Hatch-Along - Hatching GS Barred / Blue Plymouth Rock Prize Eggs from Easter Hatch-along Natural Egg Photo contest

[JoyfulPromise]

Hi everyone! I was a participant in the recent Easter Hatch-along, and, due to a faulty thermometer

, my hatch was a complete failure.

BUT! I really enjoyed the discussions and contests, AND I happened to win the Natural Egg Photo Contest for this creation that my younger brother designed and painstakingly put together.




The prize was a dozen hatching eggs from Brookhaven's gorgeous Good Shepard Barred/Blue Rocks!

So, a week later I picked up a VERY SPECIAL package at the Post Office.




As you can see, the eggs were in perfect shape, thanks to Brookhaven's Excellent packing job, and a quick candling showed the air cells in pretty good shape and all still where they belonged! After resting them until evening, I put them in my LG Forced Air incubator in a cut down egg carton. I also had some of our local EE and Delaware eggs in the incubator. Thankfully, I have a new, perfectly calibrated thermometer for this hatch! On Brookhaven's advice from an article she had read, I did NOT turn the shipped eggs at all for the first 7 days. On the 8th day, I started gently tilting them back and forth in the egg carton 3 times a day.

When I candled the eggs on day 8, I was THRILLED to see that ALL TWELVE of the eggs had lively bouncing little embryos in them!

I have been doing a dry hatch, and not worrying too much about the humidity because it has been rainy the past week and I am sure the air is quite humid. I FINALLY got around to trying to calibrate two hygrometers that I have yesterday. My Dad bought me some non-iodized table salt at the store, and I put a 1/2 cup in a coffee mug with some water till it was sludgy, and then put it in a ziploc bag with the two hygrometers.

Well, it has been OVER 24 hours, and the two hygrometers are FINALLY up to around 71% or so, but I don't know if I should wait longer, or if I have the wrong kind of salt, or if I should just take it for granted that these hygrometers are 4-5% off? The temperature has been pretty warm inside today, around 70-73 F, I don't know if that has anything to do with it. If anyone has any advice in this area, I would appreciate it.

I also have 12 Pekin duck eggs that I am incubating for my sister in another LG (Still air) and I would like to make sure I get the humidity up for them near the end.

So I just wanted to share about this hatch and get some advice and would love to have anyone who is hatching around May 6th join in as well!

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Ok, FINALLY! Our internet has been wonky all morning, and I was dying to tell you what happened last night! *Yawn* Boy am I tired! I think I was up every hour with another frantic peeping as a chick hatched! By this morning both the other two pipped Rock eggs were out, two more EE chicks had hatched, and one more Delaware chick! To recap and get the numbers straight (for me as well as you!

) here is the hatch results this morning...

6 out of 12 Rock chicks hatched, 1 died in shell from pipping wrong end.

8 out of 10 EE eggs hatched, 2 died in shell, wrong positioning, I think.

1 out of 2 Olive Eggers hatched so far.

3 out of 5 Delawares hatched so far.

Total of 18 chicks hatched, 3 dead in shell, and 8 undecided eggs.

Well, that was THIS MORNING's results! After moving the last three hatched chicks to the brooder I pulled the empty shells out the incubator and did a quick check - tap and listen - on the remaining eggs. Two more Rock eggs tapped or peeped at me! Oh, and a mystery late egg (probably Delaware x Black Star) from one of our other broody hens FINALLY pipped! One of the Rock eggs did a small pip early this morning too.

Around noon today, I noticed that the pipped Rock egg was zipping. It did a nice circle and then flopped its way out of the shell! Yay! 7 Rock chicks so far! Hopefully this chick's peeping will encourage the 8th Rock egg to pip!

And THAT is the final count as of right now. We switched out the two EE chicks that Little Girl, the broody BO hatched, and gave her two of the fluffiest Rock chicks last night. Then this morning we gave her two more, and just a few minutes ago, the last two that had hatched at that time. So she has 6 Rock chicks so far (the 7th is still in the incubator) and they are settling in just fine! She is clucking to them and showing them food...so cute!

Ok, now for the important part...PICTURES!!!!

Because we took the Rocks out to Little Girl as they hatched and fluffed off, I didn't get a chance to take a picture of all 6 of them together. But I do have a picture of the last two that we just took out - definitely a Blue and a Black here - and also a picture of the other 4 in front of Little Girl in her box!

Black & Blue




Up Close - Black



Up Close - Blue



Little Girl & 4 Rock Chicks







I am so THRILLED at the results of this hatch! If we get 8 out of 12 Rocks, that would be AWESOME, and the EE babies are adorable too, and that Olive Egger baby...

I will have to post a picture of her later. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, and thank YOU Brookhaven, for sending me such strong, healthy, and well packed Rock eggs!

I will be sure to let you know how things finish up!

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Well, today was most of the chickies 1 Week Birthday!!!!

To celebrate, their adopted mother Li'l Girl took them on their first real outing in the BIG WORLD. She would have done it sooner, but the timing and the weather just hadn't been right until now.

Mama Li'l Girl showing the chicks the joys of dustbathing...



"Der's somefing on your beak, Mama..."



A line of li'l fluffy butts...

More li'l fluffies..



Later when scratching around, two brave chicks discovered a tasty treat! (please excuse the blurry pictures- they were moving fast!)

"Look! A Worm!!!"



"My Worm!!!"



"Come back here with my worm!!!"



These two little rascals proceeded to chase each other through the fence into the Big Chicken Run, scaring the watching person, where they fought over the worm, tore it in two pieces, ate it, and came back outside the fence to wipe their beaks in the grass and congratulate themselves.

All in all the chicks seemed to have a wonderful time on their first big outing and returned to their pen in the coop ready for a nice long nap under Momma.

