***JULY HATCH-A-LONG come join in***

The eggs are here! 4 bantam showgirls, I gently unpacked and placed under my Dominique. I will be checking in on them morning and night. This is my first time trying putting eggs under a setting hen. I don't trust the brahma who's setting, she keeps playing musical nests. Hopefully Dom is more settled.
 
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All of my setting hens play musical nests, because the other hens kick them out to lay eggs in their favorite boxes. I close my broodies in their own space so they can't swap nests and no one else can bother them. Works every time!

Good luck, hope all 4 hatch!
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I went out to check on my broody welsummer whose eggs are due to hatch tomorrow. This is her first time broody. She started out with 15, and I haven't checked under her since about day 8. There are 8 eggs left tonight. Looks like she's been breaking them. There was one broken in the nest that had rotted, and one other was open and empty. There was a dead chick, fully developed, with part of its head eaten. I don't know if it hatched on its own and she killed it, or if she broke the egg and then worked on the chick.

Should I move her eggs under one of my other broodies who I know is reliable, or would it be a problem to move them this late? I've had a broody minorca who killed every chick that hatched under her, and I don't want that to happen this time.
 
DAY 3 candling------ so far out of about 120 eggs I have candled 11 and 6 are either clear or quitters due to my troubles with temperatures yesterday, incubator hit a high of 103
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Upsetting. I have had better luck today and *knock on wood* hopefully it will stay that way
 
Ked, I *love* the bedtime trill. I recorded it on my phone once and when I play it for the older chickens (and for the ones in the recording when they were older) they still stop and listen.

Traced out air sacs and put in extra water, shelf liner, and dividers. Tomorrow is day 18, but unless I think of a better way to divide the eggs I'll just treat tonight as lockdown.

Jeremy, I've never been to the Bay in the spring... might have to travel to get those eggs myself!

Jossanne, sorry about the bad broody. I don't know the first thing about having the hens do the work, but if you have an urge to move the rest of the eggs, maybe you should listen to your inner voice.

ETA: all 23 of the eggs had movement!
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I didn't really expect to be in this group. THought I was done with babies for the year. I ended up with two hens setting and one hatched four last thursday. When they were a couple days old, we found a duck with one of the babies in its beak and had killed it and was tossing it like a ball. Tried to get the body but it took off with it in its mouth and we never found it. Have then isolated better now. The next day one of the babies coulnt keep up with the group and I looked at it and it had a gash on its neck. already scabbed over so I suspect a duck again. I took it and put it under the other hen so it could recover hopefully while the rest of her eggs hatched. She had 3 hatched and two more eggs at this point. Last night one more hatched and this morning, I found the egg tossed to the side. It was cheeping but ice cold. I put it back under her and checked again about an hour later and she was off it again. I coulnt hear anything and since it was pipped still I opened it. It was barely alive. I layed it in the nest and she sat right on it so I left it and came back in about 30 minutes and she was off again and it was almost dead. still wet. I took it to the house and ran warm wwater over it and it started moving some and cheaping. I put it under a light to get warm and it is up and walking and making all sorts of racket. So tomorrow I will take it back to mom and hopefully all will be well, and HOPEFULLY... I will be done with babies for the year. lol My last one hatched on July 1, so I barely made this group.
 
Just set 6 light sussex bantam x silkie eggs yesterday so looking at a hatch date of 21st July, the parents are my own and it will be interesting to see the results, not entirely sure the eggs are even fertile though I have seen the cock mounting her but I was in two minds on the first few that she laid being fertile so I will candle this batch after 7 days and let you know what I see
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I'm using a Brinsea 20dx with auto turn, temp at 37.5 and 40% humidity so they should be ok if fertile!
 
well i finished candling day 3 and lost over 30 eggs, since I had major difficulty candling the buttons I decided those twenty were null and void for candling, I will leave them until hatch day and if they hatch whoopie if not well...
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I have 40 that are only on day 1 so no candling there but out of the bunch I candled tonight I only have about 18 left
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Another dumb question....When I take the egg turner out is it ok to lay the eggs down until they hatch or do they still need to be upright in something else with the pointy end down?
 

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