June 2025 hatch-a-long

[junior67]

I got 14 Jubilee Orpington eggs so 2 extras. All arrived in good condition and are in the incubator with the turner off for a few days so hopefully any air cells that need to settle can.

Next 2 groups should come tm. 6 lemon Owlbeard and I think 12 BCM.

 

[junior67]

I got the rest of my eggs today. 12 BCM and 8 lemon owlbeard. So putting 34 eggs total in the incubator!!!!!!!!

I will candle the Orpington eggs on Sat which will be day 3! hopefully I will see something.

Pic of my BCM and Owlbeard eggs

 

[PrettyCoolChicks]

Nice! I'm excited to hear how it goes and what fertility rates end up being.

 

[PrettyCoolChicks]

I have 8 ducks going, 5 of which are on day 28. Of the 7 new eggs, I had 4 quitters - not super surprising considering I had 2 4-h long power outages.

I tried incubating 7 chicken eggs from my new hen just in case but after 5 days it looked like she either never met a roo before or it was too long ago, so no new chicks after all.

 

[RoseHawke]

I have 8 ducks going, 5 of which are on day 28. Of the 7 new eggs, I had 4 quitters - not super surprising considering I had 2 4-h long power outages.

I tried incubating 7 chicken eggs from my new hen just in case but after 5 days it looked like she either never met a roo before or it was too long ago, so no new chicks after all.

I feel your pain. Out of the 14 eggs I started with, I've ended up with TWO that might make it to lockdown Tuesday.

 

[ChickenCrazy1608]

I'd like to join! This is my first time using an incubator, I've put 32 BLR Wyandotte eggs in and expected hatch date is june 20th! I'm so excited!!

 

[junior67]

Candled the jubilee Orpington eggs on day 3. I would say 3 no development, 9 yes and 2 not sure!! So starting out strong especially since they were in the mail for 6 days.

 

[RoseHawke]

That is rough!

I'm not too happy with the hovabator so far myself (first time using it). Twice now, several eggs fell out of the turner rack and got stuck beneath it. And twice I forgot to plug the turner back in after troubleshooting for like 24h...

Seems my large duck eggs are too small for the duck/goose egg turner racks so I moved most into the chicken egg turner parts. no more turner accidents from here on I hope...

I am DONE with the Hova-bator. It takes constantly fiddling to get it to the proper temperature range, and once you get it there it seems fine, but as soon as you turn your back on it, the temp is either too high or too low again. You think you've got an idea of how far to move the adjusting screw, but nope, the goalposts have moved since last time. Quite frankly it will be a miracle if either of the two eggs I've got left actually hatch.

So. I may never use it, but I ordered a Brinsea scratch-n-dent Maxi 24 EX fully automatic 24 egg incubator this morning. At least with that I can hope that it will be consistently wrong!

 

[junior67]

I am DONE with the Hova-bator. It takes constantly fiddling to get it to the proper temperature range, and once you get it there it seems fine, but as soon as you turn your back on it, the temp is either too high or too low again. You think you've got an idea of how far to move the adjusting screw, but nope, the goalposts have moved since last time. Quite frankly it will be a miracle if either of the two eggs I've got left actually hatch.

So. I may never use it, but I ordered a Brinsea scratch-n-dent Maxi 24 EX fully automatic 24 egg incubator this morning. At least with that I can hope that it will be consistently wrong!

oh no!!! Hopefully you have better luck with the Brinsea! hopefully your 2 eggs hatch!

 

[junior67]

I am not having much luck with my eggs... The Orpington eggs on day 3 I had 3 no's, 2 ? and 9 develping which was great..... well since then I think 3-4 have already quit and the ? are no's (think 1 may have been 1 of the quitters..) so think down to maybe 5-6 of those....

The owlbeard eggs it looks like MAYBE 2 developing and 1 may have started and quit or may still be going. the rest look clear right now. I am only day 4 but MOST times I can tell pretty easy by then. But these have pretty saddled air cells which is making it harder to tell. And last year when I hatched owlbeard eggs (different breeder) I say NOTHING at like day 3 or 4 and by day 7 I could see development same with a friend that got the eggs when I did as well which is odd. so guess we see in a couple days.

The BCM are way too dark so I have zero clue what they are doing.

BUT I had 2 incubators running and went in my kitchen tonight and was going to check them and noticed one wasnt' running!! like NOTHING on the display (OFC it was the orpingtons) they were still all warm so had to remove ones that I thought had quit and were clear and try to squeeze them in my other incubator. UGH!!!! This incubator has hatched a TON of times/eggs so not sure if it just died or what is going on. I am so sad.

I am now thinking of maybe getting a maticoopx incubator but the one that I have that is still working is a knockoff one that works pretty well only thing it doesn't have is the little bottle thing which would be nice for weekends I am gone so someone doesn't have to come add water (right now doing the shoestring method to see how that works to keep humidity up)... but not sure if I want 2 basically the same. or getting the Chickcozy since I have heard great things about that but would have to try the shoestring method with that for humidity if I am away for a weekend..... But after what I spend on these 3 batches of eggs not sure if I want to try again and buy a new incubator..... I may just hatch these eggs and see what I get and decide next year what to do. I just REALLY want an owlbeard so bad!!!! not sure if I said here but I hatched some last year and got 4 babies..... I didn't want to have to grow out all of them due to space (I hatched other breeds as well) so I ended up selling 2 as a few day old chicks... well I ended up keeping 2 roo's! and sold 1 pullet and 1 roo.... so I ended up selling/giving away the roos since I can't keep anymore so didn't end up with any owlbeards so tried again this year from same breeder... But I pre-ordered eggs and due to things going on couldn't get them till May (her end and mine) and by the time I could she sold her stock so refunded me for those... so had to find another breeder. UGH!