ABOUT TO SET 24 MARANS EGGS! ANYONE ELSE SETTING EGGS? DEC. 14-16, Hatch Jan. 3-5th.

[newbiechix]

I didn't think to let them settle first. I basically had them in the incubator about an hour after finally getting them Saturday morning... they were almost 4 days late by then and I suppose I let my anxiousness to set them take over. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks if my impatience was a bad thing. Is the settling period necessary with shipped eggs? I hope I haven't messed up too badly. :-/

Best of luck to everyone on their hatchings!

 

[CALI CHICK]

Yeah! More chicks! It looks like most of us will have hatches around January 5th. I set mine Friday morning/early afternoon (counting Saturday as Day 1) so mine might hatch January 4th.

If any hatch, that is! (This is sort of a test hatch with my own silkie chickens)

I confess that I candled my 6 eggs last night (Day 3.....about 80 hours into incubation). I didn't see any definite veining, but something was going on in 4 of the eggs. Two of them might be clears, but I will candle again on Thursday (Day 6). I like to candle early (Day 3 or 4) and look for those "red spiders"!!!

The easiest hatch I ever had was with 5 Easter Egger eggs. I went to the breaders house and we gathered the fertile eggs right out of the nesting boxes. Then he let me pick the eggs I wanted to buy. $1 each!! I chose the bluest eggs and took them home to the warmed bator. When I checked them on Day 4 they had 5 big red spiders floating around inside.

Then on Day 10 they were active and aircells looked perfect. Same for Day 18 check before lockdown. All 5 eggs pipped the night of Day 20 and were waiting for me in the incubator on the morning of Day 21. *That proved to me that fresh, local eggs are the way to go if you can. Oh-and of those 5 chicks 3 were cockerels and re-homed and I still have the 2 girls. One of them started laying pretty blue eggs in November.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Nice looking wellie hen. Thanks for pics. Here is a pic of the wellie eggs I got yesterday. I have a dozen of these in the bator

Thank you for complimenting Ginger. She is just from the feed store so I guess that means she's "hatchery quality"? Do you have SOP wellsummers and if so, how do you think Ginger compares? Those wellie eggs are beautiful!

Wellie babies are so adorable. Hope you get a bunch more of them on January 5.
Here's a picture of Ginger when we first brought her home.....

.....and when Buffy adopted her with her TJ chicks....

 

[maidenwolfx80]

I built an incubator and yesterday I set 6 test mutt eggs,, LOVE THE MUTTS!!!! Good luck everyone

 

[CALI CHICK]

I built an incubator and yesterday I set 6 test mutt eggs,, LOVE THE MUTTS!!!! Good luck everyone

Oooooh, keep us posted on how it works out.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Oooooh, keep us posted on how it works out.

Thank you, this is my first home built one,,,, I am soooo anxious lol

 

[SixHix]

good luck with all your hatches!!!

 

[bwalden]

I didn't think to let them settle first. I basically had them in the incubator about an hour after finally getting them Saturday morning... they were almost 4 days late by then and I suppose I let my anxiousness to set them take over. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks if my impatience was a bad thing. Is the settling period necessary with shipped eggs? I hope I haven't messed up too badly. :-/

Best of luck to everyone on their hatchings!

It isn't necessary but it's something that most people do before setting shipped eggs. Some say it gives the aircell a chance to "right" itself. I have done it both ways to tell you the truth. Straight from the box to the incubator and had ok hatches. I started reading a lot about letting shipped eggs settle before setting so I tried it on the very next eggs I bought. I got 10 of 15 eggs that time to hatch. The next time I got 4 of 5. So i've been doing it every since. I'm not saying you won't have a good hatch but it's just something I and several others do. Good luck!

 

[bwalden]

Thank you for complimenting Ginger. She is just from the feed store so I guess that means she's "hatchery quality"? Do you have SOP wellsummers and if so, how do you think Ginger compares? Those wellie eggs are beautiful!

Wellie babies are so adorable. Hope you get a bunch more of them on January 5.
Here's a picture of Ginger when we first brought her home.....

.....and when Buffy adopted her with her TJ chicks....


I do breed for the SOP but at the moment I'm mostly breeding for egg color. When I first got into welsummers all I did was breed to SOP. Your hen looks very nice. She has nice yellow legs small straight comb and good coloring. She is likely hatchery stock from the feed store, but to be honest I have owned a few "hatchery" welsummers in the past and I couldn't tell a lot a difference. I was fortunate enough to purchase eggs from a private breeder who has a good line of welsummers but of course I paid an arm and leg for the eggs. Wellie chicks are adorable. Look like little chipmunks!

 

[bwalden]

I built an incubator and yesterday I set 6 test mutt eggs,, LOVE THE MUTTS!!!! Good luck everyone

Good luck!

I've been considering building my own incubator. How did you make yours?