The 5th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[abmaddox1981]

@Happy Chooks I didn't know what they were either until I did a lot of research. They were originally breed to weed cotton and tobacco fields here in the south. They are on the critically endangered list on the albc website.

 

[CayuseRanch]

With all the talk of brinsea problems I thought I would check my big one. Now I think I might have a slight problem in my brinsea 20, since I received my spot checks and water wiggles I have had them in my coolerbator and my mini. Both seem spot on for a temp. Also tested them on myself. So I thought let's pop one in the big incubator. It appears to be almost 2 degrees off!! It's been sitting at 97.5* all day!! I wondered why my last two hatches in it were so poor and took several extra days!! I mean I had chicks hatching up to 5 days late. So my question is should I turn it up to say 101? And just watch the spot check? Nearly all of my appenzellers are in there!! Heck most of my eggs are in there period. Or should I move them to the cooler which is holding near perfect at 99.9? Opinions?

When I first got my brinsea octagon, I calibrated the thermometer. It was off several degrees. I can't remember how, but there is a way to change the temperature reading. Try googling Brinsea manual or directions

Tornadoes moving through the are now. Hopefully the power will stay up.

It is tornado season....praying we don't lose power...or our home...

Today I will practice self control! My local Mill is getting in their last batch of LF chicks for the season...EE's & Australorps. Everything in me wants to go get a few because it's MY LAST CHANCE, lol! I do not need them, and after this hatch & my goslings come in I won't have room for them. UGH! Must not buy chicks..........I even had DH leave me money so I could go buy the chicks. The desire is pure evil, I tell you!

I did day 10 candle on my Calls last night and started cooling/misting the eggs with the good air cells. One I was sure was a quitter, disintegrating cloudy veins. The baby inside was still moving around...so sad. I'm sure it's probably gone by now.

So, that puts me at 11 viable. On the upside, I added 5 of my girls eggs last night, which is probably a good thing. I'll get to learn from the first hatch, and 10 days later have a better handle on things for the second hatch.

Oh no......I better get by my feed stores before they sell out! (as if I don't have enough lol)

I have to comment on this, because I'm hoping someone doesn't make the same mistake I did.

I cracked open an egg that was "clear" at candling on day 10 last time I hatched. I saw no veining, no spot of a baby, nothing. When I broke it open, there was in fact an embryo...a very tiny one, mind you...and I just figured it was an early quitter. WRONG! Since it was the first time I had every cracked open an egg to find an embryo, my curiosity had me looking at it with a magnifying glass...and the heart was beating!!! So PLEASE everyone, be careful what you pull and throw out! I will no longer pull the clears...they will stay in with the rest until hatch day...if after all have hatched I still have "clears", then I will pull them (because, IMO, 21 days of no growth, or hardly any growth, it's not worth the risk to me).

I don't throw out eggs till day 18

Dawww, if only I could find button quail around here.

I am trying to convince hubby to do quail

I am having same issues with Brinseas. Both the mini and the Ocatgon Eco are 1.5 degrees lower than Accurite and about 1 degree lower than a home thermometer. I am wondering if the difference is due to the Accurite and home thermometers getting in contact with the walls versus the Brinsea?
Any Brinsea experts?
Should I crack up the Brinsea to 100 degrees instead of 99.5? If Brinsea is accurate will 100 degrees kills the chicks?

See above...calibrate and change temp

So, I am finally ready to post my count. I have a total of 31 eggs set.

24 were set 1:00 PM Central time today April 3rd.

10 of them are CCL eggs- Shipped ones
9 Bantam Chocolate Wyandotte's- Shipped ones.
5 Whole Foods Fertile Brown Eggs

7 were set in a separate incubator on April 1st at 7:00 PM.
6 of them are Whole Foods eggs
1 of them a shipped CCL

Here is a picture of my 24 egg tray




Also, does someone know if CCL and Chocolate Wyandotte chicks can be feather sexed?

Thanks!

I believe someone answered this but will answer just in case you didn't see, ccl are auto sexing boys will be significantly lighter with dot on head.

This is the wild bunny that's been hanging around with my hens. My wife calls him Thumper. It started a couple weeks ago when we noticed him eating cracked corn with the girls. Now we can pet and feed it.

That is neat!

Candle day for me too.

All right it is everyone's fault on this thread........I am off to candle....103 eggs here I come lol...Plus I will probably look at the other 100 there too.

 

[Noncentzter]

I'm out of town...set my eggs one week ago today...had a broody hatch one chick...all is good!

 

[JennaLynn122]

All right it is everyone's fault on this thread........I am off to candle....103 eggs here I come lol...Plus I will probably look at the other 100 there too.

That's A LOT of eggs to candle. I only have 8 now. Started with 11, 2 clear and one quitter.

 

[JennaLynn122]

I'm out of town...set my eggs one week ago today...had a broody hatch one chick...all is good!

I wish I could get my broody to brood correctly. She goes broody every month or so but she wont let me move her (she gets off her eggs and tries to get to the other hens) and as soon as an upper pecking order hen wants to lay an egg in her nest she wont sit back on them (shes only above 1 other in pecking order and shes the smallest hen)

 

[misschickenlittle]

Aaaarrrgggghhh!!! Power is out. Got home about 6:30 tonight and no power. No idea how long it's been out...
Bators are covered with blankets/towels but temp was 77 when I got home. I will be so sad if I lose all my eggs...

 

[Corny Caleb]

I missed the wet fowl contest by 10 hours.....sooooooo bummed about that, well, whatever, lol, these are the pics that were going to be there lol.

 

[Whoops]

So, I cheat candled another egg tonight - and -

I SAW IT MOVING!!!!!!!!

Dang, this is lots more fun than the opaque marans eggs. All I could do was wait and hope.

Tomorrow, they get weighed and I need to track down the egg weightloss chart thingy and see if they are on track. I am doing "dry incubating" this time, with the humidity between 25 and 35.

 

[Corny Caleb]

First pic is blurry ugg.
And yes, that IS my hand next to the 3 week old CHICK, .....I know FREAKY!!!!

 

[Corny Caleb]

Went out today just to take some shots of the critters for the heck of it.