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

[ronott1]

oh no i have 1 with viens and a ring around viens and then yolk ring and my twins got darker but nothing else im still thinking they didnt make it

The top one looks ok. The bottom one looks like a blood ring. If so it will be very obvious on day 10.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

ok! but do fridge eggs take longer? if so will the chicks hatch a noon, or later since they would form later?

It wouldn't surprise me if they did take longer
Older eggs take longer to hatch. Rule of thumb is 1 hour delay for each day the eggs had been stored.
A late hatch is also caused by low incubation temps.
High incubation temperatures will result in early hatch (if they hatch at all)
Hot and cold spots in the incubator will cause a staggered hatch.

There is no such thing as goat proof fence...lol
I tie my little monsters out on dog chains every day and lock them in 6 ft high chainlink with a tarp roof at night.

There's no such thing as a hog proof fence either. Determined hogs will go right through an electric fence and not care.

I am so jealous of all the lovely candling pics - my eggs are under a broody so I don't get the chance to see what is going on. I wouldn't even dare try to get my hands on one during the night - she does not like being touched at the best of times!! But she does a great job of keeping those eggs & chicks safe.
1st of 3 really hot days today - currently 37C (99F) and it's still only 11:30. I have set up a misting system on top of the coop (under the shade cloth) to provide evaporative cooling - water is wetting roof which is also cooler to the touch - thermometer in coop reads just over 35C (95F) she is still panting but sat on eggs rather than hovering over them. Also have bottles of frozen water near to her nest - as water defrosts have been adding it to her water supply to keep it cool.


The things we do for our chickens! My chicks also have access to a frozen bottle (half defrosted) so they can get near it to cool down in their coop - guinea pig has one too!!

I was thinking of leaving my two 30 day old chicks out in their outside coop tonight rather than bringing them into the laundry - it is due to fall to 25C (77F) overnight.
What do you think?

If you didn't have that shade cloth and do the evaporative cooling I can't imagine how hot it would be in there.
Chickens start panting at 85F to try to cool off
The chicks will be fine in those temps.

I am very excited for the Easter Hatch also. I might fill 2 incubators for that one.

Don't forget there is also the Cinco De Mayo turkey hatchathon(all poultry welcome though)

If all goes as planned I'll be joining all the hatchalongs since I was planning on hatching from March through June and start up again September through NYD.
I won't be doing 4th of July though, usually just too hot for chicks.

So the stuck egg was an ordeal sprinkled w/ chaos

There must have been some oozing super glue in the lower part totally not visible
AND it just so happened that _this_ egg was exactly the same curvature as the egg turner,

So I tried the warm water & just move the next door egg but the result as you maybe have guessed was a cracked in half egg,
w/ egg running everywhere onto the turner, down into the tray which apparently was not 100% level.

So the saving grace is I have 2 LG bators so as soon as I could get some wads of tissue around the mess I ran
(remembered to close door to keep cats & dogs out)
grabbed the dirty but not THAT dirty bottom of the other LG, ran back across the house,
put the other 48 eggs into the bottom of the other LG, (so much for not moving the shipped eggs too much)
put the hot lid over that, & took the egg covered turner/screen/bottom to the shower for a hose off.
Then I still had 50% of the egg cup part w/ egg shell stuck to it!

I took the turner to the kitchen sink & tried to get the egg shell off w/ a copper choreboy scrubbie, wouldn't do a thing.
I finally spent 15 mins (truely!) picking it out a tiny chip at a time w/ the tip of a paring knife, wow, they should have used egg ooze to hold the space shuttle tiles in place!!
The plastic of that cup is actually a little dinged up from digging the eggshell off w/ the knife.

I got it all dry again.( By the way during all this I fielded 4calls from DH re:shopping list, 2 calls from other ppl, AND made dinner)

I put the eggs back into the re-cleaned bottom/screan/turner. I did a flashlight candle as I moved them since I had to handle them anyway.
Still looks like about 8 good ones, a few maybe way slow starts ? , a few likely blood rings, a few clears a few too dark to tell.

