4th Annual BYC NYD Hatch-a-long

[gamebirdsonly]

I tap on the eggs with my finger nail and the ones that make ting sound not good the ones that have dull sound I keep in the bator. But you have to be careful not to tap on egg to hard it might exsploed. I also do smell test too

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

Evening all........ hope everyone had a fantastic day.

We spent the day building fence, taking down a pen and otherwise being outside.

spent the whole day in mud lol. my truck is no longer black.... even in 4wd i still manged to sink while i was bringing in hay

 

[FeyRaine]

I find it hard to tell which egg it is that is smelly. It seems like when the bator has an odor the smell just fills my nostrils and they all smell the same to me (not always, if they are REALLY stinky I can usually tell). I find it easyer to candle them to tell which one is bad.

Try having a plastic bag w/ some fresh coffee grounds in it, sniff of the coffee to clear you nose between eggs.
(as long as the air all around isn't too bad this should work)

Something in the coffee smell "resets" the human nose, they even use it in high end perfume design to help professional "Nose" to be able to work longer when designing fragrances -- learned that on a tour in south of France way long time ago. Lucky have not yet had to try it w/ bator eggs so just extrapolating, have used it w/ other smelly situations of nose overload.

FeyRaine

 

[TMNfarm]

We did it!! We went out on the horses and cut down a Christmas tree!! This was a first for us. I've always wanted to take he horses out for a late night ride through the woods in the dark, but ever quite found the courage, but tonight, we did it!! I think it's goign to be a new Christmas tradition for us... So much fun!!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

NYD Hatch-a long Digest for 12/17/2012

Stats: Top two most active threads.
Most of the top ten posters! Sally Sunshine slowed down to 269 posts

What do you do with Emus? Do Ducklings have to look so cute(Darn you Aspen ) Congrats on the nice Embryo Picture Sheree

Day Six Embryo pics in post 3737.

More pictures of bad eggs!

Then I was relieved to see some eggs decorated for the Decorated egg contest!

15 days to hatch!

Bettacreek had Duck a hen die over night. Not sure why. A later post pointed to vent prolapse...Toss that egg into the bator

MarineCorpFarmr posted that we should all get out to the coop! Good reminder to stop neglecting things to hang out on this thread(did we listen?)

chiqita pointed out that Emus are not for the faint of heart, or those that value their teeth. I have so much dental work that it would not matter to me! Bring on the Emus!

Post 3785 has a contest update. Many start tomorrow, so watch out! There will be a lot of posts...

. Another early egg art post....colupnorth has a Turkey without a rooster that is laying eggs...how do they taste....eat one and let me know please!

cmfarm removed all but 62 out of 99 from the Bator as non starters. Still, 62 is a lot of chicks!

In the Afternoon there were posts about needing self control--The urge to candle is strong! Let me help

Advice for candling Marans was asked for and answered

Miley Cirus look a like, Phyllis Diller look alike!

Egg art thread link posted at post 3810. Invention post on thread 3813. A coop tractor made out of box springs!

Baby pics for the contest too!

There was a question about misting duck eggs. Some do and some don't and Ducks still hatch...

Until tomorrow, Happy Incubating!

 

[RavenWood]

I've candled a few and preliminary results indicate we have a lot of unfertilized eggs Maran eggs are too dark to candle, but I know we have 1 RIR developing. Looks like none of my Ameraucanas or brahma/orpington crosses are doing much. We'll try again on day 10 and again on day 14 and remove duds. What a bummer.

More bad news ... a cougar was spotted in my next door neighbour's field late this afternoon. Sure hope he/she isn't planning to eat my chickens. No sign of it being around, but now I'm freaked. I also have miniature horses and big horses and cougars are known for attacking pretty much anything. Eeek

 

[Sally Sunshine]

We did it!! We went out on the horses and cut down a Christmas tree!! This was a first for us. I've always wanted to take he horses out for a late night ride through the woods in the dark, but ever quite found the courage, but tonight, we did it!! I think it's goign to be a new Christmas tradition for us... So much fun!!!

That sounds like a lovely tradition! Good for you!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I tap on the eggs with my finger nail and the ones that make ting sound not good the ones that have dull sound I keep in the bator. But you have to be careful not to tap on egg to hard it might exsploed. I also do smell test too

Thats so funny you metioned that! I was just telling DH last night that the one egg sounds funny, the Maran I couldnt see in at all even an air cell on lockdown today, I tap and it sounded sorta metalish, Ting like you said!! and I cracked it and yup bad egg!! He thought I was even more chicken wacked...

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I've candled a few and preliminary results indicate we have a lot of unfertilized eggs Maran eggs are too dark to candle, but I know we have 1 RIR developing. Looks like none of my Ameraucanas or brahma/orpington crosses are doing much. We'll try again on day 10 and again on day 14 and remove duds. What a bummer.

More bad news ... a cougar was spotted in my next door neighbour's field late this afternoon. Sure hope he/she isn't planning to eat my chickens. No sign of it being around, but now I'm freaked. I also have miniature horses and big horses and cougars are known for attacking pretty much anything. Eeek

OH NO! do you free range, are you going to keep them locked up now, do cougars attack in day?

 

[champer]

We did it!! We went out on the horses and cut down a Christmas tree!! This was a first for us. I've always wanted to take he horses out for a late night ride through the woods in the dark, but ever quite found the courage, but tonight, we did it!! I think it's goign to be a new Christmas tradition for us... So much fun!!!

Wow! Color me green with envy, that does sound fun.

Thanks ronott1 for the daily update, always fun to read!