How well did your first ever hatch turn out?

[newDirection]

my first hatch was a disaster. I had 18 eggs shipped to me.

I put 4 under my broody hen and the rest in my incubator. On day 18, my hen abandoned the nest and the 4 eggs were stone cold. I popped them into the incubator and locked down. One of the hen's eggs was a dud and another looked like it stopped developing, but I put it in anyway. The eggs in my incubator looked pretty good at lockdown. The only two that hatched were two from the hen, one that looked good and the other I that had a big hole in the shell at the air bubble end. I never thought the one with the hole would hatch, but it did! The first one died as a chick and the only survivor was the one I thought would never hatch with the hole in the shell! Go figure.

I have a few lessons to learn before I can hatch as well as mother nature

 

[ROCKIN R FARM]

well for my first hatch that i did last summer was 100% hatch rate. I put in 12 from my barnyard mixture of birds to hatch for a friend who wanted some chicks. They all hatched out just fine. And what a great experience it was. I am waiting for the warmer months to get here before i do it again. I used a little giants bator to hatch that batch out. And Dh found me an Old bator from the 50's that has never been used, has original paperwork with it as well. Really nice wood and glass bator. I do not know how to upload pics from my phone to here on the site. I will take a pic of it and have my dd upload it here. Try not to do to much on this lap top sense its not mine but hers.
deana

 

[SteveH]

Not counting a childhood experience [ a bubble bator with the free quail eggs that went with it ] that was zip , my first attempt was last Nov . Twelve eggs set with one added 12 hrs later , from new layers with one pullet egg showing the first bullseye , and some pretty porous . Five developed , three hatched , and I pulled the plug before day 22 was over . I've since learned that I may have hatched those two if I had given them a few more hrs . So far I've only set challenged eggs , and been blessed with several chicks . Undoutably set the worst bunch yesterday ......................... so we'll see how it goes .

 

[ROCKIN R FARM]

SteveH,
hope your hatch goes well. keeping fingers crossed that it will.
let us know how they are doing.
deana

 

[Lifesong Farm]

I had a 50% on my first. That is counting the non fertile eggs also.

 

[dwegg]

I had a great hatch for my first time AND they were shipped eggs in december ... 9 out of 12 lemon blue Cochin eggs hatched and are now beautiful troublesome 6 week olds....

Old pic...about 3 weeks here.

 

[FarmerVal]

Quote:
So cute! Congrats on your adorable babies!!

 

[Shelly_WNC]

This is a good post, because it's good to learn from mistakes and learn from those who got it right.

Unfortunately - I just ended day 22 today of my first time incubating and it was BAD. It was all my doing too. I 'picked up' the eggs for a breeder one hour away, the eggs were fertile, I read all I could on the incubating process, bought the Little Giant with fan and egg turner. Thought I was suppose to keep the humidity 50-55% day 1-18 (not!!!). But on day 18 lock down I had a 106 temp spike for 3 hours . So, I either drowned them or cooked them or both. I added a page on my 'bad hatch' on my web page - but be careful there are three graphic pictures of the end result - bad bad bad.

I am going to try incubating again, as soon as I can get more fertile local eggs. And I am going to learn from my horrible mistakes.

Illia - sounds like you didn't have any luck with the Little Giant either. What do you use now?

 

[gumbii]

i'll let you know thursday...


i'm scared...

 

[8ROYALS]

First shipped 9 of 13
First with my own eggs 4 of 5