6th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2015 Hatch-A-Long

[Bazy]

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I am anxious to see how your candling goes too!! Here's more good vibes coming your way!! ..did you feel that? Should have felt kinda like a Welsummer trilling when you feed them treats, but without the sound. Has the number of eggs set contest been decided yet? Did I miss that post?

 

[hockeydad6791]

Rocky and his girls hiding on this rainy day.

 

[Amberjem]

Quote: I love the sound of the chickens trilling I havent seen anything bout the egg count yet

 

[blackgoat]

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I think maybe I should get off the computer for a while, I only have 5 unread posts. XD
Say, is there a prize for the Last Candled (also known as, Most Willpower)?

 

[bantambury]

Fingers crossed for all you first time candling for this hatch....ive seen good and bad

But about all tou hatching these trader joe eggs makes me want to do the same. @ronott1 shared the pic of one of his sold pullets and i fell in love with her! PROBLEM IS i dont think my trader joes sells fertile eggs...nor does my whole foods....what do i do?! LOL

 

[bantambury]

I think maybe I should get off the computer for a while, I only have 5 unread posts. XD
Say, is there a prize for the Last Candled (also known as, Most Willpower)?

Omg we need that contest!!! Ive been on byc almost all day and at least had it pulled up

 

[Aphrael]

So today when I was rotating my eggs. . I dropped the thermometer on top of a silkie egg! .. the egg cracked. . I saw somewhere where an egg cracked and they used glue to hold it together and it was doing fine.... do I am going to try it.. I felt like crying!!!!..



This little girl(the embryo) is looking really good. . So hopefully she is going to make it!

What do you guys think? ..

Oh no! I have dropped eggs before and it feels awful. Since you just cracked it and got it sealed back up there is still a chance for it to hatch! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for it.

Couldnt resist the tempation and candled my day 12 eggs. They are amazing! Truley amazing! Still praying everything goes well!

Im posting on youtube, so ill send the link over to the video! Its a must see!

Nice! Congrats!

This cracked me up so much and I needed a good laugh this morning. Thanks!

Sweet little baby love........



Macaroni and Rory, a flat and a frizzle. I wish I could upload the video of the one laying on its back in our hand, just chilling. So funny.

Awww. Sooooo cute!

My broody Silkie hopped off her nest this morning for a little stretch and some food/water. So I took that opportunity to do a quick candling (I usually wait till half way through) She has 5 Silkie eggs under her and all 5 seem to be veining. Im a day and a half behind most of you so the veining was just barely visible. But I am excited they are doing well. These eggs were washed and refrigerated because I wasn't expecting to have a broody and be able join the hatch. So I am pleasantly surprised.

That's great!

Hmmmm same with mine but the one never started....my breeder had told me once the male eggs die in refrigeration so the eggs that hatch will all be females...maybe mine was a male? The one fridge egg i had hatch was a female. But i have no idea i doubt it

I've hatched a number of refrigerated eggs now, and they most definitely do not all hatch female. Last NYD I put in 3 refrigerated EE eggs for the HAL and all three were roos. The other fridge eggs I've hatched have been a mix of males and females.

I second that I must have hatched 75% roosters last year....everybody think pullets

So it wasn't just me!!! For a while there I though I was cursed to only ever hatch roosters!

I'm thinking happy pullet thoughts as hard as I can right now.

Wow! All my ducks hatched! Now I have 4 ducks,8 bantams, 3 quail and 1 chick. Now to wait for the HAL.

Woot! Congrats! That is a big bunch of cuteness.

So, does rotating the eggs around improve hatchability for all the eggs? I have a still air incubator, but I would guess there would be the same issue. I have my Silkie eggs in the middle and the standard eggs all around them. I wonder if I should be rotating them to the outside?

Another interesting thing:
I happened across the Austrailian version of Backyard Chickens, called Backyard Poultry. I was looking for incubator building instructions. I noticed that many of the incubator designs had the heating element separated from the eggs, and had a fan that pushed the warm air through. I hope to build my own incubator for the Easter HAL (although my still-air is working fantastically this time. Last time I had all kinds of heat fluctuations). The separated heating element seems like the way to go.

It seemed like a good idea to me as well. I built my cabinet bator (the one I'm hatching in now) with two heat chambers separate from the egg chamber and air is pushed from them up false walls and into the egg chamber. Seems to be working so far.

The Duck Egg Has Movement!

I candled it again and after a bit I finally saw movement in the darkness! So day 28 should be next Sunday. I wonder if it will hatch early like the chicks did?

Great news! Hope it has an easy hatch.

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I think I am starting to dread candling and nothing being there !

Me too! I do that every time I set eggs. I pace and fret and go stir crazy, terrified I'll candle at 7 days and find nothing but empty eggs.

 

[Aphrael]

Okay, someone asked about ducks and how many eggs they lay, but for some reason the quote didn't work. Ducks are like chickens in that the laying rate varies from breed to breed. I got 2 khaki campbells for my daughter and they are laying machines. They do stop laying during the winter once they start molting. BUT, when they are laying, they lay an egg every single day. They maybe skip a day every 2-3 weeks.

 

[Amberjem]

hi good morning nice to see you again today

 

[domesticzoo]

LOL! @roan Yup that's what happens here too. The ducks think they are chickens. But my current ducks will stir them in the right direction.