DECEMBER Hatch-A-Long!😊

[LadiesAndJane]

Can you tell me where I find the Sally sunshine info on hatching?

EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

Type this under the search bar and it will pop up!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

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.

Welcome to the holiday hatch-a-long and welcome also to BYC!
What are you incubating?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

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%.

My exact procedure as well! High ambient humidity, dry incubation. Add water at lockdown. First time doing staggered hatches and really like using the hatcher. So far so good!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Saddened to report that "Thing Five" did not make it, in spite of heroic efforts. makes second effort 33% successful (inclusive of the infertile eggs).

Incubator has been cleaned, sanitized, and readied for a new hatching, will begin with fresh chicken eggs again tomorrow, with an eye on a Dec 31/Jan 1 hatching, give or take.

May all other posters have more success than I am experiencing in their hatching efforts.

Meet Thing One thru Thing Four, all the same daddy, the things that lived. They have not yet learned to face the camera, and were most wroth at my moving of the heat plate to snap this quick chic pic.

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

Saddened to report that "Thing Five" did not make it, in spite of heroic efforts. makes second effort 33% successful (inclusive of the infertile eggs).

Incubator has been cleaned, sanitized, and readied for a new hatching, will begin with fresh chicken eggs again tomorrow, with an eye on a Dec 31/Jan 1 hatching, give or take.

May all other posters have more success than I am experiencing in their hatching efforts.

Meet Thing One thru Thing Four, all the same daddy, the things that lived. They have not yet learned to face the camera, and were most wroth at my moving of the heat plate to snap this quick chic pic.

View attachment 2441315

I have to admit I *love* how you have named them all "thing" haha. It's way too cute I quite like the wee one in the corner with his white markings - reminds me a wee bit of the gremlins!

Tis a shame that you have had a few infertile egg and non goers with the hatch. But that just means you get to hatch more! And sometimes it's the process that we enjoy as much as the result

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Saddened to report that "Thing Five" did not make it, in spite of heroic efforts. makes second effort 33% successful (inclusive of the infertile eggs).

Incubator has been cleaned, sanitized, and readied for a new hatching, will begin with fresh chicken eggs again tomorrow, with an eye on a Dec 31/Jan 1 hatching, give or take.

May all other posters have more success than I am experiencing in their hatching efforts.

Meet Thing One thru Thing Four, all the same daddy, the things that lived. They have not yet learned to face the camera, and were most wroth at my moving of the heat plate to snap this quick chic pic.

View attachment 2441315

Congratulations on your "Thing" quadruplets! Little cuties!
Technically you should not count the infertiles in your percentages as no matter what you do, they would never hatch!
There is a New Year's Day hatch-a-long you should look into. I think they have contests, too!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Congratulations on your "Thing" quadruplets! Little cuties!
Technically you should not count the infertiles in your percentages as no matter what you do, they would never hatch!
There is a New Year's Day hatch-a-long you should look into. I think they have contests, too!

Thanks, I'll move comments on the next batch to that thread. Will be the same father - the only Rooster in the flock, and him a re-homing - and the same pick of mothers (see signature) based on whatever eggs I find in the boxes. Have to set up the brooder box in the barn again, get new heat lamps (bulb blown on the last) and partition it for multiple hatchings. Living in an RV right now, no room for multiple brood boxes in here, plus all the potted plants we are over-wintering.

 

[BuckeyeFoodie]

Saddened to report that "Thing Five" did not make it, in spite of heroic efforts. makes second effort 33% successful (inclusive of the infertile eggs).

I'm sorry you lost him, it always sucks.

Why are you including your infertile eggs in your hatch percentage? Personally, I do them separately- %of clutch fertile, then % of fertile eggs hatched. It's useful to do it that way, that way you can track specifically whether its a fertility or a hatching issue (or both).

 

[U_Stormcrow]

"Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics" - Samuel Clemens.

I'm counting my infertile, because with that count, I can derive any statistic I might later need. Second Hatching was 33/16/50of12. 33% Success, 16% Infertile, 50% Fail. A better question might be why I'm not counting Thing Five, and that's partially because I'll remember, and partially because Thing Five never left the incubator, being still attached to the shell when it passed this AM. That it made it two days after a premature assist due to being oriented feet first into the air sack is something of a miracle in itself. If nothing else, it was a learning experience for me.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Thanks, I'll move comments on the next batch to that thread. Will be the same father - the only Rooster in the flock, and him a re-homing - and the same pick of mothers (see signature) based on whatever eggs I find in the boxes. Have to set up the brooder box in the barn again, get new heat lamps (bulb blown on the last) and partition it for multiple hatchings. Living in an RV right now, no room for multiple brood boxes in here, plus all the potted plants we are over-wintering.

You are quite welcome to stay on here as well!