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

[ronott1]

Thought I might have to bow out for a while. Cancelled an order because I was too sick to drive for the eggs

Managed to gather enough at home and pick up one order close to home.
Spent all night up with an unhappy baby (unusual). Husband is out of town so no relief efforts. Was so tired my eyes wouldn't focus so I gave up (yesterday).

Have now decided I might just be a slow starter! My 9 yr-old home sick today on top of extra chaos so... almost ready and realized I forgot to buy distilled water! That was hours ago.

A frantic trip to the feed store for meds as I think my favorite cockerel has a cold. Nothing out of that trip.

A frantic trip to Kohls because it's the Christmas program and my son outgrew his required colored slacks.

Husband home from out of town just in time to take the big kids and leave me with the two littles. SO glad he made it!

This is our first hatch and I'm not going to just plunk the eggs in and turn it on. I want to make sure my thermometers all work right (should have done that - but I was sick!!!

) so it could be tomorrow before these eggs get set!

I hope tomorrow is better!

The cold snap is ending for us and we will soon be into Spring.

What could be nicer than to start the new year with little hatchlings too

 

[fosterson]

18 eggs from my flock.


6 eggs from the neighbor's flock.


11 purebred 'mystery' eggs and an EEer from Just Fowling Around for a total of 36 eggs!

 

[All Henned Up]

Hey Ron.

How many participants are there?
Can you also give the total number eggs set when everybody reports in?
Then at the end how many hatched?
Thanks, your fellow hatcher.

 

[chickee]

Thought I might have to bow out for a while. Cancelled an order because I was too sick to drive for the eggs

Managed to gather enough at home and pick up one order close to home.
Spent all night up with an unhappy baby (unusual). Husband is out of town so no relief efforts. Was so tired my eyes wouldn't focus so I gave up (yesterday).

Have now decided I might just be a slow starter! My 9 yr-old home sick today on top of extra chaos so... almost ready and realized I forgot to buy distilled water! That was hours ago.

A frantic trip to the feed store for meds as I think my favorite cockerel has a cold. Nothing out of that trip.

A frantic trip to Kohls because it's the Christmas program and my son outgrew his required colored slacks.

Husband home from out of town just in time to take the big kids and leave me with the two littles. SO glad he made it!

This is our first hatch and I'm not going to just plunk the eggs in and turn it on. I want to make sure my thermometers all work right (should have done that - but I was sick!!!

) so it could be tomorrow before these eggs get set!

I'm SO sorry! What a rough day!! Sounds like you need a hug

It will still be fun to set your eggs and hatch some chicks. Hoping I hatch a lot of pullets to supply you with those two BWA girls you want

 

[Pozees]

Well my Production Reds didn't pan out, I went to get them and the seller was nowhere to be found, very bummed out. I guess if he gets in touch tonight or tomorrow morning I'll go get them and set them late. I did set the 12 barnyard mixes (we call them Mayahns, or Colorado Mayahns, after the keeper) and 15 Silkie eggs from my own flock, for a total of 27.







The Mayahns are so pretty, to me anyway, I love them! Not sure why I can't get that first pic turned, but oh well. Set at 8:15 pm local time, took me a while to get the turner put together and the temp stabilized, and of course I will be obsessing over temp for probably the entire 21 days, since that may be one of my hatching issues. I did get the Spot Check, luckily, as it appears the "Scratch and Dent" issue with this Eco 40 seems to be that the liquid in the thermometer inside the incubator looks separated and all over the place, not readable at all.

So, the temp reader DH has that he keeps pointing at eggs and telling me they are too warm, does not measure air temp, but object temp. It consistently reads 3-6 degrees higher, when pointed at an egg, than any of the other thermometers I have in the incubators which I guess are intended to measure air temp. Does that means something I need to pay attention to?

Also, would love to see plans for homemade cabinet units

 

[ronott1]

Good news!

I stepped away from my bator and left it do it's thing and after 13 hours it is up to 99.4

Humidity is holding at 35%

We have a Hatch going On!

 

[Gardeningmama]

Not sure who this one belongs to..but I love her!!


SO....checked my eggs 24 hrs. later, and I'm seeing a lot of bullseyes!

She's mine! Her names Marilyn, as in Monroe, lol!

Quote: Yeah, I thought mine was broke when I first used it. Nope, just really slooow!

I set my eggs today around 1pm. When the eggs started to warm up in the incubator, I noticed 2 eggs started seeping egg whites (not condensation). And one cracked. This has happened before when I had goose eggs shipped to me a year ago. Is this from pressure building up inside the eggs from rough shipping? Or could this be because they may have froze during their trip? They did not smell whatsoever so I don't think they were bad. They were both SLW eggs. I was hoping to get some SLW

I do have one SLW egg left. My BLRW and chocolates look okay. Here's a picture of one of the eggs that started to ooze and cracked, seemingly under pressure.



And here's the rest of the eggs in the incubator. They seem okay so far. Also, are wyandotte eggs suppose to be this light? I thought they were more brown? These are bantam wyandottes.

Mine didn't crack but the ooze looks the same as mine did when I put eggs in that had frozen during shipping.

 

[mspj]

Well my Production Reds didn't pan out, I went to get them and the seller was nowhere to be found, very bummed out. I guess if he gets in touch tonight or tomorrow morning I'll go get them and set them late. I did set the 12 barnyard mixes (we call them Mayahns, or Colorado Mayahns, after the keeper) and 15 Silkie eggs from my own flock, for a total of 27.







The Mayahns are so pretty, to me anyway, I love them! Not sure why I can't get that first pic turned, but oh well. Set at 8:15 pm local time, took me a while to get the turner put together and the temp stabilized, and of course I will be obsessing over temp for probably the entire 21 days, since that may be one of my hatching issues. I did get the Spot Check, luckily, as it appears the "Scratch and Dent" issue with this Eco 40 seems to be that the liquid in the thermometer inside the incubator looks separated and all over the place, not readable at all.

So, the temp reader DH has that he keeps pointing at eggs and telling me they are too warm, does not measure air temp, but object temp. It consistently reads 3-6 degrees higher, when pointed at an egg, than any of the other thermometers I have in the incubators which I guess are intended to measure air temp. Does that means something I need to pay attention to?

Also, would love to see plans for homemade cabinet units

I have one of those temp readers your talking about (we use to use it in our restaurant) I have not tried it on my eggs yet but I think I will tomorrow. I have been using it for my brooder and works great.

I also want to build a cabinet type unit, I really like this one: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/als-homemade-cabinet-incubator
This page has a few cabinet types: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/homemade-chicken-egg-incubator-designs-pictures

 

[chickee]

Good news!

I stepped away from my bator and left it do it's thing and after 13 hours it is up to 99.4

Humidity is holding at 35%

We have a Hatch going On!

 

[Pozees]

Good news!

I stepped away from my bator and left it do it's thing and after 13 hours it is up to 99.4

Humidity is holding at 35%

We have a Hatch going On!

Woo hoo!!!