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

[Roan]

Ok, so now I know that I can no longer drink coffee or anything actually while reading y'all's posts. Roan, 1 & 2 nearly drowned my laptop and 3, well duh!

LOL I'm glad I could give you your morning giggle. As for 3, well I just like the way I heard it in my head so I thought I'd share.

It is the final push for the chicks, be ready, what if there is an early hatch

Then @bamadude will try to fine you $25.00 and all of your vinegar.

 

[jgoldy2]

LOL  I'm glad I could give you your morning giggle.  As for 3, well I just like the way I heard it in my head so I thought I'd share. 


Then @bamadude
will try to fine you $25.00 and all of your vinegar.

True, so say on New year's

 

[SallyinIndiana]

for those of you that hatch in the cartons, can styrofoam cartons be used or just the cardboard ones? I have hatched in the cardboard ones and liked it, but I have lots of styrofoam cartons I don't need.

 

[blackgoat]

Thanks! I am going to need it! lol! I didn't stay up to make sure the incubator got back up to temp last night, thinking that it would because I'd gotten rid of a lot of the water, but, nope. When I checked this morning it was around 97. I don't know if that's still int the safe range? Humidity is still 77%. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I turned the thermostat up. I think I'll remove the water from the last channel, and use the dish, sponge method.

times 100 !

 

[chickiebaby1]

ok so I have a question see alot of peeps using to bators one to incubate and another to hatch is this for the split setting hatchs? convenience or some other mysterious hatching thingie?

The reason I have a seperate hatcher is because I don't like hatching in the incubator. I also do staggared hatches and different breeds, so having the seperate hatcher helps me keep things seperate. Also I do not open the hatcher for 4-5 days at all once I have locked down my eggs, this helps prevent shrink wrapping. I am totaly hands off during hatching until they have all hatched. I have just had better luck with my hatching rates since I started doing it this way. I used to open the hatcher all the time and I inadvertently shrink wrapped and killed several chickies. I sort of do the dry hatch method, but I have to open my bator 3 times a day to turn the eggs. I only touch the eggs on day 7,14,and 18 for candling to keep contamination down. My eggs are in cartons and I only have to move the carton to turn so that helps cut down on egg touching. It has become a very disciplined thing for me, because I used to touch and candle the eggs almost everyday and then I wouldn't get very good hatches. Now I just sort of set em and forget em and I have had much better success.

 

[blackgoat]

The weirdest chicken dream I'd ever had was that they were actually rabbits and they laid rubber eggs that I kept dropping. The nightmare element was that I had to try to catch all of these bouncing eggs. It was horrible!

The weirdest chick dream I ever had : I was picking up these green chicks by a stream, but they were actually baby frogs that were at the "chick" stage of development! LOL!

 

[ronott1]

I looked at the eggs, again! And I am soooooo glad I did. I guess when I filled the water channels, I filled them too much, and the cardboard cartons touched the water and they got soaked! And that had somehow made the temp go down to 94, too. Ugh! Since I had to replace the cartons anyway, I drained one of the channels. It's been an hour, and the humidity is still at 77%. No more channels, ever! from now on, it's dishes with sponges. I'm going to play some more holiday music for them, that worked last time.

This hatch is my second time hatching upright in cartons. Mine are shipped eggs and quite a few had saddle air cells. I haven't tilted them at all like Ron suggests but I'm kind of keeping hands off with wrong end pippers until all the other eggs hatch. I will watch as closely as I can and when it gets to the point that I pull out chicks, will check any left over eggs for wrong end pips or signs of life and lay them on their sides for a couple more days. I only intervene with wrong end pippers if the membranes start to brown, or they have been going for way too long and look like they have tired (but not at the expense of other good eggs).

That is a great way to hatch!

 

[Peep_Show]

for those of you that hatch in the cartons, can styrofoam cartons be used or just the cardboard ones? I have hatched in the cardboard ones and liked it, but I have lots of styrofoam cartons I don't need.

I like the cardboard because, IMHO, it breathes better. And the rough surface on the paper provides for more air circulation. There was a post awhile ago (another thread) where the person put the eggs in Styrofoam cartons to hatch and didn't cut an air hole in the bottom. Not a single chick hatched, probably smothered. Remember, ALL the shell breathes.

Whatever method you choose don't forget to trim out the bottom.

 

[ronott1]

Biggest hatching dream to date last night.. I had one of those octagon bators on the counter.. Was telling y'all it was just one more day.. Went back and EVERYTHING had hatched. I was in disbelief! Some chicks were huge.. One egg had twins which were tiny, like pencil erasers lol.

Another four on the counter (which I had apparently pulled days ago) were hatching, along with one I had dissolved in vinegar. I kept trying to take pics for y'all but my phone wouldn't work!

Morning everyone.

Good morning everyone!!

I set mine late afternoon on the 10th but turned them off for half a day while we drove the incubator home from the city we had them delivered to, so I didn't expect any action until tomorrow.
There's only the two doing anything (1 has hatched now), definitely early chicks. No other pips yet.
I believe I'm a good portion of a day ahead of you timewise? My chicks pipped morning 30th December, one hatched 4:45pm 30th December.
It's all that wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff that makes it confusing

I do, just not when you probably do.
I'm in Australia, so I'll be heading to bed in a couple hours.

So, here's my first Barnevelder chickie, hatched early this evening

Hopefully many more to come in the next couple days...

It is nice to have members hatching from other countries!

Nice chick,

 

[Roan]

for those of you that hatch in the cartons, can styrofoam cartons be used or just the cardboard ones? I have hatched in the cardboard ones and liked it, but I have lots of styrofoam cartons I don't need.

Another concern, I'm not sure how accurate this would actually be but, chicks like to pick at their surroundings so they might pick at the styrofoam and ingest some of it.

The weirdest chick dream I ever had : I was picking up these green chicks by a stream, but they were actually baby frogs that were at the "chick" stage of development! LOL!

LOL Awesome dream!