April Hatch Along

[Birdydeb]

I have loved following along on this hatch along. I have learned SO MUCH between the March one and this one. Congrats everyone for your hatches. And good luck and keep trying like me for the not so successful hatches. My two incubators will start hatching this coming week making them May hatches.

I am a newbie like a lot of others and have had problems with shipped eggs like everybody else. Something I noticed yesterday when I candled the chick eggs. ......my Speckled Sussex eggs ALL showed nice development despite being the eggs that went on a sightseeing tour on the mail route. The Lavender Orps and Barnevelders with them.....nothing I would pull yet but just not as good. The main difference since they were all shipped eggs? I held the Speckled Sussex one day to wait on the other two orders....they rested almost 48 hours and then when I set them I left the turner off overnight and then turned it on. Was just trying everything possible to make these shipments successful. Interesting isn't it? I am thinking I am going to try this from now on with shipped eggs. I can't wait this week to see how successful the hatch is. The biggest problem I have had is monitoring humidity....the storms and flooding have wreaked havoc with that.

Guess it looks like I will be in the May hatch along. LOL Has that one started yet?

 

[bostonsharbor]

:yiipchick So cute! I have 3 marans eggs on day 14 looking great! (along with a few others...) Welcome! And good luck! I hope you will update on your hatch. I'd love to know how you like the new Ovation incubator and how well it works!! I'd love to have some Brahma bantams!! My OEGB had a quitter and one pipped, but dead under her this morning, plus 2 live chicks, so I swapped out the 2 dead ones with 2 live ones from my incubator hatch! And my Serama broody.... oh, she's one of those pecker broodies, so I haven't messed much with her. The other hatches on time with hers had since finished, so I risked my hand to check for quitters under her. Found 2 eggs, but one was not one that I had given to her. I gave her eggs that had been incubated for 10 days when she went broody, and they were marked! Apparently she laid this one that day. And it was still alive!! Luckily, I have eggs in the bator on the same timeline, so I popped it in with those. It was a teeny tiny egg too. I think she has either 4 or 5 chicks. Hard to believe she's so mean, huh. lol

What beautiful hens. Congrats on the chicks. I hope to take pic of the candling tomorrow and post them. I am too excited and will share everything, good or bad, as it happens So far I love my new Ovation incubator. I wish I would have gone bigger.

 

[WVduckchick]

What beautiful hens. Congrats on the chicks.
I hope to take pic of the candling tomorrow and post them. I am too excited and will share everything, good or bad, as it happens

So far I love my new Ovation incubator. I wish I would have gone bigger.

Thanks for the compliments! And I'm glad to hear you like the Ovation. I have 2 Octagon 20's (one Eco, one Adv EX), but seems they are discontinuing them, so parts may be hard to find down the line. The turner cradles worry me the most. I may invest in an Ovation one of these days....

 

[henaynei]

I'm Really hoping to get at least 2 decent breeding pairs (dare I hope for trios?) out of this hatch! If so next time I'm going to let the hens incubate! Might even get a couple of silkies for brooding duty!
I know they'll do a better job than me.

 

[Jessimom]

Thanks for the compliments! And I'm glad to hear you like the Ovation. I have 2 Octagon 20's (one Eco, one Adv EX), but seems they are discontinuing them, so parts may be hard to find down the line. The turner cradles worry me the most. I may invest in an Ovation one of these days....

Last week one of my Octagon 40's, the turner clutch snapped, the bator tipped as close to upside down as possible. most of the eggs dumped out. I CAREFULLY opened it and pulled all that were loose, put them in an egg carton. Once all the loose eggs were taken care of, I tipped it flat, and reset all the eggs. Fortunately, I have two 40's - so I took the LONELY single row of serama eggs in the second 40, and put them in my Brinsea 20 that just happened to have 1 row empty. Then I took the working turner and put it under the bator full of eggs. Luckily, only 1 egg was cracked very slightly on the air cell. I put a bandaid on it and re-set it. That upside down bator looked BAD when I found it - I thought for sure there were going to be a bunch of cracked ones. Nice hard shells?????

I went to Brinsea and ordered 2 new clutches. 1 to replace the broken 1, and one just in case the second turner breaks. I ordered the parts on Sunday night, they arrived yesterday. Their shipping is fast.

Problem is, I had eggs that needed to be set!! Nobody in my house is responsible enough to manually turn eggs. On Tuesday - I got a text from a fellow chicken lady, asking if I had any eggs that her classroom could hatch! - perfect timing. I gave her the bantam Salmon Favorelle eggs I had received on Saturday. The Maran eggs I received on Friday - 3 went to Gotro17 to put under her broody, and the rest I set on Wednesday as I pulled clears. They sat a bit longer than I would have liked, but I did not want to pull the LG out of storage.


