How well did your first ever hatch turn out?

[txhomegrown]

Bought a dozen mixed eggs.
16 were shipped
14 arrived in one piece. That made me worry that the USPS was up to their usually poor standards, and the others were most likely damaged.
I was using a home made incubator that was not all that well put together, so my hatch rate was 0%. Not too surprising.
I will try again with a re-designed incubator and see what happens.

 

[columbiacritter]

First hatch was an emergency when my Husbands Kentucky speck Roo suddenly got ill then died. We had no replacement roo so we gathered every eggs they laid for 4 days and put them in the bator with some eggs from my japs. None of the speck eggs were fertile. of the 8 japs, 2 never started, 5 quit, 1 hatched and grew up into a healthy teeny hen.

Second hatch is 5 days in on the second hatch, candling in 2 days.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

I was the lucky yet stupid one I guess. My first hatch was in an incubator I made when I was about 10 years old using an old cardboard box and a light bulb. My Grandmother let me have a dozen little mixed breed bantam eggs from our yard flock so I could try out my new toy I'd made and I hatched ten out of twelve. Those other two were probably just late, because I turned off the light about six hours after the last one hatched, and the next day when I opened the two that was left they had fully developed chicks in them.
What can I say, even a blind hog will find an acorn some times.

Using regular incubators I've had anywhere from 20% up to 100% hatches, but normal on eggs from my own farm is around 85% to 90% I guess.

I'm waiting on some shipped eggs for this spring, I've never tried hatching shipped eggs so I'm as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. It will be a whole new experiance for this old boy!

 

[Breac]

The first time I ever hatched eggs was during the third year I had chickens. At the time, a buddy of my mother who worked at a middle school told her that the special needs teacher wanted to hatch eggs for a class project, but didn't know how to start, what to do, and where any potential chicks would end up. So my mom and I got an incubator, gathered ten eggs from my hens, and set everything up. We checked in everyday, since at the time, my brother was attending school there as well.

Out of the ten that were set, one was accidentally dropped on day two, and one was infertile. So eight little babies hatched, and the kids were thrilled. So I'd consider my first hatch pretty successful.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
Thank you Deana ! There's a link in my signature that you can use to track my own and some others challenged eggs .

 

[CDennis]

I set 32 eggs, 27 of them shipped...I think 24 went into lockdown (I had some BCM eggs and since they were so dark I put them all in lockdown unless very clear). 17 hatched with no glitches other than my nerves...I left the rest for 3 days and then tossed them. I don't know if that was good or not. All of the eggs I tossed before lockdown were clear so they never started.