Anyone hatching on July 25, please join me! **PICS ADDED 7/26!**

[6littlechickies]

I just set another round of eggs in the bator on Sunday, scheduled hatch date--July 25. Same day as DH's family reunion at our house. If all goes well, it should be great entertainment for everyone there to see brand new chicks and/or hatching eggs! As it is everyone thinks we are the 'crazy chicken family' might as well solidify it!

I set a total of 28 eggs, 10 EE and 18 brown. I'll make the first candling attempt this weekend (day 7 or 8) to check for fertility--that's if i can see anything.

I've only hatched one other time and with just 6 eggs but have been bitten by the 'incubator bug' and just HAD to do again.

see the post from my first hatch at:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2165677#p2165677

not that we need more chickens (up to 29 at this point) but I am pretty confident I can sell them locally and DH has already agreed we can keep any that may not sell. Anyone in the Cleveland area that needs chicks just let me know!

so, anyone want to join me on this hatch? I could use a 'hatch buddy'

oh and if anyone has any brilliant ideas on how to candle EE eggs, i'm all ears! Last time I used several LED flashlights but none gave me a great view inside, we could just see the air cell and a dark mass.

We ended up keeping all the eggs since we didn't know what we were seeing and glad we did b/c all ended up hatching. I'm not expecting that this time so I'd like to get rid of bad ones as soon as I can.

thanks
JenMarie

 

[feather leg farms]

We have several showgirls due to hatch around then.

 

[milleryardchx]

I'm due to hatch on the 22 but my last batch ran a little late i will see if i got all the bugs worked out of my incubator then i have anogher batch due on the 29th.

 

[6littlechickies]

yay! I'm so excited to have some company. we have so many things going on over the next couple weeks so I'm hoping it will keep my mind occupied and not fretting over the eggs.

for some reason I'm paranoid about the temp spiking. I had no problems with my first hatch and this is the same bator but I let my SIL try to hatch some which she quickly cooked at 107 degrees!!! oops. then she left them in just in case and her new kitty knocked cord out and then they got cold. Anyway....now I keep checking temp even tho I know it's stable now. I actually had a nightmare about overheating them sunday night! partly why I thought a buddy (two

) would keep me chill. so thanks millryardchx and feather leg farms!!

anyone else care to join in?? in my best peer pressuring voice "come on you know you want to...all your friends are doing it!" LOL.

 

[milleryardchx]

I just got done candling all our barnyard eggs are growing all 5! so i know my EE rooster is finally doing his job after 3 months on the farm. i tried a month ago with 4 of our eggs and none were fertile so he is sharing the love finally haha or the one mean australorp 18 week old roo that went to soup camp was but i think he was a little young still and of course my marrans eggs are just too stinking dark to see veins but all have a developing airsack! so it might be 18 of 18 are growing but i will see about the marans on day 14 when you can see if more of the egg is filled no point in candling maran eggs till later anyways.

don't freak out i did on my first hatch and i think over thought many things and just was too touchy. this time around i have opened my incubator once to add water then tonight to candle real fast and i'm on day 7 just leave them be and don't worry it will work out if its ment to be.

 

[6littlechickies]

congrats to you milleryardchx! I'm hoping for at least one roo out of the batch i hatched in may, still can't tell what i've got! They are EE/Buckeye mixes, their coloring is coming out so pretty! my EE's are my fav's, so friendly and gentle I'm hoping these will be too. DH just put them in the big coop last night, they are almost 9 weeks now so getting too big to be in the brooder anymore, besides new babies will be here soon!

I actually candled a few last night myself and every one I could see veining in!

I think i'm good with the temp now, haven't had to adjust it in a couple days. and am keeping myself way busy to not go over there 30 times a day to check on them. We have lots of things to do before the hatch: a quick overnight trip next week to see some friends, a HUGE garage sale next weekend and prep for a family reunion at our house on the 25th! Right now i'm more worried i won't be ready for the sale in time, thought i was doing so well going through the mountain of boxes of kids clothes--until i walked around the corner of the basement and found another 21 boxes! ugh!

I'm going to candle all of the eggs this weekend. I marked the usual X and O for turning but also numbered each one so I can keep track of which ones I toss.

Unrelated to this post but i've wondered if our Buckeye roo (Brutus) will be able to sense if any of the new chickies are roo's too? i'm guessing no until one or more start crowing but i do wonder?!

 

[6littlechickies]

Update from July 12:

I candled all the eggs and am very pleased to report that 21 of the 28 eggs are fertile!

I did have another 5 that I could not see into well enough to make a determination (one green and 4 of the browns). One is not fertile (I think) but I kept in it b/c i'm not positive. We also had one more fertile one (totalling 22) but it was lost dur to dropping while candling. I felt SO bad as we had just confirmed it was viable!

Of the fertile eggs, 9 of the green ones are fertile and 12 brown eggs are fertile. so at least 21 that are growing away!

Anyway, overall, good progress! I'll be candling again next weekend or maybe end of this week.

how's everyone else's hatch going along?

 

[feather leg farms]

Well good luck all of ya'll. My showgirls are ready to pop out of the shells anytime from thursday-saturday. There are some more staggered hatched of one-two eggs under my showgirl.

 

[6littlechickies]

Me again. I candled all of them tonight and found all but one are fertile! WOO HOO! There were two that we could not see into (shell was too dark) but we could see air cells that looked normal so we didn't do anything with those. Crossing our fingers, rolling the dice and guessing they are fertile too.

Of the original 28 eggs I set I believe 24 to be fertile, 3 are unable to be seen and one was not fertile. I lost one due to my overly helpful 3 year old DS (who cannot WAIT for the chicks) but replaced it with an accidentally collected one from my broody hen's nest (about a week behind). My 'helper' accidentally caused one to fall over and break open.

I felt bad too since he and I had just watched it moving around in the shell!

I stop turning on Tuesday and then (not so) patiently wait for the big hatch! I'm so excited! I timed this so that we would have hatching eggs the day of my DH's family picnic at our house. Everyone thinks we are the crazy chicken family--i'm sure this will really seal the deal. lol.

So, how's everyone else's hatch going?

 

[meholtspan]

Hi
Well I'm hoping to hatch on July 31, but I'll cheer with you on the 25th. Ii'm planning to candle tonight. This is my first time. 11 eggs under my Ameraucana hen.
Marilyn in Ontario