August Hatch-A-Long!

[BY Chicken Lady]

This ia a video of my rooster crowing.  This a few days after he started.  He is so little.

Wish I could view it, it won't play on my iPad or smartphone :/

 

[dvoice]

Yes I have it built for 2 drawers, each with 2 48egg auto trays Total 192. The australorps and Austr x sussex came from a neighbor for free the RIR are from a friends neighbor $5/doz which is pretty good for being ex Gov't Research farm wil Pure lineage dating back 60 yrs. For the controller and turners I ordered everything from one company in china that gives me a good deal. The controller is 220V but handles the turning, temp and humidity although at this time the humidity is just on a sesnsor mode so it's not hooked up to auto correct humidity.I also ran short about 10 eggs so took our refridgerated eggs that were cleaned out and marked the, curious if they'll hatch.

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

Just updating after day 9, in my bator I have:
14 BCM shipped eggs , 2 look clear and some are so dark I can't see whats going on in there
16 EE x RedSexLink , pullets were only a week into laying and unfortunately I have 8 clears
16 EE x heinz57s

, too many breeds to list and I have 2 clears from these

And I have a RedSexLink broody setting 9 EExHeinz57s & 1 EExEE (the other green egg got smashed) which I haven't candled.

So that's...44 viable eggs. I hope I get a great hatch like my last one, I can't wait for show quality BCMs!

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

Yes I have it built for  2 drawers, each with 2 48egg auto trays Total 192. The austalops sussex came from a neighbor for free the RIR are from a friends neighbor $5/doz which is pretty good for being ex Gov't Research farm wil Pure lineage dating back 60 yrs. For the controller and turners I ordered everything from one company in china that gives me a good deal. The controller is 220V but handles the turning, temp and humidity although at this time the humidity is just on a sesnsor mode so it's not hooked up to auto correct humidity.I also ran short about 10 eggs so took our refridgerated eggs that were cleaned out and marked the, curious if they'll hatch.

Don't discount the refrigerated eggs, my 2 that hatched yesterday and 3 that are still working on it in lockdown all came from the natural grocery. They were not even marked as fertile eggs. Not bad, 5 out of 10 (I cracked two to test for fertility before incubating). That is why they are my mystery eggs, I have no idea what they are and there were four different colors of eggs in the batch.

 

[familypendragon]

Mine are pipping right along. I still am worried about the very first one. his membrane isn't white like the others - I am thinking its the inner membrane or something? Its been 14 hours and I don't want him to get shrink wrapped like I have heard about. Are we still thinking this looks good?

 

[roostersandhens]

My broody is on a break! It always stresses me out when she comes off the nest. This is what goes through my mind: "Oh know what if she doesn't go back! The eggs will die" But she always goes back!

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

Mine are pipping right along. I still am worried about the very first one. his membrane isn't white like the others - I am thinking its the inner membrane or something? Its been 14 hours and I don't want him to get shrink wrapped like I have heard about. Are we still thinking this looks good?

Is the humidity staying high? That will probably help keep the membrane moist. From what I have read, you leave them be until at least 24 hours after they pip but haven't hatched. Here is a very helpful URL about assisting and when not too.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

 

[jnjmanning]

WOW, you two are so ingenious! Do you realize how much money you saved making your own? That size of an incubator would cost as much as a mortgage payment!

I can get 6 turners in, 3 on each shelf, each turner holding 42 eggs. And my hatching drawers hold 170 each, in cartons or trays. If I place them alone I am sure I can get more. But very sure I dont want to be hatching that many at one time....lol Mine cost us $200 and $150 of that was the heat/temperature/fan unit we bought at incubator warehouse. Temp reads to the .1 degree, and the probe is super sensitive. It holds readings every 24 hrs, tells you high and low temp for the day. It stays between 99.5 and 100.3. The cabinet we got for free. The rest of the cost was insulation, misc wood for shelves, plexiglass for viewing windows.



The drawers were cut out and lined with hardware cloth. Doors cut out and plexiglass placed for viewing. The PVC tube at the back is where I add water for humidity. The 2 white caps on the side are air holes for circulation, just remove the caps. The eggs go in the drawers for hatching and lined with shelf liner to keep debris from falling on eggs below, and a softer surface for the bitties. Dead center on back wall is there the heat/fan/temp unit is placed. Temp probe hangs dead center inside through a hole drilled in the top. I will get a pic of it later. First hatch was 11 of 12, this is my 2nd hatch. If all goes well I hope to add a hatching service too.

 

[jnjmanning]

This is what it looked like when we started

 

[CGinJCMO]

Wow that is young! I was beginning to wonder if my boy used up all his "man genes" in the early fertility work and didn't have enough to crow. I absolutely LOVE to have a rooster alarm clock! I grew up on a farm so this is like returning to my childhood (I am 50). Our run is outside our bedroom windows so I was afraid how my husband would feel about a Cock-A-Doodle-Do as an alarm clock, (he is a city boy). He was away this morning but I called him to share the news. He is anxious to hear it. I just hope my boy learns to crow better, right now it sounds like my grandkids yelling, lol.

I have recently lost my crowing roosters (one I butchered because I was tired of being used as his punching bag, the other I'm not sure but it was like lyrangitis because he slowly lost his crow before he died) and it's strange going out to the coop to let the hens out and not hearing one of the roosters crow. Now that they are gone, I kind of miss it. Of course, they weren't obnoxious crowers either.

I have a 5 month old AustraWhite cockerel (at least I think it is a cockerel because his comb and wattles turned red at 3 months and they are bigger than the other AustraWhite pullet) that hasn't crowed yet. He's been without the older rooster for a couple of weeks now and there's still no crowing from him yet. No crow, no saddle or hackle feathers that I can see (of course since he's white, I don't see any different feathers) but I don't think I'm getting an egg either.

Back to the hatching topic...Still have no more hatching but today is finally day 21. I did pull shell and membrane from one chick/egg that had a hole in it from the other chicks hatching and "gluing" two eggs together. I thought the membrane was getting tough and wanted to give the chick a chance. I also thought I'd try gentlely cleaning some of the eggs but the gunk has dried on too hard now. When chicks hatch, do they always leave a mess on the other eggs? Is the poo, or whatever it is, killing the remaining eggs?

CG