100% hatch

[Akane]

For my first hatch of eggs from my bantam EE hens I set 9 little blue eggs. 1 turned out not to be fertile. 8 eggs went into the hatcher. 8 chicks are now in the brooder. All viable eggs hatched. Now here's the amazing part. I ignored these eggs. I went a week without checking temp and humidity to find it was 103F and 30% humidity for an unknown length of time. When I candled before moving to the hatcher I noticed they seemed all cramped to one side of the egg and then I went to remove the turner from the incubator and found out it wasn't plugged in. No idea how long that was for either. Well they are still alive in there so I'll throw them in the hatcher, fill the water trays, and ignore them some more. Forget looking at numbers, pulling vent plugs, putting in vent plugs. Let's just leave them sit and see what happens. One hatched a day early and the rest followed over the next 24hours until the very last egg zipped.

I was having trouble waiting to see if that last chick would manage it.

Here are 8 little bantam EE chicks crossed with who knows what (there's 3 serama, 2 japanese bantam, and a bantam EE for roos out there). Since it turned cold so fast I have lots of chicks in the house and they ended up having to share a brooder with 2 seramas and a japanese bantam from a hatch a few weeks earlier.

 

[canada-goose]

Congratulations! 100% hatches are so rare and amazing! Cute chicks.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Good heavens, is that the trick?

 

[thumbless]

The old farmer benihd me said when he hatched eggs all he did was was put eggs in a box under a heat lamp.

 

[mandelyn]

Awesome!

The more you forget about them the better they hatch! I averaged 90% or less when I REALLY cared about the specific eggs being set... but when it's freebies from my own flock or "stolen" eggs from elsewhere where I'm not so vigilant.. wouldn't you know those were my best hatches. It's just so hard to treat exspensive eggs the same way!!

 

[Suechick]

Congratulations, that's crazy!

What kind of incubator do you use?

 

[Akane]

Hova 1602n. Then I have a lg 9200 that I alternate hatching and incubating in between when I have staggered hatches. Both are still airs.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Wow, that's perfection. I hope to someday be that good.