December hatch along

[Tbjenkins2007]

5 pips, 1 zipping! He's finally getting chatty, they've been pretty quiet and making me nervous!

He's blue, so far it's all I can tell. But will he have his daddy's cheeks!? The first one out is hardly ever a pullet.

I’m still waiting! . But today is day 19 and I’m hoping they don’t start popping the second I’m due to go to work... but I timed my hatch just a little poor.... due the 23, and I work the next 3 days

 

[Compost King]

I woke up to pips! 1 in each hatcher, an Olive Egger and a .... whatever I'm going to call these Twentse/Legbar/EE/Niederrheiners that are coming out of blue eggs.

Supposedly a long time ago the Niederrheiners were auto sexing. We'll see who gets the head poof of the Legbar or the chipmunk cheeks of the EE... it would be crazy cool if I scored some barred partridge colors with the head crest, cheeks, walnut comb AND the blue eggs. Wishful thinking I bet. I'll definitely be scrutinizing chick fluff for any auto sexing features. My plan is to hatch like crazy from that group and pull out the ones I like and see if I can get them going into something consistent. The core traits being colored eggs, large size, nifty feathers, winter hardiness... bonus points if I can get them back into auto sexing without losing size. I don't want to breed back to Legbar if I can help it though.

The Olive Eggs have the same dad, those daughters will get bred back to Marans. Keeping it simple there. In theory it give them a double dose of green egg, going back to the Marans darkens it.

Trying not to get excited or count them before they hatch. I'm still traumatized from last year's terrible hatches, so I have this fear that out of all those eggs I'll only get a handful. Every egg that went into lockdown had movement, so I'm hopeful!

If the cheap incubators don't make reliable hatchers, then I might have to cave and buy the matching cabinet hatcher to the Sportsman cabinet. That would just be... so terrible... the way it would fill all 8 brooders in one go...

What a great thing to wake up to

 

[Compost King]

I’m still waiting! . But today is day 19 and I’m hoping they don’t start popping the second I’m due to go to work... but I timed my hatch just a little poor.... due the 23, and I work the next 3 days

If my first hatches were poorly timed like that I might have had successful hatches. my biggest problem was that I kept opening up the lid to remove birds to keep them from kicking the eggs around like a soccer ball. Yeah I am one of those stubborn people who take a long time to learn something.

 

[mandelyn]

9 pips, 1 blue OE chick with a big boy comb already.

They're giving me changes every 2 hours! In the mean time, I'm working on making a hat for a costume, that way I can take breaks and go check on them.

 

[Matieus27]

Are we gonna get to see pictures?

 

[mandelyn]

12 pips, still just the one hatchling, who's looking a lot lighter now that he's drying off.

Edited to add... the costume hat was cast aside once I reached a frustrating point, started evaluating the on-hand fabric selection and found enough for a new costume gown. Been messing around with that to see what direction it's going to go in, since I don't use patterns. I just use the dress form and pinterest inspiration. LOL

Husband came up to check stuff out and the hat fits him better, so I may take it into more masculine finishing.

 

[Tbjenkins2007]

Heading to bed to work tonight. Still can’t figure out how to control the temperature drops in my incubator at night... without making the house hot... they aren't dropping too low and still in the “safety zone” but lower than the perfect 99.5. I tend to sleep broken and check the temps every night... it tends to happen around 3am. I thought about turning the light up just a little around 2am... butbthen im scared it will get too high ugh...

I found a thermostat plug in thingy that can turn off and on within temperature parameters... I may purchase....

something like this if anyone is familiar :Century Digital Heat Mat Thermostat Controller for Seed Germination, Reptiles and Brewing, 40-108°F https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I15S6OM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_UR.gCb758ZXSQ

Any way, no pips yet... half way through day 19.

 

[muddy75]

I’m still waiting! . But today is day 19 and I’m hoping they don’t start popping the second I’m due to go to work... but I timed my hatch just a little poor.... due the 23, and I work the next 3 days

i’m on day 19 too and all eggs are still quiet here tonight.....i put them in lockdown yesterday morning and after work i started questioning whether i did it too early so i opened the incubator to turn the eggs manually and 1 egg started rocking around!! based on that i thought i might have some pips already but not yet

 

[Compost King]

i’m on day 19 too and all eggs are still quiet here tonight.....i put them in lockdown yesterday morning and after work i started questioning whether i did it too early so i opened the incubator to turn the eggs manually and 1 egg started rocking around!! based on that i thought i might have some pips already but not yet

I bet they are about the start pipping

 

[Compost King]

Heading to bed to work tonight. Still can’t figure out how to control the temperature drops in my incubator at night... without making the house hot... they aren't dropping too low and still in the “safety zone” but lower than the perfect 99.5. I tend to sleep broken and check the temps every night... it tends to happen around 3am. I thought about turning the light up just a little around 2am... butbthen im scared it will get too high ugh...

I found a thermostat plug in thingy that can turn off and on within temperature parameters... I may purchase....

something like this if anyone is familiar :Century Digital Heat Mat Thermostat Controller for Seed Germination, Reptiles and Brewing, 40-108°F https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I15S6OM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_UR.gCb758ZXSQ

Any way, no pips yet... half way through day 19.

I get the feeling you will be telling us about your newly hatched chicks when you return from work.