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

[itsbob]

Didn't expect it but duck eggs starting showing up 2 days ago. Not sure Pekin or Muscovy, but 90% sure they are duck.

Now if they are Pekin they are more than likeltyfertile, and if they are muscovy about 50% chance they could be fertile . Adopted the muscovies about 2 weeks ago and the family weadopted from had a drake muscovy as well.

These are weighing a little light (72-76 grams) where Pekin eggs I've had shipped are normally mid 80 grams.. so I'm assuming these are Muscovy eggs..

Time for FLUFFY omelets!

 

[Wunjo]

Lockdown is when you raise the humidity. Some think the humidity for the last three days will soften the shells. It is important to have humidity up when the chick externally pips the shell. That can happen on the 19th day so most pick the 18th to start lockdown.

I often have to add water after two days though so I like to wait.

I'm not referring to my incubator. I'm referring to real broody hens. Let me try to rephrase this.

So do broody hens go into lockdown on the 18th day? Just wondering why when hatching in an incubator it goes into lockdown. I also wonder about humidity. Broody hens can't adjust humidity right? The rules for incubating just doesn't make since to me lol. Even though I do follow the guidelines. Or is broody hens hatch rate less than an incubator hatch rate.


Oh and on another note I just did the clay test as described below.

(Take a ball of clay and put it in the incubator and after 4 hours take it's internal temperature with an oral thermometer.) An oral thermometer has to be guaranteed to be within 0.01 degrees of real temp to pass inspection.

My reading was 95.4 What is this going to do to my hatch.

 

[Cynthia12]

Today is my Chickmas! Dd20 came home from college last night and got the best Christmas gift of all...she got a job working for the same airline as dh, with good benefits! It was so sweet watching them sleep on the couches by the Christmas tree.

I woke up at 3 or 4a.m. and put more water in the bator to get us from 45 to 60%. Then I went back to sleep and had a dream than every one of them hatched and I didn't know who was who because I woke up to 29 chicks (after missing the ENTIRE hatch) with eggshell dust everywhere. A chicken newbie nightmare!

It bothered me so much that I went to draw a map of who is in which egg lol! Now I feel better though. Oh, and I dreamed that someone dropped off 100 seagull babies, insisting that I had ordered them.

As I was topping off their water just now, I heard peeping!!!

And two of our smaller CCL eggs are externally pipped! A few others might be, but the darn maxi pad is in the way.

Well...off to do my morning chicken chores and spend time with the family. We are opening prezzies tonite! I will be back later with updates on the pipsqueaks!

And ~ ~ ~

 

[Cynthia12]

I haven't checked in for a few days due to holiday chaos, and missed over 2,000 posts.

So I'm definitely out of the running for best hatch rate.

I'm down to only 1 egg out of the original 15. Ironically, the one that I was hoping would make it..my lemon barred Cochin. And neither of the two from my own BR hen that I set later for funsies were fertile. Lockdown Sunday, right? C'mon little egger!

Poor little thing will be an only child if it makes it. I do have a disabled 4 week old bantam chick that could peaceably keep it company, and another pullet of it's own kind if and when it grows.

ETA: Ooh! Just saw a new contest for worst hatch rate! There is hope yet.

LOL...oh dear.

I'm down to one..out of 4 doz.! But, you will win the least hatch rate, it there is that contest, because I didn't enter these, was pretty sure I wouldn't get any at all, they took a week to get here. During that real nasty cold spell to boot. My one little one left. I am excited to see if it makes it.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

ChickenCanoe, the Jaers are so neat looking! Is there another breed you would compare them to as far as temperament goes?

The breed I've had that they're most similar to are Anconas. They're slightly flighty but after the raccoon attack and my nursing her back to health, she seems to like me a lot more. I had a bunch of them from day olds. I sold several to another chicken group member here. I kept 2 pullets and they looked identical. The raccoons killed her sister and mauled the heck out of her. She had some inner ear damage and had her head cocked to one side for a long time but she seems fairly well recovered. She had started laying again before she started molting.
They are small birds, barely bigger than a bantam but lay a full size white egg. So feed/egg conversion is very good. They can handle extreme cold yet being small and tight feathered they've handled the heat and humidity well also. They don't bully anyone. If I ever get the space, I'll probably have lots more of them.
Temperament wise, I'm not a chicken pet person - obviously. I don't play with my birds, nor are they inclined to sit on my lap. The only time I handle them is when I take them off the roost at night to move them to a new flock or check their health.
I think a lot of the breeds I've had that are flighty would be quite calm if someone handled them more often.
I love the wariness of most of my birds. I think it makes them more predator proof.
I have no qualms about letting them out to roam and leave for several hours.

