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

[Chaos18]

How could she? I've never told her.

You've told the world cause you're on here.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

@Fire Ant Farm

Awwwww......

Hey y'all. Sorry for being so absent. Lots of stress on this end, so I could only keep up at granny's (because it was so slow)

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I posted this pic over there, but thought y'all would like it too. My goats saw a handful of spilled feed and were extremely motivated to squeeze into the tractor.

Also getting great colors from my pullets!

I found this hysterical! (I love olive eggs - I only have one girl right now laying these, but hopefully have a few cooking in the 'bator.)

Thanks Chaos, I will live but a bit grumpy at the moment, I think it stems from my problem Cspine, just had another set of injections before surgery to figure out which to cement together, so I think it was in my back and arm from that. how are you?

Ugh - I have C-spine issues as well - not super bad yet, but badness coming (degeneration combined with an accident in the past).

Quote:
Ummmmm.... Can you come over and do my house next? Please?

Hatcher coming up to temp, will move marans veggies tomorrow once I confirm correct humidity setting with the calibrated hygrometer. I'm tired but still restless - I wish the sun would come up already so I can go out and see if Goodwin and/or his girls are still alive...

 

[Akrnaf2]

Quote:And 30 years YOUNGER than you look in your avitar! What a great pic!

I could never figure out your avitar. Is that smoke??

Yes, I will have a cigar, (2-3 a year!), after some good meals, especially at birthdays. One of my son friends took a picture of me smoking, and with a fotoshop dressed me like the godfather. And because I love very much the godfather movies I decided that this pic will be my Avatar

 

[Akrnaf2]

Whut? No joke!


Yet my dog takes a month to learn to 'swing'..... Sigh.

You "swing" with your dog?

No she swings with her Bat

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Just got home - haven't read back yet. Today (the last day!) Goodwin and two of his girls got out, and the sitter couldn't find them this evening at bedtime. I got the text while in the cab on the way back from the airport. I sent her home (telling her it wasn't her fault) and resumed the search in the dark. I found a trail of Goodwin's feathers in the waaaaaay back of the yard - enough to show he was clearly chased and attacked by something. One large pile of under-feathers in a nook under some brush (like he was cornered there). But not QUITE enough to make me sure he's gone, and no blood or body (though his body could have been dragged into a den or something - that's a very overgrown part of the yard, and it was dark). Dumbledore lost many more feathers and lived. No feathers that I could see for either pullet (blue copper marans and cream legbar). No evidence that anything could have gotten in with them in their coop/ paddock, so I suspect they flew out, and were attacked then (they've done it multiple times - I suppose there's a twisted Darwin award thing going on here, except I bet he was protecting the stupid girls). It's unsettling thinking of them out there hiding (with Goodwin injured if alive). Yes, I eat my birds on occasion (usually the boys). But I also consider myself their protector and caregiver, so I can't help but be worried about them. He's just a relatively young cockerel, no spurs, not that large.

This is him when he was still only 16 weeks old, pretty boy:

Hating this....

So, to take my mind off of it, I'm going to candle early (tomorrow is day 10). As it so happens, on a lark, I threw in 6 marans eggs in there as well - all from Goodwin's coop (the eggs have been fertile). Hoping I'll get some babies from them (hard to see into the shells, but I'll try). Then, I'm going to read back and hope that you guys have been really funny in the last 300+ posts...

- Ant Farm

That's a shame. Hopefully he got away. My poultry raising philosophy is similar to yours.
Sometimes I prefer to see some evidence in the form of feathers rather than just a disappearance and have no idea where the bird went.
Over the last couple months I lost 2 young birds. Just discovering at head count, no evidence, just gone. I'm guessing they got out and couldn't find their way back in at night.

Their veins to recede, or death- whichever comes.

The doomed one is still alive, astonishingly. Air cell takes up 2/3 of the egg space.....

Any idea how the air cell got so big?
What species/breed of egg?

OK, I haven't read back yet, but I did by candling and weighing (Day 9), and I have a weight loss/air cell question. Humidity while I was gone was set at ~32-33%, and I have no reason to think that anything happened.

Of the 12 Tank x GNH eggs (normal brown pullet eggs), 10 with veins, 2 clears.

Most are pretty good with weight loss (a few a little more loss than expected on day 9, a few a little less, but nothing way off.

Of the 6 Marans eggs - I couldn't candle them well when I set them, but used two strong flashlights this time and could just see for most (though not all) - they are very dark, and spotted as well, so a bit of a nightmare to candle. I have at least one outright wiggler/dancer - and guess what? It's the oldest one I pulled out of the fridge at the last minute!!!! I also have another two with what I think are veins, and a third I'm not sure about. The other two are just too dark to see anything.

Here's the problem - the Marans eggs have lost a lot more % weight (I thought it would be less - why did I think that?) - perhaps those girls' egg shells are less strong or something. Anyhow, eggs were set 7PM on December 21, which makes this Day 9 by my calculations, and expected weight loss for Day 9 is 5.85%. While the TankXGNH eggs are hovering around that, with 5-6% loss, roughly (ranging from 4.84 to 6.50% weight loss), the Marans are ranging from 8.5 to a whopping 14.3%. The 14.3% is in one of the eggs with definite veins, and the dancer/wiggler has lost 9.2%.

I've rearranged them in the incubator - the Marans eggs were lined up along one outer row (I was thinking they would lose LESS moisture) - putting those that need less moisture loss in the center, and moving the few of the regular brown with weight loss on the low end to the edges. I also upped the humidity a couple points (I need to wait to see what it settles out at, but aiming for roughly 38%ish).

