Hatch-Along - Setting eggs on 2/8/13 Anyone want to join me?

[OR4-hmom]

They are very pretty, I especially like the lemon one. I've been looking at some birds with feathered feet but I haven't jumped in with two feet yet.
My bator went up to 105, I didn't adjust the temp yet. I added the rocks to see how that will affect the temp. It did bring it down a few degrees. I am going to have to adjust the rest of the day I think. I have a dial to adjust and it is very touchy. I can't wait until I can afford a better bator.

I hear ya on the up-grade. I figure if I can get the LG still air i've got to work anything else will be a breeze. I'm wearing enought burn bracelets now and still have more than two weeks to go.

 

[chucksaway]

Hope all goes well with your bator. I was given a digital thermostat that i put on mine, is working fab, fell lucky with that one lol. People always give me obscure things cos i'm always making stuff. Roll on the upgrades though lol.

 

[OR4-hmom]

I'm hoping for more of these, not the typical color for BLRW.

 

[chucksaway]

Oh how sweet, cant wait to have some peepers.

 

[OR4-hmom]

Just finished candling the 30 BLRW. Both the bantam eggs were clear, darn it!
12 have veins, 10 have shadow movement in them, (not sure what's going on with them), 3 I'm unsure on, and 5 look to be infertile. Not bad since they weren't turned regularly and some were left out in my canning kitchen in near freezing temps for a few nights.

 

[r4eboxer]

For some reason I wasn't able to post all day at work, all my other sites were working just fine.

I set 13 eggs yesterday morning and the girls supplies me with one more so I set it late afternoon. So that makes 14 EE eggs total. If I have a few more when I go to the coop here in a minute I'll set those too.

It warmed up here yesterday and today soooo of course my temps are up a little. I hope it doesn't make a big difference. I adjusted the temp off and on all day on Saturday and got my 99.5 perfect, then this morning I was around 101-102. Ughhh

 

[Farmer-John]

Set 20 eggs yesterday, all out of my flock.. Black Copper Marans, Buff Orpingtons and Cross's of GLWyandottes, Black Stars, Barred Rocks and EE.

I'll candle them this coming Saturday, see what happens.

Good luck with yours.

 

[Crisses]

Hi, All!

I hatched 9 of 24 eggs on Memorial Day last year, still have 5 of that brood in a tractor on my lawn. I'm hatching 14 eggs from my 3 girls. I put up 6 on the 6th, 1 on the 7th and I candled the first batch and added 7 to the incubator today. Of the first 7 eggs, 6 show veins

-- and I know day 5 is early to candle, I just couldn't wait. I'm using the dry method, in the same incubator as last year. I tried making a "water wiggler" and it worked well with a digital food probe briefly, then sprung a leak and caused my egg cartons to tip, so I've stopped using it. My temps were spiking oddly last year, and I still managed to hatch 9/24 of my mom's eggs (they came to NY from MO by way of a pitstop at family along the way -- so I was hatching 3 week old eggs!) in it, so I'm positive it will do well with the eggs that only had to go 50 feet to the incubator!

These guys are bantam (1/2 sized chickens) RIR mutts (RIR=Rhode Island Red) descended from my mom's farm. I'll need new genetic stock next year (I'm thinking a Japanese Bantam roo -- definitely no inbreeding there ) or they might come out with 3 wings or something -- but this year should be OK. I know mine could hatch their own, but the coop is not chick friendly, and I love how these guys trust me because I'm "momma" -- I can't resist incubating another brood so they get attached to me.

My advice to the newbs -- don't panic. Think about what an egg goes through under a chicken -- she gets up off the nest to eat and the eggs cool off. She can still hatch a brood when it's 100 degrees outside or when it's raining or 95% humidity. She's always fussing over the eggs and they get moved and turned a lot, but that means the humidity and temperature is not always guaranteed and definitely not a constant 45-50% and 99.5F -- those are numbers from the science of playing the odds for optimal conditions, but no guarantee of any particular egg hatching or not. Ms. hen saves up eggs for 1-2 weeks before settling a nest (or borrows eggs from her barnmates...they're usually not picky). Just start with good eggs, and fuss over them like a hen and you should do OK. Worry, on the other hand, is optional.

I made mistakes my first time around. I hatched my first brood with my partner's help, so we kept fussing over the temperatures the first time, so we may both have been tweaking the thermostat knob. Kept the humidity on the high side (probably too high, I'll bet some that didn't hatch had drowned... ). I hatched them on cardboard -- a known no-no. doh! so I ended up with a spraddle leg (a chicken with a dislocated hip) and one with a club foot (which I was able to rehab and I still have her) and the hatching chicks bumped all the remaining eggs around in the incubator We also had a crossbeak -- which I hoped would correct itself, waited too long, and I had to cull him when he wasn't growing (and he was a roo...). But I still have 5 beautiful birds left who eat out of my hand. That's not a lot unless you consider I started with 24 3-week-old eggs lol.

I know you can't relax, but try anyway....

----
...2 teens, 3 cats, 5 chickens, 14 eggs in the incubator, ??? worms in the worm bin...

 

[OR4-hmom]

Welcome Crisses!

I try to come close with temps and humidity, but it is what it is. Taking my ques from last years broody hen, and trying to copy what I can.

 

[r4eboxer]

Welcome Crisses, I have debated about cooling my eggs for 10-15 minutes a day this time. I did it last year and it worked famously. 100 % hatch rate.
Starting tomorrow I'm going to cool daily around 4 pm. I just hope I never forget for put the lid back on. Last year I did but luckily my son saved me both times.