First time hatching from my own flock

[DemeterAD9]

Congrats on the adorable little ones!! Is the gray OE with barring the mother or father of this chick? If mother it would be autosexing if the father was solid. If father is the barred one then it would not be autosexing. I am pretty sure anyways

The grey OE hen is barred as is the legbar X and I believe another is both barred and laced. Fathers are either blue copper maran or BJG so I should get some sex linked babies form the barred girls. If that's the case and going by the dots on the heads, so far of the possible sex linked chicks I have 3M and 2F. I'm banding the possible males (dot on head) with a black band on their left leg. Possible females have black and either red or orange on their right leg. Time will tell! So far 7 have hatched.

 

[DemeterAD9]

I went to bed with 7 in the broody but kept adding more as they hatched and dried throughout the night. With the incubator so close to my bed I can tell when a new one just hatched because is doesn’t shut up! I didn’t take many photos of the hatching process but here’s one of the EEs popping out

And this is currently under the brooder plate, lots of blue/black/grey babies and lots of feathered legs! The silver chick is from the white EE and has the cute cheek puffs. Photo should have 11 and there’s another 3 still drying, and 2 currently zipping.

 

[DemeterAD9]

Up to 18 chicks who hatched perfectly!

5 eggs are pipped and 4 were worrying me so I candled the ones I could see through and listened to the others. One buff brahma egg was no movement and one OE egg was silent so I carefully broke into the air cells. Both were already gone, not sure why as they didn’t appear shrink wrapped to me. Oh well, I expected at least a couple to not hatch. Neither one had internally pipped. I put safety holes in the other 2 who I could hear chirping inside. As for the 1.5 day behind bresse egg, I’ll leave it be for now.

 

[DemeterAD9]

I forgot how not fun waiting on the stragglers is. Another OE chick died in the egg, the membrane was still wet and easily removed so maybe the OEs are just having a harder time hatching because of the thicker pigment layer? I hear dark brown BCM eggs also have issues like this. I just don’t know. The last OE egg had pipped on its own last night and was not making any progress, same with the last large fowl mix. They were throwing their beaks up but not hitting the mark for the last few hours. I gave both a hand and found the OE was mal positioned and the LF seemed weaker than I’d like. Luckily both were done absorbing the yolk and blood. Unluckily the OE might have a funky leg going on. Waiting for them to dry before I inspect further.

I think I’m up to 22 healthy chicks and the older ones are picking around the brooder and figuring things out. I need to move them to the other brooder as the small heat plate is getting crowded. Now I’m just waiting on the bresse egg, I’m giving it till tomorrow night before calling it quits.

 

[Pollmadoll]

3rd time incubating but these are eggs from my own birds. The first two times were with shipped eggs and hatch rate was not great but not zero. Now I can finally compare with eggs that are not pre-scrambled. I expect most of these eggs to hatch aside from any blanks (I suspect a few to be infertile).

This thread is to help me keep track of the developing eggs as well as the overall incubation method. I am dry hatching 37 set vertically to start and if the viable egg count goes down to 24ish I will set the eggs on the rollers to finish horizontally. My incubator is a cheap 40-50$ forced air one that should hold 24 eggs (horizontally of course). I've had to tweak the humidity and temp as the factory settings were off a bit.

Set them last night (3/5) so tonight will be day 1. Temp is nearly 100F exactly, according to my 3 aquarium thermometers at least. Humidity is 30-40%. I'm turning the eggs several times a day by propping the whole incubator up this way or that. For the 2 eggs sitting on top of the others I am turning them by hand a couple times a day, partly to make sure they turn and partly to let in some fresh air seeing as there isn't any vents that I am aware of anyways. Disregard the current temp reading on the thermometer, this was just as I added the eggs.
View attachment 4066055

Eggs that I'm incubating, all are labeled with the abbreviations and numbered. I've weighed them all as well and will be keeping track the old fashioned way, with pen and paper. Air cell of all but 2 olives that I couldn't see well have been marked. These hens are all under 1yr and are covered by either a blue copper maran or a black Jersey Giant roo. Hopefully I'll be able to tell who's the daddy fairly easily.
4 dark brahma (DB)
4 Large fowl X (LF)
4 OE
5 EE (2 brown hen, 1 white, 2 bantam)
4 Barred/laced (B/L)
3 Bresse
3 Grey OE
2 BJG
2 Legbar X
2 SLW
2 Light brahma (LB)
2 Buff brahma (Buff)

Best of luck with your hatch . One can only tell by candling if they are ok .

 

[DemeterAD9]

Both chicks I helped hatched seem like they’ll be just fine, the OE does have some crooked toes on the one foot but gets around well. The last egg has pipped so I have hope we will finish the hatch on a high note

Now for baby pictures!
SLW chick

The 2 OEs, right one is who I helped. They look just like their mom did as a chick

The two bresse chicks, one has some black flecks

The last egg

Large fowl mixes, the black one I helped hatch. Lots of feathered legs so the maran roo did a good job. I kinda expected them all the by white though.

The 3 brahmas, 2 dark and one buff but I don’t know which is which. I love the blue one!

3 EEs, the grey one is from the white EE and the 2 blacks from the brown. BJG should be the dad. Only the grey one has muffs

The 4 barred/laced chicks, going off head spots it should be 50/50 male and female and one of each color.

2 legbar (pretty sure the 2 on the right) X and 3 grey OE… 1 girl from the OE and the rest appear male. Luck of the draw I guess. Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and the 2 on the right with very faint spots are actually girls. I’m not counting on it though.

 

[Slothinc]

Gorgeous babies! The one with the muffs is so sweet! Do you know how to tape the crooked toes on the OE? It can help them to develop normally if done in the first couple of days. Congrats on a beautiful hatch!!!

 

[DemeterAD9]

Gorgeous babies! The one with the muffs is so sweet! Do you know how to tape the crooked toes on the OE? It can help them to develop normally if done in the first couple of days. Congrats on a beautiful hatch!!!

Yup I’ve taped toes before and I plan on taping this one shortly.

 

[BackyardinWales]

Both chicks I helped hatched seem like they’ll be just fine, the OE does have some crooked toes on the one foot but gets around well. The last egg has pipped so I have hope we will finish the hatch on a high note

Now for baby pictures!
SLW chick
View attachment 4084037

The 2 OEs, right one is who I helped. They look just like their mom did as a chick
View attachment 4084038
The two bresse chicks, one has some black flecks
View attachment 4084039
The last egg
View attachment 4084040
Large fowl mixes, the black one I helped hatch. Lots of feathered legs so the maran roo did a good job. I kinda expected them all the by white though.
View attachment 4084041
The 3 brahmas, 2 dark and one buff but I don’t know which is which. I love the blue one!
View attachment 4084042View attachment 4084048View attachment 4084049
3 EEs, the grey one is from the white EE and the 2 blacks from the brown. BJG should be the dad. Only the grey one has muffs
View attachment 4084043View attachment 4084044

The 4 barred/laced chicks, going off head spots it should be 50/50 male and female and one of each color.
View attachment 4084045View attachment 4084046

2 legbar (pretty sure the 2 on the right) X and 3 grey OE… 1 girl from the OE and the rest appear male. Luck of the draw I guess. Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and the 2 on the right with very faint spots are actually girls. I’m not counting on it though.
View attachment 4084047

Oh my word, they are all so gorgeous!

 

[EvieChickenGirl]

Wow! Love the chicks!