I realize the hazards of incubating different types of eggs - I put the marans eggs in for a lark. If I had to choose one set of eggs over another, I would choose the TankGNH eggs, which are part of a project of mine (and also have more in the way of confirmed viable chicks developing) - despite Goodwin being missing presumed dead, he is not essential to any specific breeding plans of mine. All that being said - anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

- Ant Farm

Like you, I would have expected the marans eggs to lose weight more slowly.

If you go to someones profile, and then click on their avatar, you can see the entire history of every single photo they have used as an avatar. And there's a number at the top. Bubbles Banti has changed hers 193 times.

Boredom?

I run into this at times with serama and LF in same bator

I wait until day 15 and I will add the serama to a container with holes burned in the lid, and add a small cut sponge to up humidity in just that container, I have never had issues doing that.

never took pics but these may help you get the idearrrrr

Good idea. I was thinking of something like that.

Two more of the Flower eggs have pipped.

Good luck. Purebred? How many total?

Did I happen to mention that I have a bator fired up and have it double stacked at the moment? I will be amazed if half are fertile. But
I have to try as I have people that want serama OE and BCM I want polish to hatch!!!

How much to you get for your olive egger chicks?
My last setting of the year (not counting the current NYD one) was olive eggs. I only had one OE hen. She's the lone daughter of my old ameraucana that I lost this summer.
I set 12 eggs and since they came from the same hen, some were a couple weeks old. 11 of the 12 hatched. Lo and behold, 10 are pullets and only 1 a cockerel.
They're 11 weeks old now. I'm not keeping the cockerel and I'm only going to keep 2 or 3 of the pullets. I need to get my numbers down so I'm going to sell most in the next few weeks.
I can't come up with a good price because I don't have egg colors to show. They came out of these eggs but father is a Penedesenca so their eggs will be darker. Any thoughts?

Thanks! It's worth a try!

Hmmmm... You know, the other possibility is to move the Marans eggs to the "hatcher" (the R-Com that I don't trust for incubation/turning) early, and crank the humidity to keep them from losing more - I can incubate in there upright and hand turn or something. Then I would just move the TankGNH ones in with the Marans at lock down (when the humidity is supposed to be high for everyone anyway). Whaddaya think?

(I need to get that hatcher out anyway, gonna go dig it out and start bringing it up to temp/humidity)

- Ant Farm

That would be the way to go.

its ok, I think we all will take insanity over stupidity any day

Can't fix stupid and insanity makes things interesting.

Yup, that's how my calculations were made (0.65% per day). They are on day 9 now.

A few questions/requests for advice (@Sally Sunshine or whomever) - once the hatcher is up to temperature:

1) Should I move the Marans eggs NOW (or wait until day 14 like with your Seramas)? Instinct says now, but thought I'd ask. (The no candling window is 10-14 days, as I recall, so I figure that would go for no switching 'bators, too.)

2) Should the humidity for them be something like 50% (that's what we used last time I had air cells growing too fast)? Then reweigh on day 14 and see where we are and then adjust? I only have one that's lost 14.3% already (though it is a viable one) - The others are 8.5, 9.1, 9.2, 11.3 and 11.6% weight loss - wiggler is 9.2.

3) Since I can't see into the marans eggs well to identify ideal pip position, any tips on that? (Will they roll into that position anyhow?)

- Ant Farm

You only have so much time to adjust weight loss so I'd move them now.
I'd make it pretty high till the eggs get to the correct weight for the day.
They'll only roll into the position on a smooth flat surface. I sit mine on the table and when they stop rolling, I mark the top.

Hey y'all. Sorry for being so absent. Lots of stress on this end, so I could only keep up at granny's (because it was so slow)

.

I posted this pic over there, but thought y'all would like it too. My goats saw a handful of spilled feed and were extremely motivated to squeeze into the tractor.

Also getting great colors from my pullets!

Gorgeous eggs.

Yes, I will have a cigar, (2-3 a year!), after some good meals, especially at birthdays. One of my son friends took a picture of me smoking, and with a fotoshop dressed me like the godfather. And because I love very much the godfather movies I decided that this pic will be my Avatar

Clever!

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Howdy peeps.... I sorry I'm not on much anymore winter really hasn't roared much yet so I've been busy.
Weird lights and outlets in my 4 wheeler barn so far.... So I have somewhere to work on my 4 wheeler and snowmobile.

And yes I've been ice fishing we have a good foot of ice so ice fishing is in full swing..... HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone.... Please be safe tonight if you go out (and even if you don't)

 

[kwhites634]

Quote: Oh! That! That's what we used to call "get your butt back over here where it belongs".

 

[kwhites634]

Howdy peeps.... I sorry I'm not on much anymore winter really hasn't roared much yet so I've been busy.
Weird lights and outlets in my 4 wheeler barn so far.... So I have somewhere to work on my 4 wheeler and snowmobile.

And yes I've been ice fishing we have a good foot of ice so ice fishing is in full swing..... HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone.... Please be safe tonight if you go out (and even if you don't)

I'd say you've been ice fishing! Good looking Northern there, my man. Ya done good.

That barn must be larger than it looks. Hard to believe you can cram a 4 wheeler in there & still have room to move around.

 

[BullChick]

GOOD MORNING! THIS WILL BE THE FINAL DAY OF COFFEE CLUB! NEXT YEAR WILL BE A YEAR OF CHANGE! SO DRINK UP! and don't believe me.

 

[BullChick]

Howdy peeps.... I sorry I'm not on much anymore winter really hasn't roared much yet so I've been busy.
Weird lights and outlets in my 4 wheeler barn so far.... So I have somewhere to work on my 4 wheeler and snowmobile.

And yes I've been ice fishing we have a good foot of ice so ice fishing is in full swing..... HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone.... Please be safe tonight if you go out (and even if you don't)

It's New Year? Wow! Where did the week go?!
Have a great NY, and stay warm and safe out there!