Hatch-Along - Setting eggs this weekend (Jan5/6) WHOS WITH ME!

[FeyRaine]

I have 2 PIPS!!
There I was going to candle & expecting to toss eggs from hatcher w/ due dates of 3/17 & another set due 3/19&20
when what did I find, but 1 piped, so I put the wet sponge in front of fan to spike the humidity (since yes I opened the lid b/f
I saw the pip due to a sudden cat fight distracting me ) then I saw an egg I had marked as ?BloodRing at lock down
(& the main egg I was concerned to toss tonight) did a huge wobble, it had pipped on the underside big time,
I flipped it so the little beak is pointing up into the air now, I understand the upside down pipers sometime drown & since the
hatcher was WAY humid now (maybe too much even) I risked a fast small tilt the lid open a crack and get that egg batter positioned fast!

In other news I tonight have set 22Chicken & 1 Goose eggs , woohoo, welcome 1st day of Spring : >

Hope everyone had a great first day of Spring today!

 

[SilkieSensation]

I have 3 bators running all with staggered hatches going (some in lockdown now). There are 3 kinds of quail, 3 kinds of ducks (Scovies included), geese, turkeys, and an assortment of bantam & LF chickens. Then there are the brooders. I have 6 brooders running right now with about 170+ birds hatched since New Year's running around in them. Picking up another 30+ chicks tomorrow plus some rare breed eggs.

 

[Outrun Acres]

I have 2 PIPS!!
There I was going to candle & expecting to toss eggs from hatcher w/ due dates of 3/17 & another set due 3/19&20
when what did I find, but 1 piped, so I put the wet sponge in front of fan to spike the humidity (since yes I opened the lid b/f
I saw the pip due to a sudden cat fight distracting me ) then I saw an egg I had marked as ?BloodRing at lock down
(& the main egg I was concerned to toss tonight) did a huge wobble, it had pipped on the underside big time,
I flipped it so the little beak is pointing up into the air now, I understand the upside down pipers sometime drown & since the
hatcher was WAY humid now (maybe too much even) I risked a fast small tilt the lid open a crack and get that egg batter positioned fast!

In other news I tonight have set 22Chicken & 1 Goose eggs , woohoo, welcome 1st day of Spring : >

Hope everyone had a great first day of Spring today!

Very exciting! It's so nice when the question marks decide to start hatching. I will be joining everyone again starting on sunday. I will be setting around 14 blue/black/splash Ameraucana eggs. I have heard they can be somewhat difficult to hatch. Has anyone had experience incubating and hatching this breed?

 

[Outrun Acres]

I have 3 bators running all with staggered hatches going (some in lockdown now). There are 3 kinds of quail, 3 kinds of ducks (Scovies included), geese, turkeys, and an assortment of bantam & LF chickens. Then there are the brooders. I have 6 brooders running right now with about 170+ birds hatched since New Year's running around in them. Picking up another 30+ chicks tomorrow plus some rare breed eggs.

I always love reading your posts. There is always so much going on! I would have trouble keeping up with it all. What do you do with all the birds you hatch? Do you hatch some for other people?

 

[Outrun Acres]

One more question. What does everyone use to clean their incubators? I know it's been asked before but I can't remember what was said. Also, does anyone wash their eggs before setting them? If so, do you just use water or any type of solution?

 

[SilkieSensation]

Yea, gets just a bit hectic round here at times, but we have a routine & as long as we stick to it everything usually falls into place. I sell any chicks I don't want for myself. Swap meets & craigslist come in handy there. A lot of these are actually birds i ordered in to resell. Plus there are about 20 meaties in the mix that will be processed for my table in a few weeks. Plus 2 meat turkeys as well.

For styrofoam bators I clean with hot water, dish soap & a little bleach. Soak over night & rinse well. DO NOT let them sit where the chickens can get to them while soaking or drying. CHICKENS EAT STYROFOAM!!!!

 

[FeyRaine]

The due 19/20th which piped on the 22nd are hatched, one has some bad umbilical issues so not too sure it will make it, the other looks good.

I now have also 1 hatched which was due 3/21, pipped last night, hatched today & another egg set w/ it I'm uncertain about atm...

These are kinda neat b/c they are the first ones from my EE roo Handsome (not certain which of 6 females the eggs were from).

Clearly w/ these being 1-3 days late my incubaton temps are running too low, so I'm upping them just a tiny touch for all the eggs currently set.

