DECEMBER Hatch-A-Long!😊

[The Kooky Kiwi]

Sounds like a great plan. Are you seeing the improvements in the sebrights you were hoping for? Anything crossed with Peking (Cochins in the US I believe) are adorable. Often crossed with silkies here.

I am yes! - although doing it by myself seems like a bit like slow going sometimes. I'm hoping to have enough birds end of this season to share with a few other people then we can do some beneficial swaps between ourselves later.

Previously I had been relying on broody hens to do my heavy lifting (hence the pekins hehe) and I had many losses due to predators. This year I have invested in incubator(s) and I confess I'm now totally addicted LOL. My other half is so patient with me - Eggs and Chickens have invaded and are slowly taking over the house HAHA.

Here's a pic of my three project hens hatched last season. They're about 50% larger than my purebred sebright - but still very much the sebright type - so they were the best three I chose to continue with. One of the silver girls has a correct comb, all of them have the desired mulberry combs and slate legs, and their lacing is near enough to correct. Plan is to breed these ladies next year to an unrelated Citron sebright rooster (hence the citron eggs now in the incubator!).

This is my current project rooster Rusty whom I absolutely adore!

And this is Rusty's son Junior. He has the correct sebright size and carriage, but with wrong comb. I will likely keep these two roosters as a pair (as they are currently happy together) and breed them over some unrelated citron hens next seaon.

 

[Liviepaigesmom]

@The Kooky Kiwi what type of chicken did you say those were? Also can you tell me more about how you do successive hatching? I attempted to do that but I had two chicks hatch wrong and they had like prolapsed bowels. There was a lot of blood and eek and I was worried about contamination. None of my other eggs hatched and I'm unsire of why. They were mostly fully developed when I opened them.

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

I just completed my first hatch. I'm going to (learn) sterilize the incubator and try and hatch some of my ayum cemani eggs. I did a trial run with regular eggs and it didnt go well but I think I learned from my mistakes. Now I'm Just trying to decide if I want to do a dry hatch or use my new calibrated equipment. Thoughts? Advice?

I have learned (after a few losses and trial runs also) that local climate can have a real impact on how you arrange your incubator settings for humidity and also the style of the incubator. Our climate is naturally quite humid so I found that dry incubating worked best - there is enough humidity already in the air and to add more ended up in drowning my chicks!. However if you live in a very dry or air conditioned environment then it may well be that you need to add water.

My best hatches have occurred with the following settings (and I'm using cheap chinese made incubators so not flash equipment at all):
Dry Incubating (do not add any water manually) - natural humidity ranged between 30 and 40% on average.

At lockdown I move my eggs into a hatcher (so I can stagger my incubating and I have a dedicated hatcher in my office) - and I simply use a damp sponge to keep the humidity at about 60% - 70%.

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

@The Kooky Kiwi what type of chicken did you say those were? Also can you tell me more about how you do successive hatching? I attempted to do that but I had two chicks hatch wrong and they had like prolapsed bowels. There was a lot of blood and eek and I was worried about contamination. None of my other eggs hatched and I'm unsire of why. They were mostly fully developed when I opened them.

Good Morning!!

These are Sebrights crossed with Pekin (or Cochin if you are American) - a wee project of mine hehe.

I have two incubators set up. One has the yellow egg cradles in it with auto turning - I use that for incubating up to day 18. And the second incubator is set up for hatching - the eggs get transferred into this on day 18 and stay there to hatch.

When I initially set my eggs I write their due date on them in pencil - so I can easily see which eggs are which - and I tend to put one rows worth of eggs in at a time (usually). I find putting smaller batches of eggs in frequently resulted in better hatch results because the eggs are very fresh.

By having two incubators set up this way I find that you're not having to "change" your machine between incubating settings and hatch settings. Each machine has it's own setup and once you find a setting that works best for you, you leave it that way. I also selected my hatching machine "because" it has a very easy to clean design - I can have it cleaned, disinfected, and back to operation in 30 minutes.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

find=build right???? oh wait that is in my world.
we did make some more room this last weekend so some of my house babies could move outside sooner than later!

Thanks, we are working on converting a double decker 3‘ x 2‘ chinchilla cage that could house these chicks at least for a week or two.

 

[Caroline2008]

I’m hatching eggs and there going to be ready on December 20 but it’s really cold where I live So where building a space in the coop for them with a heat lamp but we will probably have to keep them inside the first couple of month.

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

Thanks, we are working on converting a double decker 3‘ x 2‘ chinchilla cage that could house these chicks at least for a week or two.

I confess - it's early and I haven't finished my coffee -

I started reading your comment and was like HOLY MOLY - A double decker BUS! How cool is that!! Then I saw "chinchilla cage" and felt a wee bit embarassed haha. Now all I can think about is how awesome it would be to give my chickens a house bus lol.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I confess - it's early and I haven't finished my coffee -

I started reading your comment and was like HOLY MOLY - A double decker BUS! How cool is that!! Then I saw "chinchilla cage" and felt a wee bit embarassed haha. Now all I can think about is how awesome it would be to give my chickens a house bus lol.

I would love that, too!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I just completed my first hatch. I'm going to (learn) sterilize the incubator and try and hatch some of my ayum cemani eggs. I did a trial run with regular eggs and it didnt go well but I think I learned from my mistakes. Now I'm Just trying to decide if I want to do a dry hatch or use my new calibrated equipment. Thoughts? Advice?

Welcome!
Looks like you already got some good advice from @The Kooky Kiwi !
Dry incubation works well, but is climate dependent. What is your ambient humidity?
Humidity is a tool in incubation and you may need to make adjustments depending on how your eggs progress.

Good luck with your hatches!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I am yes! - although doing it by myself seems like a bit like slow going sometimes. I'm hoping to have enough birds end of this season to share with a few other people then we can do some beneficial swaps between ourselves later.

Previously I had been relying on broody hens to do my heavy lifting (hence the pekins hehe) and I had many losses due to predators. This year I have invested in incubator(s) and I confess I'm now totally addicted LOL. My other half is so patient with me - Eggs and Chickens have invaded and are slowly taking over the house HAHA.

Here's a pic of my three project hens hatched last season. They're about 50% larger than my purebred sebright - but still very much the sebright type - so they were the best three I chose to continue with. One of the silver girls has a correct comb, all of them have the desired mulberry combs and slate legs, and their lacing is near enough to correct. Plan is to breed these ladies next year to an unrelated Citron sebright rooster (hence the citron eggs now in the incubator!).
View attachment 2441135

This is my current project rooster Rusty whom I absolutely adore!
View attachment 2441138

And this is Rusty's son Junior. He has the correct sebright size and carriage, but with wrong comb. I will likely keep these two roosters as a pair (as they are currently happy together) and breed them over some unrelated citron hens next seaon.
View attachment 2441137

Your birds are gorgeous!