BYC's 2025 Spooktacular Halloween Hatch-Along

[ella2025]

@everyone At what day can you start seeing veins and development?

 

[redinator]

This is the guide I use: https://thehomesteadingrd.com/candling-chicken-eggs-day-by-day/

My first two hatches I candled pretty often and my hatch rates weren't great so I'm only candling on day 10 and 18 this time.

 

[ella2025]

Anytime I turn on a light the chickens start complaining, lol

Mine are stupid and clueless when they roost. I walked into the coop tonight to collect eggs to see 2 rubber eggs splattered on the ground. Never seen a rubber egg in my life and here I am staring at 2 that are under the exact 2 chickens that lay those specific eggs... Looks like they dropped some underdeveloped eggs from the roost?! I'll have to make a thread about this.

 

[redinator]

Mine are stupid and clueless when they roost. I walked into the coop tonight to collect eggs to see 2 rubber eggs splattered on the ground. Never seen a rubber egg in my life and here I am staring at 2 that are under the exact 2 chickens that lay those specific eggs... Looks like they dropped some underdeveloped eggs from the roost?! I'll have to make a thread about this.
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I found a bit of membrane in the nest box a week or so ago. I have a few pullets that could be getting close to laying, but no one seems ill/sore so I'm just keeping an eye on things to see if I need to call in reinforcements.

 

[redinator]

I found a bit of membrane in the nest box a week or so ago. I have a few pullets that could be getting close to laying, but no one seems ill/sore so I'm just keeping an eye on things to see if I need to call in reinforcements.

Do you feed your chickens all flock or layers feed?

 

[ella2025]

Do you feed your chickens all flock or layers feed?

All flock w crushed egg shells. Just refilled the egg shells yesterday

 

[redinator]

All flock w crushed egg shells. Just refilled the egg shells yesterday

Some things just take time to get sorted when they first start laying. Everytime I have a new layer I tend to find an egg just dropped in the run or yard, like it fell out where they stood, lol. Poor things have no idea what's happening.

 

[ella2025]

By the way, I checked on the incubator multiple times throughout these 2 days, and the eggs aren't really bunching up. They do squeeze together a little bit, but none of them are falling out of their place or cracking or anything so I'm not worried about it.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Still running, no hiccups so far . . . is it day 10 yet? I want to candle so bad

SAME! I LOVE CANDLING SO MUCH! how is it day 2 only?

 

[redinator]

By the way, I checked on the incubator multiple times throughout these 2 days, and the eggs aren't really bunching up. They do squeeze together a little bit, but none of them are falling out of their place or cracking or anything so I'm not worried about it.

That's good news!

I might set more in the one I have, that's similar to yours, that I had issues with. The rest of the eggs are smaller so the hatch shouldn't be too staggered