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

[Whoops]

Well, I tried candling two of my eggs. Did not see nuthin' not even air cells. But, I think, if and when there is something to see beyond veining I would be able to see it. I just used a powerful flashlight and a toilet paper tube with a rag wound around it to cover any light except what was coming out of the tube.

 

[Aphrael]

So if i dont see any veining today i shouldnt give up??? I should see some in the next 3 days or so?

If this is true this will be such a huge relief for me!!!

No! Don't give up! They could still develop.

Well sometimes if your chicken has a hard molt she/he can loose too many feathers at once when it is too cold to be nearly featherless. Sometimes the roosters "attentions" can cause large bald spots on her back. Sometimes you just have a sick chilled chicken and having one on standby can save their lives. If you aren't skilled at knitting or crocheting you can always use the pattern to cut out a fleece jersey instead.

That's a great idea! I don't knit but I sew a LOT. Would be nice to have if needed for protecting bare hens.

Well, I tried candling two of my eggs. Did not see nuthin' not even air cells. But, I think, if and when there is something to see beyond veining I would be able to see it. I just used a powerful flashlight and a toilet paper tube with a rag wound around it to cover any light except what was coming out of the tube.

I use a fairly powerful mini LED flashlight and it works tolerably well. May have to try the tp tube with it to keep so much light from "leaking" around the egg.

 

[JLaw]

No! Don't give up! They could still develop.

That's a great idea! I don't knit but I sew a LOT. Would be nice to have if needed for protecting bare hens.

I use a fairly powerful mini LED flashlight and it works tolerably well. May have to try the tp tube with it to keep so much light from "leaking" around the egg.

When I was using a big mag light style flash light I used a full roll of tp duct taped the out side and removed part of the tube at top where I was going to put egg. Let me put egg at any angle and helped with leaking light.

 

[Threedog]

So... I have built a lot of things in my life. Houses, barns, cars, furniture, tools, what have you, but tonight I observed (through candling) a cluster of veins developing inside an egg, and I have to say, I am more proud of my homemade incubator than anything else I have ever constructed. LOL what is wrong with me?

 

[ronott1]

So... I have built a lot of things in my life. Houses, barns, cars, furniture, tools, what have you, but tonight I observed (through candling) a cluster of veins developing inside an egg, and I have to say, I am more proud of my homemade incubator than anything else I have ever constructed. LOL what is wrong with me?

It is amazing to see the little chicks in the eggs.

Good job on the incubator!

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: Thanks for the heads up.....had not thought about fungus..... but I planned to seal EVERYTHING..... I will make doubly sure now.

Tell you hubby I am sorry to enable you..... but it is Christmas and it would be a perfect present for you!

My anniversary is coming up..... hum..... more pens yeah....

 

[roostereggs]

My octagon 20 is in the mail for wednesday... How do you fit so many eggs in there? Do you have the turner? If i get a separate hatcher could i try with 40-50 even with the the turner?

It comes with a black plastic tray inside, with metal rails that you can put in to fit different sized eggs...so you could have a row of large eggs sectioned off from another row of quail eggs, for example. If you use the tray, your top layer of eggs will have to lay sideways. I learned about double stacking them, and then when you cull on day 10, they should all fit in the bottom. My problem (a good problem to have, I might add)...is that I have only culled one so far. Tomorrow is Day 10, so I may be culling a few more. I have 31/32 growing at the moment!

The issue now will be hatching...I will have to open it more often to get the chicks out as I didn't think about the fact that extra space would be nice for them during hatch day. So I think I will put it in my dd's bathroom and only open it when the shower is on and steamy to prevent shrink wrapping. I'm extra worried about the humidity because we are in the desert.

Did you get the turner? Apparently it is a cradle turner on the outside, rather than something turning the eggs inside. I didn't get it...but it has been easy turning the whole thing rather than individual eggs.
There is no way you could get 50 in. 40 MAYBE if you have some smaller eggs in there. But then there is not much room for hatching. From now on I will stick to smaller numbers, but chicken math got the best of me. That...and I figured I wouldn't have a good hatch rate with 2/3 of them shipped and it's my first hatch ever. Boy was my chicken math WAY off and now I am scrambling to get a bigger brooder set up!!!

 

[Cynthia12]

heres my OE...we ar incubation 7 of her eggs.......we have a Japanese bantam roo and a silkie roo, so any of thise two could've gotten to her so we have no idea what chicks we will have!

she lays a light olive color:





here are our roos: (I cant wait for her chicks! it will be so cool!)

jap bantam

silkie




so far our eggs are all relly heavy from her.....we cracked a breakfast egg today and the bullseye was so big and strong it was CRAZY!




(I hope she isn't being overmounted along with my silkie hen......we have only 3 hens with 2 roos.....

)\
if this is so, what could happen? we are planning to also build a small addition coop for the roos for when all the new hens could have a break

Had a silkie ... EE mix. She laid the prettiest blue egg. And, she looked more EE than Silkie. I thought she was going to be small. No..but she laid well.

 

[Cynthia12]

Love the color of this egg. I am loving all of the Olive color eggs. Very pretty...and your Serama is beautiful.

 

[Cynthia12]

It comes with a black plastic tray inside, with metal rails that you can put in to fit different sized eggs...so you could have a row of large eggs sectioned off from another row of quail eggs, for example. If you use the tray, your top layer of eggs will have to lay sideways. I learned about double stacking them, and then when you cull on day 10, they should all fit in the bottom. My problem (a good problem to have, I might add)...is that I have only culled one so far. Tomorrow is Day 10, so I may be culling a few more. I have 31/32 growing at the moment!

The issue now will be hatching...I will have to open it more often to get the chicks out as I didn't think about the fact that extra space would be nice for them during hatch day. So I think I will put it in my dd's bathroom and only open it when the shower is on and steamy to prevent shrink wrapping. I'm extra worried about the humidity because we are in the desert.

Did you get the turner? Apparently it is a cradle turner on the outside, rather than something turning the eggs inside. I didn't get it...but it has been easy turning the whole thing rather than individual eggs.
There is no way you could get 50 in. 40 MAYBE if you have some smaller eggs in there. But then there is not much room for hatching. From now on I will stick to smaller numbers, but chicken math got the best of me. That...and I figured I wouldn't have a good hatch rate with 2/3 of them shipped and it's my first hatch ever. Boy was my chicken math WAY off and now I am scrambling to get a bigger brooder set up!!!

Chicken math? What is that again? Maybe these two can explain it to us.