BYC's 2026 Valentine's Day Hatch-Along

[Slothinc]

I kept 3 chicks from the first batch and they are outside under broody moms. The second batch should be hatching mostly tomorrow!

The black chick I kept is a sister to the older black girl (same mom, dad is a son of the older girls dad.) I am hoping that the black chick I am keeping will have the blue egg gene, as their mother has it. The older sister didnt get the gene, but she is pretty! The lavender chick also has a chance to have the blue egg gene.

 

[redinator]

So I think I have a plan . . .

Between 7 CPs, 7 CCLs, 1 Monster Egg, and 6 White mystery bantam eggs I have 21 eggs that need to go in the incubator.

It's only day 4 for the 24 large mystery eggs, but I'll go ahead and candle them anyway. If I don't see any obvious signs of development I'll toss them. They're from my own flock so I can hatch more at a later date. I will also drop the 6 white mystery bantam eggs if I don't have the room for them.

This will keep the smaller incubator open for the 4 bantams eggs to hatch in that are due to hatch in a week.

 

[redinator]

As luck would have it, it seems my boys are doing their jobs. It also turns out I can't toss developing eggs, even at only 4 days.

 

[redinator]

Second incubator loaded with 20 eggs. I had to ditch one of the white bantam eggs.
View attachment 4296922

I plan to move the chicks that are in the brooder out tomorrow . . . that's as far as I got with the plan.

I still need to figure out what to do about the 4 bantam eggs that are only a week away from hatching.

Today was a busy day, maybe I'll have more brain juice tomorrow.

 

[Slothinc]

Second incubator loaded with 20 eggs. I had to ditch one of the white bantam eggs.
View attachment 4296922

I plan to move the chicks that are in the brooder out tomorrow . . . that's as far as I got with the plan.

I still need to figure out what to do about the 4 bantam eggs that are only a week away from hatching.

Today was a busy day, maybe I'll have more brain juice tomorrow.

Shuffle the eggs around so that the 4 that will hatch will be in an incubator on lockdown next to the other eggs. In my experience it has not hurt any of my incubating eggs to be in lockdown humidity for a few days.

So like for your incubator picture in this last post, remove one of the rows holding eggs. Lay the 4 eggs going into lock down on the bottom of the incubator. Put the eggs from the row you removed into the spaces in the other incubator freed up by the eggs about to hatch. Allow the auto turn to remain on, until they start pipping, then turn it off until they hatch. Remove the chicks shortly after they hatch. As soon as they are all out, turn back on the auto turner. Does that make sense? I just did this for my eggs in the hatcher. I have 4 eggs still on the turner, and 8 on the ground, and I turned off the turner when they eggs started pipping. You can see the orange turner in the back, it is turned away from the chicks.

 

[redinator]

Shuffle the eggs around so that the 4 that will hatch will be in an incubator on lockdown next to the other eggs. In my experience it has not hurt any of my incubating eggs to be in lockdown humidity for a few days.

So like for your incubator picture in this last post, remove one of the rows holding eggs. Lay the 4 eggs going into lock down on the bottom of the incubator. Put the eggs from the row you removed into the spaces in the other incubator freed up by the eggs about to hatch. Allow the auto turn to remain on, until they start pipping, then turn it off until they hatch. Remove the chicks shortly after they hatch. As soon as they are all out, turn back on the auto turner. Does that make sense? I just did this for my eggs in the hatcher. I have 4 eggs still on the turner, and 8 on the ground, and I turned off the turner when they eggs started pipping. You can see the orange turner in the back, it is turned away from the chicks.

It does make sense, but I do dry hatches until lockdown. I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not.

 

[Slothinc]

It does make sense, but I do dry hatches until lockdown. I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not.

Are your two incubators the same style? You can do the experimental lockdown/hatching in the incubator with your flocks eggs, just in case anything happens. I would add humidity - the other eggs only having 3 days of extra humidity, it really shouldn’t make much difference. Then go back to dry until they are ready for lockdown.

 

[redinator]

Are your two incubators the same style? You can do the experimental lockdown/hatching in the incubator with your flocks eggs, just in case anything happens. I would add humidity - the other eggs only having 3 days of extra humidity, it really shouldn’t make much difference. Then go back to dry until they are ready for lockdown.

That could work. All the eggs in the larger incubator are from my flock.

On day 17 (Sunday) for the bantam eggs I'll remove two of the egg racks and unplug the turner. Since bantams tend to hatch at the early end of lockdown they should be ok.

 

[gullinkambe]

The first of the 5 eggs hatched, and it's a magpie!
The others: 1 is zipping, 1 has internally pipped, 2 have dipped and are moving. No dead so far!

 

[AinaWGSD]

34/42 eggs made it to lockdown! Although really it's 30, 4 of the eggs really look like late quitters but I couldn't be certain so I won't toss them until the other eggs are done.

We won't be home for most of hatch day, but husband is planning on setting up 2 cameras so we can watch between performances. And it's a smaller competition, we don't have to leave until nearly 6am and with luck we'll be back around 10pm. I guess that's one way to keep me from hovering over the incubator all day.