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

[ronott1]

Do you have to be careful which kind of sponges you use? Don't most kitchen sponges have anti-bacterial agents in them? I know you are not supposed to use them to clean aquariums.
I have a question about saddle-shaped air cells. I have my eggs laying down in the incubator, should I put the saddle-cell ones in a carton now?

I buy the blue ones that are not anti bacterial. The thing to watch is to not let the water level go over the top of the sponge. Chicks can drown in water.

Putting them in a carton is more important for hatching so you can wait until lockdown.

 

[Peep_Show]

Treating them like fragile treasures, I have been sitting on my hands NOT to candle the marans eggs set on the 13th with the late BLRW, but today was the day. Of the BLRW, I had three clear and 1 blood ring to chuck today. Of the 7 marans I had three that definitely weren't clear, but not veiny either and 4 little jumpy embryos! There are 2 definite black-eyed bobbers in the BLRW.

I also chucked 1 farmers market egg (brown) for being a clear. The 12 remaining Ameraucana/EE eggs are too darn hard to see inside for any veins, but the air cells are diminishing and they don't look beacon clear, so we'll see. There is one farmers market egg (brown, an Ameraucana/RIR) that has an occupant that's very visible and active.

So out of 41 started, I'm down to 26; 13 in each incubator. Now I'll just sit on my hands for another week.

 

[ronott1]

Treating them like fragile treasures, I have been sitting on my hands NOT to candle the marans eggs set on the 13th with the late BLRW, but today was the day. Of the BLRW, I had three clear and 1 blood ring to chuck today. Of the 7 marans I had three that definitely weren't clear, but not veiny either and 4 little jumpy embryos! There are 2 definite black-eyed bobbers in the BLRW.

I also chucked 1 farmers market egg (brown) for being a clear. The 12 remaining Ameraucana/EE eggs are too darn hard to see inside for any veins, but the air cells are diminishing and they don't look beacon clear, so we'll see. There is one farmers market egg (brown, an Ameraucana/RIR) that has an occupant that's very visible and active.

So out of 41 started, I'm down to 26; 13 in each incubator. Now I'll just sit on my hands for another week.

Nice!

I hope the dark ones are developing.

 

[carcar80]

Nice!

I hope the dark ones are developing.

Me too!

 

[blackgoat]

I buy the blue ones that are not anti bacterial. The thing to watch is to not let the water level go over the top of the sponge. Chicks can drown in water.

Putting them in a carton is more important for hatching so you can wait until lockdown.

Okay, thanks! I think this time will be better than my first time attempting to hatch eggs.* The first time, I wasn't on BYC, so was just kind of winging it. My very first chick that hatched, as soon as she could manage moving about, almost immediately ran over and practically jumped into the water dish! Good thing I was right there watching! Then, I put cardboard barriers up between the eggs and the water. Weirdly, I didn't even think to put a sponge in the dish. XD

*Edit: As long as the accidental 8-hour "cooling" didn't ruin the whole thing! XD

 

[bantambury]

holy cow. I didn't go on BYC yesterday....theres so much to catch up with....LOL

 

[carcar80]

So. For still-air users, here's a little review.

I have taken out the new still air LG (9200) and am testing it out empty, in prep for using it as my hatcher in a week and a half (!!).

So far, I love what I see!! I love the design update of the channels at the bottom.. Being that there are just multiple parallel lines it should be MUCH easier to fill "blindly", without having to move eggs and such. The old model with the square channel and then the straight ones on either side- I never know what I'm aiming for when I can't see and I get so confused. lol! **i have heard from another member that this chamber arrangement makes it way easy to get humidity TOO high, so I'll be testing that out this week.

Next, the screen. I love that it's plastic and not metal.. I can really bleach this one after a hatch and not worry about eroding the wire or having to replace anytime soon. Also the bottom tray is almost twice as deep now, making it impossible for babies to crash around and bump against the heating element, which drives me MAD with the old one and makes me super nervous to be absent during hatch.

The lid.. The lid!! I LOVE the new lid. No more worry of accidentally leaving it jacked up on one side and losing heat/humidity. I think this is my favorite change of all aside from the deep bottom. The viewing windows are nicer too, perhaps a hair bigger and removable for storage which is helpful.

This is still the knob-adjusted thermostat, of course, but I've learned to deal with that. Overall I like all of the changes made.

 

[darkbluespace]

My incubators got accent end tally(<--really,auto-correct?) unplugged at some time last night. The dome incubator got down to room temp (66) and the foam incubator was at 76 when I discovered they were unplugged.

I have no idea how long they were "cooling", it could have been as long as 8 hours, but maybe that will make up for all the times the temp spiked to 103. lol! I hope they are okay

I should have at least 10 more eggs arriving tomorrow ( I don't know why these ones coming from LA are taking as long as the ones sent from CA). This is me being restrained! I don't know what will happen for the Easter HAL!

We are doing a good job of mimicking the ups and downs of nature

I have heard of a broody being off a nest overnight and the eggs still hatched so I try not to worry!

 

[darkbluespace]

Happy Solstice everyone!!

Longer days = happiness!

After a HUGE rain yesterday, half my chickens look like drowned rats...

 

[blackgoat]

We are doing a good job of mimicking the ups and downs of nature

I have heard of a broody being off a nest overnight and the eggs still hatched so I try not to worry!

Yeah!