June Hatch-A-Long

[FortCluck]

So I finally cracked and bought 3 cartons from Whole Foods to hatch (the person nearby I was originally going to buy celadon quail eggs from got super swamped with orders so I was tired of waiting). Eggs are around 9 days old which is good enough for me! (yes, I have chicken themed decor for my kitchen ). Rock Island rep let me know that their eggs are Leghorn/Rhode Island crosses.

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I have hatched 5 chicks from 24 grocery store eggs before (the eggs were around 2 weeks old). The carton was marked fertile, I haven't tried it with regular free range/cage free ones. If the Julian date is recent (around 7 days or less) you might have a good chance of getting a few to hatch.

I have the same chicken decor in my kitchen

 

[MedicDog]

I'm back down to one chick, the last to hatch was found dead under mama hen this morning. No idea what caused it but dammit, these things just happen. I'm hoping the lone survivor is a hen otherwise ill need to move it.

 

[FortCluck]

Best part about selling chicks and fertile eggs are the repeat customers who are happy with everything they get. They tell me stories and show me pics. I truly love it!

 

[speckledhen]

Wow, so much to read! Sorry if I missed any comments directed to me.

i sort of do, and I even bought one of those super fancy brinseas with an auto humidity feature. I don’t even use it anymore. I weighed a couple of times to get my eyes used to air cell growth but now all I do is watch air cells.

in summer I dry hatch until lockdown where I fill both of my channels. In winter I use one channel for hatch and two for lockdown.

so sorry that you had a bad hatch. :-( where did the eggs come from?

They are from my own 4 yr old breeder quality Partridge/blue Partridge Brahmas. All are healthy. I think the humidity was all over the place, bad readings on both hygrometers. Need to find my analog. Still can't find that sucker.

With the gooey chicks, I’m wondering if your humidity was too high? What RH were you Simon for? What humidity would you have if you incubated dry?
Edit: meant to add Congratulations on your adorable new chicks!

I usually do 35-45% the first 18 days, the up it to 60-65% the last three, however, I'm not sure what the heck it was. I jockeyed the readings to be between my hovabator's digital one and the digital one I had in the incubator that I actually had calibrated beforehand. But, I think they were still not what I thought they were. I set a new 25 egg batch including some from my Guy Roy-descended Barred Rocks as well as my Brahmas and thinking I would just do what the instructions say to do, I filled the first channel only for the first leg of the journey, but the digital reading says 62%! It's making me insane!

 

[FortCluck]

Two bantam brahmas are now externally pipped! Wondering what they will look like. First time I’ve ever had more than 1 hatch. Think the hatching upright in the turner is working.

 

[speckledhen]

Best part about selling chicks and fertile eggs are the repeat customers who are happy with everything they get. They tell me stories and show me pics. I truly love it!

Me, too! I love that.

As for hens killing chicks, I had a stellar Buff Orpington broody from great breeder stock. She raised many batches of chicks over the years and never rejected them. One time, there she sat with her 15 week old son on the roost. Yeah, she never let him leave home. But the last time she brooded, only one egg was there at hatch, none made it further than a few days, some not fertile, etc. So, it was zipping and she crushed it. I know she did it on purpose because she was an exemplary broody mama, had been all her life. She was 7 years old. A few months later, she passed away. It was almost as if she made an executive decision to remove that chick, like she almost knew she would not be around long. Sure miss Nugget.

 

[jolenesdad]

Wow! What’s going on? Is this the hen with fowl pox?

no!!! This is the one I contemplated giving ALL the eggs too, cause she is my proven broody. 2 clutches last year. She has never hatched all the eggs, though. as the flock boss, I’ve never closed here in though. This time I did with just plastic aviary netting because a few girls lay in her box when she takes a break and the other broody is hatching too. So, this time, i caught her cause she couldn’t toss the evidence and then the other chickens couldn’t eat it. *vomit*

the fowl pox hen had multiple external pips plus the smashed egg from the other broody all sitting underneath her at dusk, I’ll be going out shortly to see what happened last night. At this point nothing would surprise me.

I’m SUPER frustrated that a broody that has proven so reliable did this. Then again, I have to keep reminding myself she probably isn’t reliable and she probably killed a few chicks each time.

I cannot BELIEVE that poor 9 month old broody that was the first to sit this year hatched 14 babies. She’s a beast and deserves a medal.

 

[jolenesdad]

Yay the last two hatch but both are having some issues , 1 has a crooked neck like it grew wrong and the other has sprayed legs and curled toes , i made it a brace and shoes though .View attachment 2182879

Do you have any poultry cell or other vitamin/minerals? Whatever you have you want to make sure it has b vitamins. Vitamin E potentially for the neck. They could be incubation issues or deficiencies.

 

[FortCluck]

no!!! This is the one I contemplated giving ALL the eggs too, cause she is my proven broody. 2 clutches last year. She has never hatched all the eggs, though. as the flock boss, I’ve never closed here in though. This time I did with just plastic aviary netting because a few girls lay in her box when she takes a break and the other broody is hatching too. So, this time, i caught her cause she couldn’t toss the evidence and then the other chickens couldn’t eat it. *vomit*

the fowl pox hen had multiple external pips plus the smashed egg from the other broody all sitting underneath her at dusk, I’ll be going out shortly to see what happened last night. At this point nothing would surprise me.

I’m SUPER frustrated that a broody that has proven so reliable did this. Then again, I have to keep reminding myself she probably isn’t reliable and she probably killed a few chicks each time.

I cannot BELIEVE that poor 9 month old broody that was the first to sit this year hatched 14 babies. She’s a beast and deserves a medal.

I have one sitting on 20 something eggs I doubt all of them will hatch.

 

[jolenesdad]

I have one sitting on 20 something eggs I doubt all of them will hatch.

I only let her sit on 6 to incubate and threw all the rest under her at lockdown. She isn’t the largest girl and I thought anything more than that would develop staggered. I have a friend that hatches 2 dozen under her Cochin!!!