June 2015 Hatch A Long HAL

[Loc20chick]

I guess my free range guinea hens heard about this Hatch-A-Long! They brought me a batch of babies to brood last night just before dark. (Not the best mothers in the world, makes me wonder how many they lost out in the pasture getting them to the house!). Anyway, very excited because not only did I get some more paint guineas, but for the very first time I have a blue-type guinea! What color is it??? Is this a Lavender or Powder Blue???? Sorry the light is so red. Guesses anyone! Thanks and congratulations to all the pipps, zipps, and hatches that you are all getting!

Too cute n fluffy.

 

[frenchiegirl21]

Hi everyone! My name is Rachel. I have years of experience hatching eggs and just set my first batch on Friday! I've got 2 incubators going with 62 total chicken eggs. The eggs are from 3 different places because my family is down to 13 hens and only gets 4 eggs a day. I'm hoping to get a good batch of pullets to grow out! Here is a breakdown of what is where to give you an idea of the chicks I will get.

Location 1: My House!
We have a Buff Orpington rooster and a few mixed breed hens along with some gold laced wyndottes, copper marans, sex links, and production reds. We chose to only hatch brown eggs from our flock so all of these will be Buff crosses, with maybe a maran cross in there. I set 19 eggs from my house.

Location 2: Country Friend
A friend of ours that lives in the country gathered 31 eggs for me to set. She has a Dominique rooster with 2 Dominique hens, a barred rock hen, and some sex link hens, and RIR hens. I'm really hoping for some nice pure Dominiques because they are fabulous dual purpose birds!

Location 3: City Friend
A friend in the city gathered 14 brown eggs for me. Her rooster is an Easter Egger/Buff/Barred Rock cross and all of her hens are mixed breed, so these chicks will be real mutts. I'm excited to see how they turn out!

So, that's what I've got in my bators. The chicks are due to hatch 6/26/15. I'm hoping and praying for high fertility and hatch rates!

 

[matlock585]

I've got 14 chicken eggs and 3 BR turkey eggs in lockdown now. No pips yet, should start anytime now. Tomorrow is my hatch day. I don't really hold too much hope for the turkeys, I had my incubator a little cool for the first week and didn't realize it. The chicken eggs though are from my own flock and they look good to go. I only set them to have more warm bodies for the turkeys, but it looks like they are gonna be primarily what I get. Maybe I'll add a couple of the hens to my flock and let the rest be free ranging tick patrol.
I'm incubating in a homemade styro bator I've been using for four years, and even salvaged from a total loss house fire. It looks bad but still does the job. After this hatch I plan to retire it and make a new one with a different heat source since the 60 watt light bulbs are getting hard to find around here.
Friday evening I locked the bator down and went out to collect my eggs for the day and found I had a broody, so I've given her a dozen to set on and see how she does with them.
I have built my best brooder yet, it's 4x4x32" tall, really big, and I can take it apart and store it when I don't need it. It should be big enough to keep all my fuzzies in until they are big enough to incorporate into my flock or move to their new homes.
Good luck to everybody else, I'd love some of mine to hatch today where I can see it, but I'm afraid tomorrow is going to be my big event. At least my wife and kids will be here to keep me updated through the day.

 

[KeyFlock]

We have three chicks that have hatched and two others with pips!

 

[MesMama]

Is broodiness contagious? LOL! I think I have a third hen sitting on eggs now

 

[Elginchickens]

Out of 11... Up to three hatched and 3 pipped externally..

 

[scandiafowl]

Final score, out of 24 eggs, four scrappy chicks. McMurray is going to hear from me.

 

[eviemethugh]

Ours are due to hatch tomorrow, we are expecting 11-12 and have one pip tonight!

 

[Antiquity]

Is broodiness contagious? LOL! I think I have a third hen sitting on eggs now

Yes. The same thing that made the first two broody can get the others, too. Personally I kind of hope broodiness is catching around my house.

 

[Elginchickens]

Now I got 4 hatched and 3 more with external pips...they just coming out one by one ha ha...if those hatch to I'll have 7/11