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

[Canadianislupus]

I soo understand that felling plus I have a homemade incubator on top of it lol we will doo awesome we have some great support

For sure, I've learned so much from this HAL already

That's great!

1st time hatches often go not so well is because of lack of information, just jumping right in, so to speak. If you have read up on as much information as you can before starting your first hatch, there's probably a good chance your chicks will make it. I learned a lot from my first hatch, even though I only had 6 out 28 hatch. Now that I'm more knowledgeable, mostly thanks to BYC, I think my second time is going much better. Just be sure nothing stupid happens, like attempting to move the incubator when it is full of eggs, and they all roll and bang into each other (yep, I did that), or accidentally leaving the incubator unplugged all night, (did that, too).
I hope all of yours make it! With 29 going strong, I'm sure your're doing things right!

Thanks I've read every thread/page I can find on hatching as well as hatch failures. Somehow I still feel unprepared haha If it weren't for BYC I would have followed the bator and my neighbors instructions to add water in the beginning. At the rate the air cells are developing in a dry bator(around 35-45%) I'm pretty sure they all would have drowned before hatching

. I' honestly didn't expect all of them to develop this far or I might have set a few less...I promised DBF after the last batch of chicks went outside that I would never do that many at once again LOL there where only 24 that time....Whoops

 

[ccnbuck]

That's so sweet of you ccnbuck! I have some concerns about moving developing eggs though.. and I don't want to mess up your hatch rate either! I'm just going to let her hatch some eggs from my standard sized chickens this time. It sounds like you'll have some cool chicks! I would love to get some lavender ameraucana and silkie eggs (or mixes of the two!) from you in the future though. Maybe we can trade some hatching eggs in the spring!

I wasn't doing it just to be sweet.

It would also be a way to help me rehome the soon to be bitties. I get mean mugged by my wife

every time she looks at the incubator.

The offer is still there if you change your mind or if you want some of the chicks.

 

[StarMeKritten]

love seeing ppl come together and making friends here real life

Me too! I need more chicken people in my life. I don't really know anyone else that has chickens. Whenever I say anything about chickens, their eyes just glaze over. LOL. At least I can talk chickens on BYC.

New eggs went under the broody last night. I gave her 5. They will be backyard mix with a possibility of a couple pure breed australorps. We've been working hard on our new coops all weekend. I'm excited to be able to separate my different breeds for spring hatching!

 

[Roan]

That's it! I'm moving to North Carolina! I can be the link between you two! lol

 

[MrsBrooke]

Thanks to both of you. The problem is that the dark mass is taking up most of the egg space. That's what's got me concerned, if it were a dark speck (by comparison) I could easily say it is a more developed embryo but we're talking about a mass that is probably the size of an embryo at day 12 or 13 vs an embryo that's probably at day 8 or 9. So there's a huge difference in the mass size.

But I guess it's in the 5 day early range that @FeyRaine explained. So I should still be good right? It's day 11 today. But then again, I noticed the difference the day before yesterday...so that would actually make the darker massed eggs at about day 12 or 13 on day 9. That seems very early to me. I wish I could get pictures to show you what I mean.

I'm glad you mentioned this. While some other people have answered, I figured I'd throw in my two cents.

Even by day 5, there are so many veins that it can "shadow" the embryo and make it difficult to see. Same thing happened to me, and I panicked. I thought they were simply all dead! I found the candling thread on here and it quelled my fears.

It seems, even with a dark mass in the egg early on, they're developing as they should!

PS - The color of the light used in candling can make a difference, as Ron keeps noting!

MrsB

 

[StarMeKritten]

I wasn't doing it just to be sweet.

It would also be a way to help me rehome the soon to be bitties. I get mean mugged by my wife

every time she looks at the incubator.

The offer is still there if you change your mind or if you want some of the chicks.

Thanks! I'm really tempted. I have some reservations about letting my little hen hatch chicks (my australorps) that are going to get so big so quickly in the middle of winter. The last australorp chicks she hatched were almost bigger than her by the time they were about 6 weeks old. She does have a companion (an older non-laying hen) to help keep the chicks warm though. They always raise chicks together. That little old hen just loves chicks even if she can't hatch her own any more. Maybe some silkies and ameraucanas would be a little easier for the moms this time of year.. This is why I initially took the risk of letting her sit on her own eggs (with questionable fertility) instead of just giving her the large breed eggs that I knew had good fertility...

 

[Amberjem]

Me too! I need more chicken people in my life. I don't really know anyone else that has chickens. Whenever I say anything about chickens, their eyes just glaze over. LOL. At least I can talk chickens on BYC.

New eggs went under the broody last night. I gave her 5. They will be backyard mix with a possibility of a couple pure breed australorps. We've been working hard on our new coops all weekend. I'm excited to be able to separate my different breeds for spring hatching!

I've been looking up chicken things for three years in anticipation of getting them LoL now that I got them my friends are starting to send me chicken craze stuff LOL

 

[Amberjem]

I'm glad you mentioned this. While some other people have answered, I figured I'd throw in my two cents.

Even by day 5, there are so many veins that it can "shadow" the embryo and make it difficult to see. Same thing happened to me, and I panicked. I thought they were simply all dead! I found the candling thread on here and it quelled my fears.

It seems, even with a dark mass in the egg early on, they're developing as they should!

PS - The color of the light used in candling can make a difference, as Ron keeps noting!

MrsB

seen ppl mention the lgiht makes a differnce but noone has said what spectruim the light needs to be???

 

[ronott1]

seen ppl mention the lgiht makes a differnce but noone has said what spectruim the light needs to be???

White to yellow. below 3000kelvin is better. Higher kelvin gets into blue and it does not pass through the shell as well.

Look for led light that is not blue for candling.

 

[ronott1]

Today is the first day that day light hours will start going up in the Northern hemisphere so one of my Pita Pinta pullets decided to celebrate by laying her first egg!

The first egg is from an OE hen, an EE x Marans. The second is from an Arkansas Blue and the littlest on the right is from the Pita Pinta pullet.