HALLOWEEN HATCH!!! Anyone

[VictoryChickens]

Quote:
I don't think they get bigger, BUT they get redder when they are ready to lay! Cherry red = ready to lay!

SO, it looks like you are about to get eggs, yes? Does she do the squat for ya? That's another good sign. A friend of mine has EE, and it seems it was forever before they finally started to lay also. Slow to bloom I guess.

Hi we are new to the chicken world and are very ecxited because this is our first flock to hatch! My husband made a homemade incubator and so far it doing great! We started putting eggs in on October 1 thru 12. Only one major scare, light bulb burnt out sometime in the middle of the night.
Luckily we checked it first thing and saved the clutch. We are totally hooked on chickens. Not sure how to add images on here or we would!

Welcome to BYC ! !

Question: You said you put eggs in Oct 1 - 12? So, you are planning a staggered hatch? Do you have another incubator, or how do you do that? Hey, nice bator you made there.​

We kinda just put some in each day and hope that it works out, it is our first hatch and are a too excited about it. We also know that your not supose to do it this way but we didnt want to wait till we collected all of them, next time we are going to do it the right way. We hope to have little chicks by the 21st

 

[k2chickens]

do you guys know of any threads that talk about incubating eggs from a first time laying pullet?? When i was checking for fertility on a few of her earlier eggs, i somewhat thought they were harder to crack open than a regular egg...so it made me think that if the chicks grow and try to hatch...they won't be able to pip due to the stronger than normal shell.

 

[neferset]

No, but I just hatched about 4 chicks from a first time laying pullet. A few haven't hatched yet and tomorrow is day 23, but it's not that bad a rate considering. Unless she was really clever about hiding eggs, she started in late September. We collected all of them for the incubator for about the last 3 weeks in staggered hatches. Almost all developed so far.

 

[evonne]

Quote:
the ones in my bator are my girls first eggs too... and i've noticed that homegrown eggs are just stronger than the store bought ones... and if people have been hatching the chicks just fine from home grown eggs, your babies should be just fine... i know candeling mine they sure look like they'll be nice strong chicks.. all kinds of movement going on right now... itty bitty mexican jumping bean in there or something...


oohhhh!!!!! came home today after being away 12 hours.. doh.. forgot about turning.. oh well they sit overnihgt 8 hours, so i guess 12 wont be too bad...
but i have PINK egg!!!!!!!!!!!! ssoo cool...
i'll see if i can get a good picture of it in a few mins after i et this burger that's sitting in front of me... lol

 

[Freckle Face Farm]

Cool pink!

 

[k2chickens]

Quote:
the ones in my bator are my girls first eggs too... and i've noticed that homegrown eggs are just stronger than the store bought ones... and if people have been hatching the chicks just fine from home grown eggs, your babies should be just fine... i know candeling mine they sure look like they'll be nice strong chicks.. all kinds of movement going on right now... itty bitty mexican jumping bean in there or something...


oohhhh!!!!! came home today after being away 12 hours.. doh.. forgot about turning.. oh well they sit overnihgt 8 hours, so i guess 12 wont be too bad...
but i have PINK egg!!!!!!!!!!!! ssoo cool...
i'll see if i can get a good picture of it in a few mins after i et this burger that's sitting in front of me... lol

thanks. they are banty eggs so i didnt know if that made them stronger shelled or not. One of the 2 eggs is a normal shape and size, but the other fertile one was the smallest egg she has ever layed me so im a bit worried about that one. Both are showing VERY strong veining.

 

[neferset]

We had a first time layer give us an egg about the size of those foil wrapped chocolate eggs that you see around Easter (the small solid ones, not the big cream filled). It was smaller than a pharaoh quail egg. I think in that situation, if the egg even had a yolk and was fertile it wouldn't have been big enough to accommodate the chick. But some will surprise you.

 

[k2chickens]

Quote:
i just keep thinking about the little guy trying to pip through and he just can't do it because the shell is too strong for his little beak. I wonder if i will have to pip it myself and see if he could take over from there?? lol gosh im thinking waaaaaaayyyy to much about this! lol...this is a special cross breed project that i have been wanting to start for a while and these are the very first eggs im incubateing from the SQ parents.

 

[evonne]

k, so here's a pic of my new egg.. lol.. i also put one of my leghorns eggs in there.. she's been laying less than a month and already a difference in egg size... barely, but it's there.. wow... the pic doesn't do the EE egg justice.. it looks like somewhere between a salmon and a terracotta... but lighter... and i threw in a grocery store egg for somparison too.. lol.... i'm hoping i can figure out which girl laid this egg... i have 2 or 3 that were looking about to start.. i need to get some bands so i can tell them apart from a distance.. and give them names again.. they had them as babies, but they grew so fast and looked so much the same all of a sudden i lost track.. lol... bad chicken mommy....

 

[neferset]

Quote:
You would be surprised. Though, when the time comes you can hover. I never ever pip an egg for the chick, but this go round, due to our amazing weather, I had to help a few past the zipping stage. I have a few that didn't pip from Friday yet and I feel a little antsy about it, but not enough to ever open eggs that aren't pipped again. I usually don't find healthy chicks in those.

Have you ever cooked with Quail eggs? We had Pharaoh Quail for a while. The egg shells were very tough to crack, yet somehow tiny little quail chicks do it.

Quote:
Cool egg! Regarding the names, I can't say a word about it really. I mean, we have Buffy and Red. (There's also a whole cage of unnamed Rhode Island Reds, so Red isn't the only red chicken. He just happens to be Buffy's Red.)