April 2020 Hatch-A-Long! All are welcome!

[UThobbyfarmer]

Lock-down.

of the 68 Aloha eggs, 49 made it to lock-down
of the 8 CCL eggs 4 made it to lockdown. (these are the first eggs of size from teh new flock)
of the 12 F1 olive eggers 6 made it to lock-down

I have to say I really like the looks of the CCL X LB cross (from March's hatch). These chicks have fantastic coloring so far. And while I would like to say they are auto-sexing, with one batch it is to early to tell for sure, but the ones with the white head spots from this cross are developing like males

That sounds pretty cool! Which one was the hen and rooster for the pairing?

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

After spending a great deal of time online last night I realized two, possibly more, of the breeds I might be hatching (large mixed breed flock) have a 24-26 and 23-28 day hatch window! These are the Khaki and Mallard breeds. Since I don't know exactly what these eggs are it's quite possible they're on track and not hatching freakishly early as I thought yesterday. I'm also figuring 3 days from internal pip to zip. Which puts them at Friday (day 25). Much less panicked now which is always a good thing.

Can anyone with ducks tell me if there is a anything to watch out for during hatch? Are they prone to DIS or ??? I know they take forever to zip. I'm more wondering what I need to be watching out for considering the reputation of duck eggs to be "hard to hatch"?

 

[CluckNDoodle]

My favorite incubation enabler

 

[Vantic]

Out of curiosity, never participated in a hatch along before. If I am setting the eggs next week, but not hatching until the 5th of May. Should I be in this one, next months, both? Help me zen hatch along masters.

 

[barn206]

Hi all
I’m on day 2! This is my first incubation and I’m pretty excited. I have 21 eggs going strong as we speak( crossing fingers).
I’m using the Nurture Right 360 and I’m impressed!
Ive made 2 decisions during this crazy period that we’re in...
I’m feeding the birds regardless if the bear destroys my feeder and I’m giving my rooster a son
- crossing finger and staying positive

 

[CluckNDoodle]

After spending a great deal of time online last night I realized two, possibly more, of the breeds I might be hatching (large mixed breed flock) have a 24-26 and 23-28 day hatch window! These are the Khaki and Mallard breeds. Since I don't know exactly what these eggs are it's quite possible they're on track and not hatching freakishly early as I thought yesterday. I'm also figuring 3 days from internal pip to zip. Which puts them at Friday (day 25). Much less panicked now which is always a good thing.

Can anyone with ducks tell me if there is a anything to watch out for during hatch? Are they prone to DIS or ??? I know they take forever to zip. I'm more wondering what I need to be watching out for considering the reputation of duck eggs to be "hard to hatch"?

I can tell you what I've watched with other peoples hatches but I've only hatched goslings as far as waterfowl personally. They're supposed to be very similar but goslings are actually a little more difficult and even slower. One tip I can definitely share it that if you see and external pip and you're able to see the bill the chewing motion is a way to identify that it is not yet ready to hatch. I actually recorded a snippet of my gosling assist last time to show the difference in a gosling that was ready to hatch and one that wasn't yet ready.

"I had a gosling that zipped half way and got stuck so I decided to open the air cells on both of the remaining goslings in the incubator. I felt this was a great opportunity to show the difference in activity from a gosling that is ready to hatch and one that is not. The gosling on the left has only just barely widened the internal pip through the interior membrane and the gosling on the right has turned in the egg and opened a wider section of membrane while zipping. The constant chewing you're seeing from the gosling on the left is another sign that it's still working on absorbing the yolk and blood.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Out of curiosity, never participated in a hatch along before. If I am setting the eggs next week, but not hatching until the 5th of May. Should I be in this one, next months, both? Help me zen hatch along masters.

They would be in the May hatch-a-long. I'm not sure if there is one started yet. There's nothing to say you can't hang out with us here though! I'm not sure if there is a May hatch-a-long yet and there will be people willing to answer your questions here regardless...many of us will likely find ourselves in the May hatch-a-long as well. lol

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Hi all
I’m on day 2! This is my first incubation and I’m pretty excited. I have 21 eggs going strong as we speak( crossing fingers).
I’m using the Nurture Right 360 and I’m impressed!
Ive made 2 decisions during this crazy period that we’re in...
I’m feeding the birds regardless if the bear destroys my feeder and I’m giving my rooster a son
- crossing finger and staying positive

Good luck on your hatch!

 

[CindyinSD]

Hi all
I’m on day 2! This is my first incubation and I’m pretty excited. I have 21 eggs going strong as we speak( crossing fingers).
I’m using the Nurture Right 360 and I’m impressed!
Ive made 2 decisions during this crazy period that we’re in...
I’m feeding the birds regardless if the bear destroys my feeder and I’m giving my rooster a son
- crossing finger and staying positive

Give your rooster many sons. Roosters are only expendable (you know, for chicken pot pie, etc.) if you have lots of them. They can't always be counted on to be fertile, or even interested, and sometimes they die from various causes, so don't skimp on roosters if you can help it.

You can always give them a nice bachelor pad where they can chill out together. They only fight (aside from ordinary pecking order stuff) if there are fair ladies in sight to be won.

 

[barn206]

Give your rooster many sons. Roosters are only expendable (you know, for chicken pot pie, etc.) if you have lots of them. They can't always be counted on to be fertile, or even interested, and sometimes they die from various causes, so don't skimp on roosters if you can help it.

You can always give them a nice bachelor pad where they can chill out together. They only fight (aside from ordinary pecking order stuff) if there are fair ladies in sight to be won.

I have 30 ladies and they are stunning! I also have 3 coops for social distancing