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

[chickee]

just lonely lol I am not lonely!!!!!!!! No I have small breeding groups, love the different color eggs. In the spring sell a few chicks and eggs. Had planned on not hatching to much this year,. I think I need a AA group for hatching.
To me it is a challenge to hatch different breeds and shipped eggs. I personally have a horrible time with the Black copper marans always horrible hatchs. Don't black copper breeding group now.
My brahma X breeds hatched all that was fertile. Have bred the pure yet.
The brown leghorns hatch easy Plus the white eggs make the egg packages look so much brighter in color.
wheat marans can be tough.
the amerucana a lot dont hatch
cream legbar I spent a bunch on eggs, hatched roosters mostly. have 2 purebred hen. they are young
my little cochin hatch like popcorn
It is just a hobby for a old lady....
plus you meat nice people

It is fun! And all the chicken people I have met are so nice too! You have a lot of neat breeds to work with! I have wheaten/blue wheaten Ameraucanas and golden cuckoo Marans (Silkies and d'Anvers too) plus have hatched black/blue copper Marans for a friend and have had great hatches with my Octagon 20 ex advance incubator, but it is almost dummy proof

The key to good hatches with the Marans is keeping the humidity between 40-42% for the first 19 days and upping it to 65% for hatching.

 

[chicken pickin]

Im officially in with eggs set under a broody Silkie. DH isn't happy

 

[Roan]

It is fun! And all the chicken people I have met are so nice too! You have a lot of neat breeds to work with! I have wheaten/blue wheaten Ameraucanas and golden cuckoo Marans (Silkies and d'Anvers too) plus have hatched black/blue copper Marans for a friend and have had great hatches with my Octagon 20 ex advance incubator, but it is almost dummy proof

The key to good hatches with the Marans is keeping the humidity between 40-42% for the first 19 days and upping it to 65% for hatching.

Sounds like it would be fun and yeah, all the people are on here are super cool so far. It's funny, I hadn't realized but I had only around 30 posts or so before joining the HAL and now I'm almost at 200! LOL It's so easy when you've got great people to chat with!

By the way, speaking of keeping track of all of your flocks, allow me to introduce you to the Incubation Worksheet. It is designed to be copied as many times as necessary to handle all of your different breeding flocks when it comes time for incubation! And, if you act now, you can download it from the first page of this thread for not $20.00...not $10.00...not even $5.00. You can get it for...are you ready for this steal of a price? Absolutely Free!!! That's right, if you act right now, you can download it absolutely free!

 

[chicken pickin]

I have this guy and his brother, both porcelains from eggs I purchased from Catdance Silkies. They do peck my feet sometimes before they realize it is ME!

They do their little dance at me and love to be fondled and petted. I did have to train them not to bite when they became of breeding age. The Silkie roosters are my favorites!

What color is yours?

I had a porcelain from Catdance last year but rehomed him because I ended up with only males and no Silkie females.

I hatched again from a different breeder and now have a Blue male and 2 Splash females. I just set 5 Silkie eggs under one of the broody Silkies just now.

Here is my boy Blueberry


This was my Catdance porcelain boy his name was Prim (he was only 6months old here, I imagine he matured even more handsome)

 

[chickee]

Im officially in with eggs set under a broody Silkie. DH isn't happy

Mine isn't thrilled either. He is almost through building my new chicken house plus a new covered pen to replace the one the tree fell on that was attached to my bantam house. I promised to reduce my flock . . . someday.

 

[ronott1]

Well at least the yolk looks good. I'm sending you positive vibes from my vibometer 3000. You should get a 48% egg quality boost now...unless this thing malfunctions again.

There, I also sent a little chicken dance charm as well. That should help.


Quote:
That's if they're in an egg holder of some sort, if they're laying on the 'bator floor, then there's little you can do to prop each one up.

Thanks!

 

[FuzzyHens]

You guys kill me.

I LOVE those! So cute!

Yep. For the next 3 weeks we get to watch eggs just sitting there looking like eggs, no matter how much we beg and cajole them to do SOMEthing.

You mean they aren't going to do anything?! I keep walking past them and stopping and looking, apparently expecting to see them do something. Oh boy, this could be a long 21 days! Definitely need some broodie hen photos, please!

 

[chickee]

I had a porcelain from Catdance last year but rehomed him because I ended up with only males and no Silkie females.

I hatched again from a different breeder and now have a Blue male and 2 Splash females. I just set 5 Silkie eggs under one of the broody Silkies just now.

Here is my boy Blueberry


This was my Catdance porcelain boy his name was Prim (he was only 6months old here, I imagine he matured even more handsome)

Blueberry is one handsome guy! I love the blues and splashes! On my list for next year. Your Catdance boy you re-homed looked so much like one of the boys I hatched from her. I just have the one white, a porcelain and a lavender hen plus the two porcelain roosters all from Catdance. I need more girls. I have no idea what color chicks I will get out of the white x porcelain cross. It will be a fun surprise.

 

[ronott1]

USPS tracking shows my BLRW eggs arrived at 7:00 p.m. (mountain time) at the Albuquerque Post Office, which means I'll be able to pick them up tomorrow provided they transfer over to my local Post Office. (Yay!) Looking forward to candling them to see what the air cells look like after a loooong jaunt for expedited priority mail (sent on the 9th)

Ron, I've got a split hatch that will be happening. You've got the total for the ones I set on the 11th for the "Guess the number of eggs set" contest. Do I submit the second batch when set, which may be Sunday? I know they won't go towards some contests.... What is the cutoff for submitting numbers? Or does it matter? I'm fine with having my second (very) later hatch not count for anything. Heck, I don't even know how many eggs I'll have! With all the eggs being set at assorted times is there going to be a "Guess the number of chicks hatched" contest? If so, what's the deadline and protocol for the hatching?

I know.... So many questions.....

The cutoff for the set numbers is Saturday.

Hatching stress will be in effect but eggs shipped a long distance can hatch.

I hatched eggs shipped from Alabama via ground over a holiday weekend. It took, if I am remembering correctly, 8 days to get here. I had a good hatch with them too.

 

[chicken pickin]

You mean they aren't going to do anything?! I keep walking past them and stopping and looking, apparently expecting to see them do something. Oh boy, this could be a long 21 days! Definitely need some broodie hen photos, please!

I have a few