First Hatch In Years

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

This is my first chick hatch in years since hatching geese. I am using my brand new Hovabator Genesis 1588. This morning I set 40 eggs.
35 Black Australorps and 5 Easteregger crosses. 9 of the eggs were mine and the 31 BA's were shipped. WISH ME LUCK! I will try to update this thread thru candling results on the 6, 13, 18th day, and of course the hatch. Thank you hot2pot, spydertoys, chickenjunkie, and nursecat9 for all your help and advise. Now the watching paint dry begins for 21 days!

 

[mstricer]

Good day to set eggs. It is a full moon. We started a full moon set thread and you are welcome to join. The moon will be at its fullest at 3:18 pm.

 

[bikerchic]

Good luck! I'm in VA and set 48 silkies/showgirls last night. Putting another dozen showgirls in today.

 

[cmom]

Good luck...

I just set 36 BOs, RIRs and RIWs.

 

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

Well it is day 6 and I did my first candling with the help of a great friend, Nursecat9. Out of the 40 eggs only 5 died in the first week. One was mine and the other 4 were shipped eggs. So out of 31 shipped eggs with only 4 bad I am quite excited. I will candle again at day 12 and update this post. Born to hatch! I truly believe this is a disease with no known cure.

 

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

Day 10, 2 more quiters, down to 32 eggs. The last two were from my own flock, but my shipped eggs are doing great!!!
I think I will try to wait till lockdown now and then pitch the rest of the quiters.

 

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

Went into lockdown today with 25 out of 40. I am keeping my fingers crossed for babies on Wed. the 30th. Dry hatch the first 18 days and keeping Lockdown humidity above 65% for the next three days. Time will tell the story!

 

[cmom]

Quote:
So true...

 

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

How does the song go??? I'm so excited, I just can't hid it, bum bum!!!

I had 25 BA eggs at lockdown on the 27th Sun. On Wed. the 30th at 0100 the hatch began and lasted until 2200 last night with 14 BA's happy and healthy. There are 11 eggs left with no pips. My question is how long do I wait until they could possibly explode???
All the eggs were shipped from the infamous Hot2Pot and I am a happy camper with the results so far!

How is hatch rate calculated? If you go by original amount set, say 40. You don't even know if they are fertile until you candle, so can lockdown be used for the amount calculated against the actual hatch at the end. That seems fair to me, but nothing is fair in love, war, and chicken addiction.

 

[LittleFarmInWV]

Quote:
I've got an incubator wrapped under the tree waiting for me so I've been researching all of the old threads in the incubating and hatching eggs section. I'm no expert since my first hatch won't be until after Dec 25th but from what I have read on here it is common to calculate a fertility and hatch rate separately. Fertility rate being the number of eggs that started to develop out of the amount collected/recieved. And the hatch rate as the number of chickens that hatch out of the number of chicks that started to develop. I think a lot of people (especially if they are hatching their own eggs) crack open each egg that failed to develop to look for the small red spot. When the spot is there go ahead and add it to the number that were fertilized and didn't develop. This of course lowers your actual hatch rate but I think it's the honest way to do it knowing that it was fertilized. Hope this helps, but I'm sure everyone has varying opinions on the matter and will be sure to post them

!

By the way, it's always awesome to see a fellow Mountaineer on here! Unless you're a Marshall fan, in which case I will say it's always awesome to see a fellow West Virginian on here! Happy brooding!