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

[mstricer]

[COLOR=333333]Just finished my brooder,I love it theres a front window and 2 side windows with hardware cloth over them and a nail on top you just have to lift up to open the door and put the nail back in the hole at the top that goes into the door to close it and we screwed a hole on the top right corner to screw the brooder lamp into can't wait till the chicks hatch 2 eggs are due Sunday I'll post pictures with the chicks in it too[/COLOR]

Very nice you did a great job

Hey yall! Good to be back. Ill be watching along with ya as I wont be hatching anything right now. 4 moves since April and 2 psycho landlords totally wiped out my flock. Trio of geese few ducks and a handful of turkeys all that's left :/... its gunna be a slow year trying to rebuild the flock to its former glory. May take a year plus just to recover financially from the moves alone. Another long uphill trudge. Semper FI

Thinking of to you

 

[fosterson]

Oh man. I'm on eggshells. We went over the mountains (to the Seattle area) to have early Christmas with our fambly (that'd be our adopted relations) and I left my incubator in the care of my neighbor who is also feeding and watering our chooks. I'm nervous as a long tailed cat in a room fulla rockin' chairs! I know, logically, they'll be fine. But I feel like a mother hen! YIKES!

 

[mstricer]

They will be fine. A lot of times I will set one and not even check it until lock down. One time I was working so much OT that I forgot I had the incubator running and didn't realize until I heard chicks chirping in the turner, got lucky there that no one got stuck in the turner. Turned out to be a great hatch

 

[roostercluck]

That's pretty common then. The first fall/winter, they'll lay right through. Beginning the second and subsequent winters, they'll take a break
I'm assuming they already went through their molt this year? If not, that's what they're doing now. Sometimes it isn't very noticeable with that number of birds.
I was getting 22 eggs a day average in August and got down to 2 by the first of October out of various ages of hens.

There's even a volunteer human extinction movement.
Their goal:
"Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth’s biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense"
IMO, not entirely a bad idea.

I haven't noticed them molting, but they are in a bigger area, so I guess I will just have to wait until the daylight hours increase.

 

[ronott1]

Ok I'm making a plug here. Read better angels of our nature. It makes a wonderful statical argument on why everything is better now then any time in history.

Even our outrage over how sucks things are is making the world a better place!

I will add it to my reading list.

 

[ronott1]

So just a word of advice about tetris stacking...NOT a good idea with a Brinsea 20. I have 32/33 growers (day 15) and once I go into lockdown they will still be stacked. I have 25 in the bottom and 7 on top, and not much space for them to hatch. I am getting worried about this.

When we lockdown, are the eggs still supposed to be large end up? Or do you lay them down? Because I don't think we have room for that.

Someone said to make sure they pip into the air cell, but I thought at lockdown the bator shouldn't be opened...? If I put the bator into my dd's bathroom at lockdown, we could run the shower on hot for a few minutes to get the heat/humidity up before opening. Is that OK?

Also, when they start to hatch, can I pull a few chicks out at a time to put in the brooder and remove shells to give the others more space?

I'm getting very nervous!!! Where's the biting nails emoticon?

You can see the external pip. That is when you look for where the pip is. Look for ozzing. If you see oozing, carefully make sure the chick is able to get air. the Goo can seal up and block the air. This is a big problem with shipped eggs.

 

[Pozees]

Candled my NYD eggs today, and of the 12 Barnyard Mixes, 10 look great, 2 iffy but I left them as I do see veins, just not excellent, so those two may be quitters. Of the 15 Silkie eggs, 8 were clear (infertile) - young inexperienced male in one pen, so not a surprise, the eggs from the other pen look great; so of the original 27, 19 remain in the incubator.

I also broke my own rule and candled the eggs I set just a week ago - what the heck, I had the incubator open, had my new MiniMag which does an outstanding job of candling, and only 3 of the 35 local eggs I picked up last week are infertile (one was from the refrigerated group), rest are developing nicely; of the 7 Silkie eggs set that day, there were 4 infertile, rest developing nicely. Clears were from the pen with the young male, but so was one developing egg, so he isn't infertile, I think his inexperience coupled with the fact a couple of his girls only started laying in the last month is the issue, and expect their fertility rate to improve.

