First Hatch-a-Long!

[Dinogrrl]

This is the first year I've had a rooster, and when my gals started laying again earlier this month I decided why not, let's see if my rooster knows what he's supposed to do. General Tso, the rooster, is a game fowl/red sex link cross, I hatched him on July 1st of this past year. Two hens are Easter Eggers--Zelda is more black and lays green eggs, Meryl Peep is more white and lays blue eggs--and the oldest hen is She-Ra the gold-lace Wyandotte

On Jan 14th I set two eggs, one each from Zelda and Meryl Peep. On the 17th I added one from She-Ra (she starts laying a little later than the two young'uns). So far...Meryl Peep's is definitely fertile! That doesn't surprise me too much, she and the General buddied up pretty early on. Zelda's is harder to tell since her eggs are darker but hers is also looking promising! She-Ra's is still early for my inexperienced eyes to tell.

Excited to hatch my first eggs from my own backyard! If any make it they will be used for meat, which should time well with when Easter comes this year.

 

[Mrs J]

Good luck and fingers crossed watching

 

[Iluveggers]

 

[Dinogrrl]

Update time! I'm trying to find a lamp powerful enough to candle the eggs so I can take a photo--currently the only light I have strong enough to do the job is my camera's light itself, sooo...

Day 7:
Meryl Peep's egg has movement!
I'm still having a hard time telling with Zelda's egg but I think it quit. Alas.

Day 5:
Can definitely see veins in She-Ra's egg!


My poor little mini incubator is having trouble keeping temp and humidity in our current cold snap. I may have to drag out my big one this weekend. We're supposed to be getting snow tonight, hopefully that doesn't mean a power outage...would suck to just get going with this hatch and then lose them for something out of my control.

 

[Dinogrrl]

Day 10 and 8: Lost Zelda's egg, but Meryl Peep's appears to still be doing well. I can just barely see the larger blood vessels pulsing. The embryo in She-Ra's egg is bouncing around in there like it's at a disco or something.

She-Ra's egg is a bit more narrow/elongated than the normal egg shape. Wondering if this'll cause any problems for the chick when it gets ready to hatch...any advice?

 

[Dinogrrl]

Day 11 and 9: Got home to find my mini incubator leaking water all over my kitchen counter and into its display panel, and not turning the eggs. No idea how long that's been going on. I fired up the big incubator and moved the eggs over as soon as it was warm enough--She-Ra's is still viable, can't tell with Meryl Peep's.

To console myself I put two more eggs in, another of She-Ra's and one of Zelda's.

 

[Dinogrrl]

Day 18/16/7: Lockdown for Meryl Peep's first egg! No action yet but I wasn't really expecting it until tomorrow. My broken mini incubator still holds heat well enough that I was able to kinda jerry-rig it to be the lockdown incubator, after a brief mishap with the temp getting up to 45C! (I did not have the egg in it when that happened, thank goodness.)

 

[Dinogrrl]

Overdue update:
Chick #1 only got about halfway hatched before dying.
Chick #2 hatched a few days later, later in the evening, and seemed to be doing well but passed away overnight.

The second batch of 3 is now on lockdown (day 19), so we'll see if these ones hatch out okay. If so, then the first two died due to the incubator malfunction earlier. If not, then I get the fun task of figuring out if it's the rooster, or something going on will all three hens, or what.
Anyway, just have to wait and see!

 

[PetraStonegirl]

Overdue update:
Chick #1 only got about halfway hatched before dying.
Chick #2 hatched a few days later, later in the evening, and seemed to be doing well but passed away overnight.

The second batch of 3 is now on lockdown (day 19), so we'll see if these ones hatch out okay. If so, then the first two died due to the incubator malfunction earlier. If not, then I get the fun task of figuring out if it's the rooster, or something going on will all three hens, or what.
Anyway, just have to wait and see!

I’m sorry your first two didn’t make it. Hopefully you’ll have better luck with the second.

 

[casportpony]

Overdue update:
Chick #1 only got about halfway hatched before dying.
Chick #2 hatched a few days later, later in the evening, and seemed to be doing well but passed away overnight.

The second batch of 3 is now on lockdown (day 19), so we'll see if these ones hatch out okay. If so, then the first two died due to the incubator malfunction earlier. If not, then I get the fun task of figuring out if it's the rooster, or something going on will all three hens, or what.
Anyway, just have to wait and see!

Sorry for your losses, hope this next one goes well.