FEB HATCH-ALONG THREAD ...COME JOIN US.... EVERYONE!

[PugBug]

YOu know i have had worse than i should hatches lately and late hatches
My Genesis's temp was off !!
Bottom of the thing was only 95.5 .!The bator reading said 99.5 and set at 100 so cant trust any of them i guess.
I have raised it to 99 now but had to set it at 102 to do it.
I have been told by more tha one person to check them every time and you need a FEW good therms to do that so you know the temp is right.Makre sure you check that new one against another that works well so you i know it is working also there is a way you can test it somethign about putting it in ice until it gets to zero which it should
Ask Brookhaven she knows how to do that. I forget exactly .She is smart puts 4 therms in the bottom of her bator (glass bulb scientific ) so the reading should all be the same.

Well that is a good idea- Lordy w/all this humidity & temp prob. it's a wonder we ever get anything to hatch!

 

[Aschenfire]

Good luck to those of you who are going into lockdown or are close! Patience is a virtue, especially when hatching peeps! I am going to candle mine tomorrow night (4 days) and see what I have going on so far.

 

[PugBug]

Well couldnt stand it and bought more eggs last night on swap

. Lav Ams so more going in.I think that about takes me to MARCH hatching!~~~~AH SPRING!!!!!

You are as bad as me LOL I am bidding now on 2 different sets of Polish! I said the basque would be my last... well & of course the calls ducks- BUT bantam polish, any color, was on my original list. Until now I didn't find any eggs reasonalble enough, so I had kind of given up hope, until this morning - So ok, if I get these they just have to be the last- cause I only have room enough for so many pens- I want to keep each breed by itself so they don't mix. So far w/ what I have now in chicks & eggs, plus the 1's on the way I will need 8 coops! Oh my, Lars (hubby) is gonna be busy building

 

[BantyChickenLuv]

Not even 1 day and I made a mistake. Thankfully, I was able to fix it before it was to late. The exact reason I decided to hatch these eggs was so I could get the hang of hatching for my Bantam eggs I plan on hatching this summer, and to learn from my mistakes.

 

[PugBug]

There are some threads up about braces and shoes
.One they use is duct tape and cardboard i think .They put a piece on top of the toes laying flat and then bottom like a shoe sort of .and leave on a couple days then check and if needed leave longer should fix her up but gotta do it fast before 3 days old or the bones will set how they are.. GOOD LUCK !! .

Yes, last night after I saw how well the band aid between her legs was helping her stand I could really get a good look @ the feet. So I looked up some posts about the curled toes, found info & pics of how to make the 'boots' to take care of that prob. It WORKS! It took her a little time to get used to having her legs & feet in the correct position- she did a few somersaults & then impression of a ballerina (up on tip toes)- but this morning she was standing strait up, feet flat

I told Lars she was showing off her happy feet moves

Now if she can just start eating & drinking a little more I think she'll be good to go

 

[silkiemelon]

Lucky you to live that close to Karen. I have 4 of her chicks and they are absolutely gorgeous!!!

I have to agree, she has just gorgeous silkies! She is a very nice person to talk to and very knowledgable. She knows her stuff!
I would be thrilled just to have one hatch I'm candling today for the first time so I'm hoping to see something!

I checked out her page, they are beautiful. I msg her to ask if she has eggs availible, if so I want to get some! Now that my bator prob. is 'fixed', maybe I'll have better luck

You won't be disappointed! She is one of the very few professional breeders who actually sells her eggs, so you get great quality. Her lavenders from her project pens are just gorgeous!

 

[PugBug]

Yeah Holly these low temps aren't good and shipped anyway ...guh .I always seem to set shipped and low hatch rates but what can you do?. I love the LAv Ams. I have 3 and just bought more eggs .Also have lav Orps.... Into lavs.So pretty

Well like my situation, I was getting back into chickens after so many years w/ none. The breeds I wanted were not anything I could get local- around here the only eggs or live chicks available were road is. reds, bar. rocks, buf. orp (whick I did buy 2 little pullets) or sexlinks- none of which were what I wanted really- so I had to order shipped eggs. It's a risk, but if you want something diff. it's worth the risk...

 

[PugBug]

I'm planning on giving 50 eggs to the school next door in a few weeks for their 2nd grade classes to hatch out - I wanted to make sure I could get some to hatch out on my own at first. They had a horrible time last year - 14 chicks out of 72 eggs and not all 14 made it. I am hoping to give them local eggs and they'll have better luck this time around.

That's nice to do

 

[3Dchicken]

I have eggs that go into lockdown today - Black Australorps, Partridge Silkies, Silkie/Showgirl/Serama mixes, Spitzhauben mixes and some Araucana mixes (wonder if they will be rumpless). Started with about 40 and am down to 25. Many that I pulled were first testings for fertility and they just weren't ready yet.

So many breeds!

 

[PugBug]

They did order and have the eggs shipped last year. I felt so bad for the kids - they were so disappointed! They had 3 classrooms and one class only got 1 chick...... I am going to walk my eggs over the day they are due to set them and help the classes get them set. Hopefully the gentle "shipping" makes a difference. Nearly all of my eggs are fertile so hopefully they get a good hatch ratio. I love that they have a webcam too and I'll be able to watch my babies hatch from home.

Oh that is great about the web cam- never heard of a school having that. When my daughter was in 2nd grade her class did a hatch, they ended up w/ over 100 chicks- most parents wouldn't or couldn't let their kids have them.... so naturally my daughter said "oh my mama will let me take some"- oh yea we got 23 of the most butt ugly chicks you've ever seen LOL they were just barnyard mixes given to the school- apparently not good mixes!