January Hatch-a-long 2018

[chickenmama109]

i dont know what breed i want lol i cant make up my mind do yall have any ideas on breeds

 

[Kenny_]

i dont know what breed i want lol i cant make up my mind do yall have any ideas on breeds

What are your goals? Do you want good laying hen only, a pet, or do you want to breed? That can help us give you direction.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Scott- have you seen those white crested blue polish- they are pretty!

 

[chickenmama109]

What are your goals? Do you want good laying hen only, a pet, or do you want to breed? That can help us give you direction.

i want a small breed so my d,uccle will have some friends she is very low in the pecking order and i think some small breed hens will help her not be so lonely

 

[BlueBaby]

Day 10 over here in Florida!!! Temp stable at 100 degrees (Thank you Genesis Hovabator for taking the stress out of this process) and humidity risen from 30% to 40% over the last week (I'm dry hatching). Other than the first 5 that were not fertile, I think I see 3 rings (put them aside) but everything else is growing and veining nicely!! Yay!!!

I dry hatched my last batch of my Australorps that I had hatched. I added very little water during the lock down. These Crested Cream Legbars are a first for me though.

 

[aliciaplus3]

i dont know what breed i want lol i cant make up my mind do yall have any ideas on breeds

I still don't know what breed I want ( or do I want them all?) I have tried out about 12 differemt breeds and so far I will probably always have a NN, rir and a golden sexlink or two in my flock but I truly enjoy my mutts and seeing what they will become...... now that being said I have some of the German bielefelders and love the idea of auto sexing so will probably keep them pure. Maybe my "perfect" chicken isn't something that can be found, maybe it must be made?

 

[Cynthia12]

What is dry hatching

Just catching up, maybe someone already answered. Most incubators come with directions as to what temps and humidity to use. Most will say to keep humidity in the mid 50's. Dry hatch doesn't necessarily mean no humidity at all, but using a whole lot less! Especially in the beginning. . . Use around low 20's to low 30's. Remember, the first couple of days, those eggs are going to be losing a lot of moisture themselves. The humidity will fluctuate at first. So, I usually only start with the 20's range. Helps especially with shipped eggs, as those air cells are already compromised, there may be a lot that will have high sacs. Having the humidity up high, will allow them to keep rising even higher. Also, on temps. Trying to keep that temp in the range that is suggested? If for some reason, those temps go up, which can happen easily with the still airs, then those eggs will be highly compromised too. Better the temps lower than suggested, than getting too hot! The temps will also change, like the humidity when the eggs are first put in, so, dont...tweak that still air bator. Have it running the day before, set around 100... for still airs ...usually the ones with fans have a set temp. No tweaking. I am using one of those for this set of eggs I just got. I had it running last night. I had the humidity in the 20's, and since it's already set for temp...I lifted the lid a few times during the morning until the eggs felt warm. Didn't want them warming up too fast.. Again, my 2 cents, and what works best for me here.

 

[Cynthia12]

Just for fun, blast from the past. This little one was running around with its little egg hat on in the bator. Stuck pretty good, so, I decided to get a photo of it before I took it off. I've seen them stuck to there little fuzzy butts, .. but, this was a first, for me, to have shell stick to the head.

 

[BlueBaby]

Just for fun, blast from the past. This little one was running around with its little egg hat on in the bator. Stuck pretty good, so, I decided to get a photo of it before I took it off. I've seen them stuck to there little fuzzy butts, .. but, this was a first, for me, to have shell stick to the head. View attachment 1234688

That's cute! It look's like the chick heard it was going to rain, so put on it's rain hat.

 

[chickenmama109]

I still don't know what breed I want ( or do I want them all?) I have tried out about 12 differemt breeds and so far I will probably always have a NN, rir and a golden sexlink or two in my flock but I truly enjoy my mutts and seeing what they will become...... now that being said I have some of the German bielefelders and love the idea of auto sexing so will probably keep them pure. Maybe my "perfect" chicken isn't something that can be found, maybe it must be made?

thanks yes im going to just keep my mixs in the incubator and make my own breed lol