did anyone else put eggs in there incubator today

[WhoaNellie]

I was planning to get some this weekend.....maybe Sunday????

 

[Kiwibird]

My second batch within my staggered hatch were due yesterday.

I got the first two eggs free with my incubator, and they hatched last weekend into Rhombus and Slowy. (Around here we give our chicks really dumb names. If they prove to be girls they get brand new names with a bit more going for them.) I tried to find some more fertile eggs before setting the first two, but gave up. I could only find eggs that would need to be posted, and I didn't want to start out with shipped eggs. We were in a heat wave and chickens just weren't laying.

I was driving a week after I set the first two eggs when I drove past a place saying "Free range eggs for sale". I popped in and asked if the hens were running with a rooster. The answer was yes, but just one, among many hens. I grabbed some eggs anyway, as the price was only a quarter of what I would have had to pay a breeder. These were brown eggs and hard to candle. I saw one with a blood ring, which I discarded. I saw two with moving embryos, which I marked. I kept the others as well, even though I was pretty sure there was nothing in them. A day late, I have one pip. It is not in one of the eggs I saw an embryo in, so I'm glad I kept all except the one with the blood ring. I'll see how the others go.

Our heat wave is over, and we had a totally unexpected early frost on Wednesday night. With cooler air, and the ambient humidity lower, the risks of a staggered hatch are greater now, so I will stop rolling the last lot of eggs and opening the incubator for now. There are a dozen polish bantam eggs to follow these guys. All bopping about in their shells last check.

Good luck to those just setting their eggs now

ETA: Four of the roadside eggs have hatched. As they were from red commercial hybrids with a white rooster, I was surprised that one was black! I am leaving the other eggs another day or two just in case.