First timer - starting my first batch Sept 15

[blueeyeddemon]

 

[seventreesfarm]

Jump on in!!

What a fun mix of chickies we're going to have in just a couple of weeks

 

[seventreesfarm]

We candled again tonight, now that we've looked at all kinds of pictures and have a better idea of what we're seeing. Out of 27 eggs 21 are definitely developing. 15 total shipped eggs (from TN to WA!) and 10 are developing. 12 are homegrown eggs and 11 are developing. Which means our new roo is doing a great job! We didn't pen him with anyone, just kept out the pretty eggs and crossed our fingers. We'll check again Sunday and cull the DOA's.


Blue Olive-eggers: 8 definitely cooking, 1 kind of cooking, 1 DOA, 1 possible blood ring

Lavender Ameraucanas: 2 cooking, 1 possibly cracked, 1 DOA

BCM x EE: 7 cooking

BCM x BR: 4 cooking, 1 questionable

I might have to work up a spreadsheet too

 

[CamNorth]

woke up to 14% humidity, turns out the water I've been putting in the bottom is draining out the bottom vent hole. Ooops, got to learn some how. Texted the neighbor and she told me the water goes in the middle on the bottom, so I had to open the incubator.

While it was open I found two white eggs, they were hidden by the heater so I couldn't see them in the window. I decided to quickly candle them and a couple brown eggs. I could see some blood vessels and an air sack quite clearly in the white eggs. The brown eggs I saw much less clearly blood vessels. Hope this means they are growing.

 

[jennibos]

Sept. 16 Placed approx. 40 eggs in an used Little Giant Incubator with turner, but no fan.  I have far more chickens than I probably need who are producing more eggs currently than we use personally.  I'm sure some of that will drop off as the days continue to get shorter and the weather gets cooler.  But I currently have around 3 dozen chickens (various breeds) varying from 6-7 months up to 2 years old (these 2 year olds lay huge eggs, but just not as often).  Anyhow a few hens have become broody over the last 5 months and have hatched a few - the first one surprised me as I didn't even know she was sitting on eggs as she had snuck off and built a nest in some hay bales - I didn't even know she was alive as I've lost some to dogs or other animals (more to our own pups probably than other animals unfortunately).  She hatched 13 and seemed to be a very good mother for about 3 weeks then she let them go on their own and over half of them disappeared fairly quickly after she left them alone.  Again dogs killed several of our hens including that mother about a week after she'd weaned them and I suspected a couple chicks, but I also think one of our cats was getting chick treats at night as one by one they were disappearing.  I never caught her red handed, but did find she was sneaking into the coop early one evening when the chickens were beginning to settle down and when the door wasn't closed up - so I think she was finding one occasionally.  Our cats are afraid of the adult chickens and won't mess with them and the chickens actually terrorize the cats if allowed and will steal their food.  I think this was because they were all small kittens when we already had adult chickens, so they grew up afraid of them as they got pecked a few times when they got too close.  But I suspect no cat can resist a young fuzzy chick given an opportunity to find it alone so I have to be more careful now to keep them out of the coop area or away when I see them near mom and small chicks.  Anyhow, 2 other hens have hatched a few, but only a handful for one hen and only 1 chick that lived for another hen.  So I got the bug to try hatching some on my own and found someone with an incubator on Craigslist that I bought and I've gathered eggs - some probably fresh, some probably a week or two old.  This is my first time, so we'll see how it goes, I'm hoping I'll get several chicks out of it in 3 weeks.  If so, I'll likely be keeping them for a few weeks or a couple months and then selling them at a local auction place that handles a lot of small animals as well as some larger livestock each week.  I don't expect to make any real money off of them as chicks usually only sell for 50 cents or maybe a dollar for rare breeds, but if I could break even after the feed and cost taking them to the auction I'd be happy as that could satisfy my wife into maybe allowing me to try it again.  The chickens annoy my wife as I allow them to free range so they get all over the yard and porch areas so I need to somehow get them a little more confined at least away from the house, but I enjoy seeing them and messing with them every morning and evening before/ after work feeding them a minimal amount of purchased feed, but mostly unsellable fruits and vegetables from a local source or other scraps.

Well lets hope everything goes well for you, my first hatch wasn't too productive, but I have got 5 white leghorn chicks, two silver laced polish and one golden laced polish, who are all now 8 weeks old and after a week of watching my other hens from another coop are now all settled and doing well together!

Cynthia, glad we like the same chicks. Can't wait, I think silkies will be next on my list, come spring next year. Well nearly a week gone by, think I will candle at 10 days so roll on mid week!

I can't believe there is so much choice of breeds and how beautiful they all are! Great to read about them and to hear what and how everybody has n does. What a great site this is

 

[seventreesfarm]

We candled tonight and culled 2 eggs that were non-starters. An olive-egger and a lavender split. What is surprising is that all of our homegrown eggs are fertile and cooking right along.

We also saw a lot of the embryos moving. Amazing!!
I think we'll wait another week to candle again.

 

[gladahmae]

Yaaay for a good candling session! We are going to candle tomorrow. I can't wait! (I may regret those words though, since it'll probably result in a massive reduction in the number of eggs I have in there.)

 

[gladahmae]

Woke up to 102deg this morning. Hopefully it wasn't there for long! It's still in the 'acceptable' range, but I don't get why it would go up 2 full degrees without us moving the thermostat control! Oh well.

Just had a thought. Last time, we had the incubator in the basement, and the chicks woke me up at night chirping. And now the incubator is in the closet in our bedroom, which is on the other side of the wall our headboard is on. Oooooooooh boy. May have to re-evaluate that location at hatch time.

 

[seventreesfarm]

Woke up to 102deg this morning. Hopefully it wasn't there for long! It's still in the 'acceptable' range, but I don't get why it would go up 2 full degrees without us moving the thermostat control! Oh well.

Just had a thought. Last time, we had the incubator in the basement, and the chicks woke me up at night chirping. And now the incubator is in the closet in our bedroom, which is on the other side of the wall our headboard is on. Oooooooooh boy. May have to re-evaluate that location at hatch time.

That is so odd! Mine was having issues the other way, going down a few degrees overnight. I wrapped a fleece throw around it like a belt around the seam where top & bottom meet, and that really helped. I think too much air was getting in & out through there for the thermostat to keep up.

 

[crissycriss]

Can i join?I have a broody D'Uccle Millie Flure.Her eggs were no good so Sept 16 I placed 3 mallard duck eggs under her.Candled them at 5 days and they have blood veins and a fetus forming. They are due to hatch Oct 15.