April 2023 Hatch-A-Long

[BarnyardChaos]

Welcome BYC'ers to the April 2023 Hatch-A-Long! I know many of us are in the Easter hatch-a-long, but a lot of us are planning or starting NOW for other April hatch dates. Everyone is welcome. Let's hear your plans, and see your April eggs, incubators, brooders, and babies!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

And since I started the thread, I get to go first.
I'll be setting another batch of eggs about March 13-15 for a target hatch date of April 5th, the "Pink Full Moon" date. I'm calling this group the "Chili" tribe. My previous hatches are "Alfredo" (26 in Feb.) and "Barbeque" (30 in March). They will be barnyard mixes from my own flock of BPR, RIR, Australorp, EE, Ameracauna, and Leghorn.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

For those of you who incubate eggs collected from your own flock, what is your method to decide which eggs to incubate?

 

[junior67]

For those of you who incubate eggs collected from your own flock, what is your method to decide which eggs to incubate?

I don't do my own flock often but when I do I just pick by whose eggs I want to hatch. Last year I tried my blue Cochin since I was hoping to get splash... Had no lunch with her eggs. I also added a couple random eggs to see if any were fertilized.

This year I have tried my splash Cochins, splash project Cochin, and blue frizzle project Cochin. Then one EE egg to check fertility because her eggs are so pretty

 

[junior67]

Mine will be set to hatch on Easter but I love hatch-a-long.

 

[winterwolf4]

We put eggs from our Biefenhelder hens into the incubator tonight. We have 3 hens that are laying so I hope we will have chicks from our Biefehelder x Aracauna EE.
My husband wants to hatch more Biefehelder crosses since he really likes the breed.

 

[winterwolf4]

For those of you who incubate eggs collected from your own flock, what is your method to decide which eggs to incubate?

From now on we will be doing one incubator for the biefenhelder chicks and the NR 360 for our EE chicks. This will be my first time using our NR 360 with the Easter Hatch Along.

 

[junior67]

From now on we will be doing one incubator for the biefenhelder chicks and the NR 360 for our EE chicks. This will be my first time using our NR 360 with the Easter Hatch Along.

I love my NR360 but then again it is the only incubator I have had. Lol. But I will be using mine for the Easter hatch-a-long too.

 

[winterwolf4]

I love my NR360 but then again it is the only incubator I have had. Lol. But I will be using mine for the Easter hatch-a-long too.

We have an old Styrafoam one that holds 46 eggs. It has been known to spike in temperature so we have a shutoff switch for if it goes too high and it turns back on when it goes to the correct temperature. I got the NR 360 for my birthday.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

For those of you who incubate eggs collected from your own flock, what is your method to decide which eggs to incubate?

I look for eggs that are:

similar in size and weight, not too big or small
clearly egg-shaped, not round or pointy
smooth shells
clean
no cracks
evenly colored
no deformities, calcium deposits, or wrinkles