July Hatch-a-long

[Shellz]

Hi guys! Can I jump in here? I'm just about finished hatching in my incubator for the June Hatchalong & now I have a broody hen. We were picking up a quad of call ducks & the breeder offered to sell me some of her Blue Laced Red Wyandotte hatching eggs. Yay! I got 6 for my first time broody & when it was time to lock up chickens for the night, her sister decided she wanted to be a broody too. Oye! So, I've been banking up eggs anyway & discovered an egg laid today was still fertile after we had culled the roo a month ago. Wow. Guess I can spare some eggs for the sis!

 

[jellybellyx6]

oh I so want some Blue Laced Wyandottes. Maybe I will be able to find some for the next hatch if these Quail would ever make up their minds on if they are going to hatch. LOL!

 

[MADZ of Animal]

I'm going to try next week. Probably won't hatch with yours, though.

 

[ceocka]

I want some blue laced Wyandottes too!

Woke up to the last quail hatched and a oegb. And a polish has unzipped and resting!

 

[sharol]

My June hatch was less than stellar, but part of that was the weakness of the eggs (I thought).

Anyway throughout the june hatch I used a combination of 5 thermometers. One that combined the thermometer and hygrometer (I think that is right -- to check humidity) that had a digital readout was my main one, but I had 3 little aquarium thermometers and another digital one. sometimes they all read the same, but mostly they varied. I relied on the digital one that also tested humidity mostly because it was lots easier to read.

I decided that before I subject any more eggs to my care, I was going to get a handle on what temps are really accurate. I use a glass of hot (106 degree) water and a human heath thermometer. I submerged all 3 of the aquarium thermometers in the water and left them for a couple of minutes to stabilize and stuck in the human thermometer. it beeped and I compared the temps without removing anything from the water. They were all within a half a degree of the same temp (by this time 103.7). I then compared the temp on one of the aquarium thermometers with the digital in the brooder and the digital I have in the incubator. I am not pleased. The one in the incubator reads 4 degrees hotter than the tested temperature of the little aquarium thermometer. The secondary digital one in the brooder with my 2 chicks reads nearly 5 degrees too cool (when compared to the tested temp on the aquarium one).

The long and short of it is that I was incubating at about 4 degrees cooler than i thought I was, and probably that was the problem with the hatch. Not much hatches well at 96.

Inexperience. I needed to slow down and do those tests first.

 

[misschickenlittle]

My June hatch was less than stellar, but part of that was the weakness of the eggs (I thought).

Anyway throughout the june hatch I used a combination of 5 thermometers.  One that combined the thermometer and hygrometer (I think that is right -- to check humidity) that had a digital readout was my main one, but I had 3 little aquarium thermometers and another digital one.  sometimes they all read the same, but mostly they varied.  I relied on the digital one that also tested humidity mostly because it was lots easier to read.

I decided that before I subject any more eggs to my care, I was going to get a handle on what temps are really accurate.  I use a glass of hot (106 degree) water and a human heath thermometer.  I submerged all 3 of the aquarium thermometers in the water and left them for a couple of minutes to stabilize and stuck in the human thermometer.  it beeped and I compared the temps without removing anything from the water.  They were all within a half a degree of the same temp (by this time 103.7).  I then compared the temp on one of the aquarium thermometers with the digital in the brooder and the digital I have in the incubator.  I am not pleased.  The one in the incubator reads 4 degrees hotter than the tested temperature of the little aquarium thermometer.  The secondary digital one in the brooder with my 2 chicks reads nearly 5 degrees too cool (when compared to the tested temp on the aquarium one).

The long and short of it is that I was incubating at about 4 degrees cooler than i thought I was, and probably that was the problem with the hatch.  Not much hatches well at 96.

Inexperience.  I needed to slow down and do those tests first.

You aren't the only one out there that this has happened too!!! I've had horrible hatches and I know it's due to temp too low. So I bought aquarium thermos and tried to calibrate... We'll see!

 

[nicole63021]

Lockdown is tomorrow!!!!! Just candled again and had to cull another 10

. Down to one lone lavender ameracauna, 3 silkies, 3 crested cream legbars, 2 BCM, and 4 BLRW. Really hope the little ameracauna pips and is a pullet, those were the ones I wanted most. Very excited for the others too though! Really want some legbar pullets too, if lucky will hit 1.2 odds. Roosters are legal here, but the neighbors may not like the noise (not sure they'd even hear him over another neighbors 5 beagle/basset dogs). Just don't know what to do with myself, lol. This is my first chicken hatch, and these were shipped eggs, but I kinda hoped for a better turnout. Not blaming the breeder, since almost all of these little eggs started, they just quit along the way.

 

[Heidisgran]

I've read that hens can be fertile for 2 months...they store it

 

[crazyhen]

Temp. can really mess things up. I had good luck with the first hatch then things went south with the next ones. I got a human mercury thermometer. and I was off by a good bit to low. Now I go by it more than I do the temp on my incubator. It really pays to recheck even if it was good the last time you used the bator. The things do not always work the same.

 

[Kristye]

I set 9 and 3 showed clear early in the incubation. So now I have 6 set to hatch July fourth this is my first hatch and I am so excited. The chicks are mix breeds and belong to someone else but I didn't want to start out with expensive eggs for the first run on my new incubator. I locked down today