I just set 5-21-11 in my home made incubator

[redonthehead]

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LOL! You have no idea how I'm giggling! You are sounding more and more like my husband. Nope, raising chickens isn't enough... he wants to move on to bigger and better things, like pigs and cows, and I'm the wife who doesn't want a "six foot tall 80+ pound anything" around here. LOL!

Good luck though - I'd love to see pictures if you hatch the emus!

And yay for the new hen house!!

 

[chicksntexas]

4 seramas in lockdown!!

 

[chicksntexas]

OK, I think I need to get parental controls and block myself from the BYC auctions!

Yay! I have more lavender orps on the way!!

(and split black/lavs too!

)

 

[matlock585]

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I looked at those.

I'm pretty disappointed with Gabbard's eggs. I've already had to toss one cause it was rotten and you could smell it. Out of the remaining 11, it looks like 3 are developing. I certainly won't buy 'em from here anymore.

 

[chicksntexas]

Woo hoo! I have a new serama chicky!

Still waiting on the other 3, although not getting my hopes up..didn't see movement when I candled at lockdown

Will post a pic soon!

 

[chickenjoefan]

congratulations!

 

[LaGeniaLoca]

Well, my last shipped egg died. Not the fault of the seller, but I don't think I'll do shipped eggs again. The post office just doesn't handle packages carefully, whether they're marked fragile, or not.

I have since set 12 of my own eggs and can happily report that 11 of the 12 are developing! The one that didn't turned out to be non-fertile. There are 4 banty cochin eggs from seasoned layers, 2 banty cochin from first time layers (they're so small!), 3 banty EE, and 2 that I thought were duck eggs (they came from a friend) but I'm starting to think they might just be large fowl. He has jersey giants, barred rock and other mixed birds roaming together, so I guess all I can do is wait and see. My cochin hens also decided to go broody again, so I let them keep 2 eggs.

So here's a question for everyone. The 2 eggs from my first time layers are the size of serama eggs. Does that mean they'll hatch earlier than the normal 21 days?

 

[matlock585]

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I'm on my second round of shipped eggs, and I can tell you that shipping doesn't mess them up this bad. One of the eggs was rotten, it smelled on the second day of incubation which indicates that egg was weeks old. I had a few clear non-developers, and the rest had the yoke stuck to the side of the egg due to being held at improper temperatures and not being turned during storage. I bought them from Gabbard Farms, an ebay seller, and I'm going to post everywhere I can to tell people what kind of eggs she's shipping. Out of my 12, I've got 2 that look healthy at 7 days.
My first batch of shipped eggs came from the same state as gabbard's, and I hatched 8/14, and 10 at least started developing. only 4 clear eggs after 7 days.

Oh yea... I almost forgot. My smallest cochin egg was about the size of a serama egg, and It was one of the last to hatch. I treated it like a normal egg.

 

[chicksntexas]

My serama hatched at day 19

Here's my shipped egg summary...problems due to...inexperience...crummy bator (LG) with temp/humidity fluctuations...poor egg quality...who will ever know. Never had a problem with post office, all eggs arrived perfect & shippers all did a great job of shipping. It is frustrating...and yet I keep trying!

1st hatch - 7 eggs from MPC, all made it to lockdown 3 hatched
2nd hatch - 36 eggs from MPC, 25 made it to lockdown (10 were dark marans) 3 hatched, 1 marans with bum leg (had to put him down

that was the hardest thing I have ever done), 1 ssh died at 2 days - so 1
3rd hatch - 13 Lavender Orps from BYC auction, 4 made it to lockdown...1 hatched on day 22
4th hatch - 8 Seramas EBay purchase, 4 made it to lockdown, 1 hatched

Summary so far...set 64 eggs...6 beautiful chickies.... not the 50% hatch rate I was hoping for

And we won't even go to dollars...let's just say, my chicks are royalty around here!

5th hatch in progress - 15 Brown Leghorns from EBay, 12 EEs from Gabbard - Day 14 - still in - 3 leghorns, 1 developing, 2 may be quitters, not sure & 5 EEs, 2 developing, 3 may be quitters. Will lock down Wednesday. I expect to see 3 hatch.
When the seramas went to lockdown, I placed the EEs & leghorns in my temp box bator - temps/hum are better than LG!
After the serama hatched, I took the LG and sterilized it with water/bleach solution and let it dry in the sun then ran for a bit to get temps/humidity constant before I re-set the EEs & BLs

6th hatch - just set yesterday - 12 Lavender Orps & 12 Black/Lav Split Orps (joined setting by the moon hatch!

maybe that will help!)

Then I am done with hatching....
I have followed the incubator instructions perfectly, researched, learned everything I could, even tried dry hatch...temps, humidity, hand washing, bator cleaning...

If nothing else...I have learned alot! And have really enjoyed the hatchalongs & watching my 6 chickies hatch has been the bomb! Y'all do some chanting or something to send good vibes to Texas will ya? I really really hope more than 1 of my remaining eggs hatch!!

 

[quintinp]

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all i see in the last pic is the juicer or coffee grinder, poor chicken lol