JUNE - JULY HATCH-ALONG!!!!!!!

[Bookworm0124]

Solid carpet of five guineas covering the continuous layer of eggs for the night! I’m amazed at the way they make a wall to wall layer of guinea moms! Grayscale picture is camera on night mode. Picture with eggs was during the heat of the day (95 F!) when multiple guineas go up for a break together, but some always stayed back with the eggs.

That's crazy!!! And a LOT of eggs!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

And then we had 4! They're all dry now so I moved them to the brooder to keep my Singleton happy. I was happy cuddling on him, but I can't give him the constant attention he would need. So now he has friends!!!

So sweet! I'm glad they have friends!

Solid carpet of five guineas covering the continuous layer of eggs for the night! I’m amazed at the way they make a wall to wall layer of guinea moms! Grayscale picture is camera on night mode. Picture with eggs was during the heat of the day (95 F!) when multiple guineas go up for a break together, but some always stayed back with the eggs.

That is incredible the number of eggs in there!!!

 

[john_wrightson2003]

Ok, so yesterday i had one of my mutts hatch, which is the first of like 30 eggs. Hatch day is tommorow July 6th.

 

[Cerise1924]

So nice to see all the chicks and ducklings hatching!
I am only just realizing what a huge difference it is hatching with a broody rather than incubating. With the incubator, I was hand turning every day, candling several times and making so many notes.
With the broody, I'm just worried about the hen. She almost never seems to leave the nest box, and it doesn't look like she's eating her feed or drinking water. I discovered that she will eat bananas, so I leave a piece for her every morning. I'm hoping that will nourish and hydrate her enough.
Hatch day is July 12. Hoping all goes well.

 

[Cerise1924]

I decided to ruffle some feathers and candle a few eggs at Day 14. Lemondrop, our broody Orpington, growled and pecked, but I reassured her and settled her back in.
-The Marans eggs are really too dark to candle.
-The Crested Cream Legbar eggs look fairly good. Each is quite dark where the chick should be. Could not see movement at this point. The air cells look big to me - more like Day 18 than Day 14.
-The Jubilee Orpington eggs don't look so good. I think they might be DIS, but I wasn't candling in full darkness, so I'll leave them. One still has a very loose air cell.
-The Olive Eggers are also too dark to candle effectively, but they have good sized, stable air cells.
I'm guessing I'll have a CCL or two from this hatch, not sure about anything else. Hope to get at least one hen from nine eggs!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Ok, so yesterday i had one of my mutts hatch, which is the first of like 30 eggs. Hatch day is tommorow July 6th.

Yeah! Congrats on what I hope is the first of many!!!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I decided to ruffle some feathers and candle a few eggs at Day 14. Lemondrop, our broody Orpington, growled and pecked, but I reassured her and settled her back in.
-The Marans eggs are really too dark to candle.
-The Crested Cream Legbar eggs look fairly good. Each is quite dark where the chick should be. Could not see movement at this point. The air cells look big to me - more like Day 18 than Day 14.
-The Jubilee Orpington eggs don't look so good. I think they might be DIS, but I wasn't candling in full darkness, so I'll leave them. One still has a very loose air cell.
-The Olive Eggers are also too dark to candle effectively, but they have good sized, stable air cells.
I'm guessing I'll have a CCL or two from this hatch, not sure about anything else. Hope to get at least one hen from nine eggs!

I had such a hard time candling BCM eggs too! We’ve had several broody hatches this year, one completely incubated by a broody that went wonderfully, and one set incubated by us then put under broody at day 18. The all broody incubated set did so much better!!!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

So, I have multiple sets of guinea eggs... Many under broody guineas. It’s hard to count days there, but June 9 was the first day that I noted hens stayed in the nest overnight, so June 10 was day 1. Today then is now day 27, and guineas should take 26-28 days, but who knows since those eggs get swapped around so much with more recently laid eggs! No action there. Guinea moms are not acting like chickens do when they have internal pips. No egg chat that I can hear and not stuck right to eggs.

On the other hand, I have six incuabtor eggs left. They should be at Day 21, and I did candle when setting and saw no development. I just candled the incubator eggs, and they are full of keet with large air cells that might already be drawn down. I even saw one keet pressing against the membrane into the air cell! Not an internal pip but sure seems close! Incubator keets often hatch on the earlier end, though mine hatched on day 28-29 last year. I was planning lockdown at day 24 (Monday), but with the keet pressing against the air cell, should I lock them down early???

 

[AquaDuck]

I got DUCKLINGS!! The grey one beat Mr. Yellow to it by minutes.
@Mixed flock enthusiast These are Muscovies, yeah! Even longer to wait than "regular" ducks!

Mr. Yellow who, incidentally, happen to be yellow... Really hoping this is a girl so I can keep her!

 

[AquaDuck]

So, I have multiple sets of guinea eggs... Many under broody guineas. It’s hard to count days there, but June 9 was the first day that I noted hens stayed in the nest overnight, so June 10 was day 1. Today then is now day 27, and guineas should take 26-28 days, but who knows since those eggs get swapped around so much with more recently laid eggs! No action there. Guinea moms are not acting like chickens do when they have internal pips. No egg chat that I can hear and not stuck right to eggs.

On the other hand, I have six incuabtor eggs left. They should be at Day 21, and I did candle when setting and saw no development. I just candled the incubator eggs, and they are full of keet with large air cells that might already be drawn down. I even saw one keet pressing against the membrane into the air cell! Not an internal pip but sure seems close! Incubator keets often hatch on the earlier end, though mine hatched on day 28-29 last year. I was planning lockdown at day 24 (Monday), but with the keet pressing against the air cell, should I lock them down early???

I'd lock down early. They obviously haven't read the book of guineas and follow the written schedule. Silly things! Maybe your temp is high?
Excited to see the keets!