April 2023 Hatch-A-Long

[lilwanderer]

You are hatching all of them with broodies? If they are good moms you got nothing to worry about Good broodies are the best!

ive never had problems with broody hens, so lets hope nothing changes this time around.

 

[Waterfaery]

I'm unexpectedly joining the April thread. I've just set 24 eggs! I must be crazy because I have 22 chicks in the brooder that only hatched yesterday (17 Bresse and 5 Light Sussex, all doing well so far).

This is an emergency incubation! My Light Sussex cockerel is off his legs. I'm not sure what's wrong with him. It could be an injury and I'm really hoping it's not Marek's. Either way, he's in bad shape and I don't know if or when he'll recover. I have a thread about him here. So, I'm trying to hatch as many of his chicks as possible. I only have the one Light Sussex hen so it's all down to her!

Of the 24 eggs, 16 are from the coop where she is but most of those won't be hers. Her egg is very similar to a couple of my Australorps so I've put in anything I could find that could even remotely be from her. I wasn't planning on breeding the Australorps yet. They have only had a brief encounter with their cockerel so far and I'm not sure if he did much so I'm expecting a lot of clears but I might get the odd surprise Australorp out of it. Some of these eggs are 11 days old and have been stored as eating eggs, so I'm not sure how well they'll do.

I've filled up the remaining space in the incubator with 8 Bresse eggs. I just had a 100% hatch from them yesterday so hopefully they'll do well again.

I wasn't expecting to be here so I haven't been following so far. I'm going to read back a bit and catch up.

 

[Honora]

I'm unexpectedly joining the April thread. I've just set 24 eggs! I must be crazy because I have 22 chicks in the brooder that only hatched yesterday (17 Bresse and 5 Light Sussex, all doing well so far).

This is an emergency incubation! My Light Sussex cockerel is off his legs. I'm not sure what's wrong with him. It could be an injury and I'm really hoping it's not Marek's. Either way, he's in bad shape and I don't know if or when he'll recover. I have a thread about him here. So, I'm trying to hatch as many of his chicks as possible. I only have the one Light Sussex hen so it's all down to her!

Of the 24 eggs, 16 are from the coop where she is but most of those won't be hers. Her egg is very similar to a couple of my Australorps so I've put in anything I could find that could even remotely be from her. I wasn't planning on breeding the Australorps yet. They have only had a brief encounter with their cockerel so far and I'm not sure if he did much so I'm expecting a lot of clears but I might get the odd surprise Australorp out of it. Some of these eggs are 11 days old and have been stored as eating eggs, so I'm not sure how well they'll do.

I've filled up the remaining space in the incubator with 8 Bresse eggs. I just had a 100% hatch from them yesterday so hopefully they'll do well again.

I wasn't expecting to be here so I haven't been following so far. I'm going to read back a bit and catch up.

Sorry your rooster is not well, hope he recovers and that you also get to hatch some of his chicks.

I got my new incubator today, but it says it has to be in a place where the room temperature is at least 17 degrees c. That means it has to be in my bedroom, cause the rest of my house doesn’t have heat. So I hope these chicks hatch quietly cause I like to sleep

 

[Waterfaery]

Yay! Here we go again...
I've loaded the two incubators an hour ago, with 42 eggs total!

This includes three extra eggs stacked on top to replace clears or quitters. Barnyard mixes all, from my own flock. Hatch date April 5th - on the "Pink Full Moon" date. This group I'm calling "Chili." They are for a few friends who want to start their own flocks. My previous hatches in Feb. ("Alfredo," 26 chicks 5 weeks old) and March ("Barbeque," 29 chicks, 1 week old) are to replace my aging-out layers and stock the freezer. They are in my basement brooder and an outdoor brooder coop and all doing great!

Anyway, here are the "Chili" eggs:

I've been keeping a log this year to record all the pertinent information, hopefully so I can learn from what I'm doing right and wrong. I track air cell growth, weights, and the time from external pip to hatch. If anyone is interested, here's a pdf of the file I made. If you would like the editable Excel file, message me with your email address and I'll send it to you.

That's really good of you to share that. I do a very similar spreadsheet. I've only done 3 hatches so far but I've learned so much so it's great to be able to look back on all of that information.

 

[Waterfaery]

I have a huge batch of 160 eggs going for April 4th. The ones I posted about in march Hal that caused me to have to juggle incubator space. I have never done that large of a hatch but I’m thinking I’ll just have to make screen lids for the incubation trays and divined them up on a few levels. (These are eggs I’m hatching for someone)

I also have 17 shipped buckeye eggs that I’m hatching for myself. I hatched from this seller last year and got a great hatch rate… my best ever for shipped eggs. Sadly a duo of wild dogs got most of them along with my daughters grown cemani roo when the chicks were a few months old. So I’m trying again. They are in my nr 360.

I ordered a 24 egg disk for my brinsea but the eggs didn’t turn right!!! I’m really confused on that. The 14 egg disk it came with is really nice but the new quadrants seem like much flimsier plastic and in spite of having larger cut out holes wouldn’t turn the medium/large eggs.

I have a Brinsea with the 24 egg disk and I'm so annoyed with it! I chose the Brinsea because I had read they were really reliable and I wanted something I could trust to just work so I didn't have to worry about it. I was deciding between the one I have (Maxi 24 EX) and their other type of one that holds the eggs upright but I chose this one because I have a 6 year old and wanted really good visibility.