So, these poor juggled eggs - I candled some of them Wednesday. Gotro17's Bielfelders were a REPLACEMENT batch from a seller, since the last batch only had 1 out of 15 hatch. AGAIN almost all are infertile. I pulled 10 - there was NOTHING growing in the eggs. No signs of veins, nothing. I slipped each Maran egg in as I pulled out each of the bad Bielfelders. I only found 2 of the Biefelders that actually looked good. 1 looked like an early DIS. All of the Sebright eggs were developing.

I tried to candle the Brinsea 20 eggs. For the Seramas, I pulled 4 clears, the rest look GREAT. The Marans are just too dark and I was candling during the day - I just couldn't see into the eggs. They were only on day 7, so I left them all in.

The Biels, Sebrights and Seramas are all getting locked down together on 5/3. Gotro17's Marans and the rest of the juggled eggs - Lavender Orps and Tolbunt Polish on 5/8. Then I just have those last few Maran eggs I set on Wednesday......I think I have to stop hatching for a bit after that - I'm trying to stay away from ANY auctions......

Way too many chicks!!!!

 

[WVduckchick]

Last week one of my Octagon 40's, the turner clutch snapped, the bator tipped as close to upside down as possible. most of the eggs dumped out. I CAREFULLY opened it and pulled all that were loose, put them in an egg carton. Once all the loose eggs were taken care of, I tipped it flat, and reset all the eggs. Fortunately, I have two 40's - so I took the LONELY single row of serama eggs in the second 40, and put them in my Brinsea 20 that just happened to have 1 row empty. Then I took the working turner and put it under the bator full of eggs. Luckily, only 1 egg was cracked very slightly on the air cell. I put a bandaid on it and re-set it. That upside down bator looked BAD when I found it - I thought for sure there were going to be a bunch of cracked ones. Nice hard shells?????

I went to Brinsea and ordered 2 new clutches. 1 to replace the broken 1, and one just in case the second turner breaks. I ordered the parts on Sunday night, they arrived yesterday. Their shipping is fast.

Problem is, I had eggs that needed to be set!! Nobody in my house is responsible enough to manually turn eggs. On Tuesday - I got a text from a fellow chicken lady, asking if I had any eggs that her classroom could hatch! - perfect timing. I gave her the bantam Salmon Favorelle eggs I had received on Saturday. The Maran eggs I received on Friday - 3 went to Gotro17 to put under her broody, and the rest I set on Wednesday as I pulled clears. They sat a bit longer than I would have liked, but I did not want to pull the LG out of storage.


So, these poor juggled eggs - I candled some of them Wednesday. Gotro17's Bielfelders were a REPLACEMENT batch from a seller, since the last batch only had 1 out of 15 hatch. AGAIN almost all are infertile. I pulled 10 - there was NOTHING growing in the eggs. No signs of veins, nothing. I slipped each Maran egg in as I pulled out each of the bad Bielfelders. I only found 2 of the Biefelders that actually looked good. 1 looked like an early DIS. All of the Sebright eggs were developing.

I tried to candle the Brinsea 20 eggs. For the Seramas, I pulled 4 clears, the rest look GREAT. The Marans are just too dark and I was candling during the day - I just couldn't see into the eggs. They were only on day 7, so I left them all in.

The Biels, Sebrights and Seramas are all getting locked down together on 5/3. Gotro17's Marans and the rest of the juggled eggs - Lavender Orps and Tolbunt Polish on 5/8. Then I just have those last few Maran eggs I set on Wednesday......I think I have to stop hatching for a bit after that - I'm trying to stay away from ANY auctions......

Way too many chicks!!!!

OMG that is a bunch!! How are the LO's looking, by the way??

Where did you get bantam salmon fav's?

Glad you saved all those eggs! That could have been really ugly!

I have a big fluffy bath towel in front and behind my Octagon 20 Eco because I just have a feeling that little plastic arm is going to snap with the weight of that thing full! I already replaced the fan in that one. The fan itself was dated 2015, I bought the bator lightly used, so I have no idea if it was the original or not. Brinsea was out of stock on them, so I found the same fan online, got it quick, but its dated 2002! But it works. I should probably stock up on some spare parts, just in case.

I think the whole design flaws are why they went to the Ovation design.

 

[cybercat]

I had 9 hatch out of a dozen in my new breed. Here is one of the blue Ameraucanas.

