DECEMBER Hatch-A-Long!😊

[LadiesAndJane]

A baker’s dozen (lucky 13) went into lockdown last night. So if you’ve ever wondered what happens when eggs are shipped 2000 miles, with saddled air cells , followed by inconsistent turning , set upside down and on their sides , and temperature fluctuations , I’ll be able to let you know in a couple of days. Anything that makes it out of these eggs will be super-chicks after overcoming all of my $&@#-ups.

Fingers crossed for a good hatch. You did what you could!

 

[rottngrrl]

A new breed that is being worked on to be submitted to the APA.

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Beautiful!

 

[rottngrrl]

They started hatching this morning. Very slowly that is. 9 in the brooder now and 4 more pipped.

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Super cute little babies!

 

[BuckeyeFoodie]

Well, the essay from hell is done and submitted, just in time for this little nugget to make an appearance! Definitely at least half Ayam Cemani - black legs and beak, but pink skin and comb? My AC pair are free-ranging with my egg layer flock at the moment, so it's anyone's guess!

 

[rottngrrl]

I feel so bad. I feel like a bona fide chicken-bump killer.

Yesterday was day 10 on the chicks I am hatching, and when I evaluated all my eggs this afternoon (first timer here), amongst all the eggs, one that was laid by my beautiful jet-black Australorp looked like it had failed. The veins all looked like they were sliding down the side of the egg and I couldn't figure out if there were blood blobs around the circumference or not. And of course there was zero movement from the egg. So I set it aside and when I was done with the rest, I went to go check it out.

I was wrong. I was so very, very wrong. When I cracked the egg open on to a plate, the little fetus was clearly still alive (until that moment of course)! I feel so bad!! It's little feet/sticks were twitching, which made me want to cry. I have decided that unless an egg is CLEARLY showing ZERO signs of development (as in lights up like a Christmas bulb), or is clearly dead (as in no doubts whatsoever) I will not remove it from the incubator until either it hatches, or becomes more likely to cause and issue.

On the flip side, I think I know where Stephen Spielberg came up with his idea for ET now.

Quick Stats:

Eggs Set: 84
Fertile Eggs: 59
Fertile Eggs that Quit (or see above): 4
Eggs Moving on to Round 2: 55

The 25 infertile eggs are from my pullets who are all less than 8 months old, so I had expected this.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I feel so bad. I feel like a bona fide chicken-bump killer.

Yesterday was day 10 on the chicks I am hatching, and when I evaluated all my eggs this afternoon (first timer here), amongst all the eggs, one that was laid by my beautiful jet-black Australorp looked like it had failed. The veins all looked like they were sliding down the side of the egg and I couldn't figure out if there were blood blobs around the circumference or not. And of course there was zero movement from the egg. So I set it aside and when I was done with the rest, I went to go check it out.

I was wrong. I was so very, very wrong. When I cracked the egg open on to a plate, the little fetus was clearly still alive (until that moment of course)! I feel so bad!! It's little feet/sticks were twitching, which made me want to cry. I have decided that unless an egg is CLEARLY showing ZERO signs of development (as in lights up like a Christmas bulb), or is clearly dead (as in no doubts whatsoever) I will not remove it from the incubator until either it hatches, or becomes more likely to cause and issue.

On the flip side, I think I know where Stephen Spielberg came up with his idea for ET now.

Quick Stats:

Eggs Set: 84
Fertile Eggs: 59
Fertile Eggs that Quit (or see above): 4
Eggs Moving on to Round 2: 55

The 25 infertile eggs are from my pullets who are all less than 8 months old, so I had expected this.

So sorry you had to go through that experience! Though it is a learning one to be sure. I have almost tossed out eggs several times where I didn’t see movement and then it turns out they hatched after all.
Sounds like you still have a lot of eggs left that are progressing to the next step! Continued best wishes and good luck on your hatch!

 

[rottngrrl]

I am having an issue with my Farm Innovator 4250 Incubator when it comes to heating evenly. I purchased both incubators separately (one from TSC and one from amazon prime), so it is interesting that the exact same problem is happing with both of them.

I have both incubators set up in my home office, which is at a constant 72-74 degrees and the office door is always closed to eliminate any drafts (I also have baby chicks in my office, so it's a double-down type of situation). I have dark-out curtains on the windows to help reduce any fluctuations in temperature as well due to sun or cold penetration through the window glass. I have additional calibrated equipment to help me maintain the proper environment inside the incubator (100.0-100.5 F, and RH 50-55%) and I thought things were going very well. However...

