Incubating Napoleon's Babies

[Frazzemrat1]

I'm starting this thread to document my first time incubating eggs. These eggs, if fertile, would be fathered by my rooster, Napoleon. He was stolen from us a week ago, by a human, and I’ve been collecting eggs since. Napoleon was a tufted white Araucana, a beautiful boy who was great with my girls. I have one clean faced Araucana hen and her sister, an oops EE; red breasted black Araucana over a lavender ameraucana. I can’t tell their eggs apart, so I have them both.
The breeder I bought Napoleon, and the other two has kindly offered me the use of her bater, so here we go! First time incubating and (hopefully) hatching my own eggs! Wish me luck!
I have good pics of Napoleon, and I need to get some good pics of the ladies, it today isn’t the day, with freezing rain.
For now, here’s the bater immediately after set up, the temp is now at 94* with 44% humudity, which the humidity is going up.

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

I am so very sorry about your rooster! I wish the best of luck to you!

 

[Frazzemrat1]

And here’s a couple of pics of Napoleon and one of Ashoka, my Araucana pullet. She’ll be a hen next weekend!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

They are lovely girls. Sorry to hear about Napoleon. That's pretty low, stealing a rooster. I hope your eggs hatch.

 

[Stick Chicken]

Good luck on the hatching. Hopefully you'll be able to hatch some healthy chicks, especially since the tufted gene in araucanas can cause a lot of fatalities.
Also, why in the world would someone steal a chicken?! That is beyond my comprehension.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

Good luck on the hatching. Hopefully you'll be able to hatch some healthy chicks, especially since the tufted gene in araucanas can cause a lot of fatalities.
Also, why in the world would someone steal a chicken?! That is beyond my comprehension.

That’s part of the reason I had a clean faced and a tufted. It increases the hatch rate, even if it decreases the tufted rate.

As to why, I’m assuming somebody wanted an Araucana, because I had no complaints about his crowing. As a bantam size,he wasn’t very loud, and he only crowed in the morning for a short time.

 

[Stick Chicken]

That's smart. Better living and untufted birds than dead tufted ones.

I suppose I understand why someone would steal him; I've just never heard of someone stealing a chicken before. It just sounds strange.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

Here’s Ashoka the white clean faced Araucana and Tex, the black breasted red Araucana over a lavender ameraucana... aka EE. Mothers, I hope.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

That's smart. Better living and untufted birds than dead tufted ones.

I suppose I understand why someone would steal him; I've just never heard of someone stealing a chicken before. It just sounds strange.

It happens, I posted about it on the ct chicken FB page, and somebody on there was saying they had the same thing happen.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

So question to the experienced incubators out there... How often do you candle? I've read advice all over the place. I was going to wait until 10 days for candling, but how soon do those veins show up inside the shell?

Appreciating any and all advice!!