The 4th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long

[coldupnorth]

Quote: I just love watching the "Zoomies"

 

[rarebear]

All done. I had 16 hatch out of 51. Even though that is a low number I am quite grateful as the babies I have are adorable. I have nothing but trouble with therms..I use 4 new Accurites and 2 digital Brinseas and they always read differently. In addirion the top of my LG was always 4 degrees different from the bottom. These are things that infuriate me as I purchased them believing they are all reliable. Not so. Since I am here 24/7 other than trips to the grocery store I am able to keep constant vigil over the eggs. I purchased from 2 wonderful breeders and am doing so again this week. They shipped cross country and both shipments were perfect.

Here is one of my cuties.

 

[Gardeningmama]

Quote:
I had an egg that never internally pipped, so I thought it was a quitter. I broke it open expecting a dead chick and it was still alive and bleeding. I felt horrible for not opening the egg gently, but if it never internally pips, it wasn't going to make it anyway.

That happened to me last hatch. I watched it die, it was terrible! Here's a

hug

 

[Happy Chooks]

FINAL COUNT: 4 Set..........1 Hatched!

1-infertile
1-died within first week
1-died in shell when I was gone for Easter(temp. got really high)
1-HATCHED!!

Here`s my little baby

You should enter this one in the Newly hatched chick contest! (and then get it a friend!)

#7 is out!!!

We've got all kinds of cheeping and peeping tonight!


We ended up with 4 from my EE hen that hatched. Don't know about the second two yet, but the first two... Well they have different baby daddy! LOL. One has fuzzy feet which can only mean one thing, my Cochin Roo that I'm holding in my profile pic must have gotten busier than I had thought.

Congrats!

Here are the first 4 to hatch. I've learned something very important tonight... Day old chicks will not stay still to pose for pictures!

Seriously? I had troubles with bators so my hatch was delayed. i set the same day as everyone and I STILL had some hatching last night! Now all the prizes are gone!!! I guess no point in posting how my hatch went.

Please report your totals for the contest. We need to tally all that hatched.

Well, its over. I candled, tapped, and then pipped the rest of the eggs this morning and all were dead.

Quite a few almost full term chicks, some obviously not quite finished. Not sure if there was some wrong positioning in play too, but my first guess is there was a bit too much temp fluctuation in the last few days thanks to my LG being finicky about house temps.

This is a bit more devastating for me than it would be for many of you who seem to hatch all the time. This was our ONE chance to hatch this spring. I had promised chicks to several friends, and the timing was perfect to have them close in age to our chick order from McMurray that is coming next week. If I ever DO try again with this incubator, I will definitely get a new thermometer (or two) to compare with the digital one I used for this hatch, and I will do a longer trial run and make better use of the Max/min feature on the thermometer.

You know, I was thinking about a line from Pele's story the last few days (AWESOME story BTW!) where he mentioned that the EGG itself has been all important and our main focus for most of the incubation, but at the end the egg becomes insignificant as the new entity, the new LIFE explodes out of it. When I read that line I was thinking how true that is - but sadly my eggs never became more than an egg in this hatch.

So for the record keepers - here is my final totals...

Set 46 eggs
Culled 22 infertile eggs
Culled 2 blood ring/early quitters
22 went to lockdown
1 pipped internally but died in shell
0 hatched

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In better news - we have a broody buff out in the main coop!

Though my sister has claimed her for hatching some of her project heritage meat birds (Delaware/BO cross). Here's to lots of broody hens this year!!!

I'm sorry.

I'm betting your temps were off. Get a Brinsea Spot check thermometer, it's accurate to .1 degree.

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
I had an egg that never internally pipped, so I thought it was a quitter. I broke it open expecting a dead chick and it was still alive and bleeding. I felt horrible for not opening the egg gently, but if it never internally pips, it wasn't going to make it anyway.
For easter I hatched Delawares and SG Dorkings. The Dorks hatched very nicely. The Dels had three upside down bottom pips. One of them was fine but the other two had problems. One had to be culled and when I told the person I hatched them for, she said that she was happy I had. She does not want weak chicks in her breeding program. The third one my or may not make it.

Question for the Hatchers, do Delawares often hatch upside down? Is it possible that the eggs were collected too close to worming?

 

[txrobnla]

Oh, you noticed that, didja?!?!? Guess what: they don't slow down much, either!

Wait until they get the Zoomies!

hehe I think one of them of them already has the Zoomies! It's been chasing everything that moves. When we put our hand up to the brooder is comes running up and chases our fingers. Very cute!

So we woke up to another surprise. Another late hatcher. This is day 24, so I guess it really speaks to don't give up!

 

[Happy Chooks]

For easter I hatched Delawares and SG Dorkings. The Dorks hatched very nicely. The Dels had three upside down bottom pips. One of them was fine but the other two had problems. One had to be culled and when I told the person I hatched them for, she said that she was happy I had. She does not want weak chicks in her breeding program. The third one my or may not make it.

Question for the Hatchers, do Delawares often hatch upside down? Is it possible that the eggs were collected too close to worming?

I've never hatched mine while worming, but I could see how it could create problems. I don't have Delawares, so can't help you there.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Your temps are a bit low though, so make sure you increase it some next time.

 

[cmtigger]

i Have 3 1/2 bcm/EEs they are beautiful BCMs. no cheeks or buffs. but lay the prettiest olive green eggs Found one of them put her in with cuckoo marans pen,One is so sneeky I cannot figure out who she is. the last one is banded and will go in with the cuckoo marans and ee barbed hens.

Olive eggers are what I was aiming for. Some for me, some because they should sell here. And I guess some extra roosters to eat.

 

[cmtigger]

And the count on the morning of day 22 is 20 hatched, 11 eggs still in incubator.