I'm also jazzed b/c a JG pullet I got a few wks ago laid her first egg for me here on the 21st, and again yesterday, so its very egg-citing to have a new layer on the 1st of Spring.
She is under my pure Black Ameracana Roo and when her eggs size up I'm going to set a few b/c I think it would be a neat cross, potentially jumbo EE eggs
Anyone ever tried that?

 

[Outrun Acres]

The due 19/20th which piped on the 22nd are hatched, one has some bad umbilical issues so not too sure it will make it, the other looks good.

I now have also 1 hatched which was due 3/21, pipped last night, hatched today & another egg set w/ it I'm uncertain about atm...

These are kinda neat b/c they are the first ones from my EE roo Handsome (not certain which of 6 females the eggs were from).

Clearly w/ these being 1-3 days late my incubaton temps are running too low, so I'm upping them just a tiny touch for all the eggs currently set.

I'm also jazzed b/c a JG pullet I got a few wks ago laid her first egg for me here on the 21st, and again yesterday, so its very egg-citing to have a new layer on the 1st of Spring.
She is under my pure Black Ameracana Roo and when her eggs size up I'm going to set a few b/c I think it would be a neat cross, potentially jumbo EE eggs
Anyone ever tried that?

Same thing happened with my last hatch. The hatch started a day late and finished on day 23. 50% were sticky chicks and had umbilical issues. They all survived and are doing fine now. I think my temps were too low and my humidity was too high during lockdown. I was reading on a university website that in a still air styrofoam incubator the floor temperature at the wire should be 96 degrees and 102 at the top of the eggs (when hatching in cartons). I am going to try that this time and add a couple more thermometers to get better idea of where my hotspots are. When I had a really good hatch, I also rotated my eggs around the incubator every few days. Sometimes hatching can be so frustrating!

 

[FeyRaine]

Same thing happened with my last hatch. The hatch started a day late and finished on day 23. 50% were sticky chicks and had umbilical issues. They all survived and are doing fine now. I think my temps were too low and my humidity was too high during lockdown. I was reading on a university website that in a still air styrofoam incubator the floor temperature at the wire should be 96 degrees and 102 at the top of the eggs (when hatching in cartons). I am going to try that this time and add a couple more thermometers to get better idea of where my hotspots are. When I had a really good hatch, I also rotated my eggs around the incubator every few days. Sometimes hatching can be so frustrating!

yes, I had to help a little w/ the first 2, they were doing fine then I could see the membranes got yellow & they got stuck & could not continue to zip. Originally I thought that was when things were too dry, but apparently too wet can cause that, which I find really confusing! Getting it just right between too dry & too wet is practically impossible...but I'm trying to get a literal feel for it, the $21 hydrometer I bought for the NYDH turned out to be faulty so now I'm trying to just learn what is right by how things look & feel in terms of temp & moisture, I'm really sensitive to stuff myself so I figure w/ careful attention I will get to know what is correct and that will be better then trying to rely on pricing equipment that doesn't work half the time (my DH bought me a doz. thermometers last month & side by side NONE of them read the same!) . It is frustraighting, and sometime heartbreaking, but I'm not going to give up.

 

[fisherlady]

Well our group from the hatch Jan 26th are doing great! Gracie if still hanging out with them, though she is making them fend for themselves more often to find food and the are no longer all sleeping together in the broody box area, they have spread out in the coop in groups of 2 or 3 most nights, still sticking to each other more so than joining the other adults in the flock, but they mix well with the rest of the flock through the day. They have learned which hens to avoid ( a couple will give them a sharp peck if they get underfoot too much, though that's the extent of it) The roos all pretty much ignore the little ones, so no problems there. Gracie just started laying again a few days ago. Her little ones are now nearly as big as her! In fact I think a couple of the Barred Rock mini roos are maybe a bit heavier than her already!

And they treat Mindy as part of the flock, when she is in the coop it is normal for her to have one or two on her back at any given time, often more!



They do like to supervise any activities in the coop, here's one of the BR roos supervising the mixing of scratch...

But yesterday Mindy got some new charges to take care of...
and she is taking her job very seriously, she is beside herself happy because we have these in a brooder in the mud room,
so she gets to watch chicks in the house and coop both! Puppy heaven!


10 CornishX, 6 black giants... (Jersey Giants)