April 2023 Hatch-A-Long

[lilwanderer]

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?

3 of the broody's i have right now are under a year old, between 7 and 11 months. And ive had several others of my older ones do the same, when they first went broody they were around the same age as the ones right now. Actually one of the younger ones I have at the moment just hatched chicks 7 weeks ago, and she's brooding again, crazy.

 

[lilwanderer]

Now the RIR crossed with BR would be sex-linked, correct? This is my first time hatching from this flock.

Pretty sure males will be barred, females will not from the cross. I had a barred hen and a non barred rooster and hatched from them, all the males were barred, and the few females I had were not.
Father was a blr wyandotte, hen was barred cuckoo maran mix.
They made this hen:

And this roo:

 

[HipMystic]

Pretty sure males will be barred, females will not from the cross. I had a barred hen and a non barred rooster and hatched from them, all the males were barred, and the few females I had were not.
Father was a blr wyandotte, hen was barred cuckoo maran mix.
They made this hen:
View attachment 3447497
And this roo:
View attachment 3447499

Awesome, thanks!

 

[gimmie birdies]

I have not candled yet, but store eggs, I will candle and set tomorrow- store, but local.

 

[Honora]

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!

Yes, I am in Ireland also! I moved here from the US a few years ago. What county are you in?

Sounds like we have the same incubator. I have not set my eggs in it yet but that’s disappointing to hear that the turner doesn’t work that well. I have a small Brinsea without the turner and I always just hand turned those eggs, so I suppose that is an option. I am going out of town for a bit next week though so I hope the turner will be good enough while I am away.

 

[Honora]

Just joining the hatch-along, but you are talking about some issues I'm also experiencing. I do really like my Brinsea. I get better turning results if I increase the turning time for more seconds. Ones that are dragging will eventually start to turn that way. I do fiddle a lot with initial positioning to get everyone rolling, and I do put pointy ends out to avoid getting hung up on the rounded exterior edge. My smaller eggs turn without issues, but the very large Marans eggs are often problematic.

Thanks for the suggestions; I will definitely try these. My eggs are medium sized rather than large, hopefully they will not get stuck.

 

[Dinoroar]

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.

Gosh, brinsea really missed the mark on these quadrants. I’m sorry you had to deal with position problems due to the poor turning. I’ll go start new a thread on this. I’d love to see pictures of your modifications and see if others have figured things out. I haven’t messed with mine any more yet. The fan went out in my brinsea right after I got them so it was out of commission all together. I got that replaced yesterday and now have a bunch of eggs in there to hatch.

 

[gimmie birdies]

This next batch I am setting is not from the same farm I had been using, I have hatched from this farm before.

I still have not candled. I have been busy.

 

[doctormap22]

I couldn't hold out any longer, just had to candle one egg yesterday (day 4) just to see if there is anything developing. It was so exciting to see the blood vessels and the tiny embryo! I was looking at the big white egg, as it is the easiest to see. Not much there yet.
I plan to candle all the rest on day 10 when it will be easier to see behind the brown shell.
View attachment 3443196

I candled all my eggs on Monday, removed three "light bulb" eggs that are not fertile. The rest appear to be doing okay. Monday afternoon I fell off the tailgate of my pickup and suffered a compression fracture of my spine, so I am laid up for a while, but the incubator is still on schedule. I plan to candle again next week to make sure they are all still alive and kicking. My meat rabbit doe just had her kits last Saturday, so we have baby bunnies also. I found one of my hens dead in the hay barn yesterday sitting on a clutch of eggs. She must have gone broody and was out there on her own at night and a predator got her. Very sad. I try to check the hay barn from time to time for that reason, but I must have missed that one for a while because she had several eggs under her.

 

[Honora]

I candled all my eggs on Monday, removed three "light bulb" eggs that are not fertile. The rest appear to be doing okay. Monday afternoon I fell off the tailgate of my pickup and suffered a compression fracture of my spine, so I am laid up for a while, but the incubator is still on schedule. I plan to candle again next week to make sure they are all still alive and kicking. My meat rabbit doe just had her kits last Saturday, so we have baby bunnies also. I found one of my hens dead in the hay barn yesterday sitting on a clutch of eggs. She must have gone broody and was out there on her own at night and a predator got her. Very sad. I try to check the hay barn from time to time for that reason, but I must have missed that one for a while because she had several eggs under her.

Sorry about your fracture and losing your hen. I am actually recovering from a pelvic fracture right now after falling off a ladder. It was the chickens’ fault cause I fell while looking up in the loft for eggs Hope you are feeling better soon.

Did you try candling the eggs that were under the hen? Maybe you could throw them in the incubator? Congrats on your baby rabbits