April Hatch Thread--Come Join Us!

[oesdog]

• Well I have had to work two 14 hour shifts and a 10 hour shift, so my hubby
  
  has been watching the incubator, brooder, chicks, chickens, rabbits, and dogs and cats. He is wonderful did a great job! We had six hatch out.
  
  Three speckled sussex and three I got that are unknown. They are supposed to be bantum , two are small one is big. lol I don't know what they are but they are cute. I will post pictures later. I am too tied to read all the posts but congrat to all the new chicks.

Thats brillient. - I have lucky dip eggs too! I don't know what they are. Maybe if you take pics and put them up folk will be able to identify them? I am hoping that someone might help to tell what mine are if and when they hatch???

It is hard to keep up with all the posts - this thread is incredibly fluid!

WE ARE ON DAY 18!!!!!!!!!

Lockdown tonight!!!!! I am sooooooooooooooooooo

I guess by Thursday something might have happened?????

Oes

 

[melina90]

Congrats to all the new hatched chicks, and for those who were disappointed I truly feel for you and hope your next hatch will be better!

I'm atm having two broodies sharing two eggs (weirdos) that are due in a couple of days. I'm so excited to see if there's anything happening soon! Candled yesterday and although it was almost impossible to see a thing by now I did spot some movement in all that dark mass.

 

[Keggen]

This has been such a neat experience and fun sharing with all of you. I'm going to watch the May hatching thread and hope I can join it if I can get my Welsummer eggs. I'm crossing my fingers!!

As for my official stats, I started with 42 eggs. 5 I knew right off the bat were almost certainly not fertile because of the hen they were from but I wanted to try anyway. Other random ones also were culled right away, 4 were not fertile, 1 was a blood ring loss and 1 was a very early quitter.


31 eggs made it to lockdown. Of those I had marked 5 during my last candling as possibly dead but I wasn't sure so I left them in.

23 of the 31 hatched. 1 has some serious problems with her butt/stomach and her legs & feet. She does not appear ill but I have no idea how to help so it might die. 2 others have some minor issues with their butts that I hope will resolve. They are all hanging out in the incubator for now. The other healthy 20 are having a party in the barn in their brooder!

The 8 eggs that did not hatch really bummed me out. Remember the 5 that I had marked questionable at lockdown? Well 3 of them ending up hatching but 2 did not. Goes to show my candling skills are not very good yet! 6 of these 8 were very far along, including the cracked egg that I had waxed and hand turned all this time. I did an eggtopsy and the best I can figure from my research is that the heat spike I had right before lockdown probably killed them. I feel really bad about that. The night I went to bed and woke up to the incubator being 102 was unexplainable, and I don't know how long they were that high. Then later the next day they spiked back to 102 again!

I think that really did it and caused these to die because of their positioning and most likely date of death.

The other 2 were not as far along and were positioned differently so I think they had died a few days before that. Those were the ones I had marked questionable! So I did candle them correctly and guessed correctly on their deaths. I don't know why those 2 died.

Overall not too bad for my first time. Definitely learned some important things. My death rate was about 25% though which is way too high and will have to be improved!

 

[melina90]

Not a bad result at all, Keggen! Congrats, enjoy your peeps!

 

[Maah]

My broody hen, Jewels, hatched eggs this weekend. I had set 8 silkie eggs under her. Our leghorn decided she'd like to contribute & set 2 of her own eggs for the broody without permission before we realized it. So there were a total of 10 eggs. We noticed some pips on Saturday, so yesterday morning I went to check and there was a whole pile of fuzzies under her. I didn't mess too much since it's rather cold here in MI yet. But from what I could see, there were only 2 eggs left unhatched (1 silkie, & 1 leghornX). Since the leghorn eggs were set on different days thanks to my ambitious hen, those had separate hatch dates anyways & I would expect 1 to hatch later. When I went to check them later in the afternoon, I didn't see the silkie egg... That doesn't mean it hatched, just that I didn't see it. It could have been hiding in the pile of fluffy butts. However I felt a pip hole in the last leghorn egg.

I'll go out there this afternoon & check them again. Whether they hatch or not, Jewels managed a great hatch rate. I'm impressed. And it was so much LESS stressful for me. I told Jewels she really was the "set it & forget it" incubator. Practically no work involved! I think she roller her eyes at me & gave a huff. LOL.

Here are some pictures I took yesterday of proud momma & the pile of fuzzy fluffy butts.

 

[wabbit1964]

egg #6 moved last night. as did egg #1 which is the one egg with the odd aircell... # 1 is rocking around a lot this morning and the peep I hear from someone in there today is louder than what I heard last night.... Maybe today will be the day (day 22).. There are 17 eggs but being a first timer I was not paying attention and did a staggered hatch so some of the 17 might be the batch that is due 4/24. Then there is another 12 due the 1st of May.

 

[jnjmanning]

My broody hen, Jewels, hatched eggs this weekend. I had set 8 silkie eggs under her. Our leghorn decided she'd like to contribute & set 2 of her own eggs for the broody without permission before we realized it. So there were a total of 10 eggs. We noticed some pips on Saturday, so yesterday morning I went to check and there was a whole pile of fuzzies under her. I didn't mess too much since it's rather cold here in MI yet. But from what I could see, there were only 2 eggs left unhatched (1 silkie, & 1 leghornX). Since the leghorn eggs were set on different days thanks to my ambitious hen, those had separate hatch dates anyways & I would expect 1 to hatch later. When I went to check them later in the afternoon, I didn't see the silkie egg... That doesn't mean it hatched, just that I didn't see it. It could have been hiding in the pile of fluffy butts. However I felt a pip hole in the last leghorn egg.

I'll go out there this afternoon & check them again. Whether they hatch or not, Jewels managed a great hatch rate. I'm impressed. And it was so much LESS stressful for me. I told Jewels she really was the "set it & forget it" incubator. Practically no work involved! I think she roller her eyes at me & gave a huff. LOL.

Here are some pictures I took yesterday of proud momma & the pile of fuzzy fluffy butts.

What an AWESOME momma!! You go Jewels!!!

 

[TheCrazyChick]

Lockdown starts tomorrow on my second attempt at hatching. Last week's first attempt yielded five. This week's will hopefully give me mottled houdans, silver Plymouth rocks, light Sussex and wheaten marans.

 

[minihorse927]

these two were just too adorable to not share! they hatched last night!

 

[chickydee64]

Ok maybe someone can help us. We have 20 eggs in one nest. But there is not one hen setting on them. WHY??? THANKS

Hi, This is a mistake..hit the wrong button to respond and cannot figure out how to delete this.
Sooooooooooooooo, will post to get rid of it.
Thanks for your patience.....................