ChickMissy
In the Brooder
- Mar 28, 2023
- 5
- 15
- 21
I just wanted to share a success story on here because I scoured the threads looking for information on hatching eggs of different ages in a single incubator. The most common answer I found was “buy a second incubator”. This was my first time hatching and I had invested in a quality incubator, a Brinsea Maxi 24 Advance, and I didn’t want to buy a second one.
Starting at the beginning…I found the breeds I wanted were either unavailable, or not available in a timely manner this year. I decided that I could buy an incubator and hatch fertilized eggs because they were still available. After placing my order (in February, but eggs wouldn’t arrive until May), I decided to experiment with hatching my own Buff Orpington fertilized eggs since we have a rooster just to work out any kinks before the purchased (and more rare) eggs arrived in May.
I chose 7 eggs that were laid within 2 days, I collected them when they were still warm (the outside temp was below freezing at this time) and started the process. By day 4, all were beginning to grow.
However, I also desperately wanted to get some Lavender Orpingtons this year and they weren’t available in chick or egg form from the big hatcheries. I found a farm online, Better with Thyme, and ordered 6 thru them at the end of February. They didn’t have an arrival date and said they would assign dates during the first two weeks of March. Considering how hard these eggs were to get everywhere else, I figured I’d be down the list and hoped they’d come between my March and May hatches. This farm also said they’d had some trouble with people receiving their emails and cautioned you to put them in your address book. I did all of this and assigned them VIP status in my mail to make sure I knew when they shipped. They also took my number and said they would have them hold at the post office and call. Well… there definitely was something up with the email as I continually made sure to search “Thyme” in my mail to make sure I wasn’t missing anything… somehow (even tho that was in the title of their emails!) I missed them. It turns out they shipped almost immediately after I ordered and sat in our mailbox (not the post office!) for two days with temps in the 25-32 F range before we found them.
They were kind and had sent 8 eggs, 2 more than I had ordered, but I was not optimistic about them hatching. I read everything available on here since my Buff eggs were on day 6 and figured it wouldn’t hurt to put the Lavender eggs in and see if anything even developed, then I could debate what to do about hatching if they did.
Fast forward to day 7 of the Lavender eggs… all had developed an embryo and blood vessels except one. I discarded the 8th egg and tried to figure out how hatching these eggs about a week apart would work. Working in my favor, the Lavender eggs must have lost more humidity from being shipped in the cold, so even tho they were a week behind the others, their air sacs were larger. I figured this would work to my advantage since I would need to have the humidity high for hatching the first set of eggs.
At the Buff lockdown, I placed the cardboard mat in the incubator, but positioned the Lavender eggs still in the egg turners on top of it. I also crafted a cardboard cover of sorts to try and protect the Lavender eggs from the hatching Buffs. I had planned to barely open the incubator and push the turn table a couple times a day to keep the Lavender’s moving. It turns out, Brinsea turns until day 2, so it actually did it for me at first and the Buff eggs on the cardboard were unaffected! Next, I had planned to leave all hatchlings in the incubator for the first 24 hrs, but the first Buff chick ruined that as she wedged herself between the cardboard cover I’d made to cover the Lavenders and was chirping loudly. The outcome, I ended up opening and removing each chick as they hatched and put a wet paper towel inside to keep the humidity up. All 7 Buff Orpingtons hatched!
I removed the remaining Lavender eggs, cleaned the incubator, got it back up to temp and returned the eggs with the turning capability back on. On day 18 I candled them all and all 7 Lavenders were moving. I placed them on lockdown and I’m happy to say all 7 Lavender Orpingtons also hatched successfully despite EVERYTHING stacked against them!!!!
Hope this helps someone else who is stressing over cold eggs or eggs of different ages. I think the quality of the incubator played a large part!
Starting at the beginning…I found the breeds I wanted were either unavailable, or not available in a timely manner this year. I decided that I could buy an incubator and hatch fertilized eggs because they were still available. After placing my order (in February, but eggs wouldn’t arrive until May), I decided to experiment with hatching my own Buff Orpington fertilized eggs since we have a rooster just to work out any kinks before the purchased (and more rare) eggs arrived in May.
I chose 7 eggs that were laid within 2 days, I collected them when they were still warm (the outside temp was below freezing at this time) and started the process. By day 4, all were beginning to grow.
However, I also desperately wanted to get some Lavender Orpingtons this year and they weren’t available in chick or egg form from the big hatcheries. I found a farm online, Better with Thyme, and ordered 6 thru them at the end of February. They didn’t have an arrival date and said they would assign dates during the first two weeks of March. Considering how hard these eggs were to get everywhere else, I figured I’d be down the list and hoped they’d come between my March and May hatches. This farm also said they’d had some trouble with people receiving their emails and cautioned you to put them in your address book. I did all of this and assigned them VIP status in my mail to make sure I knew when they shipped. They also took my number and said they would have them hold at the post office and call. Well… there definitely was something up with the email as I continually made sure to search “Thyme” in my mail to make sure I wasn’t missing anything… somehow (even tho that was in the title of their emails!) I missed them. It turns out they shipped almost immediately after I ordered and sat in our mailbox (not the post office!) for two days with temps in the 25-32 F range before we found them.
They were kind and had sent 8 eggs, 2 more than I had ordered, but I was not optimistic about them hatching. I read everything available on here since my Buff eggs were on day 6 and figured it wouldn’t hurt to put the Lavender eggs in and see if anything even developed, then I could debate what to do about hatching if they did. Fast forward to day 7 of the Lavender eggs… all had developed an embryo and blood vessels except one. I discarded the 8th egg and tried to figure out how hatching these eggs about a week apart would work. Working in my favor, the Lavender eggs must have lost more humidity from being shipped in the cold, so even tho they were a week behind the others, their air sacs were larger. I figured this would work to my advantage since I would need to have the humidity high for hatching the first set of eggs.
At the Buff lockdown, I placed the cardboard mat in the incubator, but positioned the Lavender eggs still in the egg turners on top of it. I also crafted a cardboard cover of sorts to try and protect the Lavender eggs from the hatching Buffs. I had planned to barely open the incubator and push the turn table a couple times a day to keep the Lavender’s moving. It turns out, Brinsea turns until day 2, so it actually did it for me at first and the Buff eggs on the cardboard were unaffected! Next, I had planned to leave all hatchlings in the incubator for the first 24 hrs, but the first Buff chick ruined that as she wedged herself between the cardboard cover I’d made to cover the Lavenders and was chirping loudly. The outcome, I ended up opening and removing each chick as they hatched and put a wet paper towel inside to keep the humidity up. All 7 Buff Orpingtons hatched!
I removed the remaining Lavender eggs, cleaned the incubator, got it back up to temp and returned the eggs with the turning capability back on. On day 18 I candled them all and all 7 Lavenders were moving. I placed them on lockdown and I’m happy to say all 7 Lavender Orpingtons also hatched successfully despite EVERYTHING stacked against them!!!!
Hope this helps someone else who is stressing over cold eggs or eggs of different ages. I think the quality of the incubator played a large part!
