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

[rochelle1021]

I have one and really like it. Heat lamps make me nervous with the fire hazards. Especially since I brood the first few weeks in my house. So the ecoglow is a bit more comforting to me Chicks love it too. Works very well and does its job.

thanks Avlana!

since it's winter how long do your chicks stay in your house before you let them out?

 

[Blarneyeggs]

 


No way!  You must be doing something right!  

[COLOR=4B0082]Well I took the cleanest and best eggs that I could. I had around 60 plus in the storm cellar ready. The max they was held was 10 days. Then this time I actually washed my eggs. I read that it was actually better to wash them. My last two hatches all eggs was fertile but I lost them between 7 days and hatch time. I had always heard not to wash them and then I read that if you loose them between day 7 and hatch that a bacteria gets to them and that the dirty eggs caused this. I candled them before setting to make sure they was not porous. Before touching them in the incubator to candle I wash my hands with Dial antibacterial soap. I disinfected the incubator before setting them. I made sure that they were all uniform in size. I also floated them to make sure there was no duds before setting. Added a fan to incubator. I was so disappointed last time that I researched and researched on finding a solution. Last time my temps fluctuated and I solved that by putting them in a room with an infrared heater set to a temp of 70 degrees. I have only opened the bator three times to candle and put water in the outside tray. I could have more than filled the trays with the other eggs but many was porous and not uniform. I had planned on setting two incubators full. My husbands aunt gave me her incubator but when I got it, it was old and really dirty and I just didn't trust it. It literally looked like it was from the 80's lol. Then I had complaints in the house.... Your hatching too many eggs... We don't need that many chickens. That's a lot of feed. What if you get 80% roosters and so on. So everyone agreed to 3 dozen. Not thinking I would have success with them. Now they are still telling me what if they all hatch. I said I'll give them away to family hehe. I will just keep em though.   What they don't know is that I want this to turn into a small little business. The feed is cheap here and everyone seems to want fresh farm eggs. A 50lb sack of layer feed is just $9.25. I get my grit from the river down the road. We only buy 100lbs of feed a month so $18.50 for the feed. We get 11 eggs a day so around 28 dozen eggs a month and $2.00 a dozen. So $56.00 for sold eggs minus the $18.50 for the feed. We profit around $37.00 a month from them, and I still don't have enough eggs to supply our customers. One of our customers has an at home bakery and she uses our eggs in her bakery. She prefers ours over the store bought farm eggs. Then I was thinking of selling hatching eggs on a local buy sell trade website for $6.00 a dozen. Yeah I work hard to keep the chickens up but what else am I going to do in my spare time hehe. I think of it more as a hobby.[/COLOR]

Excellent! I also noticed the water bottle used as a sinker? I assume? To help keep your temperature steady. I'll be stealing that idea shortly when I move my NYD eggs into the hatcher and need to regulate the temps in the 1/2 full bator left behind.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

This looks really cute, but it also looks heavy. Other things to consider would be removing the food and water before moving the coop as slanted water spills. After having built what I wanted to be a movable tractor coop, I recommend making a list of materials and getting estimated weights before choosing any tractor style. Also consider the wheels and where you might get them. They are not as easy to find as one would think. Also not as cheap as one would think.

Harbor freight is a cheap place to get wheels. You may get lucky on craigslist too. My advice is to get the largest circumference wheels that are practical. The bigger they are the easier it will roll.
I made my axle out of black iron pipe with a rod of 'all thread' inside it.

I am thinking of putting some roosts up in my goats house and making it into a bigger coop because the chickens spend all their time in the goat shed and the goats sleep under the chicken coop... so we built the goats a small 3 by 3 house they can snuggle in off the ground and im slowly adding chicken things to the bigger goat house. I already have nesting boxes and some roosts. I wanna still add more windows for the spring and a door so I can lock them up, or just make it more predator proof. its cute on rainy days the 4 chickens and 2 goats all lounge in the hay in the goat house

Keep thinking outside the box.

