). Anyway I set 7 from my barnyard mix, 12 from my mom's neighbor's barnyard mix (they had been refrigerated for a day or two so not getting my hopes up too much on them), bought 6 Araucanians eggs and one pavlovskaya egg. Using a styrofoam incubator with auto turner.

 

[tiffani day]

Well so much for setting tomorrow was informed that the eggs that were being collected for me had been put in the refrigerator. She starting again today and is putting a note on the box.

 

[generaldsherman]

Well so much for setting tomorrow was informed that the eggs that were being collected for me had been put in the refrigerator. She starting again today and is putting a note on the box.

Bummer!

 

[Lamancha]

I had a change of plans too. I was gonna set a ton of chicken eggs but my husband gave me that "I married a crazy person" look, so I hard boiled them all. Hahaha.

OK, not quite all of them. I stuck 17 duck eggs in the incubator. I set some duck eggs for the Halloween HAL, but none were fertile. Here's hoping a few weeks changed that. If they hatch, it will be 6 days after Thanksgiving.

 

[ttakas]

Sorry they were infertile, we got rid of our ducks last year as my hubby discovered he was allergic to duck eggs (long story and Doctor/ER visits). I haven't incubated since February when hubby gave me the "your getting obsessive" speech. But I got the green light so fingers crossed.

 

[Lamancha]

Sorry they were infertile, we got rid of our ducks last year as my hubby discovered he was allergic to duck eggs (long story and Doctor/ER visits). I haven't incubated since February when hubby gave me the "your getting obsessive" speech. But I got the green light so fingers crossed.

Thanks. I think they may be fertile this time because I finally saw them mating the other day. I'm sorry to here about your fryed eggs. I hope your daughter doesn't feel bad.

 

[ttakas]

Thanks. I think they may be fertile this time because I finally saw them mating the other day. I'm sorry to here about your fryed eggs. I hope your daughter doesn't feel bad.

She is very developmentally delayed (Down Syndrome and Autism, but that's another forum

) so no after the initial getting in trouble she doesn't feel bad. We did put another safety precaution on the incubator dial so it doesn't happen again. Our ducks used to make me laugh, every time they mated the female would immediately get in her pool and wash up. It was really funny.

 

[ameliadanielle]

We've got four babies now! One is partridge which is strange... our only partridge hen is a silkie and none of her eggs were in the nest. Maybe genetics from the silkie rooster, as we have proof that he is the daddy. I thought these babies were smaller than normal but we now also have proof.

They are all small, smaller than I remember seeing any full size chicken chicks being. So we are going to have a batch of half silkie half laying hen chicks. This will be interesting. Especially as these eggs were laid after the silkie rooster was separated for about a week but now I know that hens can hold sperm for a few weeks.