When I evaluated all the eggs (candle, air sac, weight, etc.), there were many eggs that were noticeably NOT warm from the front rows of both incubators, and a few from the back rows as well. Of course, of the 25 infertile eggs, 10 of them were located in these rows (8 in the front row and 2 in the back row). There were additional "maybe" fertile eggs that I chose to keep on board for Round 2, some in these areas as well. So I wonder if some of these "unfertile eggs" were fertile, but simply did not have the proper environment to really get going.

Does anyone else have this problem with this incubator (or any for that matter), and if so, how have you resolved the uneven temps? It supposedly has a fan, but that doesn't seem to be working all that well. I have now put a thick fluffy towel (1 each) doubled over across the edge and front of the incubator, but that does not seem to be helping as much as I had hoped it would. Do I just not use these 7 slots for eggs? That seems like a waste of space.

Curious to see how other peep-addicts work around this issue!

 

[vixie-daisy]

I love Olandsk Dwarf, they are so cute! Still pretty rare in the US. I believe they were almost extinct in Sweden as well if I remember correctly, until some breeders brought them back. What made you pick them? Few people have heard of them.

I'm super late on responding to this, I'm sorry!
I fell in love with tiny bantams after getting some Seramas. This lead me into searching for other interesting tiny chicken breeds that are friendly and make good pets, while still laying well. I happened upon a description of Olandsk Dwarfs and they seemed perfect for me. I'll admit their rarity made them seem even more intriguing.
I'm getting some Dutch Bantam eggs set to hatch in January for similar reasons! Might as well have some variety in my tiny flock of tiny chickens lol

 

[vixie-daisy]

I am having an issue with my Farm Innovator 4250 Incubator when it comes to heating evenly. I purchased both incubators separately (one from TSC and one from amazon prime), so it is interesting that the exact same problem is happing with both of them.

I have both incubators set up in my home office, which is at a constant 72-74 degrees and the office door is always closed to eliminate any drafts (I also have baby chicks in my office, so it's a double-down type of situation). I have dark-out curtains on the windows to help reduce any fluctuations in temperature as well due to sun or cold penetration through the window glass. I have additional calibrated equipment to help me maintain the proper environment inside the incubator (100.0-100.5 F, and RH 50-55%) and I thought things were going very well. However...

When I evaluated all the eggs (candle, air sac, weight, etc.), there were many eggs that were noticeably NOT warm from the front rows of both incubators, and a few from the back rows as well. Of course, of the 25 infertile eggs, 10 of them were located in these rows (8 in the front row and 2 in the back row). There were additional "maybe" fertile eggs that I chose to keep on board for Round 2, some in these areas as well. So I wonder if some of these "unfertile eggs" were fertile, but simply did not have the proper environment to really get going.

Does anyone else have this problem with this incubator (or any for that matter), and if so, how have you resolved the uneven temps? It supposedly has a fan, but that doesn't seem to be working all that well. I have now put a thick fluffy towel (1 each) doubled over across the edge and front of the incubator, but that does not seem to be helping as much as I had hoped it would. Do I just not use these 7 slots for eggs? That seems like a waste of space.

Curious to see how other peep-addicts work around this issue!

I recently purchased a Styrofoam type still-air incubator (Little Giant) that I converted into a forced air by adding a little muffin fan. I simply removed a couple rails from the automatic egg turner (I don't need that many anyway) and placed the fan in on its side. I have several calibrated thermometers in there and the temps read evenly in all parts of the incubator, so the fan seems to be doing well on circulating the air. I feel like the fans that come standard in a lot of forced air incubators are so weak that there are inevitably hot and cold pockets, which is why I chose to cobble together a kind of DIY solution. It's working exactly as I hoped.

If you need all the egg rails, I saw that some people opted to mount the fan to the lid of the incubator. I'd be way too nervous to do this in fear of me doing it improperly and it falling and crushing the eggs, but other people seem to have had success with it.

Hopefully someone has a better solution that allows you to use all of the egg slots! Good luck!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I'm super late on responding to this, I'm sorry!
I fell in love with tiny bantams after getting some Seramas. This lead me into searching for other interesting tiny chicken breeds that are friendly and make good pets, while still laying well. I happened upon a description of Olandsk Dwarfs and they seemed perfect for me. I'll admit their rarity made them seem even more intriguing.
I'm getting some Dutch Bantam eggs set to hatch in January for similar reasons! Might as well have some variety in my tiny flock of tiny chickens lol

Thought you might enjoy this image from a local breeder here in Hawaii of all places!