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

[Penny Hen]

Now that's why i call any pure breed not an EE. I know there are project birds that they are working on getting them to breed true over and over to get them a standard and those once they breed true and blue eggs wouldn't be ee's any more but a different color of what ever breed they are trying to get the color added to that standard.

Now what i find weird is that you can have two colors that breed true but you cross them and they no longer breed true and become ee's. Like mixing silver ameraucana and a bbs one the off spring wont breed true from what I'm told. I've yet to try cause my silver girl aint laying yet. So this i will be testing.

They will breed true for Egg color. They will breed true for body type and muffs and beards. It is the color genes of the feathers that won't breed true. I believe in distinguishing the offspring of 2 purebred Ameraucanas of different colors as AM EE's, meaning that they are true to type and egg color with no brown or white egglayers in the mix.

 

[Penny Hen]

I have my bator running steady now. It spiked briefly but settled down to fluctuating between 97˚ and 101˚. I only have 10% humidity so I am adding water to the tray and jars of water one by one to get the humidity to come up at least 15% percent more.

This is the first time I have done quail eggs and only the second time I have done chickens. My first attempt last spring ended in disaster. Zero hatched. Too many temp spikes, etc.

This time I fixed a lot of the problems. I think after this hatch I am going to get a better thermostat.

 

[BoereMeisie]

Wouldn't that be something?? No willing an egg on for nine months though, just for the three weeks. )

No children? Your chicken's are your kids then. Maybe a dog, or a cat or two of each?

14 Chickens
6 Chicks
12 Eggs in the incubator
2 Dogs
1 Cat
and on my wishlist is a Birman cat and a miniature pig

... and still always praying for a baby, but I'm only 29 so it can still happen!

 

[roostereggs]

Well. Let me just say THIS------>

Day 8, first cull. There were two clear eggs yesterday. One fell out of the bator as soon as I opened it tonite and culled itself (not fertilized). The second clear one now has small veins and a tiny embryo in it...really slow grower. We were able to see inside all but one of the Marans...and they are growing. Most of them were extremely active! Oh, and one has a sideways air cell.

Of 32 eggs (21 shipped in a damaged box)...I have a grand total of 29 that are alive and well. My 'plan' was for ~16 to actually hatch and then I would end up with a second flock of ~8 hens and a roo (plus some roos to feed until freezer camp). This was not how I expected chicken math to work!

What have I DONE? What will I do with this many chickens??? I'm not SUPPOSED to have this many doing well! It's my first hatch!

Wish I could send some to you fellow hatchers that don't have any...or as many as you want!!! Maybe I should start researching how to ship brand new chicks, LOL!

Now a question about the sideways air cell. It is right smack in the center of the egg between the big and small ends, up against the side. There is veining and an embryo. I am assuming there is no way the chick can be situated at lockdown so that it would be able to make an internal pip, right? Should I cull it now? I don't mind as I have too many, but if there is a chance...I don't want to mess with it.

Ron, we need a new smiley on here...one sitting amongst bags of chicken feed with an empty wallet.

 

[BoereMeisie]

I have two questions:
I still haven't added any water for humidity, I set on the 11th and humidity is between 25% and 33%. Is that okay? The kettle is close the the incubator, when we boil it the humidity climbs just a tad. I'm attempting dry incubation since my previous hatch was a disaster, all embryos developed but only 1 hatched, the rest died between day 10 and hatch time

I turn manually 3 times a day: 07:00, 15:00 and 23:00 - That's exactly 8 hours apart each time. Will that work?

 

[Pyxis]

So I'm now 98% sure that the leghorn eggs are infertile. All are yellow and clear, whereas every other egg has a little embryo and is the proper orange color (which is nuts for shipped eggs and I'm super excited about that) so it wasn't that they were just really shaken up in shipping. I cracked one open and it wasn't fertile. I'm bummed because I'm now out of the running for best hatch rate because the eggs I got are likely not fertile. Oh well I guess.

 

[Pyxis]

Well. Let me just say THIS------>

Day 8, first cull. There were two clear eggs yesterday. One fell out of the bator as soon as I opened it tonite and culled itself (not fertilized). The second clear one now has small veins and a tiny embryo in it...really slow grower. We were able to see inside all but one of the Marans...and they are growing. Most of them were extremely active! Oh, and one has a sideways air cell.

Of 32 eggs (21 shipped in a damaged box)...I have a grand total of 29 that are alive and well. My 'plan' was for ~16 to actually hatch and then I would end up with a second flock of ~8 hens and a roo (plus some roos to feed until freezer camp). This was not how I expected chicken math to work!

What have I DONE? What will I do with this many chickens??? I'm not SUPPOSED to have this many doing well! It's my first hatch! Wish I could send some to you fellow hatchers that don't have any...or as many as you want!!! Maybe I should start researching how to ship brand new chicks, LOL!

Now a question about the sideways air cell. It is right smack in the center of the egg between the big and small ends, up against the side. There is veining and an embryo. I am assuming there is no way the chick can be situated at lockdown so that it would be able to make an internal pip, right? Should I cull it now? I don't mind as I have too many, but if there is a chance...I don't want to mess with it.

Ron, we need a new smiley on here...one sitting amongst bags of chicken feed with an empty wallet.

I've had an on the side air cell before. I was just careful to position it on lockdown with the air cell at the top of the egg and the chick hatched out just fine, with no help from me. If you're incubating in an egg carton, as the cell grows it will grow toward the top of the egg, and eventually it will be big enough so that when the chick pips, it will most likely be able to pip into it despite its weird position. That's what happened with mine, anyway.

 

[chick rookie]

Oh man, look at that. I always have a leghorn or two on hand, this is a beauty. Look at that pretty tail standing up there. I just love them. And, they are always, always, friendly with me. I want a Trader Joe around here!

ok call me stupid but I always thought leghorns were huge??? If this is a leghorn what are the huge whit chickens? I've always stayed away cause they were too big, afraid they would hurt my smaller hen. I'm so confused...

 

[SilkieSensation]

I have my bator running steady now. It spiked briefly but settled down to fluctuating between 97˚ and 101˚. I only have 10% humidity so I am adding water to the tray and jars of water one by one to get the humidity to come up at least 15% percent more.

This is the first time I have done quail eggs and only the second time I have done chickens. My first attempt last spring ended in disaster. Zero hatched. Too many temp spikes, etc.

This time I fixed a lot of the problems. I think after this hatch I am going to get a better thermostat.

Quail actually take a bit lower humidity than chicks. I hatch them with my chicks all the time but set them the same day as the chicks so they hatch before I raise humidity to lock down the chicks. For still air you want 25-30% humidity until lockdown then only raise to 35-40% for hatch. Never go above 50%. They do best in still air. If your bator has a fan add 10-15% to each of those humidities.

 

[SilkieSensation]

 


Oh man, look at that.   I always have a leghorn or two on hand, this is a beauty.  Look at that pretty tail standing up there.  I just love them. And, they are always, always, friendly with me.  I want  a Trader Joe around here! 

ok call me stupid but I always thought leghorns were huge??? If this is a leghorn what are the huge whit chickens? I've always stayed away cause they were too big, afraid they would hurt my smaller hen. I'm so confused... 

Leghorns are relatively small. You are probably thinking white rocks which are a bit bigger or white jersey giants which are huge.