I started with newspaper, switched to pine shavings after a week, then switched to sand. The sand DID NOT help with the dust. It did make cleaning easier (used a kitty litter scoop), but the dust was just as bad.

Use paper towels instead of newspaper. NP is too slick and can cause leg issues.
The dust is why I never brood in the house. Also brooding in the house would let the wife know how many birds I was adding to the place. Not good for my health.

hmmmm.....the kitty scooper sounds good. also, the chickens could use the sand as a grit...correct?

is it ok for chicks to be in sand?

agreed. I will do that too. I thought I knew most....there are still a few breeds missing though, like jap bantams, or JB


so once you do that did you use a heat lamp?

the sand is ok for grit and a scooper works well.

Depending on the size of the container, a heat lamp may be too hot. If I just have a couple chicks and am brooding in a small container, a 75 watt drop light is enough heat.

Lol same here. Im 32 and my 3kids think sometimes think Im nuts they say I love my chickens TOO much. They are on board though and they help enable me and I can say to DH aw come on they are for DD not me lol. My oldest is 11 and she is now in love with Silkies that is what we are hatching now, they are for her to start her own flock. My 7yr old loves the farm animals she snuggles the crap out of them but doesn't tend to them much and my 6yr old is my little farmer buddy she wants more animals she helps feed and water them, her New Years wish is to have a bigger farm. She wants cows(thanks DH for putting it in her head) We might need some more land

we are running out of room.

I'm completely out of room, Every time I lose or sell a bird of another breed, I don't replace them to make more room for Penes.

I really miss White Minorcas, Anconas and Welsummers though. I'm down to one Jaer, among my favorites on the planet for a white egg layer.

I hope you are getting your hatchers ready. I scrubbed and disinfected mine, got the humidity as well as temperature to optimal levels. Have about 60 eggs going in this coming weekend.

Tuesday I'll likely begin preparing brooders .

I still have work to do. I have to replace the fans. I'm waiting till day 16. My incubator is integrated into the hatcher and I have to pull the incubator to get to the fans. I'll have to put the eggs in the LG temporarily as the whole process will take a couple hours. If it takes longer than that I'll turn the LG on.

For my brooder, I have to butcher about 4 roosters this week (as soon as it gets above freezing here) to make room. Some of the roosters are using the brooder house as a bachelor pad. Then I'll have to give the building a good cleaning, lay down new pine shavings, cover it with burlap, put the hover in place, put the flashing around it for a windscreen and check the electric and ceramic emitters. That should all be done by hatch day.

incubators can be used as hatchers....correct? I hope because I don't have a hatcher!

~~Most people hatch in their incubator.

Question: My incubator (old as dirt) has a metal screen insert...the eggs roll around and don't like to stay put...taking extra time for me to get them in the right position when I turn, which is 5 times a day.

Would it be ok if I put paper towel or a washcloth or something in there on top of the metal, then put the eggs on top of the washcloth/paper towel so they sit still better?

Also, I saw a couple posts about putting the eggs fat end up in egg cartons at lockdown to cut down on the mess that comes along with hatching. Is this a good idea to do? How much mess does hatching chicks make in an incubator?

Finally, I also read that it's ok to keep the first hatched chicks in the bator while the rest are hatching...but no longer than three days because of the yolk. My incubator has a disc that is hot as crap, as well as the metal rods that come out of it. Won't the baby chicks burn their heads on it if they jump????

Most of these were answered expertly already.
They can stay in there about 48 hours. It is best to take them out when they're fluffed up but if others are pipping you really don't want to open the bator or chances are the humidity will drop too much.
The heat element is hot but in most small table top ones is only 40 watts, not likely to do much damage. Also, the power cycles so it might not even be on when the chick touches it, if they in fact did touch it.

Speaking of hatchers i cant deside if i want to build one or buy a still air bator and add a fan. I had mo luvk on craigs list today for a cheap one.

Figure build one could save about 20 i guessbut no warenty.hmmm

If you have a choice, and you do, build one. A small still air will most likely be Styrofoam which is a bear to clean and properly disinfect. Hatch and dry time is when all the dirt and debris get in there. Build something with non-porous surfaces that is easy to clean. Better yet, make it so you can easily remove all the electronics for cleaning.

