July Hatch-a-Long (including 4th of July hatch-a-long)

[ShrekDawg]

Until you have to go grab the egg and disturb the broody... again

true! I’ll do it later hah

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I feel like I'm on this journey with you since mine go into lockdown in just 3 more days! In my case, I candled everything on Day 7. Out of 15 Cream Legbars, 11 were viable. Out of 14 Bielefelders, 8 were viable and my BCM were too difficult to see into most of but I know that 3 out of 18 were viable. I've been too afraid to candle again so I'm waiting until day 18 when it's time for lock-down before I candle and I'm not sure I'll pull any eggs even then (unless the smell bad). Somehow it seems that if I don't candle them I can keep pretending they will all hatch Of course I know better but hey, I'm good at ignoring reality... either way, time will tell. I'll update again in 3 days when I finally HAVE TO face the truth! Good luck to us both!

That's what I'm doing here...If I can't see that they are doing bad then they must be ok, right? However it is driving me a bit nuts too because I don't like not knowing.

...of all the things happening in the world right now, shipped eggs are what's giving me grey hairs.

 

[kelseyk]

So I got a new set of black East Indie eggs from a different breeder. Every time I have ordered this year the eggs inside have been toasted. This time I paid extra for priority express. It paid off as I found I went from half the eggs with detached air cells, to only one with noticeable detachment. Others are just saddled. I put them in the incubator setup vertical. I will look at them Monday or Tuesday the adjust them to lay down in the turner. So fingers crossed. I haven’t had a lots of luck with black East Indie.

How much more did express run you?

 

[kelseyk]

So, I gave the Virginia area another chance at shipping eggs.....nothing has changed...same disaster. I ordered 1 dozen assorted bantam eggs. They got here super fast, the exterior box was in perfect condition and the interior packing was great......but the usps must have really dropped the box good as only 7 out of the 16 eggs were intact and 4 of those have completely floating air cells. I have been in contact with the seller, who is absolutely wonderful, and the seller said they have a friend that works in usps that said the employees at the distribution centers will purposefully try to damage the boxes marked as fragile. They will stand on them, sit on them, drop them on purpose, etc. They are going to try wrapping their eggs another way and send some more. I am super worried about my Barnevelder eggs though as they are also coming from Virginia. Looks like they made it to Omaha and tracking stops there. So they will not be here until Monday (unless they went on a detour again). GAH!!

 

[wolfwalker]

5 out of the 10 that made it to lockdown have pipped.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Freckles is trying to switch nests now!!! My dad said she was off them earlier tonight and they were cold so he moved her to the right nest again (she was in a different one with no eggs!) and just now when I went to check again, she was off them again and they were cold again!!! But she still seems serious about being broody so

I moved the eggs and her to a different nest box. Not her preferred one but totally new and fluffed up shavings so hopefully that convinces her to stay.

If she is still adamant about being on her preferred box in the morning, I may just move the eggs and let her stay there.

Or I will lock her in a crate with them but I’m going to fire up the incubator tonight too so that in the morning I can put them in if necessary. I candles and they all seem to be developing well so that’s good! Two or three seem to be a lot further along haha

I really do not want to have to brood chicks though so she better stay put!!!

She seems serious about being a mama still though so maybe I can incubate and then just give her the chicks?

But I don’t get why she wouldn’t move the eggs to her preferred nest???? Does she think she has too many or she’s just a little bit stupid and doesn’t really want to be a mom or??? Should I not have let her brood?

She was still sitting each time just.... on the wrong nest.

 

[Knighstar679]

How much more did express run you?

It ran me 20 more than the normal shipping from the sellers $14.99. It wasn’t tht bad. I had expected it to run up to 60 total

 

[chickenlittle21]

So, I gave the Virginia area another chance at shipping eggs.....nothing has changed...same disaster. I ordered 1 dozen assorted bantam eggs. They got here super fast, the exterior box was in perfect condition and the interior packing was great......but the usps must have really dropped the box good as only 7 out of the 16 eggs were intact and 4 of those have completely floating air cells. I have been in contact with the seller, who is absolutely wonderful, and the seller said they have a friend that works in usps that said the employees at the distribution centers will purposefully try to damage the boxes marked as fragile. They will stand on them, sit on them, drop them on purpose, etc. They are going to try wrapping their eggs another way and send some more. I am super worried about my Barnevelder eggs though as they are also coming from Virginia. Looks like they made it to Omaha and tracking stops there. So they will not be here until Monday (unless they went on a detour again). GAH!!

I would sue the usps (okay, maybe not)

 

[SnapdragonQ]

So, I gave the Virginia area another chance at shipping eggs.....nothing has changed...same disaster. I ordered 1 dozen assorted bantam eggs. They got here super fast, the exterior box was in perfect condition and the interior packing was great......but the usps must have really dropped the box good as only 7 out of the 16 eggs were intact and 4 of those have completely floating air cells. I have been in contact with the seller, who is absolutely wonderful, and the seller said they have a friend that works in usps that said the employees at the distribution centers will purposefully try to damage the boxes marked as fragile. They will stand on them, sit on them, drop them on purpose, etc. They are going to try wrapping their eggs another way and send some more. I am super worried about my Barnevelder eggs though as they are also coming from Virginia. Looks like they made it to Omaha and tracking stops there. So they will not be here until Monday (unless they went on a detour again). GAH!!

Sorry.

Don't hate all of us over here though. My really local people bite, but the eggs I got seemed average in terms of shook-ness. Nothing inside was broken and that seems to be rare.

 

[hysop]

Freckles is trying to switch nests now!!! My dad said she was off them earlier tonight and they were cold so he moved her to the right nest again (she was in a different one with no eggs!) and just now when I went to check again, she was off them again and they were cold again!!! But she still seems serious about being broody so

I moved the eggs and her to a different nest box. Not her preferred one but totally new and fluffed up shavings so hopefully that convinces her to stay.

If she is still adamant about being on her preferred box in the morning, I may just move the eggs and let her stay there.

Or I will lock her in a crate with them but I’m going to fire up the incubator tonight too so that in the morning I can put them in if necessary. I candles and they all seem to be developing well so that’s good! Two or three seem to be a lot further along haha

I really do not want to have to brood chicks though so she better stay put!!!

She seems serious about being a mama still though so maybe I can incubate and then just give her the chicks?

But I don’t get why she wouldn’t move the eggs to her preferred nest???? Does she think she has too many or she’s just a little bit stupid and doesn’t really want to be a mom or??? Should I not have let her brood?

She was still sitting each time just.... on the wrong nest.

Keep letting her brood. My current momma hen did the same. She kept moving around from nest to nest. I kept collecting and when chicks from my incubator hatched I gave em to her and she adopted them. Hopefully the same happens to you