END OF FEB. HATCH-ALONG, ANYONE?

[ChickensR2addicting]

I put my splash, blue, and black amercauna eggs in the bator two days ago.
Any interest in swapping some eggs?

 

[chevynova]

New member here! Been watching the forums for some months now and finally joined up today.

Sunday I set big batch of eggs from all over the place -- 15 EE from California, 7 EE from Mississippi, 9 blue orpingtons from The Loft at Holly Lane (Tennessee), and 11 mutts from my own back yard (New York, but they originally came from a hatchery in Texas). The mutts consist of my pretty yellow red star rooster over one red star hen, two black star hens, one or two barred rocks, and an ancona. Sadly, I don't think the ancona's eggs are fertile. They look pretty clear for day 5...

Anyway, I set such a large amount (for me) because my history with shipped eggs is less than perfect. My first hatch was 3 silkies out of 13 eggs, so I'm hoping for a slightly higher percentage this time! Good luck to everyone for this hatch!

 

[Illia]

And good luck to you too!

Just set mine last night for the 1st of March, - 14 Araucana eggs, 7 Easter Egger eggs, 2 Brahma x Polish eggs, and 11 Polish eggs.

 

[Farm_Maven]

Good luck all! Hoping this one works out a little better for me. First batch I got a 50% hatch. And that was starting out with a homemade 'Bator that went supernova, rushed and got an LG to finish them off. So, I feel like it was pretty successful, all considering. ..........I now also have an auto-turner. So, crossing my fingers.

 

[chevynova]

Well, I'm down ten eggs as of this morning. Most of the ten were infertile and a couple quit after day 1 or day 2. In the remaining 32 eggs I have four definite future chicks and a whole lot of "This might be a quitter but I dunno" and "Why must this shell be so dark??? " I guess I'll be doing a lot of egg-sniffing over the next couple of days, hehe.


Edit 2/12/12: Day 7. Tossed out four more duds. The number of definite live babies has increased to 17 now that the embryos are all flailing to get my attention. The other half are still unsure if I'm worth the effort.

Current live counts:
6 Blue Orpingtons
4 EE from CA
3 EE from MS
3 Red Star/Black Star mutt
1 Red Star/Barred Rock mutt
10 unsure - 7 CA EEs, 1 MS EE, 1 Blue Orpington, 1 Red Star/Barred Rock
For funsies I also added a fresh RS/Ancona and an RS/BR egg yesterday.

 

[Illia]

Day 3 today, candled, and here's my results:


5/14 Araucana (nice for shipped, hope all 5 hatch!!)

9/9 Polish (I mentioned 11 earlier but never actually set the last two)

7/7 Easter Egger


That makes a total of 70% fertility in all.

Much better than just 3 weeks ago, set some Polish and EE eggs and got 68%, - Not counting the Araucanas, this time it's 100%.

 

[LilyD]

Candled mine last night and here is what I got. Out of 38 total eggs collected and started 27 are still viable embryos moving and growing on schedule. 10 were clear and one was a blood ring.

I was wondering if they all were going to be viable. I have no doubt about fertility but with it being so cold up here in New England there is definitely the possibility for frozen eggs which would damage the embryo. As it stands right now my fertility looks to be around 71% but if my guess is right then it will go up as the weather warms up. We shall see I plan to incubate again for the Easter hatchalong so hopefully it will go up for then.

 

[tinychicky]

ugh i candled today (days 7-8) and found only 3 sex-link EE's and three EE's with another one i'm unsure of

. this is the first time i've attempted a hatch with this cock. apparently he isn't as active as i hoped. for the next week i'll be setting every LF egg and maybe a few silkie eggs in hopes of more fertile eggs

 

[Maximus]

I now It is not the end of Feb But I hopefully will have 7 healthy biddies the 2nd or 3rd of march under a complete mutt

 

[chevynova]

Aww, I'm sorry things aren't going so hot for you, tinychicky. Half of my eggs were duds and unsures, but I expected that because most of them were shipped. I hope those babies you have so far will hatch!

I added a couple more eggs from my ancona and one from a barred rock on days 6 and 7. I am pleased to announce that the ancona's day 6 egg definitely has a chick in it this time! I have little knowledge on chicken genetics thus far, but I'm crossing my fingers for a pretty rooster sized like daddy with mommy's colors.