12th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-Along

[ronott1]

Of 30 set: broke one candling on day 4, one blood ring and three unfertilized. 25 with good development. 20 of those with active movement.

Due to mechanical issues with my primary incubator, I had to switch to a Farm Innovations incubator and I am not impressed with them. There are large fluctuations in temperature throughout the incubator. I am happy with the egg performance so far, but I haven't uncrossed my fingers yet...

The numbers are good so far!

 

[ronott1]

I set my own eggs again this time. The only thing I did differently was that the incubator was on the floor this time and on top of a cabinet the last time. So I wonder if it is colder on the floor or something? The cabinet is gone now so maybe I should find something else to put the incubator on.

Temperature variation in the room could be a factor.

 

[BlueBaby]

I would have to look back as to why but I have heard that it's not a good idea to keep incubators on the floor. For some reason I feel like it had something to do with air quality. Maybe someone else here knows.
That may or may not have anything to do with the quitters. Sometimes it just happens. For example, maybe some kind of stress on your flock. I have more quitters in the middle of summertime here. The eggs are all still treated exactly the same, aren't left out in the heat (usually), but it seems that different types of stress on the hens can also affect viability. I've been documenting it for a couple years and specific months of the year are the same with a higher number of early quitters and while I didn't document it as thoroughly I even noticed a difference from the same flocks when there was rain in the summer, it improved the viability, I'm assuming because of lower temps while it was raining putting less stress on the hens even though it was still mid summer.
Maybe I'll attempt a more thorough home experiment on this myself this year.

Anyway, I'm going down a rabbit hole, lol, my first step would be to elevate the incubator like you had it before.

I believe it's because heat travel's up, so it's coolest on the floor.

 

[sekeyslaks]

7 day mark today for first official candling!I am happy to report that out of 16 eggs,13 eggs are developing and only 3 were clear and discarded.The babies are happily bouncing around in their eggs so I am certain their healthy.Here is a pic of one.

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Where I was a little late setting eggs mine are on day 4, I will resist candling for 3 more days and then only candle the Marans mixes eggs where they are lighter. But in other news, and she's not part of the hatch-a-long as she went broody early on me. My game hen is on day 16 with 7 eggs. She's got 6 full Marans and 1 Marans x Buff orp egg. She is a evil blood-drawing demon if you try to mess with her eggs while sitting so I tend not to try and candle her eggs. But I caught her off the nest 2 days ago and snuck out there and managed to candle the mix egg, baby was bouncing all over the place. Didn't get time to attempt to check the others as she came raging back ready to flog me. They technically should hatch Thursday, but every time she's set she's always had them start hatching on day 19 so Tuesday evening I'll begin chick watch with her. And now one of my young 8 month old Marans girls is showing signs of going broody. If she does decide to sit and commit I'll stuff eggs under her as well. I enjoy using the incubator, but hands down I prefer if I have them to let the momma's do all the work.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

All right, I guess now I'm officially officially in; I've sent in my number. And only a week behind... Guess they won't technically be Easter chicks for me, but babies are babies, right?

 

[BullChick]

All right, I guess now I'm officially officially in; I've sent in my number. And only a week behind... Guess they won't technically be Easter chicks for me, but babies are babies, right?

 

[Parront]

All right, I guess now I'm officially officially in; I've sent in my number. And only a week behind... Guess they won't technically be Easter chicks for me, but babies are babies, right?

My duck eggs will be hatching about the weekend after Easter, too. People are busy on Easter, chicks are best when we have time to pay attention to them!

 

[BullChick]

My duck eggs will be hatching about the weekend after Easter, too. People are busy on Easter, chicks are best when we have time to pay attention to them!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

All right, I guess now I'm officially officially in; I've sent in my number. And only a week behind... Guess they won't technically be Easter chicks for me, but babies are babies, right?

Right there with you, just set mine today too!