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

[SoManyHats]

Candling day 7...

Never underestimate the power of *new batteries in the flashlight!* (pun intended)

Day 5, with old batteries, I had 12 that I couldn't see into enough to decide if they were developing. Today, with new batteries in the flashlight, I found that ALL 12 have veining, and I could see a moving embryo in all but a couple.
Plus two that I thought were clear are actually developing. So the end count is:

34 with good veining, most of those with moving embryos!
4 tossed. There was no mistaking they were clear.

This is way more than I expected! Now I have the "problem" of getting a hatcher ready big enough to take the ones that want fit in my small incubator to hatch.

 

[ronott1]

Foam? And what do you mean by egg cartons? Do you have a picturs?

My Brinsea has black foam and rails with foam blocks that go into them. There are two baskets that the rails go into. The rails adjust for the size of the eggs.

The egg cartons look like this or sometimes I use egg flats and cut them to fit.

 

[Kalalyn21]

So I was candling tonight and had one of my silkie eggs that was growing and it slipped out of my hand and broke :-( I feel sooooo terrible

 

[mspj]

Out of the 29 eggs that I set I have 22 with definite movement going on inside, 6 that I can see a nice kidney bean shape but didn't see any movement in these (maybe they were sleeping) then there is that green egg - who knows, I cannot see into that thing although the air cell is growing. So maybe, just maybe I am at 100% for now, as I know that can change.

 

[mspj]

As I'm reading through the post tonight, trying to catch up since dinner (50+ post), I am learning a lot of things about feeding my chickens. This of course leads me to a question: "Aren't oyster shells a source of calcium?" or is that something that I need to offer also?

 

[ronott1]

As I'm reading through the post tonight, trying to catch up since dinner (50+ post), I am learning a lot of things about feeding my chickens. This of course leads me to a question: "Aren't oyster shells a source of calcium?" or is that something that I need to offer also?

Oyster shell calcium is what you give them free choice. I get kind of lazy and sometimes forget to give it to them. I remember when the egg shell start cracking.

 

[ctfeathers]

So sorry,

I will get it on there now!

Do I need to tell how many I set? Sorry... A bit confused now.

 

[ronott1]

Do I need to tell how many I set? Sorry... A bit confused now.

The number set contest is over but you can tell me how many you set and I will put it into the contest. If you have a picture of what you set on the 11th I can enter that into the hatch rate contest.

Is this your first hatch?

 

[roostereggs]

hahaha i had brought my roo in to tend to his comb and he pooped on the floor so i said to my roo"colonel dipper its not polite to doo doo in the housse" and my hubby in a rooster crow voice said "A cock will do a doo doo"

i think im turning my hubby into a crazy chicken lady too LMBO

 

[Penny Hen]

typically they don't need as much calcium if they are not using calcium to produce egg shells. Too much calcium can cause health issues including heart and kidney problems. Also if the calcium is increased then something is decreased, most likely the protein. While a pullet i still growing more protein is needed. During a molt more protein is needed. During the winter lots of people feed extra corn for energy but that energy is lower in protein. The trick is knowing why your hens are not laying and feeding accordingly. Personally I don't use layer feed. I feed all flock or even grower and offer calcium on the side as the roosters really really don't need the extra calcium.

Have any of you ever fed alfalfa pellets to chickens? I feed it to my sheep and horses instead of grain usually and the chickens glean it from the ground where they spill it. I was wondering if it was OK to feed it to them in a larger quantity, i.e. like cutting the layer pellet half with the alfalfa pellets?