I have to say the temp and humidity control is perfect but otherwise I was expecting a lot better quality from the whole thing. The plastic parts seem so cheap and flimsy. It's totally overrated for the amount of eggs you can fit in. They don't turn properly at all. They keep getting stuck against each other and against the side. They slide along instead of turning. And if it's not full and they all have space, they clatter around, risking damage to the eggs. There's not nearly enough room for 24 chicks to hatch in there so you have to open it all the time to get batches out. I've only hatched regular sized hen's eggs, it's not like they were particularly large ones. In my first two hatches, as I had quitters, I swapped out a couple of the quadrants for the duck egg ones and they turned better with more room but they still clattered around.

The other thing was that I got so many malpositioned chicks. Almost half of my eggs from my first hatch and more than half from my second were malpositioned. I troubleshooted everything that could possibly cause malpositions and deduced that the way the eggs sit in the trays and the way they kept sticking was the problem.

For my third hatch, I designed a solution by making a modification to the base. I made a cardboard ring that's positioned so that it raises the eggs up so they're at a tilt instead of flat on their sides and I cut some shelf liner to go on top of it to add traction. I just finished my third hatch now and the eggs turned perfectly the whole time and I got zero malpositions. I'm using it again for the 24 I've just set now and they're turning perfectly as well so far. I must take some photos of it when this batch are finished.

I really don't think it's fit for purpose as it is and I'm surprised they're allowed market it for 24 eggs. I was thinking about buying a different model and just using this one as a hatcher but since my modification worked so well I can probably stick with it. We'll see how this batch does now.

Did you try turning some of your eggs around to point out instead of in? And swapping particular eggs around into different positions? You might have to do a lot of fiddling to improve the turning.

 

[Waterfaery]

I candled all mine today, day 4. One was for sure clear. 2 had a red line but that was it? super early quitters? then 4 had darker yolks so wouldn't say for sure clear but no growth yet. Only removed the one that I could say is 100% clear and left the rest. But 21 had babies!!!!!

Now I am worrying a bit. LOL I have 14 in my brooder right now that will be 3 weeks when these hatch and going to hopefully combine them. I am hatching some for someone else and then mine........ well I have another 13 going so far in this. group...... Thinking I may have to try to find homes for some before I know the sex of them since I don't think I can fit that many in my brooder or coop for that long!!!!! LOL

When do you combine them? This will be my first time incubating back to back and I was wondering at what stage I can put them together with the three week age difference.

 

[Waterfaery]

Sorry your rooster is not well, hope he recovers and that you also get to hatch some of his chicks.

I got my new incubator today, but it says it has to be in a place where the room temperature is at least 17 degrees c. That means it has to be in my bedroom, cause the rest of my house doesn’t have heat. So I hope these chicks hatch quietly cause I like to sleep

Hi, it looks like we're from the same part of the world!

Thank you. Yes, I really hope so.

Mine says that as well. It was a bit of a surprise when I first read it! It does actually complain a lot as well if the room gets colder than that. I had to put an electric heater in the room with it last year and that was in the summer!

 

[Waterfaery]

ive never had problems with broody hens, so lets hope nothing changes this time around.

I always love seeing the posts from those of you hatching with broodies. I can't wait to do it someday. I hope some of mine go broody this year but I don't know if they're a bit young. They hatched in June and July last year. Do they ever start that young?

 

[Iluveggers]

I have a Brinsea with the 24 egg disk and I'm so annoyed with it! I chose the Brinsea because I had read they were really reliable and I wanted something I could trust to just work so I didn't have to worry about it. I was deciding between the one I have (Maxi 24 EX) and their other type of one that holds the eggs upright but I chose this one because I have a 6 year old and wanted really good visibility.

I have to say the temp and humidity control is perfect but otherwise I was expecting a lot better quality from the whole thing. The plastic parts seem so cheap and flimsy. It's totally overrated for the amount of eggs you can fit in. They don't turn properly at all. They keep getting stuck against each other and against the side. They slide along instead of turning. And if it's not full and they all have space, they clatter around, risking damage to the eggs. There's not nearly enough room for 24 chicks to hatch in there so you have to open it all the time to get batches out. I've only hatched regular sized hen's eggs, it's not like they were particularly large ones. In my first two hatches, as I had quitters, I swapped out a couple of the quadrants for the duck egg ones and they turned better with more room but they still clattered around.

The other thing was that I got so many malpositioned chicks. Almost half of my eggs from my first hatch and more than half from my second were malpositioned. I troubleshooted everything that could possibly cause malpositions and deduced that the way the eggs sit in the trays and the way they kept sticking was the problem.

For my third hatch, I designed a solution by making a modification to the base. I made a cardboard ring that's positioned so that it raises the eggs up so they're at a tilt instead of flat on their sides and I cut some shelf liner to go on top of it to add traction. I just finished my third hatch now and the eggs turned perfectly the whole time and I got zero malpositions. I'm using it again for the 24 I've just set now and they're turning perfectly as well so far. I must take some photos of it when this batch are finished.

I really don't think it's fit for purpose as it is and I'm surprised they're allowed market it for 24 eggs. I was thinking about buying a different model and just using this one as a hatcher but since my modification worked so well I can probably stick with it. We'll see how this batch does now.

Did you try turning some of your eggs around to point out instead of in? And swapping particular eggs around into different positions? You might have to do a lot of fiddling to improve the turning.

Curious to see photos of the tilt modification!

 

[Waterfaery]

Curious to see photos of the tilt modification!

It's full of eggs now so you wouldn't be able to see anything but I'll photograph it after this lot hatch. Hope it might help some other people!