Valentine's Day 1st Annual Hatch Along

[DragonClaw01]

Yep, my first organizing of a hatch along.

Hatch date: Saturday, February 14th

If my math is correct (And please correct me if I'm wrong),

Start Date is Saturday, January 24th

(info below supplied by misfitmorgan)
Chicken eggs Jan 24th
Muscovy duck eggs January 10th
Coturnix Quail eggs Jan 27th
Goose eggs Jan 14th
Duck,turkey,pheasant Jan 17th
Guinea Fowl Jan 19th

Please comment if you plan to enter and how many eggs you are entering.
If someone guesses how many eggs will be entered within 10, they get a prize.
Yes, I did make it more accurate, this is my first hosting of a HAL and I was expecting more people.
Any edit to your entries will be void, if you wish to enter PM ME. Also, nobody give the exact number
you are setting, otherwise it's not much as of a guessing contest/game.

Participants-

@DragonClaw01
@misfitmorgan
@chickkrakidd
@jennianne
@HerbGir1972
@Lamancha
@DevilsDenHen
@freejpony
@Jessshan8
@RavynFallen

If you need help, I'll do as best as I can, but might refer you to a more experienced hatcher.
If you are experienced and would like to answer questions, please PM me with info

Co-Hosts

@misfitmorgan
@chickkrakidd

 

[misfitmorgan]

And the winners of the 3 contests are......

Best Hatch Rate Contest Winner
@LPeaslee with a hatch rate of 95.2%

Worst Hatch Rate Contest Winner
@emvickrey with a hatch rate of 11.5%

Guess How Many Eggs Set By All HAL Members Contest Winner
@LPeaslee with a guess of 763
The total set was 763, how Peaslee guessed it dead on i will never know but you should play the lottery

Congratulations to the winners,i hope to run a Vday HAL again next year with more contests and prizes. Thank you everyone who joined the HAL!!!!

If you won the Best Hatch Contest or the Guess how many contest please PM me to claim your prize.
If you won the Worst Hatch Rate Contest please PM @RavynFallen for your choice of hatching eggs from what she has available.

 

[Mazmanian]

The eggs I ordered for the NYD Hal took forever and didn't track until they landed at my post office. Mine were shipped on a Monday and nothing showed in the tracking until Friday morning, when they arrived at my local post office. My fingers are crossed that your eggs turn up tomorrow!!

You must have crossed them really hard, because they did show up right before the PO closed today! I have no idea what kind of scenic adventure they went on, but the packaging job was A+ and they are all in good shape and settling so I can throw them in first thing in the morning. Maybe one will be an early bird and I'll get some Valentine peeping after all.

 

[TinyAssFarm]

How funny... I have almost the same situation on my hands I ordered eggs, and the seller included three mystery eggs - also bantam-sized. I have a hunch they may be silkies... but I look forward to finding out!

We'll have to compare adorable-ness, for sure!!

 

[paris_r]

have you seen this? it would have been helpful from the start-not the information (although i did read something i didnt know), but the chart at the end. it is a handy check list because my brand new auto turner went out 4 days ago...well that is when i noticed i went out. if i had been using this chart i might have known sooner.

http://posc.tamu.edu/files/2012/08/EPS-001-Incubating-and-Hatching-Eggs.pdf

 

[Alaskan]

I too have a Brinsea..my temps in the house are so cold or variable even it is struggling!

wow... so sorry! I would probably try to cover it with blankets or somethiing, while keeping air holes open... but yep... that sucks.

I have a question for those of you that have hatched bantams before. Something I just thought about. I am hatching LF and bantams. Do I need to set up a separate brooder for the bantams, since they will be so tiny? There are only 2 of them out of 28. Could the larger chicks possibly crush or step on the littles?

I have brooded them together... as long as they grow up together, they are usually fine... but I actually haven't ever had a ratio like that... only tiny ones to so many big ones.

I would watch carefully.... keep an eye out on the, and you will know soon enough.



My last egg did this:

I helped the poor thing out... and he was all curled up.... the membranes had gotten stuck on him, so he couldn't rotate any more to hatch properly... anyway, I hope he straightens out and is healthy.

The guess of how many eggs contest is over, RIGHT?

So, I can say exactly how many eggs I set etc. etc... right?

Well, 6 were clear, out of 31 set the clears were 2 of my 6 olive eggs, and 4 of the Marans.

I had some very dirty, you clearly shouldn't incubate them eggs, that I set anyway.. I wanted to SEE if it really was bad.

It is... my 4 dead in shell... at various ages, were all in dirty eggs.

My one chick that died after hatch and after being all fluffed out and cute looking, for no clear reason... was also from a pretty dirty shell.

sigh.

Well, now I know.


So I have, running about

2 white leghorns

4 olive eggers, 3 that look like Marans, one that is brown

14 Marans

 

[Jessshan8]

I was thinking about redoing my cabinet bator and thought this would be a great place to do this with step by step instructions along with plans and photos. Watcha yall think? Good idea?

 

[ochochicas]

So far 40 chicks have hatched. One died in the brooder, and one pipped at the wrong end and couldn't get out. I opened the end of the egg and put it back in the incubator. The chick freed itself a little bit and was just resting. I think the other chicks ran it over and crushed the rest of the shell before the chick was ready. The chick had an enlarged naval area. I'm just leaving the poor thing in the incubator to rest. I don't know if he's gonna make it. One of the legbars pipped over 24 hours ago in the middle of the egg. No activity since the original pip. I opened the egg up and it looks like he drowned since the pip was nowhere near the air cell.

Other than that, the hatch has been pretty good so far. There are still a handful eggs in the incubator that have pipped and are in the process of zipping. It seems like the legbars are slow to hatch. Anything to test my patience!

 

[misfitmorgan]

Well my millie have decided the cold means no more eggs for a bit i guess..... we got 11 eggs from 2-3 hens in a week and a half and now nothing for 2 days. Suppose to be back in the 20s/30s here after saturday though so hopefully they start laying again.

 

[HerbGir1972]

We'll. Start gathering about the 11th whatever is laying should be polish mixed. This should be interesting
My hens are
Partridge Plymouth rock
slwyandotte
heritage rir

My blue laying gal has quit
If I get anything from the bantam pen would be jap bantam x silkie

Possibly picking a couple up from local whole food (fresh not yet refrigerated eggs from local farm unknown