 

[henaynei]

Last week one of my Octagon 40's, the turner clutch snapped, the bator tipped as close to upside down as possible.  most of the eggs dumped out.  I CAREFULLY opened it and pulled all that were loose, put them in an egg carton.  Once all the loose eggs were taken care of, I tipped it flat, and reset all the eggs.  Fortunately, I have two 40's - so I took the LONELY single row of serama eggs in the second 40, and put them in my Brinsea 20 that just happened to have 1 row empty.  Then I took the working turner and put it under the bator full of eggs.  Luckily, only 1 egg was cracked very slightly on the air cell.  I put a bandaid on it and re-set it.  That upside down bator looked BAD when I found it - I thought for sure there were going to be a bunch of cracked ones.  Nice hard shells?????

I went to Brinsea and ordered 2 new clutches.  1 to replace the broken 1, and one just in case the second turner breaks.  I ordered the parts on Sunday night, they arrived yesterday.  Their shipping is fast.  

Problem is, I had eggs that needed to be set!!  Nobody in my house is responsible enough to manually turn eggs.  On Tuesday - I got a text from a fellow chicken lady, asking if I had any eggs that her classroom could hatch!  - perfect timing.  I gave her the bantam Salmon Favorelle eggs I had received on Saturday.   The Maran eggs I received on Friday - 3 went to Gotro17 to put under her broody, and the rest I set on Wednesday as I pulled clears.  They sat a bit longer than I would have liked, but I did not want to pull the LG out of storage.  


So, these poor juggled eggs - I candled some of them Wednesday.  Gotro17's Bielfelders were a REPLACEMENT batch from a seller, since the last batch only had 1 out of 15 hatch.  AGAIN  almost all are infertile.  I pulled 10 - there was NOTHING growing in the eggs.  No signs of veins, nothing.  I slipped each Maran egg in as I pulled out each of the bad Bielfelders.   I only found 2 of the Biefelders that actually looked good.  1 looked like an early DIS.  All of the Sebright eggs were developing. 

I tried to candle the Brinsea 20 eggs.  For the Seramas, I pulled 4 clears, the rest look GREAT.  The Marans are just too dark and I was candling during the day - I just couldn't see into the eggs.  They were only on day 7, so I left them all in. 

The Biels, Sebrights and Seramas are all getting locked down together on 5/3.   Gotro17's Marans and the rest of the juggled eggs - Lavender Orps and Tolbunt Polish on 5/8.  Then I just have those last few Maran eggs I set on Wednesday......I think I have to stop hatching for a bit after that - I'm trying to stay away from ANY auctions......

Way too many chicks!!!!

WOW
What a colorful chicken yard you'll have!!!

 

[Jessimom]

OMG that is a bunch!! How are the LO's looking, by the way??

Where did you get bantam salmon fav's?

Glad you saved all those eggs! That could have been really ugly!

I have a big fluffy bath towel in front and behind my Octagon 20 Eco because I just have a feeling that little plastic arm is going to snap with the weight of that thing full! I already replaced the fan in that one. The fan itself was dated 2015, I bought the bator lightly used, so I have no idea if it was the original or not. Brinsea was out of stock on them, so I found the same fan online, got it quick, but its dated 2002! But it works. I should probably stock up on some spare parts, just in case.

I think the whole design flaws are why they went to the Ovation design.

The bator stayed closed, and it stayed ON the turner, it just turned further than it should have. When we opened it, we cracked it open on one side - my father held it carefully partially open, while I squeezed my hand in to pull all the eggs off the cover. I feel REALLY lucky.

I got the bSF from an Ebay seller that has a new auction every couple of weeks. She had GREAT reviews and the box I got was perfect, the packaging was awesome. It's funny, I was in a bidding war on one of her batches, I put my maximum bid and someone bid more. So, I checked, she already had another auction listed - it was ending a week later. I put in my maximum bid from the last auction - the way ebay works it just listed the minimum bid. I completely forgot about it. A week later I got an email, I won the auction as the only bidder, so I got them for $40. I would have paid $60. She messaged me the next day, saying when she candled the eggs she was going to send, one was cracked, so she added a bunch of the eggs collected the following day to send to me also. I got 15 eggs instead of the 10 I bid on.

The Lavs are on day 8, but are in with eggs on day 13. I don't want to open the bator until they are on day 15, which will be day 10 for the Lavs. I'll let you know on Sunday. It was one of the LAVs that got slightly cracked in the tumble, and when I candled it, it had GREAT veins. So, I think they are dong great.

The one good thing about the tumble - the eggs got shuffled better than I normally do when candling.

 

[BlueShadow]

At one day old, how active should my chicks be? These spend most of their time sleeping. They don't run around or go drink. I am getting food for them today.
The other chicks I have raised all have been more active, but those were hatchery shipped chicks or broody hatched, never incubator hatched.