APRIL HATCH-A-LONG come join in

[thechickonthehill]

Today was Day 8 for my batch of 38. I smelled a stinky this morning when I went to turn the eggs so I decided to just go ahead and candle (I usually wait 'til Day 10). Found the stinky - an EE. That leaves me 7 EEs in the bator. Candling results were 2 of 10 Silkies clear, 1 of the 5 JGs had a blood ring, 1 of 7 Blue Splash Marans was questionable but I left it in and all of the 9 Blue Langshans seem to be developing. One of the JGs is a double yolker. It appears to be growing so I will keep my fingers crossed. I don't really expect it will make it to hatch day, but you never know. Anyway, down to 34 of 38 eggs and I'm not candling again until lockdown. Two more weeks to go!

 

[Penturner]

well I candled my first set of 13 (Due on the 8th) only two are still in the running. I added them to the incubator that has the March 14th eggs in it until they need to go into lock down. I have more hope for the second clutch. those first eggs had such a rough trip the seller sent the second batch for free. I am lucky I had any develop at all. i opened all the eggs and non of them had even started most had scrambled yolks.

 

[krstms]

Today is day 6 for me. I candled and all of the Ameraucanas are developing. I could see veining in all of them and movement in some. I have 12 of them I think and 11 mutts that will be white rock/ ameraucana (EE) or white rock/ buff orpington. I didnt candle all of the mutts yet cause I was in a hurry but a couple of them seem to be doing good so far. I cant wait to see the ameraucana chicks. Those puffy cheeks are just too cute. I am also getting some Blue Andaulusian (dont know if thats spelled right) and BCMs to put in as soon as these are done (somewhere around the 9th. Cant wait to see how that turns out. I've had bad luck with shipped eggs in the past but hopefully this one will go better.) Good luck everyone!!!

BTW any advice on the BCMs would be appreciated. I've heard it's a little different to hatch these.

 

[Madcap621]

Hi everyone, The 'puter is on line at the moment so will try a quick post. Was up to 6 doz fertile eggs when I left the farm Wed night, and no more eggs had hatched. Had lost the tiny under-developed Aussie so was down to 2 Spec-Sussex and 9 Aussies. Will swing back by on way home to TN in the morning to pick up eggs, Silver Spangled Hamburg pullet & equipment [cousin gave me another HovaBator and 4 more auto turners

]. I also ordered 2 doz Marans eggs [FBCs & FBs] to hatch for cousin since he wants some and has been so kind to me

Will be setting all of these eggs next week, so will be expecting my second April Hatch [around 120 - 140 eggs

] on the 19th. FOUR stuffed bators! One for me, One for Lonnie, one for Chris and one to share with friends! Guess I better get busy building a coop!

Save the Faves: As I am an Urban Outlaw practicing Civil Disobedience, I can't have roos, so won't be doing any breeding. My long range plans for the summer are to use my chickies to develop raised garden beds and have a garden, ALSO against the law in my town on a lot our size!

 

[Lotsapaints]

Well I candled again last night on the Marans eggs hummm that box was squished and though no eggs were broken there were 6 eggs messed up 2 scrambles the others with floating air sacks so out of 15 eggs so far 7 bad ones but I did see wrigglers in the others. I calibrated my humidity meter it was 5 degrees off (low)so will be checking that seems that the air sacks are a little large. My turkey eggs came they are filthy so I will be trying to get them clean and will try for the first time dipping them in a tec trol solution following label directions for hatching eggs and of course you all will know what happens. I now have 39 eggs left out of 51 shipped eggs. Will be starting those turkey eggs today and adding chicken eggs next thursday or so. I'll have 2 incubators pretty full and still way too excited.

 

[australorp_breeder]

It's day 2 for me. The eggs have been in the incubator for a day and a half. I went to candle, and they're still all clear...for now. I will check a different egg each day to see how things are progressing. I threw in three more eggs yesterday for the heck of it, haha! So now I have 24 total.

Madcap621, sorry to hear about the loss of eggs. But! Have fun with all those future chickies!

 

[greyartist]

doesn't the temp drop dramatically when you candle the eggs? Should I get the room really hot before opening?

 

[australorp_breeder]

Quote:
The temperature dropped for me from 100 down to like 75 when I took the lid off the incubator, and then once I put it back on it rose back to 100. Not sure how long it took, but it stabilized itself back in gear.

 

[GreenGoddess]

Quote:
The temp does drop drastically when you candle but the outcome all depends on which bator you are using.. If you have one that heats back up quickly and has a thermostat on it to regulate the heat, it's not so bad.. Even a sitting hen will get off the nest once a day.. Personally, i have decided that if i candle, I will candle about 1/2 way through and only a few eggs because I am using a homemade bator and it takes a while to heat back up.. I had the temp at 100. even right before i put the eggs in.. I set 36 eggs, taking about 5 minutes because I had to put them in one by one.. The temp dropped to 96 degrees and then took 2 hours to go back up to 99.5.. So, to avoid risk on my hatch, I am only going to open the bator when absolutely necessary (i.e. weepy eggs)...

Goddess

 

[Penturner]

The eggs do cool so I worked fast. I was sort of lucky in that regard in that it was easy to know the good ones from the bad. I also have an incubator that has tons of power. a 90 watt bulb. it can go from 75 to 100 degrees in about 2 minutes. The eggs where back in the bator and at a steady temp in 30 minutes from the time I started. they all stayed warm to the touch through the entire process.