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

[rochelle1021]

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I guess I'd probably candle to see whether there is movement.  Have handy a spray bottle of clean, warmed water, try not to move the eggs, just hold the candler to the fat end in a dark room (if possible) and see if they are still moving.  Some will hatch late, especially if there have been dips in temps during incubation, so all is not lost, and if that is a possibility you can just leave them alone until tomorrow.

thanks Pozees

 

[Cynthia12]

Well I got my lone egg in the hatcher. I only had two others develop with him but the quit early on. The rest were all infertile. Hopefully by killing those mites I have fixed my fertility problem.

I have one little loner too, from 4 doz. sent. It's still a kickin. Checked it this morning. Will go into lock down on this coming Fri. I did have another one that started, but then, blood ring. Took a week for that box to get here. Was lucky to get one I guess. Hope it makes it. Good luck with yours!

 

[Cynthia12]

Here are a couple of Silkie chick pics from this weekend's hatch - from the birds I bought from SilkieSensation.





The one in the middle in the first pic was last to hatch by maybe 12 hours after the first to hatch to the right of it, and the size difference is perceptible. Amazing. They'll get a day or two in the brooder in the house and then go out to the brooder in the coop.

Little Dolly's.

 

[Pozees]

I'm so glad Blue & his girls found a good home with you. I love seeing their babies! Showed my dd these pix & she's all excited to see Blue's babies too...lol

I have to tell you, that group of birds is amazing. One of the Black hens is now named Marathon Mama - you open the pen door and she is on the move, she can fill her crop when it looks like there is nothing to eat, and can cover ground! Blue is here known as Big Daddy - fears nothing, and a couple of weeks ago put a 4.5 month old LARGE Rock cockerel in his place with pure attitude LOL. They raise chicks as a group, even Daddy helps. They are not let out free (not in a run) unless we're here to keep an eye on things, but since DH retired this year, they get out just about every day unless it's bad weather. We really enjoy them.

 

[Wunjo]

So i repositioned the eggs just a bit closer so the give more heat to each other.

The final count is 12 eggs of the 24 original. 5 OEs and 7 silkies


Here are our two smallest eggs, bit smaller than a half dollar. Tiny chickies will come out of those hopefully!!!

Good luck!

Lockdown day 2 for me. I stood in front of the incubator and chirped then listened and no answers yet. My mom taught me this trick. When the babies are internally pipped they will answer back.

I could just see someone standing over the bator chirping. Made me

I will have to chirp.

He he - something else for me to obsessively do these eternal lockdown days! The cat seems very obsessed with the guest bedroom where the incubator is. She is hanging out by the door and even slept by the door. I thought it was a good sign, but then realized, she's a cat. It's verbotten. Of course she's obsessed.

Really hope I get some chickies. I found a nice big tote yesterday at Lowes (yay, managed to avoid the Evil Empire) set it up in the house and loaded it with sand. The bag of sand had been in the back of my pickup truck and the bag tore. I didn't want to use a bucket, because I use those for cleaning and I didn't want to get cleaning chemicals in the sand for the new chicks. All I found was a relatively small glass casserole dish. So, last night, I was trundling back and forth with a casserole dish, filling it with sand and carrying it inside. Some days, I wish I were one of my neighbors. It must be very entertaining speculating on what on earth I am doing.

C'mon chickies!

Maybe the cat can hear them chirping.

I'm a new hatchet and a little worried, my Cochin bantam eggs are day 21.5 today... but no sign of pips yet it rocking..., should I candle? temps had been fluctuating 97-99. humidity 60-72% since lockdown on day 18... should I be candling?

My last hatch I didn't have chickies until day 22, 23 and 24.

 

[SoManyHats]

I candled the my egg that has the comparatively large air cell. Now it looks like the chick is pushing up against the membrane by the air cell when it moves, but has not internally pipped. I'm not supposed to lock down until the morning - should I do it now? I tried to upload a video, but can't figure out how.

 

[KimberlyK0509]

Here is a picture of some of the eggs I started on 12/10 for the hatch along. I started with 12 in the incubator, 5 are now nearly to hatching. I also have 3 under a broody silkie outside. The lighter eggs are Spitzhauben Appenzellers I bought and had shipped it took them a week to get here (on a priority 2 day package and the looked bad but I put them in the bator anyway) so I have my fingers toes and everything else crossed that they will hatch by Tuesday. Happy New Year and Happy hatching everyone!!!

How did you fit 12 in there? Hand turn the first week? Is there a way to double stack in that incubator?

 

[champer]

Pozees, those chicks are adorable!

I think the first day of lockdown is a killer, cause you keep peeking at the bator and nothing is happening! I solved that this year by setting some eggs on the 9th and had the first one hatch this morning.

 

[Myfourladies]

I gotta tell you, I am thankful I now live in the middle of the woods where no neighbors can see me! Love love LOVE our new home!

Last year at this time, I was in a house that sat on the corner of two cul-de-sacs. I could literally spit and hit a neighbor on my left, and a neighbor on my right. Talk about no privacy! I was pretty much the laughing stock of the neighborhood (not that I cared), because of my strange hobbies. One of them was having pet praying mantids. I raised one every year, from hatchling to death. When a mantis is in the early stages, they are tiny. I had to catch their food, which was no easy task...fruit flies, or any bug that size, was all they could eat at those stages. So, my neighbors got a good view of me walking across the back yard, net in hand, swinging it from side to side, trying to catch mini bugs LOL.

I also brain tan deer hides. That was another site no one ever got used to...me standing at my fleshing beam, deer hide dripping as I scrape and scrape. Then stretching it, putting it on a frame, and smoking it over a pit I dug in the ground, with blue jeans sewn together as the enclosure.

Now I can do whatever I want and not be the laughing stock of the neighborhood!!

Just for fun, this was my first, and favorite, praying mantis I ever raised. Her name was Alice. When she died (in my hand), I made her a little coffin out of an empty checkbook box, decorated it, and put it in the freezer. Kept her their for five years. When we moved in here to our first home, I buried her.

Don't laugh, I'm sure all of us have some strange hobbies that do not seem normal to most.

Aww! You sound FUN!! LOL My closest neighbors are family. (we live on a homestead) That doesn't make it any easier when you Uncle calls your dad to ask 'what the heck is Amanda up to now?!'

I have to say though I have not brain tanned hides in my back yard!

 

[ronott1]

Here is a picture of some of the eggs I started on 12/10 for the hatch along. I started with 12 in the incubator, 5 are now nearly to hatching. I also have 3 under a broody silkie outside. The lighter eggs are Spitzhauben Appenzellers I bought and had shipped it took them a week to get here (on a priority 2 day package and the looked bad but I put them in the bator anyway) so I have my fingers toes and everything else crossed that they will hatch by Tuesday.




Happy New Year and Happy hatching everyone!!!

Thank you for the hatching wishes, and back at you!

I candled the my egg that has the comparatively large air cell. Now it looks like the chick is pushing up against the membrane by the air cell when it moves, but has not internally pipped. I'm not supposed to lock down until the morning - should I do it now? I tried to upload a video, but can't figure out how.

Lockdown tomorrow. I Keep an eye on that one.

Pozees, those chicks are adorable!

I think the first day of lockdown is a killer, cause you keep peeking at the bator and nothing is happening! I solved that this year by setting some eggs on the 9th and had the first one hatch this morning.