February 2023 hatch-a-long

[junior67]

Haha! I’m wondering why I didn’t set up the incubator closer to my bedroom. I’ll be like this I’m sure.

Mine is in my bedroom now and the past 2. The ones last year were in my kitchen. Much easier to look now. Lol

 

[Helens_Hens]

Hey y'all hope it's not too late to join the hatch along. I have 54 in the incubator and we are on day 9. I have standard and bantam eggs set a a mic of barnyard mixes lol. My roos are Bielefelder and ayem cemani my hens are buff Orpington, BCM, Barred rock, Welsummer and Wheaton maran. My banties are Cochin, silkie, old English game, Sebright and brahma.
This is our 2nd hatch in the past 2 months. Our last hatch was 17/23. But this time we wanted to try a dry hatch. And so far it's been amazing. No alarm going off all the time, no water, no stress. Literally inset the eggs 10 days ago and left it. I candled yesterday and out of 55 eggs... 54 have tiny little beans bouncing and jumping like crazy and air cell growth is perfect.
One was a quitter with a blood ring. We have an Aceshin 56 egg incubator with an upright egg turner. It's not exactly the best but it's done us fair so far. Ok attached some pics of the eggs I'm hatching and also of the chicks we hatched January 19th & 20th Anyway I'm excited to join along and watch everyone else's progress.

 

[Kikilu]

Mine is in my bedroom now and the past 2. The ones last year were in my kitchen. Much easier to look now. Lol

Mine’s in the bedroom too! Mostly to keep a close eye but also to keep all the dogs and cat away.

 

[Kikilu]

Hey y'all hope it's not too late to join the hatch along. I have 54 in the incubator and we are on day 9. I have standard and bantam eggs set a a mic of barnyard mixes lol. My roos are Bielefelder and ayem cemani my hens are buff Orpington, BCM, Barred rock, Welsummer and Wheaton maran. My banties are Cochin, silkie, old English game, Sebright and brahma.
This is our 2nd hatch in the past 2 months. Our last hatch was 17/23. But this time we wanted to try a dry hatch. And so far it's been amazing. No alarm going off all the time, no water, no stress. Literally inset the eggs 10 days ago and left it. I candled yesterday and out of 55 eggs... 54 have tiny little beans bouncing and jumping like crazy and air cell growth is perfect.
One was a quitter with a blood ring. We have an Aceshin 56 egg incubator with an upright egg turner. It's not exactly the best but it's done us fair so far. Ok attached some pics of the eggs I'm hatching and also of the chicks we hatched January 19th & 20th Anyway I'm excited to join along and watch everyone else's progress. View attachment 3391992View attachment 3391993View attachment 3391996

Wow it will be neat to see what they look like! Glad your hatch is going well so far

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Now's a good time for a refresher on assisted hatching, and since we have so many in this thread who are hatching for the first time - PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/
It's better to be prepared for problems before they happen, instead of flailing about in a panic at 3 am because you don't know what to do, right?

 

[junior67]

Mine’s in the bedroom too! Mostly to keep a close eye but also to keep all the dogs and cat away.

Yes that is part of my reason. Only place dog and cats can't go. I had it on my kitchen counter which was also safe but it took up too much counter space.

 

[EcoFirefly]

Just did day 8 candling. Out of 22, 12 are developing. Happy with the number as I feel it is too early for mini fuzz bums; although the 3 Broody Mamma’s are screaming in disagreement. I don’t understand why they think -22C is a good time for children. I have tried since December to break them of their craziness. They must be watching all the news about the shortage of eggs and chickens going on.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Good luck all, I am also Dry hatching, until I move them to the hatching incubator, after candling day 18.

 

[Helens_Hens]

Question, some of us hatch for ourselves, some hatch for family and friends and some hatch to sell. I do all 3. Lol but what happens when a buyer wants 25 chicks and you set, oh let's say 55 and they back out leaving you with the possibility of having all those extra chicks. What do you do with those extras. I will of course post them on my local chicken groups, but I live in Arkansas and most people here are in the market for laying hens or nearly there pullets. You won't really get back the $ it cost to raise them for 6 months. Your putting money in into feed, bedding, etc. So what do I do if I can't sell them as chicks? More than likely we would keep them cz we fall in love with our chicks. But I've never incubated this many chicks and I'm starting to have a mini anxiety attack every time I think of 54 more chicks with the 17 we have brooding and the 30 grown chickens we have outside. Lol what was I thinking!

 

[coffeeaddict]

Question, some of us hatch for ourselves, some hatch for family and friends and some hatch to sell. I do all 3. Lol but what happens when a buyer wants 25 chicks and you set, oh let's say 55 and they back out leaving you with the possibility of having all those extra chicks. What do you do with those extras. I will of course post them on my local chicken groups, but I live in Arkansas and most people here are in the market for laying hens or nearly there pullets. You won't really get back the $ it cost to raise them for 6 months. Your putting money in into feed, bedding, etc. So what do I do if I can't sell them as chicks? More than likely we would keep them cz we fall in love with our chicks. But I've never incubated this many chicks and I'm starting to have a mini anxiety attack every time I think of 54 more chicks with the 17 we have brooding and the 30 grown chickens we have outside. Lol what was I thinking!

I kinda feel this on a small scale. We currently live in an HOA and can't have a lot of chickens. I ordered day olds from a hatchery then thought since we are homeschooling lets incubate part of our chicks this year! I ordered some shipped eggs then added local eggs then added more local eggs. I could end up with 30 chicks this month! I'll need to give away or sell half. I can't rehome hatched chicks because I won't be able to tell the sex. Will have to feed and house them for 3-6 months.