February Hatch-A-Long

[wolfwalker]

photos to come, but I have zips and hatching going on

 

[chickengoesmeow]

Anybody planning a hatch in February? I am hoping too, but don't have any dates set for certain yet.

Hoping to see some cute chicks!

Due to some broody hen issues, I now have 6 eggs sitting in an incubator. Not sure how far along they are, since they were left without heat for various amounts of time, but I am estimating they are about 1-2 days into development. Really praying they haven't died due to their unfortunate circumstances, but I am holding out hope.

They are in a brand new Nurture Right 360 (didn't have an incubator before now, had to go buy one from tractor supply), and they are 5 EE eggs and 1 Buff Orpington X EE. Sorta wish I had put more in, but this wasn't exactly planned.

Really hope at least 1 will hatch, hatch day should be around the 24/25/26. First time hatching, so I am still trying to figure it all out.

 

[JoJoM]

photos to come, but I have zips and hatching going on

I can't wait to see pictures! I have 6 on day 15 and am so excited (but trying not to 'count my chickens', first timer here). Please keep us posted.

 

[Jmpridge]

I've got 4 Indio gigante, 7 bielefelder, and 4 ginger red oebs due on the 20th-24th. Offset a few days bc of shipping no problem though. Running brinsea ex56. Couldn't say enough good on the bator.

 

[LowcoMatt]

Last night when I checked 1 of my incubators, I noticed the humidity had spiked. I found that 1 of the eggs was oozing yoke, just kinda bubbly so I candled it and there were no cracks. Could this be due temp spike?

How far along are your eggs? Did you see development in this egg beforeThe ooz?

can anyone else give input how far along one can expect an oozing egg?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

How far along are your eggs? Did you see development in this egg beforeThe ooz?

can anyone else give input how far along one can expect an oozing egg?

I have never had an oozing egg, though I expect it is one that had started to develop and then stopped. I remove these eggs early on. If I do not see clear development by day 7, eggs go out.
I find if my eggs make it to 14 days, then chances are good they will make it to lockdown. Hatching is another story!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Anybody else notice this hatch along has fallen off the forum index? Think it was from today?
Threads will be “retired” but normally only if they are no longer active.
Never mind, seems it is back again, weird...

 

[juliasflock]

I guess my incubator didn’t run 1.5 degrees too warm for as long as I thought. Day 19 and no pips yet. I usually have 1 early pip day 19 right before I go to bed. These little eggs have another hour to make something happen, lol. I’m actually ok with no early pips, because tomorrow I am away from the house all day, and I was worried I’d miss the hatch. The chicks I’m crossing my fingers to hatch are my Pita Pinta/Olive Egger crosses. Excited to see what they might look like. My luck is they’ll be solid black with no cool feather patterns

 

[LilyD]

Were these hatched from your eggs or shipped. I have 2 theories, others may have ideas too. 1. Breeding birds may be closely related 2. The eggs didn't get turned before incubating and the yolk stuck to one side so the embryo early on didn't develop correctly.

My eggs and I live up north so it was temps that were below zero some of the days I was collecting. Rooster is not related at all to the hens as the rooster came from an outside breeder and hens were hatched here from other roosters with different lines. Eggs were turned from collection day until setting then were in a turner while in the incubator. The only option that I saw for the deformity was that the temps during collection for a week was around single digits to -25 I was very diligent to go out several times a day to try and get them before they got cold, but it is possible that they got too cold before I was able to collect them. It is January and I live in Vermont lol.

Out of 42 home grown eggs 12 were infertile. This is explained by the fact that I had three girls who were not laying when the rooster came in to his hormones. He bonded with 4 of the hens the other three he ignored. The 8th hen wandered off the end of last month and though I searched for her I haven't found her as of yet. She may be holed up with eggs somewhere or we do have a fox population and she she has always been an escape artist refusing to stay in the safe coop and pasture the others are in. For reference last year at this time I had a 25% fertility rate because of the cold and lack of light. This year I have 81% fertility so much better.

Out of the 30 eggs that were set 18 hatched I have 4 that were early quitters before day 7 they went to blood rings. I had another 4 that were later quitters between days 10-15 showed growth but then quit veining went away and there were actual floating air bubbles in the eggs when I removed. Last 4 made it to lockdown with the 18 that hatched. Had two that were malpositioned one lived the other one did not it pipped through the primary vessel and I tried to assist but it passed as I was opening the air cell. I could see free flowing blood around the membrane and bruising on the shell so pretty sure it was a big vein that it hit. I had two that were massively huge and couldn't turn to pip. Chicks were easily twice the size of the ones that hatched but eggs were bigger too. last chick was the malformed beak.

I did a little research on deformities and malposition and found this: Beak abnormalities, such as crossed beak, parrot beak, or short upper beak, which can be a result of genetic traits, poor hen nutrition, exposure to pesticides, hatching eggs exposed to near freezing temperatures.

I am pretty sure the the temps at collection time were the problem for the beak deformity. I also read another article that said that eggs dying right before hatch can also be caused by temps before collection but I can't find it now ugh.

Hopefully this will help others who are hatching.

 

[allebasi4]

I set some eggs on Jan 31st so they're on day 5 and should hatch around Feb 20th. In my incubator I have 6 of my own serama eggs and 13 (was 15 but just chucked 2 no development/early quitters) bantam assortment eggs I got from Meyer. AND my serama pullet happened to go broody the day I set so I gave her back 4 of her eggs and she added two more on top.. so she has 6 as well!

I had such an awful experience hatching shipped eggs (from a different place) the first time, so I ordered more than I thought I would need but the Meyer eggs actually came in good condition so I'm slightly worried more will hatch than I have room for, but I'm sure there are people around looking for chicks if that happens.

I don't really know what breeds the assortment eggs are (besides EE and D'uccle), so I'm excited to see what pops out!