I stayed up late last night and put mine in lockdown. I have been lazy.....or confident.........but I have not even candled them since setting. I did candle before moving them to the hatcher from the Sportsman and tossed one clear. The others all have good air cells, although they may be a bit large. They were in the trays sitting with the large end up, but one is huge and more on the side. I would call it a saddle, but it is oval and the eggs are all from my own birds (not shipped.)

I set on the 8th instead of the 11th, so mine should be hatching Sunday. Wish me luck! Oh, and I will be setting more eggs in their place in the incubator tonight. I'm hooked...........

Good luck.

All eggs were not created equal. I even get a big difference in weight loss with the same type of eggs in the same rack.

Brinsea question (again, sorry) - so now that we replaced the motor and clutch in the turning cradle, there seems to still be a problem - the incubator gets to furthest either side and even at dead level by flopping very suddenly the last 15-20 degrees - like it gets stuck or hung up, then all of a sudden moves a whole lot more than it should at once, and I'm worried I'm ruining any chance at a good hatch. Is this normal? Or should I call Brinsea again?

Perhaps an adjustment would work. Sounds wonky though. Sorry I'm not a Brinsea expert.

Day 4

hoping for good hatches for everyone

C'mon chickies!

I am realizing that I don't have any large boxes for a brooder, so I will go brave The Evil Empire to find a big tote. I will make a lid for it with hardware cloth and wood, so that I can use it to store the baby chick stuff. Maybe I can bungee cord it to the tote, as watermelons are out of season . . .

I have the ecoglow, the baby chick feeder, waterer, medicated chick starter, and bags of sand.

I was pondering making a brooder out of wood, but I don't seem to be doing that. A tote will be so much easier to clean out and lift up over head to store in the garage.

Really hoping I hatch some

to put in my brooder.

Don't take this the wrong way because so many people do exactly as you do.
Again, this is just my opinion, but until the chicks are exposed to the outdoor environment they aren't really in danger of coccidiosis.
I've fed medicated once on purpose. I also treated a flock with Corid recently.
Small doses of coccidia will engender immunity. Keeping feeders at least half full and bedding bone dry will eliminate almost any danger of coccidiosis.
I'm a minimalist.

...
I woke up at 3 or 4a.m. and put more water in the bator to get us from 45 to 60%. Then I went back to sleep and had a dream than every one of them hatched and I didn't know who was who because I woke up to 29 chicks (after missing the ENTIRE hatch) with eggshell dust everywhere. A chicken newbie nightmare!

It bothered me so much that I went to draw a map of who is in which egg lol! Now I feel better though. Oh, and I dreamed that someone dropped off 100 seagull babies, insisting that I had ordered them.

...

I've been there. Go to sleep and wake up, all of a sudden they're all running around the hatcher.
I now put matings and specifically sired eggs in labeled mesh bags.

It is great to be hatching with you Guys! I was dreaming about getting cheap GMO free feed last night.

...

I just picked up some organic grower feed for $22 a 50# bag. That's really cheap around here. I know people who are paying 36 for the same thing.
Organic is supposed to be GMO free. GMO free was my main goal. I'm using it in my FF and it is now going to be the base of all my feed. The organic finisher, layer and soy free is much higher. Since I've been doing FF, my feed is going much farther which makes me believe I'm going to break even.

Hello, I am quietly reading along but I'm still here. I did the 6-hour cool-off thing today and it made me really nervous, but it's over now. I hope I didn't sabotage anything. I set the Thermostat to 24 degr Celcius like that study pdf. said, but it never went lower than 26*C due to the temperature in the house.

Is anyone else doing the day 16 6-hour cool down?

Good for you. I'm very interested to hear what happens.
I'm doing something similar. I cut back the temp for a couple hours and turn the light on in the incubator. I figure the only light the eggs get is when the hen is off the nest, which is when the temp will drop.
I'm reluctant to do the 6 hour thing since my hatches hadn't gone well before I bought good thermometers. I had 2 batches of chicks killed by raccoons that broke into my basement this summer so I'm paranoid.