What things have you guys done that was a "NO NO" in the past during your hatches? How did you fix it?

One of mine was that I kept opening the incubator during hatch day to look for new pips. I ended up with shrink wrapped chicks afterwards. My fix is to put the eggs in egg cartons so that I don't have to open the bator to see if any has pipped. I think this may work. My last hatch some of the pips were on the bottom side of the egg so I couldn't see if they had pipped. The real fix would be to leave it for a couple days and never even go into the room they are in. Or better yet duct tape my hands together.

Same as you, opening it too much. I'm so glad my stuff is in the basement. It makes it much easier to ignore it till nature has taken its course.
If they don't pip, they won't hatch. If they pip, they may hatch. There isn't much one will or can do anyway so it's just better to wait till at least day 22 before any action is considered other than making sure the power is still on.

The first time I tried to section off eggs in the hatcher to pedigree and identify breeds, the little Houdinis got out of every container. I've now gone to zip ties on the mesh bags and made hardware cloth cages so I can leg band or toe punch them as I pull them out.

Grocery store eggs???
What just store bought eggs?!?!

Cool!
You know they mostly all come out white with maybe a few splash markings. But they are still cute!
How many are you hatching?

As others have said, the carton will say 'fertile eggs', if the originating flock was free ranging with roosters. Not all TJs have them. The TJ in St. L doesn't have them and they thought I was weird for asking. The Whole Foods here carries them but the originating flock is in Wisconsin. The eggs then travel to the WF distribution center in Chicago, then on to various stores in the Midwest. By the time they get to my store they are at least 10 days old. Needless to say they didn't hatch.
Some local green markets will have them too, stores like Local Harvest.
As Ron said, call ahead. Ask the dairy manager for the Julian date on the fertile eggs carton so you'll know when they were packaged.

One of my silkie eggs are hatching!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats! I know you probably know this but that external pip is the critical time for humidity.

Just think when they get asked what lines their birds are from they get to say trader joes or walmart lol

Does Wallyworld sell fertile eggs?

...
Do all Leghorn colours lay white white eggs?

All Leghorns lay white eggs whether they be white, black, brown, buff, silver, red or whatever. Egg color is breed specific, and has nothing to do with variety/feather color.
As a general rule, breeds with white earlobes lay white eggs, breeds with red earlobes lay brown eggs. That's not entirely true however since there are exceptions to every rule.. Empordanesas and Penedesencas have white earlobes (or at least they should) yet lay among the darkest brown eggs.

So wait a second! You can get eggs from the store and they will hatch? And I didn't know some said fertile on them that's sweet I might have to try that Thats real awesome

There's a good discussion here. They have their own hatching club.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...cery-store-egg-hatching-club-are-you-a-member

that wont be good.

funny thing, when we hatched our very first chicks under our broody we didn't follow any rules. we went against them and I didn't know!
none of our chicks even died!

we had a hen crush our piped egg inward....th only affect of this was the rooster ended up having a crooked toe.

Most hens do a great job and there are no concerns about humidity or needing electricity.

Cool!
hmm, ye I suppose and so do their 'cousins' like the Minorca's and Black Spanish.

Most Mediterranean and many Continental breeds lay white eggs. Minorcas are from Spain, like the WFBS. Leghorns and Anconas are from Italy.
Minorcas, come in black(most common), buff and white(my favorite). They are probably the biggest white egg Mediterranean breed and their eggs are HUGE.

OMG I am so going to Trader Joes!!! I've been in there once...it's about 40 minutes from my house...looks like I'm going to have to make another trip!!! That's going to be my next hatch...Trader Joe eggs...since I have to wait until my new roos start mounting the girls...which won't happen any time before these ones hatch, since they're in quarantine.
...
Oh boy, I need a bigger coop.

Call ahead.


Or, better yet, more coops.

Cut down egg cartons. They hatch better in them. Hatcheries hatch up right in plastic hatching trays because research has shown that it is the best way.