So I did the logical thing, I stacked the smallest of the maybe eggs on the other eggs, to make room along the open space between the turner & wall,
where I formerly had a row of eggs filling things up, and

Into that now open space I placed 8 of my own eggs I collected the past few days!!
So those are now w/ the Late Hatch Gang -- 4 large brown (CL roo Prince), and 4 green pullet (CL roo Good King Henry)

Egg #39 is not more, long live the newly set eggs #51-59!

Good job.

Be careful of stacking eggs in a LG unless it has a fan. The top layer will be too hot.

Nada

Can't tell if it's just dark eggs and too dim of a flashlight, or if they are defunct. Ahhhh, the suspense!

Same here.
I've never gotten real good at candling. I'm too cheap for a good one and most of the eggs are too dark anyway.
I just wait till lockdown and remove clears then.

Good morning! Gonna be busy busy around here today. Gotta go to 2 schools, my (deaf) daughter is performing a dance routine at her school then have to go to my son's pre-k Christmas party. Plus check the egg is, feed the ungodly number of chickens and see if any of my rabbits are actually knocked up or just faking it. Again. It's too early!

I miss those days, going to the kids events.

Oh, and I have to keep from pulling my hair out because my father in law wants to give me "advice" on my chickens. Ugh. Anyone want a free father in law? He's house broken and everything!

At least he shows an interest, even if it is critical.

Nope. And it's probably not a good idea. Chickens tend to need to establish a pecking order in order to get along. I doubt a play date is something a chickens needs or enjoys. Also it is not good biosecurity. Poultry can carry numerous diseases, if another chicken has something yours doesn't your flock will get infected. I would find it unwise to plan a chicken "playdate".

As long as you have a flock of 3 or more your chickens will be happy.

All good advice.

Your beat me to this answer!

I have read about too many of us that had to cull all the chickens and start over. How about a local group that meets for coffee to talk to other chicken obsessed owners?

That's what we do. I went to one last night at a local watering hole. The Schlafly brewery.

I'm co-organizer of our local Backyard Chicken Meetup group. We have 650 members.
We have coop tours (with bio-security measures), pot-lucks, lectures, panel discussions, etc.. Late last winter I held two processing classes at my house for our members.
We often also have meetups in conjunction with other area green meetup groups.
Last month we had a green holiday party with six other sustainability groups. All the organizers spoke about the past year and what we are looking forward to in the coming year. Lots of fun. They said I talked too long - go figure!!!

 

[MontanaDolphin]

Is there any way to find out if there are any BYC members close to you?? I live in Goochland County, Virginia, and would love to meet up/trade/buy/sell with fellow BYC members close to me!!

 

[ronott1]

Is there any way to find out if there are any BYC members close to you?? I live in Goochland County, Virginia, and would love to meet up/trade/buy/sell with fellow BYC members close to me!!

Look for a local or State Thread in the Social section of the forum:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/26/where-am-i-where-are-you

 

[SilkieSensation]

Well, my runs are covered, but my chickens free range all day long so the gate is open for them to come and go to the nest boxes.

 
I think there was a cutoff, I missed it too.  But I am still enjoying following along with the others.

I don't think there is a cutoff for joining in with the hatchalong.  There was just a cutoff for one of the contests.  

 
Candled last night. 5/7 were surely developing... 1 was "culled"... and 1 is iffy. Not too bad.

Nice!  I'll be candling mine tonight and mark day 7 air cells and compare to the chart to see if my humidity needs any adjusting.

I can't free range. Too many predators out here & we don't own the property so can't shoot or trap them since the owner & his friends hunt out here.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I need some great breeding mix ideas for my CL roo. He is just over 10 weeks so it will be at least another 2-3 months before I can use him. But since I lost his mate last night, I want to make the most of the opportunity and get some cool mixed chicks for a layer flock.
Females I have available for a mix are:
Barred Rock,
Dominiques,
Leghorns,
Red Star,
one white EE,
one blue EE.

