Anyone else setting eggs today - 1/31?

[SIMZ]

Hi everyone! I'm setting 35 eggs today at noon for a class. I'm very excited and have been planning this for months. The incubator will have to stay at home, but I'm going to take a few eggs to candle each week for our class. The goal is to have some little fluffy chicks to take to the class on 2/25.

The best part is that all the babies that hatch are already spoken for. All of the fun with none of the work!

Anyone else setting today, too?

 

[just2rosey]

I am setting eggs today also. I currently have 20 eggs, 4 bantam cochin, and 16 Ameraucana. I am uncertain what my fertility rate is on the Ameraucanas, I guess I will find out in a few days. How are you planning to keep the eggs warm when you take them in to candle for your students? I have taken eggs to candle for my Sunday School class before, and took them in a cooler with a heating pad and towels to keep them warm. I am using the little heat pads for reptiles in my brooders, they keep a steady 100 degree surface temp. The could be used to keep the eggs warm in your class when they travel. Good Luck! I am sure your students will be so excited, this is such a wonderful learning opportunity for them.

 

[dreamer5577]

I also set my batch of eggs today! My first batch. I'm starting small with only 5 eggs. We'll see how this goes.

 

[SIMZ]

I'm so excited there are others setting, too! My husband is going to be really sick of hearing about it after a few days, so it's nice to have others to "talk" to! LOL

I have a small cooler to take them in and I was thinking of using those hand warmer things and see how that works. That's a great idea with the heating pad - thank you! I'm hoping it doesn't hurt the eggs, but I don't know how else to do it. I set lots so we'll (hopefully) still get chicks. Were yours ok when you did it?

Dreamer - what are you setting?

Mine are all mutts. I'm so curious to see what they look like. Whenever I crack open eggs they seem to be fertile, so we'll see what happens.

Let's keep in touch!

 

[dreamer5577]

Mine are mutts too! Haha
I currently have 2 leghorns hens, a black star/bantam hen, 2 red star/bantams hen&rooster.
I'm curious as to what the chicks will look like!
My leghorns are excellent layers so I tried to put more eggs from my leghorns in the incubator hoping for some great layers.
*FINGERS CROSSED*

What kind of mutts are you expecting?

 

[P'Fowls]

I set all of my eggs on Sunday afternoon. I have done that for years now. Every Sunday is egg setting day. Every Friday is transfering eggs to hatcher day. It just becomes a habit after doing it so long. That system works great for us.

 

[SIMZ]

I've read about having systems like that. Great plan if you hatch a lot of eggs.

Dreamer - I won't have a pure bred in the bunch. I have 3 roosters and I've seen them all mating the hens, although I'm expecting that my older Orpington will be the daddy most of the time. The other two are a Welsummer and a Black Copper Marans, but they're still pretty young. I mostly am setting eggs from Golden Comets, Barred Rock, Americauna, and RIR. I used a few leghorn eggs, but they're still pretty small. I'm going to use them for candling since they're light.

Both of our crosses should make some interesting looking birds.

 

[dreamer5577]

That's for sure.

Have you incubated a lot before? Being this is my first batch, I'm so nervous. Can't wait for the day I see some progress!

 

[SIMZ]

This is only my second hatch. My first hatch was in October of 12 Black Copper Marans eggs that I bought from a local person. I faithfully turned those little eggs 3 times a day. I kept candling them, but they were so dark that it looked like blobs. (Not that I really knew what to look for anyway!) It seemed impossible that anything was going to hatch because I really didn't know what I was doing. Then I remember putting my face right up the incubator right before they were due to hatch and heard a little cheep. I thought I imagined it! Then I heard another and about flipped out with excitement! LOL Five hatched - three boys and two girls.

 

[just2rosey]

Well this is shaping up to be a nice blend of experienced and beginner hatchers.

I ended up setting a total of 24 eggs, 5 cochins and 19 Ameraucanas. I only have purebreds set for this hatch since they are for my daughter's 4H project. I have been having a bit of trouble getting my temps to come up where they belong, so I just tweaked my thermostat a bit. I have a home made incubator, and it is wanting to run a couple of degrees cooler than usual. I will monitor it closely this evening and see if I can get it to stabilize.