April 2023 Hatch-A-Long

[dominiquePL]

2 months? I think I'm going to start waaaay before! ...but here I'm going to have a lot of pea combs, so is going to take even more time!

What are you hatching there?

LOL I'm bound to start from the day they hatch, can't help it
30 Australorp and 4 Bresse

 

[maceleneo]

LOL I'm bound to start from the day they hatch, can't help it
30 Australorp and 4 Bresse

Wow, those 30 Australorp are going to be my chance to do some real practice with gender guessing!
And I would really ask you for some pullets if we weren't so far away, I would need some of those, ha ha!

 

[dominiquePL]

Wow, those 30 Australorp are going to be my chance to do some real practice with gender guessing!
And I would really ask you for some pullets if we weren't so far away, I would need some of those, ha ha!

Well, we'll definitely have a chance to get a master degree on them

 

[maceleneo]

Edgar is sitting in a separate pen because she's low rank and other hens wouldn't let her occupy one of "their" nest in the main coop. I was worried that keeping her isolated during 3 weeks would make things worst between her and the others, but today when I opened her pad to let her stretch her legs and eat some grass she joined the others and roamed a little with them. She showed some broody attitude but the flock tolerated her. I'm glad this seems to be working well: chicks integration should be easy if she keeps hanging around with the flock every now and then.
It's a week today since she sat on the eggs... tonight I'm going to try to candle!

 

[lilwanderer]

Update, that chick wasn't chirping in the egg so we decided to open it up and see what the problem was, it's brain was outside its head (I think), other then that fully formed chick. One loss y'all. .

 

[doctormap22]

I candled all my remaining 19 eggs yesterday and pulled the 6 eggs that were not developing, leaving the 13. Lockdown day, added water, so my RH is now up around 50-60%. Removed the egg turner and turned the eggs so that the low side of the air cell is facing up. Now all I have to do is wait. 3 more days. Patience. The air vent is wide open now, to keep the RH from getting too high. Now I am starting to collect more eggs for the next incubation.

Easter morning, yesterday, I saw two eggs that were externally pipped and I could hear them peeping at me. When I returned home from church we had three baby chicks out and number four was just pushing its way out of the shell. This morning we have ten baby chicks hatched out of the 13 eggs, and the 3 remaining all have externally pipped, so maybe they will hatch later today or tomorrow. I have collected 16 eggs so far for my next round, I plan to start as soon as these are out.

 

[Canadian Wind]

Update, that chick wasn't chirping in the egg so we decided to open it up and see what the problem was, it's brain was outside its head (I think), other then that fully formed chick. One loss y'all. .

Sorry to hear this. What a gruesome discovery!

 

[Canadian Wind]

I did the 'float test' with the remaining eggs, and there is still hope. I'm not giving up!

Also candled the other 'younger' eggs, and things look good there too, knock on wood. I was treated to the sight of a tiny foot 'kicking' at me to turn off the light!

 

[Hucklekree]

So far:

22 eggs started
2 clears
2 early quitters

18 eggs to lock down
15 of those hatched as of yesterday
No sign of any progress on the remaining three but giving them the rest of the day before I candle and check.

 

[Honora]

I am back from my vacation and apparently 3 other hens went broody while I was goneThe first broody is due to hatch on Friday and they are all in the coop together, so I have to figure out what to do with these ladies.
I don’t want to move the first hen before the hatch and I don’t want to break the others. We’ll see how things go, maybe I can find another place for the other broodies.

My incubator eggs are on day 12. I was able candle 4 of them today, 3 were developing and 1 was clear so that’s a good ratio. If enough hatch I may give them to the broodies, although I love raising chicks myself too.