So do chickens go into lockdown on the 18th day? Just wondering why when hatching in an incubator it goes into lockdown. I also wonder about humidity. Chickens can't adjust humidity right? The rules for incubating just doesn't make since to me lol. Even though I do follow the guidelines.

Lockdown is a weird thing. It's so that when embryos pip, the humidity will be high enough to prevent shrink wrapping. No one knows when that will happen. To be safe, people raise humidity and don't open the incubator a day before the extremely early pip.
I agree, a hen won't keep the humidity at a certain level for 18 days and miraculously raise it for 3 days.

I had a dream last night that I dropped one of my eggs on top of two others and broke all three. Sheesh, it's like crazy pregnancy dreams!

I have dropped eggs when candling so it is a danger.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

...

So do broody hens go into lockdown on the 18th day? Just wondering why when hatching in an incubator it goes into lockdown. I also wonder about humidity. Broody hens can't adjust humidity right? The rules for incubating just doesn't make since to me lol. Even though I do follow the guidelines. Or is broody hens hatch rate less than an incubator hatch rate.

...

I've always wondered the same thing. The short answer is that many years of trial and error have shown this is the best way to do it. It is so hard to replicate nature.
A certain amount of moisture loss needs to happen. A certain amount of humidity needs to be present to prevent chicks from getting stuck.
Aren't broody hens amazing?

 

[Pozees]

Brinsea is as confused as we are, they are sending another cradle and would like this one back to look it over. We adjusted screws and lubricated all the things they suggested and it didn't change anything. DH says there's too much play in the linkage, and when I told them that on the phone I swore I could hear them scratching their heads LOL. After another lecture about how I should have just bought the cabinet incubator from the get go, I ordered a Sportsman 1502. I felt physical pain as I typed in my card number. I do not ever ... EVER ... spend that kind of money. Hopefully it will arrive in perfect working order, and I can clean and disinfect the tabletops I've been using and resell to get at least a little of the money back. They aren't bad incubators once the temps are correct, especially for smaller hatches, but I expect to set more eggs this year, so I guess it will be better than having tabletops scattered all over the room, which is what I have right now. If the new cradle works I'll hang onto the Brinsea, probably. It's only 2 weeks old. Broody hens are, indeed, among the most amazing creatures on the planet. When 2 2-lb hens can scare a grown man out of checking under them, they are worthy of worship LOL. The only Cream Legbars ever hatched here, were hatched under broodies.

 

[mstricer]

Ok, no one is talking, I may as well go on! Ok, so, have to share. Check out what Pawtraitart has invented. I was sent one to give feedback while they got things in order for it to be all there idea..patent. No leaking water into the brooder! So, no wet shavings! No poop in the water either.

Comes with a bracket as well. If this looks like something you might like, shoot her a pm.

Thanks for posting these I just ordered 3 of them.

 

[Cynthia12]

Thanks for posting these I just ordered 3 of them.

That's great! Enjoy.

 

[Aphrael]

Only one egg left in the New Years hatch bunch, but I candled the other 8 and I seen five full eggs with lots of veins!!

Then as I was tracing the air sack on the last one I seen baby feet kicking. It made me feel good, and yes I teared up a little.... I must admit this is much more emotional than I thought.

That is great news! rI am so glad your second batch is doing better.

So do chickens go into lockdown on the 18th day? Just wondering why when hatching in an incubator it goes into lockdown. I also wonder about humidity. Chickens can't adjust humidity right? The rules for incubating just doesn't make since to me lol. Even though I do follow the guidelines.

I'm not referring to my incubator. I'm referring to real broody hens. Let me try to rephrase this.

So do broody hens go into lockdown on the 18th day? Just wondering why when hatching in an incubator it goes into lockdown. I also wonder about humidity. Broody hens can't adjust humidity right? The rules for incubating just doesn't make since to me lol. Even though I do follow the guidelines. Or is broody hens hatch rate less than an incubator hatch rate.


Oh and on another note I just did the clay test as described below.

(Take a ball of clay and put it in the incubator and after 4 hours take it's internal temperature with an oral thermometer.) An oral thermometer has to be guaranteed to be within 0.01 degrees of real temp to pass inspection.

My reading was 95.4 What is this going to do to my hatch.

Well, some broody hens will hunker down tight on the nest and not get up for anything during the actual hatching. So that is a kind of "lockdown".