July 2022 Hatch-A-Long

[LadiesAndJane]

Omigosh, I would just lose it if I didn't get a single chick! That would be terrible. I'm so sorry that happened to you. Hopefully the same doesn't happen here and I at least get a few babies. I NEED Ameraucanas in my life again! I miss having them so much! Fingers crossed I manage to get a few out of this batch. If not, I guess I'll just have to order more...I don't care what it takes, I'm gonna have these birds, one way or another, lol. Let's go babies! Don't make me spend a fortune, please!

My paint Silkie rooster that’s my avatar photo was the ONLY egg that hatched out of nearly 40 eggs! Shipped over from a breeder on the mainland. Not even going to say how much I paid for that experience.
He’s been throwing lovely chicks though he is a bit too leggy in my opinion. Gorgeous fluff but apparently only has one copy of the bearding gene.
But he is too expensive to sell!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

That's what I'm trying to aim for but I can't get my humidity down. It's mostly staying in the mid 40s despite no water and a dehumidifier in the room. I've read that silica gel can help. Do you think it's worth putting some in?

I'm on day 7 now and have just candled and weighed my eggs. The average weight loss is spot on but the individual eggs vary a lot. Some have lost more and some a lot less than the target for day 7. I'm not sure if I need to change anything or not.

Out of my 21 eggs I have one empty and one a bit iffy (possibly a red ring beginning) but the other 19 look to be developing well.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/may-2020-hatch-a-long.1359364/post-22611111

I used "toasted sponges" when I was incubating Marans in a high humidity environment back in 2020.

Above link to my post describing it in the hatch along I was on at the time.

 

[Waterfaery]

Small world! I loved the penpal days and still have the letters from my penpal. Sadly, hardly no one writes letters anymore.

This will be my first go around with the Bresse so I'm looking forward to them, though I can't imagine they would be harder to raise than any other barnyard fowl. I've hatched/raised numerous breeds of heritage chickens over the years as well as guineas, ducks, geese, turkeys, emu (which I won't do again!) and quail...and I have plans to add peafowl, pheasant, partridge, and maybe swans to my repertoire.

Yeah, I used to love writing and looking forward to letters.

Exciting that it's a first time for Bresse for both of us. Sorry, what I meant was I had read they can be tricky to hatch but I don't know how true it is. From the sounds of it they should be easy to raise, although I think they eat a lot!

Wow, that's a lot of birds. Emu sound amazing! Why not again?

I have peafowl and I adore them so much. I never get tired of watching them. I had two peahens hatch and co-mother 10 peachicks last year, which was my first experience of any sort of chicks. I've had laying hens for years but never bred them. We've just always kept a couple for eggs. Then I got the peafowl, then the peachicks hatched and now I've got the full on poultry addiction! I've just hatched Australorps and Light Sussex and now I've got the La Bresse hopefully 2 weeks away! Going forward, I'm hoping to have a nice little breeding flock and let the hens hatch and raise the chicks. I think geese will be next but I might wait until next year!

 

[Waterfaery]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/may-2020-hatch-a-long.1359364/post-22611111

I used "toasted sponges" when I was incubating Marans in a high humidity environment back in 2020.

Above link to my post describing it in the hatch along I was on at the time.

Thanks so much, that's a great idea. I might gather up some sponges to have on hand!

I'm not sure based on my candling and weighing if I should try and drop the humidity even more or just leave the incubator dry as it is.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Thanks so much, that's a great idea. I might gather up some sponges to have on hand!

I'm not sure based on my candling and weighing if I should try and drop the humidity even more or just leave the incubator dry as it is.

40% is really OK. My incubator runs between 25% and 45% without any water added. Seems to work well for me.
I was just told by the Marans breeder that they should be kept at around 25%. That’s why I came up with the sponges. I’ve never had to use them for any other eggs.

 

[Cluckatar]

Joining in late, just set 14 eggs in a Brinsea Maxi 24. This is my first hatch using a new incubator (hoping it will be less trouble than the finicky old amazon nameless one). That said, we hatched a lot of chicks with that thing, it was just constant hands on with monitoring and adjusting temp. These are eggs from my Crested Cream Legbar roo with CCL hens, Mosaic project hens, and a Welsummer. I'm very curious to see the chicks, hoping the crosses are obvious from the CCLs which will make selling them easier.

 

[Bananer86]

Bananer- Your TSC is still selling chicks?

Yes they had a few Easter Eggers mama is now happy with 4 chicks & i have 70 Coturnix eggs going into lockdown tomorrow

 

[Iluveggers]

My TSC had a sign that chick days were over July 15th this year. Would’ve been super disappointed last year, we didn’t get chicks til the 22nd, and added a few from TSC the following week!

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

My paint Silkie rooster that’s my avatar photo was the ONLY egg that hatched out of nearly 40 eggs! Shipped over from a breeder on the mainland. Not even going to say how much I paid for that experience.
He’s been throwing lovely chicks though he is a bit too leggy in my opinion. Gorgeous fluff but apparently only has one copy of the bearding gene.
But he is too expensive to sell!

My first time hatching shipped eggs I got 3 chicks out of 36 eggs…all roosters! Looking back it was a small miracle I got those to hatch: terrible shipping (first time seller), bad incubator, plus overall inexperience with hatching. They were beautiful barred barnyard mixes. I didn’t need any mixed roosters the time so they got processed. I still regret that decision a bit. They were very nice roosters in both looks and personality.

 

[Poodlemum]

My TSC had a sign that chick days were over July 15th this year. Would’ve been super disappointed last year, we didn’t get chicks til the 22nd, and added a few from TSC the following week!

Everyone seems to be finishing early this year! I just called ours today, they’re not done yet. Last year was Octoberish and I got the last chicks My 9 year old had a really hard orthodontics appointment and I bribed her with chicks, so we’ll keep an eye on TSC lol