...

The Trader Joes Leghorns are pure white leghorns. The Whole Foods eggs hatch chicks that look like Austra Whites. They have spots on them.

All of you are great!

Yes! There is a thread for it on here. Trader Joes sells fertile leghorn eggs. I hatched two out of a dozen. The dozes cost me less than 4 dollars. It was fun!

Whatever breed the eggs produce will probably be based on the Leghorn but could be anything. Whatever the farmer is raising where the stores source their eggs.

If they work, it is a great deal. I just can't get fresh enough eggs around here. I still wanted to try even if I didn't have room for the birds. I'm sure I could sell them to some of the 650 people in our local chicken club.

Just found these the last two day if you get some thing that is @ least 18x 18 inches in will hold an auto turner,

Where are you finding all these nice used fridges?

Hay guys, so when I candle ( day 11 ) if any eggs are clear with or without a red ring they are to be chucked out ???

Your call. Lots of people do. Ever since I opened an egg I thought was 26 days old that had a live chick about to hatch in it, I don't toss anything that doesn't weep or stink.

 

[chickengirl1193]

Sell the kids make some money. Just make sure you post they are goats or the cops might be knocking on your door lol.

that's what I wanted to do, sell to the 4H groups or as pets. I need to find people to sell to before they are born tho because I dont want to have a bunch of kids and no customers

Get a Nubian  or an Alpine and have her bred by a Boer. When the kids are 6 months old take them auction and you will sell them for enough to feed your goat through the winter. The auction down near Colombia, TN gets good prices.

well I have Nigerian dwarfs right now so maybe I could breed to a pygmy. Ill have to check out the auction!

Harbor freight is a cheap place to get wheels. You may get lucky on craigslist too. My advice is to get the largest circumference wheels that are practical. The bigger they are the easier it will roll.
I made my axle out of black iron pipe with a rod of 'all thread' inside it.

Keep thinking outside the box.

Use paper towels instead of newspaper. NP is too slick and can cause leg issues.
The dust is why I never brood in the house. Also brooding in the house would let the wife know how many birds I was adding to the place. Not good for my health.


the sand is ok for grit and a scooper works well.

Depending on the size of the container, a heat lamp may be too hot. If I just have a couple chicks and am brooding in a small container, a 75 watt drop light is enough heat.

I'm completely out of room, Every time I lose or sell a bird of another breed, I don't replace them to make more room for Penes.

I really miss White Minorcas, Anconas and Welsummers though. I'm down to one Jaer, among my favorites on the planet for a white egg layer.


I still have work to do. I have to replace the fans. I'm waiting till day 16. My incubator is integrated into the hatcher and I have to pull the incubator to get to the fans. I'll have to put the eggs in the LG temporarily as the whole process will take a couple hours. If it takes longer than that I'll turn the LG on.

For my brooder, I have to butcher about 4 roosters this week (as soon as it gets above freezing here) to make room. Some of the roosters are using the brooder house as a bachelor pad. Then I'll have to give the building a good cleaning, lay down new pine shavings, cover it with burlap, put the hover in place, put the flashing around it for a windscreen and check the electric and ceramic emitters. That should all be done by hatch day.


~~Most people use hatch in their incubator.
Most of these were answered expertly already.
They can stay in there about 48 hours. It is best to take them out when they're fluffed up but if others are pipping you really don't want to open the bator or chances are the humidity will drop too much.
The heat element is hot but in most small table top ones is only 40 watts, not likely to do much damage. Also, the power cycles so it might not even be on when the chick touches it, if they in fact did touch it.


If you have a choice, and you do, build one. A small still air will most likely be Styrofoam which is a bear to clean and properly disinfect. Hatch and dry time is when all the dirt and debris get in there. Build something with non-porous surfaces that is easy to clean. Better yet, make it so you can easily remove all the electronics for cleaning.


Same as you, opening it too much. I'm so glad my stuff is in the basement. It makes it much easier to ignore it till nature has taken its course.
If they don't pip, they won't hatch. If they pip, they may hatch. There isn't much one will or can do anyway so it's just better to wait till at least day 22 before any action is considered other than making sure the power is still on.

