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

[kelseyk]

Big egg delivery day today! Got my 2nd attempt on the Bresse eggs, the Blue Double Laced Barnevelders eggs, and my Black Copper Marans eggs today.

The Bresse seller has been absolutely wonderful to work with! They knew the package went to Arizona and all the eggs ended up ruined, so when I placed another order with them for 6 eggs, they sent 12 just to make sure I got some viable ones this time! I was really worried about the condition the eggs were going to be in though as the box had a big gaping hole in the top where it looks like another box fell on top of it.

The Barnevelder eggs came from Virginia and the box only had Fragile written on it.....this is the only box of eggs that I have had make it through from that area. Those USPS employees must only like smashing boxes marked "eggs". They sent 11 and I only had 3 detached air cells - the rest were saddled. The were a bit dirtier than I would have liked, but sprayed them down and put them in the incubator right away as they are already 6-7 days old.

And the BCM eggs are just all around wonderfull! They sent 8. They are so dark! And the air cells are almost perfect! The BCM eggs are just like the first batch I ordered from the same seller back in March!

Still waiting on Silverudds, Opal Legbars, another set of assorted bantams, Deathlayers, Welsummers, and Wheaten Marans. Debating on some Araucana eggs at the moment too.

ETA: Also waiting on some Golden Cuckoo Marans eggs as well.

 

[Motojeff]

My results:
My first time hatching eggs this round. 6 out of 14 eggs shipped eBay eggs hatched. 2 blood rings early on 1 of those looked damaged from the start the other ring showed up a few days later. 3 presumed not fertile as they didn’t develop at all or had taken the shipping badly maybe? and 3 late quitters.

2 of the quitters looked good when I opened them on on the 5th after watching for movement while candeling and in water decided they died, but had some yolk left so they made it pretty far. The other quit earlier and was not as developed. I think that the more developed 2 of them may have been result of a temp variation between the top of the incubation cabinet and the bottom that I am now discovering. At day 18 when they moved from the rocker that was significantly higher in the cabinet to the floor they went from 99.5 to about 95.5 I am thinking?

#6 was about 48hrs late from the others that hatched, all 5 of the others where almost one after another through day 21, but #6 struggled after the pip it seemed like there was some damage to the chick that caused it to bleed as it started to zip the other 5 jumped in to pick at it while trying to hatch so I moved them into the brooder I gave #6 a little help with the zip and it made its way out but the skin under the passenger side wing was torn so bad I could see meat, it didn’t look good about a pinky sized hole.

The incubator is a combo brooder/incubator and pet intensive care unit, so I cleaned the chick up put some vetericyn on the hole under the wing and left It for the night and it seemed to do ok. A couple days later and with some clean up and some work and I think #6 will make it without many problems, but will live in the incubator until I’m confident the other chicks will not have anything to pick at. It also has a bit of pasty butt at the moment.

the other 5 look great hatched great and are having a good time out in the brooder in the shop. They are mixes but by wing sexing if that counts for anything 4 of the 5 look like the might be hens, and I didn’t check #6.

I’m optimistic that with some fine tuning and some learning I will increase my hatch rate. My sister in Wyoming sent me 6 eggs from her flock this morning to try and hatch, and my other birds should start laying any day.

Here are some pictures I’ll post more as they get some feathers.

 

[AgnesGray]

My broodies are trying to drive me nuts. My Wyandotte kicked one of the two eggs out of the top level nest box she insists on sitting in when it started peeping in the egg. It was on the floor of the coop with a bit of blood coming from it, and not as warm as it should have been although the coop was around 88F. I brought it in and put it in the incubator with a few sibling eggs and raised the humidity hoping it won't be stuck in the membrane.

May coat it with a little coconut oil as well, although I question its chances. These are langshans and I have 4 of 6 in lockdown. Two did not develop and were likely not fertilized as they're local eggs from 2 miles down the road.

 

[chickiebaby1]

You guys are so bad for me!!! But I love it! Came home with 6 creme legbar chicks this morning after a run to the feed store. I couldn’t pass them up! I’ll just have to sneak them in with my other littles and DH won’t know the difference. I can’t wait for next spring my egg basket is going to be so pretty!

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

You guys are so bad for me!!! But I love it! Came home with 6 creme legbar chicks this morning after a run to the feed store. I couldn’t pass them up! I’ll just have to sneak them in with my other littles and DH won’t know the difference. I can’t wait for next spring my egg basket is going to be so pretty!View attachment 2230989

Yes! Legbars is a breed I'd like to add more of to my flock. Good find!

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I pulled a few more blank 55 Flowery eggs. Down to 5 eggs of that breed but all those have development.

A surprise development. Every single fridge egg has development. They were in there at least 10+ days. I can't remember when I've hatched them in the past if they are early/late quitter or just never develop. I was guessing a 50% hatch rate on those, because that what I've gotten before, but they're looking solid. Yikes. It'll be chicks galore around here.

The DSL Barnevelder eggs look rough. Really rough. Which makes me sad but that's the gamble, right? Still hoping for a hen or two. If not I'll have plenty of barnyard mixes, Silverudd's, Marans and hopefully Flowery 55's running around the barnyard.

I brought home a broody yesterday. The lady giving her away says she goes broody all the time but had never hatched chicks (no rooster). I thought the move would break her but gave her some eggs anyways to ease the overflowing incubator. She stayed on them last night. I have high hopes she mean business!

 

[kelseyk]

Silkie hatch ended with only 4 chicks - 3 blue and 1 buff. The last chick died in shell. I had been checking on it and know that it internally pipped, but it must have pipped in a bad spot. It was the more round egg of the batch and it had pipped pretty far down the side as I had to peel down half way down the side of the egg to find it's beak. It would have been another buff....so guessing there was no black silkie eggs in the bunch (I know the seller said that the black silkie pen had gone broody and that they would try to get a couple black silkie eggs, but no guaranties.)

5 Salmon Faverolles are in lockdown now.

 

[FortCluck]

Most of my quail eggs are fertile I fed two raw ones to my pug last night and those were fertile. I assume most are fertile then. Our male quail loves his ladies!

 

[kelseyk]

Silkies

 

[FortCluck]

Silkies

View attachment 2231133

My blue silkie is a frizzle