I think I'm going to set eggs tonight- 11/3/11

[begbfg]

I've no idea what mine will turn out to be.

I've got a RIR rooster, five Black Sex Link roosters, two RIR hens, three Barred Rock hens and eleven Gold Sex Link hens. What comes out is anybody's guess!

Ooops! Four BSL roos; the meanest one went to a friend of mine who ate him a family gathering! She said he tasted good and wanted to know when she could have the second one (I promised her two roosters).

 

[yankeedoodle300]

Hatch On!

 

[begbfg]

Quote:
Last summer (2010) we had a horrible heat wave and lost 13 chickens in one day when the temperature got up to 103. I had a broody hen setting on eggs and was afraid she was going to roast, so I took her eggs and put them in an incubator. A few days before they were due to hatch, another of my hens went broody so I slipped the 3 developed eggs under her. She hatched them and was a great mom! You might luck out and find someone in your coop to do those last few days for you. Good luck!

Thank you! I had moved my broody to the "broody coop" on the 13th day and she was none too happy about it so she wouldn't sit on the nest. (I had to move her because she wouldn't let my other hens lay; they actually stopped laying for two days and started laying again after I moved the broody.)
That night, the temp went below freezing. Bad timing, I guess!

A few days later, I found the eggs in a corner burried under the nesting straw. It was a sad thing.

 

[Sphinx]

I had tried to hold off on candling til day 7, but I just couldn't wait any longer.

Egg 1- too dark to see anything
Egg 2- too dark to see anything (I probably won't bother candling either of these again, last eggs I hatched from those hens were the same way and hatched fine)
Egg 3- developing perfectly
Egg 4- Developing awesome. In fact, it seems like there's an awful lot of veins. Either twins, or easier to see inside
Egg 5-? not sure- definitely some development, but I may see a bacterial ring
egg 6- perfect
egg 7- perfect

Woot!

This is egg 4:

 

[Sphinx]

So how are your eggs coming along?

I'm pretty sure that egg #5 is a quitter.

 

[Chinchilla2]

Candled on Saturday night. Out of 14 eggs I had shipped to me I've got 12 that are definitely doing good, 1 that I'm still not too sure of, and the last didn't bother. Now if I can just keep my hands off the candler for another week LOL

 

[begbfg]

How're everyone's eggs doing? So far, so good here! All seven look like they should and all have movement!

It's getting harder to wait for hatch-day!!

 

[Sphinx]

I think I'm 6/7. I was doing great being patient. Then I brought the incubator upstairs. Now it sits right by my laptop, and i can watch it allllll day long. It's now taking for.ev.er.

 

[begbfg]

Quote:

Mine's on a table next to my PC!

 

[Sphinx]

I hate that I'm more emotionally invested this time around. It makes it a little less fun and I fret more.

The other two times I attempted hatches, it was a "Hey, I have a broody hen and (maybe) fertile eggs. It would be fun to try to hatch some chicks." This time, if they don't hatch, it is the end of my deceased chickens, no legacy. I'm a little surprised that I am this attached- I liked my chickens, but I didn't think I was that attached to those PARTICULAR chickens, you know?

Reading all these threads where people are tweaking the littlest things makes me worry I'm missing something. I have the Brinsea Mini Advance, which I've affectionately called the "crockpot of incubators". The instructions are so simple that you'd think it'd be idiot proof. But because I'm not fussing, and I'm reading about all these other people (with other incubators) who are, I worry that I'm not doing something critical.