The first time I tried to section off eggs in the hatcher to pedigree and identify breeds, the little Houdinis got out of every container. I've now gone to zip ties on the mesh bags and made hardware cloth cages so I can leg band or toe punch them as I pull them out. 


As others have said, the carton will say fertile eggs if the originating flock was free ranging with roosters. Not all TJs have them. The TJs in St. L doesn't have them and thought I was weird for asking. The Whole Foods here carries them but the originating flock is in Wisconsin. The eggs then travel to the WF distribution center in Chicago, then on to various stores in the Midwest. By the time they get to my store they are at least 10 days old. Needless to say they didn't hatch.
Some local green markets will have them too. Stores like Local Harvest.
As Ron said, call ahead. Ask the dairy manager for the Julian date on the fertile eggs carton so you'll know when they were packaged.


Congrats!  I know you probably know this but that external pip is the critical time for humidity.

Does Wallyworld sell fertile eggs?


All Leghorns lay white eggs whether they be white, black, brown, buff, silver, red or whatever. Egg color is breed specific, and has nothing to do with variety/feather color.
As a general rule, breeds with white earlobes lay white eggs, breeds with red earlobes lay brown eggs. That's not entirely true however since there are exceptions to every rule.. Empordanesas and Penedesencas have white earlobes (or at least they should) yet lay among the darkest brown eggs.


There's a good discussion here. They have their own hatching club.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...cery-store-egg-hatching-club-are-you-a-member



Most hens do a great job and there are no concerns about humidity or needing electricity.

Most Mediterranean and many Continental breeds lay white eggs. Minorcas are from Spain, like the WFBS. Leghorns and Anconas are from Italy.
Minorcas, come in black(most common), buff and white(my favorite). They are probably the biggest white egg Mediterranean breed and their eggs are HUGE.
Call ahead.


Or, better yet, more coops.


Whatever breed the eggs produce will probably be based on the Leghorn but could be anything. Whatever the farmer is raising where the stores source their eggs.

If they work, it is a great deal. I just can't get fresh enough eggs around here. I still wanted to try even if I didn't have room for the birds. I'm sure I could sell them to some of the 650 people in our local chicken club.


Where are you finding all these nice used fridges?

Your call. Lots of people do but ever since I opened an egg I thought was 26 days old that had a live chick about to hatch in it. I don't toss anything that doesn't weep or stink.

your very good at replying to everyone! Lol I'm trying to use all the shelters i have before building more

 

[bantambury]

My broody is an Australorp cross mainly black with some white bits on her chest & wing tips - the chick is an Araucana - looks to have yellow/white chest and wing tips too! Not great pics but here are 2 more!!

Yellow chick with bouffant hairdo!!


Caramel coloured chick.
I'm fairly sure I can still see a pipped egg under there that moves the shell - so possibly another to come. 11 eggs in the nest last time I saw her off (yesterday).

OMG! love! I love how the other hen is looking at the chick like, when the heck did you come here? LOL

 

[Gardeningmama]

​

 

[Gardeningmama]

BLARNEYEGGS​

 

[bantambury]

MORNING ALL! DAY 12!

IVE SEEN SOME PRECIOUS LITTLE CHICKIES TOO ON HERE!

 

[Myfourladies]

I think most people buy their eggs from Trader Joes.

I remember someone on here mentioned very recently that some stores are even starting to sell green fertile eggs.

I did! It is a locally owned 'Hippie' store and she buys eggs from a local farmer. She has white, brown and green! I am getting me some this spring. LOL

 

[Myfourladies]

Yea me too haha I didn't think the stores had green eggs I thought just brown and white maybe soon blue eggs from the easter eggers haha

They are just local farmer eggs. It is a little 'hippie' Holistic food store and she buys white, brown and green from a local farmer to sell. I asked if they were fertile the other day when I went in to buy my goat milk soap and she said the hens are with rooster so she would expect so. =) I am getting me some this spring!
Oops. I didn't mean to double post.