The hen that went broody the 14th is sitting tight, and now I have 2 girls in the other pen sharing a nest. They have 4 eggs. The first to lay is the one who started, and then another joined her. Since this will be their first time hatching I'll be keeping a close eye on them.

I received my two thermometers from ThermoWorks last night, checked them in an ice bath, and placed them into ventilation holes in the two styro bators, had to make small adjustments to temp, but nothing like the 2.5 degrees off I had before.

Lastly, my new Brinsea with turning cradle is clicking. I called Brinsea yesterday, and they are sending me a new clutch and motor for the turner. It isn't overloaded at all, isn't impeded in any way, just probably a bum clutch. They could not have been nicer. I told the woman who answered my name and what I had purchased, and she knew right away who I was, and reminded me to register my products to keep the warranty in force for two years, and told me where I could locate the serial number on the incubator.

I am feeling much better about hatching now that my temps seem to be more in line. I also put a humidifier in the room, I figure it can only help, it is so dry here.

Oh - one more bit of news I almost forgot - my Egyptian Fayoumi hen, who had gone on strike about a month and a half ago, started laying again this week She is a March hatched hen, so I was surprised she quit so early, but I know they are a desert breed, and figured diminishing light + cold = no eggs from her. I take it as a sign the days have actually begun to lengthen already. Maybe I can wish spring here ...

 

[ronott1]

Candled my NYD eggs today, and of the 12 Barnyard Mixes, 10 look great, 2 iffy but I left them as I do see veins, just not excellent, so those two may be quitters. Of the 15 Silkie eggs, 8 were clear (infertile) - young inexperienced male in one pen, so not a surprise, the eggs from the other pen look great; so of the original 27, 19 remain in the incubator.

I also broke my own rule and candled the eggs I set just a week ago - what the heck, I had the incubator open, had my new MiniMag which does an outstanding job of candling, and only 3 of the 35 local eggs I picked up last week are infertile (one was from the refrigerated group), rest are developing nicely; of the 7 Silkie eggs set that day, there were 4 infertile, rest developing nicely. Clears were from the pen with the young male, but so was one developing egg, so he isn't infertile, I think his inexperience coupled with the fact a couple of his girls only started laying in the last month is the issue, and expect their fertility rate to improve.

The hen that went broody the 14th is sitting tight, and now I have 2 girls in the other pen sharing a nest. They have 4 eggs. The first to lay is the one who started, and then another joined her. Since this will be their first time hatching I'll be keeping a close eye on them.

I received my two thermometers from ThermoWorks last night, checked them in an ice bath, and placed them into ventilation holes in the two styro bators, had to make small adjustments to temp, but nothing like the 2.5 degrees off I had before.

Lastly, my new Brinsea with turning cradle is clicking. I called Brinsea yesterday, and they are sending me a new clutch and motor for the turner. It isn't overloaded at all, isn't impeded in any way, just probably a bum clutch. They could not have been nicer. I told the woman who answered my name and what I had purchased, and she knew right away who I was, and reminded me to register my products to keep the warranty in force for two years, and told me where I could locate the serial number on the incubator.

I am feeling much better about hatching now that my temps seem to be more in line. I also put a humidifier in the room, I figure it can only help, it is so dry here.

Oh - one more bit of news I almost forgot - my Egyptian Fayoumi hen, who had gone on strike about a month and a half ago, started laying again this week She is a March hatched hen, so I was surprised she quit so early, but I know they are a desert breed, and figured diminishing light + cold = no eggs from her. I take it as a sign the days have actually begun to lengthen already. Maybe I can wish spring here ...

It is day 10 if we set on the 11th. It is time to make sure the air cells are developing, check for clears and blood rings. I will be tossing some eggs today too.

 

[chickengirl1193]

Oh I am so sorry for your losses.     It never ceases to shock me how horrible people are capable of being.  I hope you are able to quickly build your flock back to its former glory.  


Happy birthday to her!  It is so incredible to see them move around.  I bet she was thrilled.


You should be able to see the beak inside the air cell once it pips.  I'm not sure how you could make it pip there or tell if it had pipped elsewhere.  Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in.  I'd really like to know the answer as well.
ETA: You can see the beak in the air cell if you candle is what I meant to say.

Okay thank you!

 

[ctfeathers]

Thanks!

I count 6?

Yep! still Going well!
6 silkie paint eggs.