December Hatch-A-Long 2014

[Renee572]

Love all the updates... sounds like some of you are doing well. Saturday cannot come fast enough!

Keep the updates coming! December is almost here so I can't wait to see pics of cute fluffy babies!

 

[Debs55]

I candled Sunday, day 7 and found good veining in about 9 out of 18 and unsure of 4 of them. I'll be happy with a 50% hatch rate because of the time of year. I couldn't tell with them Maran eggs, I've never tried hatching them before. I didn't think humidity would be so tricky this time of year, but with storms coming through I've had to throw on the A/C just to bring it down!

Im having the opposite problem! can't keep my humidity up!

 

[aidensmomma]

Humidity is a ***** isn't it?!?!?! I don't freak out about it as much as I used to. I have my incubator in my laundry room so I put the warm air humidifier in there and usually that spikes it to where i need it during lockdown. That and running a load of laundry with hot water. This time it appears I will just have to open the doors and windows and let nature humidify them! I am hoping that this spring one of my hens goes broody. I've never hatched using a broody hen, but I"m pretty sure she doesn't stress about the humidity!!

 

[Debs55]

Humidity is a ***** isn't it?!?!?! I don't freak out about it as much as I used to. I have my incubator in my laundry room so I put the warm air humidifier in there and usually that spikes it to where i need it during lockdown. That and running a load of laundry with hot water. This time it appears I will just have to open the doors and windows and let nature humidify them! I am hoping that this spring one of my hens goes broody. I've never hatched using a broody hen, but I"m pretty sure she doesn't stress about the humidity!!

broodies are so much less stressful! lol I'm only worrying about it in one cause I have large saddle air cells. trying to bring it up to see if I can get them to shrink some

 

[Purpletie3]

Remember mine took 6 days to get to me! I am hoping they have some development!

Mine shipped thursday and got to me monday and looked like someone threw the box.... I am sure you will have some luck there!

 

[Sustained]

I did some candling since I had a batch of Serama due to go into lockdown yesterday. Unfortunately, that entire batch never even developed. I know at least one of the eggs was infertile. I cracked it open out of curiosity since it was damaged in shipping already and I didn't think nail polish would save it. Not sure if it was the shipping, bad packaging, or infertility on the rest.

I run a perpetual staggered hatch so my stats so far are:

Seramas- hatch date 11/30, 6 looking good still! Originally 13 eggs. 2 never developed and I lost 5 a couple days ago to a temp spike which was very disappointing since they were looking good before that.

I moved the remaining eggs to my RX-2 and shut off my LG after that.

Seramas- hatch date 12/2, 5 still with nice veining and movement. Originally 10 eggs. 4 never developed, 1 early quitter.

Silkies- hatch date 12/11 (yes it's only day 6 but I was curious how they were doing so far and I don't have to move the eggs to use my candler so why not?), 8 have nice veining that I could see so far out of 18 eggs. Really hoping some more get with the program!

Party Mix (bantam and standard assortment)- hatch date 12/11, Only 3 had veining that I could see so far out of 9 eggs but I didn't want to move them so maybe in a few days there will be more

Seramas + 1 silkie- hatch date 12/13, I didn't really expect to see anything in these so soon but I lit up the end of a handful of random ones out of curiosity. No surprise I didn't see much

I have a dozen serama eggs due to arrive today or tomorrow that I will be setting. And I just ordered some Bielefelder eggs to hatch hopefully in time for Christmas. And after that I will be setting more serama for the New Years hatch-a-long. I don't plan on setting any more eggs for a December hatch but I can't seem to quit putting more eggs in my bators so I guess we will see. DH just told me I should hatch us some meat birds

 

[Debs55]

I did some candling since I had a batch of Serama due to go into lockdown yesterday. Unfortunately, that entire batch never even developed. I know at least one of the eggs was infertile. I cracked it open out of curiosity since it was damaged in shipping already and I didn't think nail polish would save it. Not sure if it was the shipping, bad packaging, or infertility on the rest.

I run a perpetual staggered hatch so my stats so far are:

Seramas- hatch date 11/30, 6 looking good still! Originally 13 eggs. 2 never developed and I lost 5 a couple days ago to a temp spike which was very disappointing since they were looking good before that.

I moved the remaining eggs to my RX-2 and shut off my LG after that.

Seramas- hatch date 12/2, 5 still with nice veining and movement. Originally 10 eggs. 4 never developed, 1 early quitter.

Silkies- hatch date 12/11 (yes it's only day 6 but I was curious how they were doing so far and I don't have to move the eggs to use my candler so why not?), 8 have nice veining that I could see so far out of 18 eggs. Really hoping some more get with the program!

Party Mix (bantam and standard assortment)- hatch date 12/11, Only 3 had veining that I could see so far out of 9 eggs but I didn't want to move them so maybe in a few days there will be more

Seramas + 1 silkie- hatch date 12/13, I didn't really expect to see anything in these so soon but I lit up the end of a handful of random ones out of curiosity. No surprise I didn't see much

I have a dozen serama eggs due to arrive today or tomorrow that I will be setting. And I just ordered some Bielefelder eggs to hatch hopefully in time for Christmas. And after that I will be setting more serama for the New Years hatch-a-long. I don't plan on setting any more eggs for a December hatch but I can't seem to quit putting more eggs in my bators so I guess we will see. DH just told me I should hatch us some meat birds

So since you always have a staggered hatch you use one for days 1-18 and one for hatching? I thought about doing that this time around but thought I would forget which is which!

 

[Sustained]

So since you always have a staggered hatch you use one for days 1-18 and one for hatching? I thought about doing that this time around but thought I would forget which is which!

Yes I do. Although I actually have 3 bators now because I kept overflowing the first one and was having to get creative for lockdowns

So I have one main one for incubating, a backup bator for incubating, and one for lockdowns.

To keep track of which eggs are which I have a code written on the top of my eggs. A letter for the breed, like 'S' for serama. If I have more than one batch in the bator of a certain breed (like I do now) I put a symbol after the breed letter. And then I put the number of the egg last. So typically, I have eggs with a code like: S(heart)1. I have a notebook that I keep track of all the information. I also use it to keep notes like where I bought the eggs, sellers name, price, Set dates, hatch dates, and anything else that might be important. I always enter the hatch results too. And if I change anything about my incubation methods I make a note of it.

 

[Sustained]

13 serama eggs showed up today so I will be setting them tomorrow. They're from the same seller I had such great luck with last time so I'm hoping for another good batch

 

[Renee572]

I woke up this morning to find my humidity at 27%!

I don't know how long it was at 27% but at least the temp stayed at a perfect 100 degrees. So anyway I got the humidity back up and I've had it at 45% all day. Hopefully it doesn't go down again tonight.

Not sure if I'll have a chance to hop on tomorrow but in case I don't Happy Thanksgiving everyone.