12th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-Along

[BullChick]

I did. I'm sorry my notifications are a little confusing lately and I have been missing things, I think. I will have to count them up as I have them stacked 2 eggs high in one until the hatching incubator is emptied out. Probably around the 44 for this event though.

Stacked is beautiful!

 

[AgnesGray]

Hi yall

I'm kinda new to BYC. My friend here coerced me to join this year's easter hatchalong heh. Ignore the names of the eggs. Got bored of numbering the eggs every time so I decided to give them random keywords. They're mallard derived, probably mutts. I've setted 6 eggs, on 10th of march. Bit early, but this was before I was made aware of this thread. This is my first time ever having any experience with ducks, let alone hatching them, so quite looking forwards to it!

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If you set on March 10th, they'll probably hatch 4 or so days after the hatchalong date since Mallard type ducks take 28 days. Are you misting the eggs? They're a beautiful color! Good luck!

Stacked is beautiful!

LOL - yeah, not sure what I was thinking except I'm trying to get caught up on chick orders and there is just a small overlap, so why not?! Hopefully I don't regret it!

 

[BullChick]

Are you misting the eggs?

We all have different ways, and get good results. I didn’t mist, and neither did the turkey or chickens.

 

[AgnesGray]

We all have different ways, and get good results. I didn’t mist, and neither did the turkey or chickens.

I agree and don't mist turkey or chicken eggs. I do mist waterfowl with good results since my ducks would swim and wet the eggs every day and get better results when I do mist. I know that not everyone does this and that's cool too. When I don't, my hatch rates struggle as my personal environment is too dry, leading to the ducklings having a hard time getting out. Since it is her first time hatching ducks, I wanted to open the conversation as well as encourage her. No criticism meant either way.

 

[AbyssalChooks]

If you set on March 10th, they'll probably hatch 4 or so days after the hatchalong date since Mallard type ducks take 28 days. Are you misting the eggs? They're a beautiful color! Good luck!

Thanks~ And yep. My friend been telling me to mist them about once per day. Set the humidity to around 30%. And keep eye on the size of the air cells, and readjust the conditions accordingly.

I've been rather lazy about researching things myself heh

 

[AgnesGray]

Thanks~ And yep. My friend been telling me to mist them about once per day. Set the humidity to around 30%. And keep eye on the size of the air cells, and readjust the conditions accordingly.

I've been rather lazy about researching things myself heh

Nice! That's what good friends are for! I bet the babies will be super cute!

 

[BesideStillWaters]

So.... this is an odd question.

On the 14th, my SLW + RIR mix mated with my full blood RIR hen. I wanted my RIR rooster + RIR hen to have some full-blood RIR chicks, so all eggs before that date should be the RIR because he was the only rooster she had been around. But because both roosters mated with her on the 14th, what are the odds of her egg laid on the 15th being the mix? How fast is an egg fertilized after mating? No matter who fathers the chicks, I want them, but I'm curious what I should egg-spect to pop out of the eggs at hatching day if they are fertile.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Not the best picture because there was too much light in the room but you can just see the question mark shape in the middle of the ring, that is the developing embryo.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

So.... this is an odd question.

On the 14th, my SLW + RIR mix mated with my full blood RIR hen. I wanted my RIR rooster + RIR hen to have some full-blood RIR chicks, so all eggs before that date should be the RIR because he was the only rooster she had been around. But because both roosters mated with her on the 14th, what are the odds of her egg laid on the 15th being the mix? How fast is an egg fertilized after mating? No matter who fathers the chicks, I want them, but I'm curious what I should egg-spect to pop out of the eggs at hatching day if they are fertile.

As weird as it sounds the hen can actually choose what sperm fertilizes the egg so typically whichever rooster is dominant will father the chicks in a flock even when there are multiple roosters but this is not 100% of the time. There can be interesting dynamics in multi-rooster flocks. Sometimes a dominant rooster or sometimes each roo will have "his" hens. Not sure how to answer your question but it takes about 24-26 hours to produce an egg so the egg she laid that day would still likely be from the first rooster and the egg the next day could be from either.

 

[ronott1]

If you set on March 10th, they'll probably hatch 4 or so days after the hatchalong date since Mallard type ducks take 28 days. Are you misting the eggs? They're a beautiful color! Good luck!


LOL - yeah, not sure what I was thinking except I'm trying to get caught up on chick orders and there is just a small overlap, so why not?! Hopefully I don't regret it!

They count for the hatch along!