 

[CackleJoy]

Okay, I found the blood ring pictures. Sorry about that last post. I have questions about my CLB eggs.
I can see great veining in the brown and cream eggs. Not so much the CLB. I bought these so have no fertility guarantee. I do see nice large air sacks. Decided to test against my own blue eggs. My eggs have astonishing veins, easily visible through the blue shell. The CLB's, I have to search to see any kind of development. Wondering if I'm seeing anything of value. If they were refrigerated would they be that delayed? Should I wait until Saturday to candle them again and toss any light-bulbs?

 

[Pozees]

CC, 650 members?! Holy chicken-chat, Batman! That's a lot!

By the way, thanks for the tip on the ThermoWorks thermometer, placed my order yesterday - I just got a Spot Check, it has been very helpful, but I need more measuring devices. I'm almost embarassed to admit, I currently have 3 incubators running - they are all now full - and will be firing up the hatcher tomorrow morning to move eggs tomorrow evening. AS I said to DH the other night, I should have just bought the cabinet I want to begin with, to which he (amazingly) replied, "Yes, I find it's always best to just go for the best you can get, look at all the money you have tied up in what you did buy - you could have used it all toward a cabinet." I about fell over. A year ago he could not tell me often enough how stupid it was to have chickens. Now he names them and calls me daily with updates on who has done what today. I call him The Accidental Poultryman.

MD - I second Ron's suggestion, your state thread will open up a whole new world for you. The CO thread is active and we often discuss how we are dealing with particular weather fronts, watch for one another during crises (last year's fires and floods, for example), and members who are focusing on particular breeds educate the rest of us about some of the finer points of their chosen breeds. Our basic rule is, the only stupid question is the unasked one, and I suspect most state threads are the same way.

I usually only candle day 10 and remove obvious clears, so this Saturday I'll be taking a peek.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

MD - I second Ron's suggestion, your state thread will open up a whole new world for you. The CO thread is active and we often discuss how we are dealing with particular weather fronts, watch for one another during crises (last year's fires and floods, for example), and members who are focusing on particular breeds educate the rest of us about some of the finer points of their chosen breeds. Our basic rule is, the only stupid question is the unasked one, and I suspect most state threads are the same way.

I usually only candle day 10 and remove obvious clears, so this Saturday I'll be taking a peek.

I found it...and didn't realize I had posted there back in February lol!

As for removing clears...day 10 will be Sunday for me. At last candle I realized I must have seen something that wasn't there in egg #8...it looks like a clear as well. So that makes 2 out of 10 that are duds. I see peewee kidney beans AND movement in all the other ones! I wasn't expecting so many to make it this far with me being a newbie...now all I can think of is "Crap! If they all make it, where am I going to put them????" LOL

 

[Cynthia12]

We had flurries...nothing stuck...then it turned to sleet and everything was covered in ice. This happened a few days ago. My chickens were NOT happy campers...my rooster, Zeus, is aggressive (he's to become dinner on Friday)...you'd think he'd be up for any challenge. Not the ice. When I let them out for the day, he wouldn't step foot on it. He'd hang by the coop while the girls free ranged...and when he did move, it was to go on top of the run or to stand on a pile of leaves. Chicken.

Here's a pic of Zeus...he's so pretty, it sucks he has to go to freezer camp:

Oh man, he is beautiful. Too bad...to sad.. I remember...waaaaay back in the 60's, my little sis coming in with bloody legs. Yep..one of my grandma's roos got her. We were always careful when we went out to collect eggs for grandma, we would hurry and close the door to the big coop she had, lock him out, then gather the eggs. But one day, my little sis wasn't fast enough. My grandpa was faster than the rooster later on that day..with the ax! I can still see that roo sitting on the dinner table. I didn't like him much out in the yard, and I wasn't so sure I was going to like eating him, even though he was mean. Once I got started on him, thought, hey, this isn't bad at all! Mean ol boy that one.