I've been waiting a loooooong time for this

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clancys coop

clancys coop

Chirping
Apr 13, 2016
38
26
54
NW Alberta
Hello,

I have been an avid chicken enthusiast since I was a kid, but aside from spending time on my grandparents farm with them, I wasn't able to have chickens of my own until now (early 30s)

My spouse and I are just getting started, though he's just more the hands on help me build stuff and eat the eggs guy. He doesn't seem too bothered about what breeds we keep so long as they lay something. :)

I am on day 18 of my first hatch, I have a Hovabator 1588 after reading lots of reviews and listening to a lot of anecdotal evidence, it seemed like the best choice for myself with my budget and needs.

I have found my hovabator is running hot, and have adjusted the thermostat before the hatch to get the three internal thermometers reading below 101 degrees.

My first hatch is a mixed bag of chickens from a local breeder, Araucana, Amerucana, Cream Leg Bars, Bresse, Chantecleurs, Orphingtons (Lavender, Buff and Cuckoo I think) there are some purebreds, some mixes. I am excited to see what hatches on Saturday.

I started with 42 eggs, and candled on day 10 per the breeders suggestion. I had one egg with a blood ring and some I couldn't see much in, but thought I'd leave them until the 18th when they went into lock down. I was VERY disappointed to see no development in 11 of the eggs on day 18 (I had a better flashlight today) and one dead egg. I have 29 left out of the original, and really hope the problem is down to bad eggs vs bad incubation. Everything I've read about them not doing anything suggest infertile or problem eggs. The two that quit don't seem all that abnormal to me.

I have eggs coming from two breeders next week, Silver Barnevelders, Black Copper Marans, and Icelandic. I really wanted some Wyandottes, but they seem impossible to find for some reason.


Anyway,

Thanks for reading. I hope my intro was okay, and not too far off topic!

(We're building our main coop in the next few weeks, so I may start a thread on that)

Cheers
 
Welcome to Backyard chickens. I think your husband will get more involved once the chicks are hatched - who could resist them. It's great though that he will assist on building etc. That's good to have.

I've never incubated eggs so I'm not any help I'm afraid but, I can say I'm sending good hatching vibes your way
jumpy.gif
. You may want to pore over some of the hatching threads on BYC.
 
Hi and welcome to BYC - glad that you have joined us. Like DD, i have no experience with incubators but it sure is a bit more tricky that putting some eggs under a broody hen! Hope all goes well with your remaining eggs.

Best wishes
CT
 
Thanks for the warm welcome guys!

He's definitely excited to see them hatch. This will be his first experience with anything of the sort as he grew up in an urban setting in the UK.

If I had a broody hen, that definitely would have been my preferred method!
 
My first hatch was pretty successful all things considered!


I started out with 42 eggs, 9 of those were duds when candled day 18, I cracked them open to confirm. I had one exhibiting a blood ring on day 10 so I cracked that one and confirmed my suspicions.

I had one quit around day 13-14 by the looks (also cracked it open to check as it was showing a blood ring) and another egg with a blood ring that I cracked on day 18 before lockdown. So I lost a total of 12 eggs to whatever reasons.

Going into lockdown I had 30 eggs, all looked viable.

They started hatching on day 20 (Friday) and some of them were a bit sticky (by sticky I mean one had some egg contents on it) this was the second chick to hatch. The first looked pretty normal. Everything I have read suggests my humidity might have been too high. I had a few more come out a *bit* goopy, but nothing like that second one. They've all fluffed up nicely. In total I had 24 chicks by Saturday night, with no visible pips on the other six eggs so I opted to take the dry chicks and egg shells out (there was a lot going on in my little hovabator 1588)

After clean up, I did note that one of the larger eggs that was pushed into the back corner was pipped, and the membrane had dried out a bit, so I carefully wetted it and put it back in the incubator with the remaining eggs.

Today is day 23, and there has been no movement on the other six eggs. I did float test them yesterday, and saw one that was moving, the others all looked to be viable, but nothing so far.

I did candle them today and still saw movement in one egg, and some abnormalities in two of them. I opted to carefully open the two abnormal eggs and discovered that one had a crooked beak (dead) , and the other just looks like it quit. There wasn't any sign of life in either, which is disappointing, but reassuring in some ways. The chick with the crooked beak had a normal top beak, but his lower beak was bent outward. Poor little guy.

I am holding out hope for the three left in the incubator.



and this was my goopy chick

 

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