33 Eggs Due to Hatch Oct 25 (Hatch Complete)

[Laney]

I have a flukers in my incubator right now, and I have to tell you I won't use it for temp control. It is always 2-3 degrees below every other thermometer that I have in the incubator.

What I am doing currently is using the flukers for humidity only and using the original thermometer that came with the incubator for temp. In the spring I will probably obtain a better therm/hygro combination to use when I'll be hatching more eggs - and Delawares at that.

Laney

 

[Laney]

Well upon checking my chickens this afternoon I ended up pulling #10. It had been candling as a dark black blob floating up near the airsack. No veins. I had left it as questionable. Last night there was an odor to the incubator, and today it was very noticeably coming from #10.

Put on my "food grade" plastic gloves and took it outside to crack. The white was clear, the shell was fine, but 99% of the yolk was black. No development at all, yolk was not intact.

#2 and #3 are still candling clear, but no smell so I will leave them for now.

Laney

 

[JamesA]

Quote:
I am so excited about these babies.I have been trying to figure out all day the best way to raise these little guys through the winter.I said I Would never do that again after last winter but here we go again! I actually have several babies mostly from you and taterschickens that I will be raising with them .The blue orps are growing fast and the first set of dellies are starting to feather out already so they will have a little bit of a head start.

 

[kathyinmo]

Only 10 days to go until you hatch. The last days seem the longest, don't they? So exciting!

Well, tell me, how do you do it? Ya know, you should get a job that pays by commission, because you are so convincing.

Very gentle, no nonsence, no pressure, but easily convincing ....
OK, I did it ... I ordered a new thermometer! (All your fault!)

I had such a great first hatch, which made me want more and more. But, since that one, I have not had another one as successful. I'm sure it is partly due to shipped eggs, BUT ... I'm thinking it may possibly be the temp. I hope my new one arrives tomorrow.

Good luck, you're half way there! Laney, I hope the rest of your eggs make it to the end!

 

[speckledhen]

Guess what? I'm starting another hatch next week for a BYCer in Florida who is planning to drive up to get the chicks. No bator issues this time, it seems. Tomorrow is Day 12 and I'm debating even candling again. May candle the lone BR egg since it's Becca's and hers quit last time I tried for some unknown reason, but the Dels are probably just fine.

I do like the Spot-Check. It registers each tenth of a degree as it happens, no jumping around like the Flukers does.

James, a couple years ago, I hatched in Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec and then January. Had babies all winter long. Wont be doing that again. I don't think.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Why not?

You don't even get a "real winter," there, do you?

Isn't your weather ideal for chicken rearing in winter?

 

[speckledhen]

Hahaha, nope! I live at 2000 ft in the mtns. We get a couple of nights from 0-5 degrees! Always have a few days of snow, too.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Sounds like me last year, though I'm not too far off this year. I've got some quail eggs coming from ugly ducky, and those will be the last thing I hatch this year! But that will still have me with young chicks into December, and it's already getting (unseasonably) cold.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Do you live in the Blue Ridge Mountains? Visited my friend in VA, she showed them to me. Never been to GA though.

Course, in my neck of the woods, 2000 feet is the "foothills". Mountains get upwards of 9000 feet here.

 

[speckledhen]

Yes, I am at the bottom end of the Blue Ridge Mtns. I've lived out west in Colorado and Utah, so trust me, I know mountains! This range is much older than the western ones and covered in trees, not as rocky. I like both types of mountains, each is very special in its own way. We have an entirely different climate than middle or south Georgia, both of which are way too hot for me!