 

[chickenpooplady]

I am definitely following this thread!!! I had a 0% hatch rate in the Easter Hatch-a-long too. Although I did not lose as many eggs as you, we went through the same thing so I really want to see you hatch those beautiful Good Shepherd Barred/Blue Rocks!!! I also won hatching eggs from Wisher1000 in a poetry contest so we both get a second chance! I will probably set them some time next week and I am very excited! I even bought a new incubator for them! Good luck with your hatch and keep us updated!

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Thanks for following chickenpooplady! I hope your prize eggs hatch well too!

What breeds did you get from Wisher1000?

I can't tell you HOW excited I was when I candled the eggs and saw little swimming embryos in EVERY SINGLE ONE!!! It was even more amazing because I was using an extra strong flashlight borrowed from my brother that is MUCH stronger than any other flashlight we had used, and it was so cool to see the little embryo eye floating around so clearly!

This is my very first time incubating shipped eggs too, and it would be so AWESOME if they all managed to hatch!!!

I will keep you updated - Only 1 week to go...

 

[chickenpooplady]

Wisher1000 is going to send an assortment of Easter Eggers, Olive Eggers, and Black Copper Marans! I just need to get the temperature in my LG stable. I thought I had it and then it changed again.

You have a LG still air incubator right? Do you have any tips on have to get the temperature to stay at the right place? That is so exciting that all twelve of yours are developing! That would be so cool if they all hatched!

 

[JoyfulPromise]

That sounds like a fun assortment of hatching eggs! I have a few of our own EE's in with the Barred Rock prize eggs, and also two eggs from our one Blue Copper Maran hen who was in with our EE rooster, so, hopefully they will be Olive Eggers!

They look like they are both developing well, as far as I can tell through those dark brown shells!

Sorry, but I am not sure if I have any tips on stabilizing your LG. I have two LG's right now, the one with the prize eggs and our EE eggs is actually a forced air LG, with the fan kit installed. It is the same one I used for the Easter Hatch-along, and I had a terrible time stabilizing temps, and I played WAY too much with the thermostat. Now I know that most of the trouble was with a faulty thermometer, that not only was at least 2 degrees low, but seemed to be prone to showing more drastic temp fluctuations than their really was. This time I bought an indoor/outdoor digital thermomter at Menards ( THIS one) with a solid metal probe that I calibrated in ice water and it was PERFECT - right at 32 F! I discovered that my LG, even with the fan, varied in temperature from the front corners to the back left corner by about 2 degrees! So I figured out that if I kept the thermometer probe in the very center of the incubator at egg height, and set the temp there at 98.7 F-99.3 F, then the hottest corner in the front would not get above 101 F. I also rotated the eggs every time I hand turned them so they would get a chance to be in the warmer and cooler sections.

I actually tied several pieces of thread to the end of the probe and ran them out of the 4 corners of the incubator through the crack between the top and bottom of the LG. That way I can pull the threads and move the probe to the different corners of the incubator without opening the top and that is how I figured out the variations in temp. Might be worth a try to see how your incubator is working.

My other LG IS a still air incubator, and that is the one that I have the Pekin eggs in. I haven't done as strict a temp test on it, but I am using another of the same type of Digital thermometer probes set at egg height in the center of the incubator. The 12 Pekin eggs are lying on the wire (on a paper towel) in a circle around the center, and we rotate them around the circle as we hand turn them each day.

From what I have seen, the LG's WILL fluctuate in temp in response to any significant temperature changes in the room they are in. Now that it is warmer up here, I don't have the problem of the room cooling down as much at night, and actually have had to watch how warm the room is because we have two heat lamps in there for some turkey poults and ducklings that we got last week! The best advice I can give you is to try and make sure the room you have the LG in is kept at a consistent temperature as much as possible, and to watch the incubator and keep track of fluctuations so you know when you might need to adjust a bit.

Hope this helps! Good luck on learning the quirks of your LG!

 

[chickenpooplady]

Thank you! I have a mason jar full of warm water in each corner of my LG. I also have marbles below the wire for stability. Right now it is perfect! I just hope that it stays like that!

I have read about people getting really good hatch rates from LGs as long as they learn how to us them. That is what I am trying to do. The good thing is, Wisher1000 is not sending the eggs until I have the temperature right.

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Here we go! The eggs are in Lockdown as of yesterday evening! I did a last turn and rearranged them a bit, and was able to do a last candle with my new Mini Maglite Pro flashlight that had just arrived!!!

All the eggs looked pretty full of chick and with good veins in the little space left, and air cells looked good! I put paper towel under the eggs and sterilized a sponge and set that on the paper towel in the back of the incubator, under the air hole so I can drip water on it as needed.




Here is a picture of the eggs before I rearranged them on the paper towel. The Prize Rock eggs are in the egg carton in the middle, and there are Delaware and Olive Eggers on one side and EE's on the other.

Now I just have to wait until Monday!!!

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Now I just have to wait until Monday!!!

Or Not! This morning after breakfast I checked the eggs in the incubator again and THERE WAS A PIP!!!! Not in one of the Rock eggs, but in one of our EE eggs! But it was in the WRONG END!!!! AHHHH!!! I checked it quickly to make sure the chick had pierced the membrane, so it could breathe, and it had! Phew! I quickly added a bit more water to the sponge to up the humidity a bit more.

Later at Noon, we checked the three EE eggs that were being sat on by our broody Buff Orpington, Little Girl. One of them had pipped also!! I didn't mention this before, but our plan is to swap out babies once the Rock eggs hatch, and have Little Girl raise the Rock babies. She is 4 1/2 years old, one of our original chickens and my brother Josiah's favorite, and when she went broody he thought it would be neat to have her raise "his" prize eggs!

I will update as more things happen... so exciting!!!