5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[JLaw]

Ha! My dad fights me every time and then I go and set more LOL. Once I get around 100 hatched for the season he gets all antsy and asking me where I'm putting them all. Then he gets me another incubator for Christmas. Just feeds into my addiction

.

No dad here to get on me but my wife gets on me when I start hatching. This is my first year with chickens and I think tax season it maybe time for a cabinet bator of some sort. I fear the wife so I may have to hold off on that. She does feed my addition though drives to pick up chicks that I want from different areas.

 

[Canieldonrad]

My, this has taken off. I am currently preparing my cabinet for the 10th. I should have about 4 dozen eggs to set. Buckeye and La Flèche.

Until then, I'll put these here for your enjoyment. These hatched today, Buckeyes. These were a test run out of my birds that hatched in May. I wanted to make sure the eggs were viable to hatch. Turns out they are VERY viable. This is only 7, I have more but the others are not quite ready for a brooder.

 

[ronott1]

My, this has taken off. I am currently preparing my cabinet for the 10th. I should have about 4 dozen eggs to set. Buckeye and La Flèche.

Until then, I'll put these here for your enjoyment. These hatched today, Buckeyes. These were a test run out of my birds that hatched in May. I wanted to make sure the eggs were viable to hatch. Turns out they are VERY viable. This is only 7, I have more but the others are not quite ready for a brooder.

Nice looking chicks!

 

[CherokeeFlats]

I had originally set 6 silkie eggs and 3 New Hampshire eggs. Of the 9 eggs, all 6 Silkies were duds and one of the NH were duds. Still have 2 NH eggs in the bator for the nYD hatch.

 

[Wisher1000]

Congrats, Daniel! They look great! I hope to see you around here a lot!

Here is my set pic. That's 18 total eggs. The light brown ones are Black Orpingtons, and believe it or not, they're pullet eggs! The dark ones are BCM from my flock. This is really a test hatch in preparation for starting my spring staggered hatching on the Silver Campines. That is, if they ever start laying. I plan to put them under lights as soon as the weather breaks and I can get them in a coop where lights are available. Until then, I will lead this hatch off (unless someone else had already set) and participate here to have fun and so y'all can help me pass the time until I can get some SC eggs.

 

[chickengirl1193]

is it to late for me to join in? it will be my first hatch, I'm getting 12 hatching eggs shipped out on Tuesday, so depending when they get here I'll be setting them a few days late. I didn't originally plan to set for new years day lol. I just think I need the support since its my first hatch!

 

[Canieldonrad]

Congrats, Daniel! They look great! I hope to see you around here a lot!

Here is my set pic. That's 18 total eggs. The light brown ones are Black Orpingtons, and believe it or not, they're pullet eggs! The dark ones are BCM from my flock. This is really a test hatch in preparation for starting my spring staggered hatching on the Silver Campines. That is, if they ever start laying. I plan to put them under lights as soon as the weather breaks and I can get them in a coop where lights are available. Until then, I will lead this hatch off (unless someone else had already set) and participate here to have fun and so y'all can help me pass the time until I can get some SC eggs.

I've only got 3 of the 5 La Flèche to start laying. 2 are pullets and I've only gotten 3 eggs total from them. We keep them under light. You will get some eventually, but don't be discouraged if they take a while. Come March they should be firing them out on a regular basis.

 

[Ramblin Rooster]

My, this has taken off. I am currently preparing my cabinet for the 10th. I should have about 4 dozen eggs to set. Buckeye and La Flèche.

Until then, I'll put these here for your enjoyment. These hatched today, Buckeyes. These were a test run out of my birds that hatched in May. I wanted to make sure the eggs were viable to hatch. Turns out they are VERY viable. This is only 7, I have more but the others are not quite ready for a brooder.

Haha I love the "test runs" people do they should really be called "excuse to hatch some chicks". Especially when it comes to "testing an incubator".

 

[Ramblin Rooster]

it that time of the year!

 

[FeyRaine]

Ron,
If I understood you correctly, in troubleshooting low hatch rates, if the unhatched have developed say to day 17 or 18 & then died so when you open & look in you find that they have not absorbed the yolk at all, & often not actually turned right side up as they would need to in order to pip, but they appear in all visual ways to be correctly formed so it looks like they should have continued those last couple days, & you find that you have a large number or even all your eggs do that then the issue is ? (a) slightly low temp or (b) lack of oxygen ie not enough airflow into the bator in the final week.

That would explain so much about the failure of my DIY bator last year!!

I've long since upgraded to the a LG incubator but even so this clears up some puzzles for me.

As a note to the newbie hatchers & others -- last year after several; failed hatches my DH bought me 12 yes 12 of those little outdoor thermometers so I could test temps in diff. places "looking for hot spots" etc. several weeks and lots of dead eggs later, I finally put them side by side & discovered a 10 yes TEN degree difference in readings across the 12 of them
So, yes calibrate, or at the very least realize even the $20 fancy one w/ remote readout could still be way off. I also found candy/meat thermometers tended to be more true in readings as far as low cost options & you can slide the tip into the air hole (unpluged plug hole)s of LG & I figure other type bators as a way to further verify or cross check readings (my "fancy" $20 unit that gave temp & humidity remotely apparently went wonky during my first lock down , ironically I think it could not withstand the heat&/or humidity & itself overheated, so the more manual candy/meat thermometer was a trusty backup when I needed a reality check on my literally *blinking* "fancy" one). So I hope that info helps someone, and saves some time/money/effort/eggs.